For a while I've been trying to teach guitar to myself and over the last few months I've found playing to be more intuitive and easier in general.

I have not yet learned any chords. I can play some chords but I haven't had any success in memorizing them. Aside from practice and repetition, what else helped you learn to play and remember chords?

um, practice and repetition. ;-) that's what I tell my students. but the more enjoyable way is to learn some tunes that you like, and play them. enjoy, and good luck.

take lessons. lots of people are purists and want to learn without lessons, which is fine if you don't care about actually playing well.

if you don't want/can't afford lessons, I'd say the most important thing to learn is the modes. major and minor (ionian and aeolian, respectively, for the pedantic) are obviously the most important. you need to know chords, but if you don't understand where they come from, it's harder to apply them.

if you want to riff, learn the minor pentatonic.

Man, I've picked up my son's guitar a few times, I can't even stretch my fingers to play C major without my fat fingers hitting two extra strings and my fingers cramping up.

I hear ya. my fingertips are blunt and spadelike, and of my army of guitars, there are certainly some that favor my hand better than others.

Yeah man, DAMN whole new level of frustration... "I know people do this all the time... it MUST be possible "

the fact that my hand is about 60% palm and only 40% finger probably not a huge help either LOL

it was a hoot... I was sitting there going "OK I remember Robb and Krillen making a big point about keeping my thumb low, resisting the urdge to roll the thumb high on te neck.... How the fuck do you DO that ?"

.. well the answer is...It depends ;-) playing the C-maj in the usual form, it actually helps to wrap your thumb a bit. Not over the top, but upwards. helps with "clamping", if you get my drift.

Ahhh the nuances.... thanks for the help... but it may be time to admit that my dream of playing in a kick-azz Cheap trick cover band are dead.

would still love to be able to strum a chord or two though LOL

There's your problem right there....

Ahhh the nuances.... thanks for the help... but it may be time to admit that my dream of playing in a kick-azz Cheap trick cover band are dead.

would still love to be able to strum a chord or two though LOL

dude, that's cake. let me introduce you to teh miracle of root-5th and root-5th-octave neutrals, aka "power chords". they only take two fingers. ;-)

any that only require two fingers preferably on two adjoinibng stings, less than two frets apart? LOL

Try
Eminor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . and D

6(E)- open . . . . . . . . . . . . 6----x
5---- 2nd Fret . . . . . . . . . . 5----x
4---- 2nd fret . . . . . . . . . . .4----open
3---- open . . . . . . . . . . . . .3----2
2---- open . . . . . . . . . . . . .2----3
1(e). open . . . . . . . . . . . . .1----2
.


Then try:
Emajor
just add 3----1st fret

and A
6---x
5---open
4---1
3---1
2---1
1---open



There, now go form a punk band.

robbovius,

you're gonna have to elaborate on where you're disagreeing with me because so far I'm right with you. did you feel that your lessons were a waste of time?

a small amount of knowledge of musical theory will go a long way.

learning chords isn't as important as learning why certain notes sound how they sound when played together.

and learning modes gives you a roadmap for the fretboard.

and like robbovius said, play what you like!

When I was 14 I went through a fakebook of 101 Beatles songs with chord charts and tried to learn to play as many of them as possible. It's best when you know the songs well so that you don't have to think about the rhythm. Eventually the muscle memory gets programmed and you don't have to think about it.

The programming can be so good that it becomes a challenge to play a different guitar. If I've been playing a lot of acoustic I end up misplacing my fingers on my SG which has a tiny neck.

My guitar style is a little different from others I know. It may be because I'm self taught on the guitar but come from a classical violin and piano background.

gotcha. well, it worked better for me. I started taking lessons about six months after I started playing guitar, and it helped answer a lot of the questions I'd built up. fortunately my teacher had gone to berkley, and really emphasized theory. so it kick-started my own playing.

meh, everyone learns their own way.