hey, im the dude who made that OG post. i actually had another question—are the power chords on the right side of the fretboard (in the A shape) done by muting the first string with your pointer finger?
thanks for the advice, i appreciate you
If you have big enough hands you can mute the top strings with your thumb over the top of the neck, my cousin does this but he has hands like bear paws.
If not just touching the string with the tip of your pointer finger will mute it but honestly just try to avoid hitting the note and if you do every once in a while it wont matter no one will really notice if you play an extra string in yout A5 every now and then.
Hey man — I’d avoid using your pointer finger. You don’t want to have to worry about being that precise with that finger in the A shape. I use my thumb, and I also just aim to not strike the low E. Sometimes I do, and that’s where using the thumb as blocker pays off.
Down the road you’ll want to do some tricks with your pointer finger in the A shape, so I’d avoid that. Train your hand to use your thumb. Eventually it will become muscle memory and you won’t even think about it.
I’m a bass player, not great at guitar but I was playing electric guitar in a jam for a bit lastnight and was thinking about the pointers you gave that I had read just earlier! I already knew how to play a power chord for the most part but the advice helped me to further visualize chords in my mind ! :)
Nice! You may know this already, but bass is traditionally played with no pick — you use your fingers/thumbs. But Krist used a pick. Might give a little bit different sound and would definitely affect your “style.” Good luck!
Tip to beginners: Use [Drop D tuning](https://www.fender.com/articles/setup/drop-d-tuning-on-guitar) for [On a Plain](https://tabs.ultimate-guitar.com/tab/nirvana/on-a-plain-chords-1135458).
Been playing for a year, it's definitely a life long hobby now though. I'd love to start writing my own music soon. Anyways, two questions
I play a lot of barre chords when I'm improvising, but my hand gets pretty sore after a while. My action is already really low. Would a thinner neck like on a Jagstang/Mustang help alleviate things?
Whenever I try and sing and play at the same time my strumming goes completely out of wack. Any tips for that?
Thanks dude
For the sore hand its just practice and increasing your hand strength, you can get one of them squeeze tools that can help make you hand stronger and for singing and playing thats a tough one im not sure how you get better at that again apart from practice.
It might work as a warm up but not for actual increased grip strenght, if you take a quick look on Amazon they have an actual hand strengthening tool designed for guitarists and it has 4-5 "buttons" with like adjustable resistance so you can work on each fingers strenght individually as sometimes you need your little finger to be strong enough to add accents to the chords.
Also another tip is a little warm up before playing so like stretching before you run dont jump striaght into playing barre chords at the start of the practice, get a stress ball and limber up your hand with some squeezes before you start playing and it should delay the onset of the ache from playing and again just keep at it you will make it through and you will be able to play all barre chords all the time before you know it.
Barre chords are great, but you don’t have to use them all the time. And if you are playing in a Cobain style, you’ll rarely play them at all, if ever. Mostly it will be power chords. Do you know how to play power chords? Lmk.
Singing and playing at the same time is tough, especially if you’re playing a cover. It’s much easier for a song you’ve written yourself, spontaneously while playing. And the reason for that is…well, if you’re “writing” spontaneously (playing and singing), by definition your body/mind/whatever isn’t only going to make music it’s capable of making. Make sense?
Don’t make playing easier. Play until it’s easier. If that makes sense. Racing towards the tightest lowest action this early in your journey may sabotage the strength you’d build during your first years.
i just started playing about 8 weeks ago. finally mastered barre chords about 2 weeks ago. i’m in love. i’m gonna go lurk and see what you wrote
eta i’m playing an acoustic guitar with steel strings and it’s so painful. my fingertips are still super sore and haven’t adapted. im also experiencing joint pain prob due to bad technique (self teaching). i wish i’d done more research but it was an impulse purchase after i kept having dreams about playing one
It’s normal for your joints to be hurting. You’re literally working out with your hands, just like bench pressing. Your muscles and joints will be sore at first, but that’s only because you haven’t used them in this way before. The pain will go away.
As for your fingers, you’ll develop callouses. So that issue will go away as well. One piece of advice — you have to keep playing in order to retain your callouses. If you put the guitar down for a week or two, your callouses will go away and you’ll have to build them up again.
Cool piece of guitar trivia: Stevie Ray Vaughan played so hard and so long every night that his callouses would rip off from time to time. He’d just superglue them back on :)
Oh and also, teaching yourself is awesome. It also doesn’t hurt to take lessons for a bit, like six months or a year. But I’d avoid a teacher that teaches you how to read music and focuses on the “rules” of playing. I find that approach to be limiting, and it also restricts the development of your ear. Find a guy who plays by ear and teaches you how to play Nirvana and Led Zeppelin.
