What chords should I learn first?

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guitarstrings23
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What chords should I learn first?

Post by guitarstrings23 » Thu Apr 02, 2015 12:46 pm

I saw a guy who played bar music with his guitar and I had fancy with his skills. Now I'm trying to learn how to play guitar but I don't know which chords should I try first ? Any advise please ?

mw13068
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Re: What chords should I learn first?

Post by mw13068 » Thu Apr 02, 2015 1:12 pm

Learn the E major and E minor chords, using your middle, ring, and pinky fingers.

With those two chord shapes, you can later move them up then neck (as barre chords) and play many other chords using the same fingering.

You can also pick some songs that mostly involve someone strumming a guitar, and look online at what chords are in the song. If there's three or four simple chords, go ahead and learn those, so you can begin playing the song.
Last edited by mw13068 on Thu Apr 02, 2015 2:57 pm, edited 2 times in total.

Marty McCann
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Re: What chords should I learn first?

Post by Marty McCann » Thu Apr 02, 2015 2:07 pm

E
Am
F
G


It sill amazes me how many songs can be played with that progression!

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Re: What chords should I learn first?

Post by dino_j » Thu Apr 02, 2015 6:05 pm

I'd answer this with some 'backward' thinking. What song do you want to learn to play first? Go to chordie.com or any other similar site and find a song you really like that only has 3 or 4 chords at the most. Then learn those until you can play the song...
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Rob22315
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Re: What chords should I learn first?

Post by Rob22315 » Fri Apr 03, 2015 2:36 pm

I like Dino's thinking - get some sheet music for songs you really like and learn those chords first. You're more likely stick with it by learning songs you love (early on) rather than playing stuff from someone's lesson book. Once you've decided you want to stick with guitar, and perhaps which style guitar, you can better appreciate the discipline necessary to excel - scales, finger exercises, hours of practice etc.
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Nattsvart
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Re: What chords should I learn first?

Post by Nattsvart » Fri Apr 03, 2015 4:18 pm

Well, as a novice (in comparison!!) and quite basic guitar player I have a slightly other perspective on which chords to learn I think. I also want to see that the difficulty.

E I agree with and Am kind of is a natural second since its the same chord (just one string down). And then I would suggest A. Just becasue its simple and basic and used a lot. (And with E and A you have the base for bar chords).

G is harder to do and D too. G becasue its kind of a stretch that isnt exacxtly natural when you start playing and D because you cant use all strings. And F sucks!! Its awkward, hard to do and you can only use four strings (5 if you are fancy with the chord!).

So my suggestion from that perspective would be, E -> Am -> A -> Em -> G -> D -> Dm -> C -> F in that order. Then go for the 7 chords (E7, A7, D7, C7) or go straight to bar chords.

This wont be a way to play many songs fast. I agree with Dino about chosing chords from the song you want to play) and I agree with Marty about a small amout of chords with lots of songs that suit them, but if you feel starting to play is a bit hard, maybe starting with easy to play chords first may be an alternative.

Just dont stop practising chord switching, just play one, then the next and so on. When you know three, change between them faster and faster and then add a fourth, training to go from one to the next is good training. I like to do G->D->F->C->E. .Makes you move your hand setting quite a lot and is good practise I think. Sounds pretty good too!
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tommer
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Re: What chords should I learn first?

Post by tommer » Fri Apr 03, 2015 4:35 pm

Old age & Barre Chords don't mix very well.
Therefore, I suggest the following simple-chords CHART.
(Attached large chart).
:mrgreen:

Hint: move chart to your computer. It will be larger
to see then...
:shock:
Attachments
guitar_keys_chordsBLACK.jpg
guitar_keys_chordsBLACK.jpg (595.15 KiB) Viewed 7585 times
BLUES BLUES & MORE BLUES... 8)
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GennyFan
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Re: What chords should I learn first?

Post by GennyFan » Mon Apr 20, 2015 10:04 pm

Start with major. Then minor. Then add dominant seven. Next throw a sus4 in there.

Those four will keep you busy for a while... 8)

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Re: What chords should I learn first?

Post by sagebrother » Sun May 24, 2015 6:46 pm

You need to learn to tune the darn thing first... then learn how to change your strings, and find a gauge that you like...
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lionheart
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Re: What chords should I learn first?

Post by lionheart » Sat May 30, 2015 9:02 am

And after you've learned your first three chords find a good lawyer because someone somewhere will try to sue you for breach of copyright and non payment of royalties :lol: :lol:

tommer
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Re: What chords should I learn first?

Post by tommer » Sat May 30, 2015 10:27 am

lionheart wrote:And after you've learned your first three chords find a good lawyer because someone somewhere will try to sue you for breach of copyright and non payment of royalties :lol: :lol:
:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
BLUES BLUES & MORE BLUES... 8)
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Brazzy
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Re: What chords should I learn first?

Post by Brazzy » Wed Jun 10, 2015 9:24 pm

lionheart wrote:And after you've learned your first three chords find a good lawyer because someone somewhere will try to sue you for breach of copyright and non payment of royalties :lol: :lol:
What a bummer, lol. :shock:

To the OP. When you get some simple chords down try putting some Instant Drummers together using RiffWorks, get some good tones going and let loose.

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Re: What chords should I learn first?

Post by Cajun1Player » Sun Jun 14, 2015 11:50 am

There are a few questions you need to answer before proceeding.
1. what is your budget for time and money?
2. are you married? If so then, for how long and how strong is the marriage.
3. Do you have kids still in the house?
4. What do you really want to do? This is a dumb question because what you answer today may not be true in six months or six years.
You really can just screw it all and learn to play. Deal with all the details as they arise. They will arise.
Chords.. like the guy said... C Am F G, Then add D, A, B and Bm. Done. you can play about 5000 songs with those chords.
Best of luck

Just play as much as you can. Every day, every night whenever you have time. Keep the guitar in your hands and in your lap.
Let us know how it goes.

ra

tommer
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Re: What chords should I learn first?

Post by tommer » Sun Jun 14, 2015 12:07 pm

What the heck... A, B, C, D, E, F & G. Should do it. :mrgreen:
BLUES BLUES & MORE BLUES... 8)
I was brought up so po, we couldn't afford the O and R in poor...

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