Beginner Guitar Strum & Sing

[cheereos]

Hi people,

I'm just starting with guitar, and I intend to self-learn as from what I heard guitar is actually pretty easy to learn by oneself, as it's more about practicing.

I don't intend to play lead, just rhythm and fingerpicking for a nicer chord sound as my purpose for playing a guitar is so that I can play and sing.

I know some basic chords like C and Em and G, but because I'm learning from a book called Strum 'N' Sing-A-Long, the songs are boring and I've never heard of them before, making learning a bore. As I listen to mostly Mandarin Pop and some English pop, are there any easy song recommendations of these 2 genres that I can find on the net and make my learning much more fun?

Aside from that, are there any tips for chord changing and strumming? I have small hands so some of my lines get muted or buzzed (for example the 6th line muted when I play a C), and I have quite a bit of trouble switching chords (example G to C, or C to F(bar chord)).

Strumming-wise it just sounds weird. For example, I tried Taylor Swift's Love Story's first 4 chords just to practice chord switching but when I strum and hear it sounds weird, yet when I strum it along with playing the song it sounds alright. What's wrong?

Thanks in advance and hope to hear from the pros here soon!

 

[Stan_Kumar]

Qing Tian by Jay Chou. Straightforward song, instant hit with your peeps!

 

[steady]

Hi, without listening to you play is hard to tell exactly where went wrong. It's possible that the music you are following drowned your guitar playing that's why you feel that is ok when you play together. Or if you did everything right, it could be your guitar is not in tune. As for chord transitions, you need to play till your finger muscles and brain remember the chord shapes. Also try to figure the least finger movements when changing chords. e.g. from C to Am, you only need to move 1 finger down.

Steady Goh teaching Chinese pop strum and sing guitar lessons. 1st lesson free trial.
email: steadyguitar@singnet.com.sg
hp: 98801033

 

[xfigox]

If you're looking for songs to learn you can go to Ultimate Guitar for lessons and song tabs.

As for tips for your chord transitions, you've got to practice alot, make sure that when you change chords you're not thinking like " Okay, index finger on this fret, Middle on that...", in other words, your fingers should not land on the frets one after another, instead all should touch the frets at about the same time. It might be hard at first and later on for different chords, but after practicing more you are bound to get it.

 

[cheereos]

Hi, thank you all for the advice. That is a nice website but I do not know which songs are easy for beginners, since some songs have a few chords but quick chord changes, and some with many chords and etc. So any recommendations?

 

[burping_boy]

second qing tian, even the intro fingering style is simple.
the chords b4 the chorus is repetitive,
beginners; Em, C, G, D
advanced: Em7, C9, G, D/F#

other songs, thousands of them have the canon-in-D chord progression aka C, G, Am, Em, F, C/E, Dm, G and some variations within, but with that type of chord progession, u can already play numerous songs by jj lin, and many others, too many to name all.

try the chord progression first, and see what songs u can fit in. it shld amaze u?

 

[ExplicitGuy]

www.justinguitar.com

great site...it's like a course!

 

[bf0502tr]

^ yea justinguitar is a damn great site to start out with. probably the best rhythm exercise i took off him was the 1 min chord changes, which i think would be very relevant and beneficial to TS in this case. if ur guitar was in tune at the time of practice, the only possibility is ur fingering. put it bluntly, u fucked up the chord and thats why it sounds bad. practice changing chords slowly, even if its one chord change every 5 sec. the time will decrease with practice, i swear. oh yea, and, practice everyday

 

[Rendezvous]

the key is to practise (i know ,everyone says that but meh lol)

Just keep practising the different chords.dont try to sing with playing first for now.just keep trying out the different chords.And when ur able to change chords fast.then try singing along.casue doing these 2 at the same time aint easy for beginners

 

[steady]

or find a guitar instructor take 2 to 3 months lesson to jump start. After that, you can practice on your own in the right direction.
Btw, the guitar tabs on websites and chord books are often not accurate. I stress a lot on playing by ear in my lessons.

Steady Goh
email: steadyguitar@singnet.com.sg

 

[guitarlover]

yeah.....good to get a instructor...there is more to strumming actually....your touch..your right hand, left hand technique.....

correct ways to practise....

i have seen many guitarist strum horribly even after years of practising n playing cause they don't know the right stuff...

 

[ahxin]

any recommendations on the way to practice?

for example:
1) learn fingering
2) learn chords.. and blahs.


please share the way you practice so maybe we (the beginners) can learn more about it!

 

[guitarlover]

some tips...

Right Hand , use your wrist with a slight combination of your arms...then u will not feel tired...if you use your arms, the problem comes when u r playing fast strum..

Left Hand, use your tip of your finger instead of the flesh part..unless you are pressing more than one string...arch your wrist, try not to touch the lower part of the neck,
try to keep your thumb straight & keep it behind the neck(not neccessary all the time)...

strum with the right touch.. if it sounds noisy to the ear or others, try to figure out why... cause strumming is usually pretty sweet sounding unless u go out of control....

strum the right strings, try to feel what string u are strumming...avoid the X string on the chord chart...

practice without looking too much at the guitar or your hands but look at the practice sheet....


these are just some standard guides to follow...however everyone has different physique. So sometimes it need not to be 100%...

 

[Vaiyen]

haha Steady Goh.