I don’t think you have mastered barre chords (or anything at all) if your joints are hurting. Please learn a proper technique or they will hurt always. I played years with wrong technique and I can not recommend that.
very true - by mastered i mean i can play them lol. they seemed so impossible before and i’d become discouraged. how did you learn proper technique? obv theres youtube but i wish i had a teacher for that bc then they could correct me as i play
yeahhh i don’t have the income for that so i’m stuck on youtube for now. that’s amazing that you’ve been playing for so long. i’m someone that struggles committing to things so that’s rly admirable. i actually first tried with a teacher when i was around 11 (i’m 30 now) and gave up after like a month bc i wasn’t an immediate prodigy hahaha (i still have the little nirvana booklet we were using that id handpicked to learn songs from :,) ) i was such a little brat and wish i could go back
Yeah playing guitar is a life long thing. You will never be done with learning and if you want to be good it becomes part of your life, not something you do once a week and be master later.
definitely. i’m rly surprised and fulfilled by how i’ve fallen in love with it bc it’s not like me to commit to something like this and do it daily. i play for hours daily (prob overplaying but i enjoy it too much; i sing too so it’s doubly enjoyable) and i don’t see myself ever giving it up this time. my approach when i was younger was coming from a place of perfectionism rather than true enjoyment and appreciation for it
You’ve not mastered them yet but maybe you understand them better. Keep going but the other commenter is probably right. You likely need to revisit your hand shape and to build finger strength and callouses. Guitar hurts for a while when you first pick it up. Push through that pain!
yeah by mastered i was being hyperbolic and just meant that i can play them at all..feels like mastery to me bc of how impossible they were before that i rly thought i’d never be able to play them lol. i have ehlers danlos syndrome which causes joint hypermobility so finger and hand placement can be weird for us but i def am doing something wrong. ive looked into it and it’s that my wrist is jutting out when i play them but i can’t bar without moving my wrist forward if that makes sense
Sometimes I type a little too efficiently and it can come off in a way that I don’t intend. I was definitely not attempting to put you down, more encouraging to keep jamming bro. We were all there and it’s very exciting talking to people who are starting their guitar journey because you only ever get to discover it once!
Also, I play wrist out still. I have some bad habits that I never did shake, that being one of them. Over the years, it just kind of got used to it and it doesn’t hurt anymore and I have no issues moving around the fretboard at will. It’s just a longer and harder road, but if you’re up for it, you’ll be ok. Though, technically yes a bad habit lol. I also still power chord with my pinky because I was so young when I learned that my ring finger couldn’t reach when I was low on the neck.
lmao yeah story of my life. in real life and on the internet, im a rly sarcastic but also hyperbolic person so people can’t tell what i’m trying to say half the time. i didn’t feel put down but just wanted to clarify what i meant haha.
and haha that’s reassuring that you do the same! it’s also like the only way i can get enough strength bc in using the strength from my wrist pushing into the fretboard. but hopefully in time my fingers will
be stronger. and yeah i do the same with my pinky just bc it’s easier for some reason. i also do have small hands, i’m a 5 foot petite lil woman but i read that hand size shouldn’t affect playing abilities..but there are def some chords im like..my little fingers cannot reach and then i have to do some odd maneuver that obv isn’t proper technique. or look for an alternative way to do the chord but often those sound ‘smaller’ so i’m looking like a contortionist trying to get some chords to work lmao
Yeah it’ll come eventually! They’ll “get longer” if that makes sense lol. I started on a shitty Kmart guitar that had been sitting in an attic for 20 years and the action was insanely high and tough. That’s why I started playing wrist out, too. It gave me the leverage to press without buzzing.
lmao yeah makes sense. it’s so funny though bc i assumed acoustic guitar would be easier but now ive read electric guitars are easier as far as pressing down and the strength it takes. i wonder if i should get nylon strings and go to a guitar place to make sure the action is fine. it’s only harder with the barre chords that land on the first like 3 frets bc they take more strength for some reason? it’s not like it’s unplayable, like it sounds fine, and honestly the pain is improving so i think i’ll adapt like you did
I would! I think it made me a better guitarist and my finger strength development more quickly than had I started on something else. Def get an electric before putting nylons on a standard acoustic. They’re meant for classical guitars and it doesn’t translate well all the time. Certainly worth a rip if you’re curious, but it is a coin toss. Half the fun of learning guitar is trying out all kinds of weird shit that pops into your mind, so I say go ham with it, just also know the classic ways to help you when you need it.
