Hey guys, I’m sorry if this post comes across as super dumb but I was just wanting to ask for some advice about learning electric guitar.
Over a decade ago I inherited a guitar from a friend who took his life, I tried learning it at first but ended up getting distracted by life and dropped it. Recently though I saw it sitting and collecting dust and decided that, even if it was a cheap electric guitar, I didn’t want it to spend its life like that.
So yesterday I got some new strings, a new (and better) amplifier than the $20 one I bought secondhand over a decade ago, and a couple books about guitars, one of them being a book with nothing but like 300+ different chords, I also fixed the intonation on the bridge.
So here’s my questions:
I’m looking to try and play punk rock music (All American Rejects, My Chemical Romance, Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, stuff with that kind of sound). What chords should I focus on learning that would be good for that kind of genre?
And I’m guessing the chords are can be played by strumming all of the strings together at once or you can play the notes individually, one after the other?
Sorry again if this post is really dumb, I really want to try and make sure I don’t drop this guitar again, I’d like to properly honor my friend’s memory and give this guitar the attention it deserves.
Learn basic open chords first. Then power chords. but practice changing between chords.
Justin guitar has good tutorials on the matter. With strumming the biggest thing is rythym. Learn weird strumming patterns like down-up-down-up-up-down.
Also try not to practice witb an electric unamped. It’s easy to not hear/see mistakes like too aggressive picking, missed mutes etc. is anything a small mini amp that shuts off when headphones go in can still help. I have an orange crush micro for just that.
These videos are on point.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FTndcu891g
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eF4EMZqt4AE
Source: started learning 3 years ago. Not a serious player but mostly play to songs I like.
Yeah I got an amplifier when I stopped by the music store a couple days ago to get new strings and the reference materials, I’ve been using the amp every time I practice.
I probably spent way more money than I needed for something for a beginner, but I wanted something that would last a little bit longer than the $20 one I bought a decade ago that died like a couple months into use.
I’ll say this. The first months are the fucking hardest. Rythym is hard. And the basics are hard. Your fingers hurt until they have calluses and shit sounds REALLY bad until magically things click and it doesn’t.
I’ll say this. Guitar is not this thing where you, specifically, will notice improvement day over day. It’s a series of large jumps and plateaus where things click and make sense.
But the feeling when you hit one of those plateaus is really cool and worth chasing so stick with it.
The first 6 months are the hardest to stay motivated. But even 10-15 minutes a day will go a lot further than 4 hours one day a week. It’s a weird hobby where sometimes sleeping on it makes the muscle memory sink in and the next session is better.