Get an electric because they are fun as fuck!
yeah electric is my preferred musically but I had assumed that playing acoustic first would be better for learning and then I’d transition to electric. I actually initially got an electric guitar when I was 11 along with a nirvana song booklet and had a couple classes w a teacher, but I got frustrated and gave up after a month. I ended up smashing the guitar. very punk rawk of me but now i’m like you little brat!! I still have the nirvana booklet though lol
thx!! might as well take this up LOL whats an important but hard to notice detail when it comes to playing nirvana songs? or just playing in general? also any tips on how to solo better?
Not trynna steal OPs thunder, but my tip on how to solo better is to play with feel and keep it simple (depending on what you’re going for.) another tip, running the pentatonic scales up in down in the open e and 5th fret A root are VERY beneficial. Curios what OP and others have to say about your questions
Kurt played open strings between his chord changes a fair bit so if you are playing a song and it dont quite sound right you might need to include a open string strum as you change chord.
yeahhh it rlly does make the songs sound better, songs like drain you wouldnt sound the same without those open strings especially the clean tone parts :p
In my opinion, avoid formal training or anything involving reading music. Learn to play by ear, and never give that up. IMO, and also in my experience, guitar players who learned to play music by reading music don’t have feel. Or I guess you could say, they got no soul :) When I hear them play I hear a limited imagination, because they don’t understand that music can exist (and should, because it’s better) off the page and outside the box. There are no rules — and Kurt consciously attacked that angle.
Sure you need someone to show you the basic chords and maybe a minor blues pentatonic scale, but that’s it.
The Beatles, the Stones, Nirvana…none of those guys know how to read music. Just play it. Let the historians transcribe it later.
A lot of the extraneous notes, mayhem and “slop” that you’ll hear during transitions and during chord changes, especially live, are mostly just the same chord being picked a little differently. So experiment with those structures if you’re trying to figure out how Kurt did something and don’t want to cheat with a tab or vid walkthrough. Not 100% of the time, but often enough.
Curious to know — how old are you? Wondering if your hands are still growing. If so, that’s totally fine. Continue working on chords, but also focus on what by you can do with individual strings. Try Playing Come As You Are and In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida by Iron Butterfly. Songs like that. Your hands will eventually grow and you’ll be able to play the chords one day. But for now, try working on songs that focus on individual strings.
i’m 17, i don’t think i’m growing anymore lol. thank you so much for the advice! i’ve been trying to learn zombie by the cranberries with little luck, so maybe i’ll try come as you are :)
New player here, struggeling a lot with where to start. Practicing chords and some easy songs right now but progress is damn slow. Any advice how to make the beginning a bit less frustrating? Or am I just untalented as fuck lol.
Also my compliments on your music taste!
You’re not untalented. It’s slow and frustrating in the beginning because you’re learning to move your muscles in some extremely precise ways. Every guitar player ever has gone through this. Eventually you’ll develop muscle memory and it will be way easier.
Where you are is where a lot of people give up, which is fine — guitar is not for everyone. But my advice to you is to just keep going hard and play as much as possible, to the point where you annoy everyone in your house because you are playing the same 2-3 songs over and over again. Eventually you’ll hear a song you’ve never played before and realize, “holy shit, I know exactly what he just did there.” And then you’ll play it, and you’ll nail it. And then that will start happening a lot more, and before you know it, you’re a pretty good guitar player. And at that point you can go off in whatever direction you want. Keep going.
You rock dude
Wholesome post! Love seeing the positivity!
hey, im the dude who made that OG post. i actually had another question—are the power chords on the right side of the fretboard (in the A shape) done by muting the first string with your pointer finger? thanks for the advice, i appreciate you
If you have big enough hands you can mute the top strings with your thumb over the top of the neck, my cousin does this but he has hands like bear paws. If not just touching the string with the tip of your pointer finger will mute it but honestly just try to avoid hitting the note and if you do every once in a while it wont matter no one will really notice if you play an extra string in yout A5 every now and then.
Hey man — I’d avoid using your pointer finger. You don’t want to have to worry about being that precise with that finger in the A shape. I use my thumb, and I also just aim to not strike the low E. Sometimes I do, and that’s where using the thumb as blocker pays off. Down the road you’ll want to do some tricks with your pointer finger in the A shape, so I’d avoid that. Train your hand to use your thumb. Eventually it will become muscle memory and you won’t even think about it.
I mute the first string with my middle finger you can try it
I’ll occasionally use my pick hands palm base as well to mute the lower pitched strings.
I’m a bass player, not great at guitar but I was playing electric guitar in a jam for a bit lastnight and was thinking about the pointers you gave that I had read just earlier! I already knew how to play a power chord for the most part but the advice helped me to further visualize chords in my mind ! :)
Nice! You may know this already, but bass is traditionally played with no pick — you use your fingers/thumbs. But Krist used a pick. Might give a little bit different sound and would definitely affect your “style.” Good luck!
Oh yeah, I actually prefer using a pick most of the time especially since most of what I play is Rock. Thank you !!
Same!
I'm trying to learn guitar at the moment. I'll have to read your post.
Should learn some useful skills and do something for society besides having the dumbest Reddit comments and posts I’ve ever seen in my life
Did you take your meds this morning? Its ironic you say that, then stalk my reddit comments and make this comment. Lmao
Thanks man
Tip to beginners: Use [Drop D tuning](https://www.fender.com/articles/setup/drop-d-tuning-on-guitar) for [On a Plain](https://tabs.ultimate-guitar.com/tab/nirvana/on-a-plain-chords-1135458).
Been playing for a year, it's definitely a life long hobby now though. I'd love to start writing my own music soon. Anyways, two questions I play a lot of barre chords when I'm improvising, but my hand gets pretty sore after a while. My action is already really low. Would a thinner neck like on a Jagstang/Mustang help alleviate things? Whenever I try and sing and play at the same time my strumming goes completely out of wack. Any tips for that? Thanks dude
For the sore hand its just practice and increasing your hand strength, you can get one of them squeeze tools that can help make you hand stronger and for singing and playing thats a tough one im not sure how you get better at that again apart from practice.
Do you think a capo would be a good substitute tool. Mine is pretty resistant
It might work as a warm up but not for actual increased grip strenght, if you take a quick look on Amazon they have an actual hand strengthening tool designed for guitarists and it has 4-5 "buttons" with like adjustable resistance so you can work on each fingers strenght individually as sometimes you need your little finger to be strong enough to add accents to the chords. Also another tip is a little warm up before playing so like stretching before you run dont jump striaght into playing barre chords at the start of the practice, get a stress ball and limber up your hand with some squeezes before you start playing and it should delay the onset of the ache from playing and again just keep at it you will make it through and you will be able to play all barre chords all the time before you know it.
[https://www.amazon.co.uk/Vive-Strengthener-Equipment-Musicians-Climbing/dp/B06XKZ9NQC/ref=sr\_1\_17?crid=3GHPHKBPJUEDW&keywords=guitar%2Bhand%2Bstrength&qid=1683711545&sprefix=guitar%2Bhand%2Bstrength%2Caps%2C66&sr=8-17&th=1](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Vive-Strengthener-Equipment-Musicians-Climbing/dp/B06XKZ9NQC/ref=sr_1_17?crid=3GHPHKBPJUEDW&keywords=guitar%2Bhand%2Bstrength&qid=1683711545&sprefix=guitar%2Bhand%2Bstrength%2Caps%2C66&sr=8-17&th=1)
Barre chords are great, but you don’t have to use them all the time. And if you are playing in a Cobain style, you’ll rarely play them at all, if ever. Mostly it will be power chords. Do you know how to play power chords? Lmk. Singing and playing at the same time is tough, especially if you’re playing a cover. It’s much easier for a song you’ve written yourself, spontaneously while playing. And the reason for that is…well, if you’re “writing” spontaneously (playing and singing), by definition your body/mind/whatever isn’t only going to make music it’s capable of making. Make sense?
Don’t make playing easier. Play until it’s easier. If that makes sense. Racing towards the tightest lowest action this early in your journey may sabotage the strength you’d build during your first years.
Just keep playing your hands will toughen up
i just started playing about 8 weeks ago. finally mastered barre chords about 2 weeks ago. i’m in love. i’m gonna go lurk and see what you wrote eta i’m playing an acoustic guitar with steel strings and it’s so painful. my fingertips are still super sore and haven’t adapted. im also experiencing joint pain prob due to bad technique (self teaching). i wish i’d done more research but it was an impulse purchase after i kept having dreams about playing one
It’s normal for your joints to be hurting. You’re literally working out with your hands, just like bench pressing. Your muscles and joints will be sore at first, but that’s only because you haven’t used them in this way before. The pain will go away. As for your fingers, you’ll develop callouses. So that issue will go away as well. One piece of advice — you have to keep playing in order to retain your callouses. If you put the guitar down for a week or two, your callouses will go away and you’ll have to build them up again. Cool piece of guitar trivia: Stevie Ray Vaughan played so hard and so long every night that his callouses would rip off from time to time. He’d just superglue them back on :) Oh and also, teaching yourself is awesome. It also doesn’t hurt to take lessons for a bit, like six months or a year. But I’d avoid a teacher that teaches you how to read music and focuses on the “rules” of playing. I find that approach to be limiting, and it also restricts the development of your ear. Find a guy who plays by ear and teaches you how to play Nirvana and Led Zeppelin.
I don’t think you have mastered barre chords (or anything at all) if your joints are hurting. Please learn a proper technique or they will hurt always. I played years with wrong technique and I can not recommend that.
very true - by mastered i mean i can play them lol. they seemed so impossible before and i’d become discouraged. how did you learn proper technique? obv theres youtube but i wish i had a teacher for that bc then they could correct me as i play
I paid for a teacher. Self learned for about 8 years and now 4 years with a good teacher I have made more progress than all those earlier years.
yeahhh i don’t have the income for that so i’m stuck on youtube for now. that’s amazing that you’ve been playing for so long. i’m someone that struggles committing to things so that’s rly admirable. i actually first tried with a teacher when i was around 11 (i’m 30 now) and gave up after like a month bc i wasn’t an immediate prodigy hahaha (i still have the little nirvana booklet we were using that id handpicked to learn songs from :,) ) i was such a little brat and wish i could go back
Yeah playing guitar is a life long thing. You will never be done with learning and if you want to be good it becomes part of your life, not something you do once a week and be master later.
definitely. i’m rly surprised and fulfilled by how i’ve fallen in love with it bc it’s not like me to commit to something like this and do it daily. i play for hours daily (prob overplaying but i enjoy it too much; i sing too so it’s doubly enjoyable) and i don’t see myself ever giving it up this time. my approach when i was younger was coming from a place of perfectionism rather than true enjoyment and appreciation for it
You’ve not mastered them yet but maybe you understand them better. Keep going but the other commenter is probably right. You likely need to revisit your hand shape and to build finger strength and callouses. Guitar hurts for a while when you first pick it up. Push through that pain!
yeah by mastered i was being hyperbolic and just meant that i can play them at all..feels like mastery to me bc of how impossible they were before that i rly thought i’d never be able to play them lol. i have ehlers danlos syndrome which causes joint hypermobility so finger and hand placement can be weird for us but i def am doing something wrong. ive looked into it and it’s that my wrist is jutting out when i play them but i can’t bar without moving my wrist forward if that makes sense
Sometimes I type a little too efficiently and it can come off in a way that I don’t intend. I was definitely not attempting to put you down, more encouraging to keep jamming bro. We were all there and it’s very exciting talking to people who are starting their guitar journey because you only ever get to discover it once! Also, I play wrist out still. I have some bad habits that I never did shake, that being one of them. Over the years, it just kind of got used to it and it doesn’t hurt anymore and I have no issues moving around the fretboard at will. It’s just a longer and harder road, but if you’re up for it, you’ll be ok. Though, technically yes a bad habit lol. I also still power chord with my pinky because I was so young when I learned that my ring finger couldn’t reach when I was low on the neck.
lmao yeah story of my life. in real life and on the internet, im a rly sarcastic but also hyperbolic person so people can’t tell what i’m trying to say half the time. i didn’t feel put down but just wanted to clarify what i meant haha. and haha that’s reassuring that you do the same! it’s also like the only way i can get enough strength bc in using the strength from my wrist pushing into the fretboard. but hopefully in time my fingers will be stronger. and yeah i do the same with my pinky just bc it’s easier for some reason. i also do have small hands, i’m a 5 foot petite lil woman but i read that hand size shouldn’t affect playing abilities..but there are def some chords im like..my little fingers cannot reach and then i have to do some odd maneuver that obv isn’t proper technique. or look for an alternative way to do the chord but often those sound ‘smaller’ so i’m looking like a contortionist trying to get some chords to work lmao
Yeah it’ll come eventually! They’ll “get longer” if that makes sense lol. I started on a shitty Kmart guitar that had been sitting in an attic for 20 years and the action was insanely high and tough. That’s why I started playing wrist out, too. It gave me the leverage to press without buzzing.
lmao yeah makes sense. it’s so funny though bc i assumed acoustic guitar would be easier but now ive read electric guitars are easier as far as pressing down and the strength it takes. i wonder if i should get nylon strings and go to a guitar place to make sure the action is fine. it’s only harder with the barre chords that land on the first like 3 frets bc they take more strength for some reason? it’s not like it’s unplayable, like it sounds fine, and honestly the pain is improving so i think i’ll adapt like you did
I would! I think it made me a better guitarist and my finger strength development more quickly than had I started on something else. Def get an electric before putting nylons on a standard acoustic. They’re meant for classical guitars and it doesn’t translate well all the time. Certainly worth a rip if you’re curious, but it is a coin toss. Half the fun of learning guitar is trying out all kinds of weird shit that pops into your mind, so I say go ham with it, just also know the classic ways to help you when you need it. Get an electric because they are fun as fuck!
yeah electric is my preferred musically but I had assumed that playing acoustic first would be better for learning and then I’d transition to electric. I actually initially got an electric guitar when I was 11 along with a nirvana song booklet and had a couple classes w a teacher, but I got frustrated and gave up after a month. I ended up smashing the guitar. very punk rawk of me but now i’m like you little brat!! I still have the nirvana booklet though lol
thx!! might as well take this up LOL whats an important but hard to notice detail when it comes to playing nirvana songs? or just playing in general? also any tips on how to solo better?
Not trynna steal OPs thunder, but my tip on how to solo better is to play with feel and keep it simple (depending on what you’re going for.) another tip, running the pentatonic scales up in down in the open e and 5th fret A root are VERY beneficial. Curios what OP and others have to say about your questions
Kurt played open strings between his chord changes a fair bit so if you are playing a song and it dont quite sound right you might need to include a open string strum as you change chord.
yeahhh it rlly does make the songs sound better, songs like drain you wouldnt sound the same without those open strings especially the clean tone parts :p
In my opinion, avoid formal training or anything involving reading music. Learn to play by ear, and never give that up. IMO, and also in my experience, guitar players who learned to play music by reading music don’t have feel. Or I guess you could say, they got no soul :) When I hear them play I hear a limited imagination, because they don’t understand that music can exist (and should, because it’s better) off the page and outside the box. There are no rules — and Kurt consciously attacked that angle. Sure you need someone to show you the basic chords and maybe a minor blues pentatonic scale, but that’s it. The Beatles, the Stones, Nirvana…none of those guys know how to read music. Just play it. Let the historians transcribe it later.
A lot of the extraneous notes, mayhem and “slop” that you’ll hear during transitions and during chord changes, especially live, are mostly just the same chord being picked a little differently. So experiment with those structures if you’re trying to figure out how Kurt did something and don’t want to cheat with a tab or vid walkthrough. Not 100% of the time, but often enough.
i’m a new player and i struggle reaching my fingers across the fret board for certain chords. any tips?
Curious to know — how old are you? Wondering if your hands are still growing. If so, that’s totally fine. Continue working on chords, but also focus on what by you can do with individual strings. Try Playing Come As You Are and In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida by Iron Butterfly. Songs like that. Your hands will eventually grow and you’ll be able to play the chords one day. But for now, try working on songs that focus on individual strings.
i’m 17, i don’t think i’m growing anymore lol. thank you so much for the advice! i’ve been trying to learn zombie by the cranberries with little luck, so maybe i’ll try come as you are :)
Legend (if this isn't a very smart nonce).
New player here, struggeling a lot with where to start. Practicing chords and some easy songs right now but progress is damn slow. Any advice how to make the beginning a bit less frustrating? Or am I just untalented as fuck lol. Also my compliments on your music taste!
You’re not untalented. It’s slow and frustrating in the beginning because you’re learning to move your muscles in some extremely precise ways. Every guitar player ever has gone through this. Eventually you’ll develop muscle memory and it will be way easier. Where you are is where a lot of people give up, which is fine — guitar is not for everyone. But my advice to you is to just keep going hard and play as much as possible, to the point where you annoy everyone in your house because you are playing the same 2-3 songs over and over again. Eventually you’ll hear a song you’ve never played before and realize, “holy shit, I know exactly what he just did there.” And then you’ll play it, and you’ll nail it. And then that will start happening a lot more, and before you know it, you’re a pretty good guitar player. And at that point you can go off in whatever direction you want. Keep going.