Just got a acoustic guitar today for my birthday today! Thanks to the wife! What was the first thing you learnt to play properly? Are the chords really vital?

*/hangs head in shame/*
Come as you are nirvana….

Are the chords really vital?

Not totally sure what you mean here, but the chords are the important bit as far as the guitar goes! It's not a piano!

Widdly-widdly solos can come later, but it's pretty rare to play the melody line on the guitar.

Oh aye, Purple Haze I think….

"mary" by the subways
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpyZ_nWuNgg

C,G,Am and and F in there i think

Paradise City. But when I first started trying to play, it was a bit more like this:

Chords are super important, i remember wasting months trying to learn ahem… Stairway to Heaven, when what i should have been doing is learning open chords.
The chord changes make your hands work as they should, although it'll seem unfeasable at first, stick with it 😉 it took me a year before i could knock out a tune, but i was 40 😐

Hey joe. The slow version with gaps for the chord changes….

Space Oddity by Bowie followed by Sunshine of Your Love by Cream. I think Hey Joe was number 3.

Go and visit Justin Guitars, do every thing he says and learn Wild Thing. The man is a teaching genius.

Love Me Tender – Elvis (my dad taught me)

Morning has broken.
I think I was about 4 and it was a little plastic thing with 3 strings.
I had no problem with chords, just ad lib the tune a bit.
Haven't played much since.

My teaching strategy is to start with a some really simple rock riffs, like smoke on the water, hells bells.
The chords can be a bit demoralising at first when you strum the strings and it sounds pants.
After several weeks of learning easier riffs, the chords are a doddle to pick up.
Works for me.

I can't coordinate two hands at the same time on a musical instrument. That leaves very few for me to play, geeetarr was definitely one of my weakest areas 🙂 I can just about play the into to smoke on the water

House of The Rising sun

Can I recommend "Fretboard Roadmaps" as a good book to learn chord stuff quickly.

Night prowler AC/DC

Nice and slow.

Paul Weller – Wild wood

followed by OCS – The Riverboat Song.

It was so long ago I can't remember! The answer really depends on what you want to do with the guitar. Just a casual, lerning for pleasure type thing or grand plans to be a performer?

In general, my advice would be to learn the basic chords and practice changing between them. If you can find contemporary songs that you like, that are easy to play then this is better as it keeps you interested and gives you a sense of achievement. Something like smoke on the water is going to sound pretty gash without bar chords and bar chords are not really the first thing a beginner should be learning IMHO. Start with the basic open major chords (G, C, D, E, A), open minor chords (Em, Am, Dm etc) and see how quickly you get the hang of them. Don't neglect right hand technique either (oo err) and develop the ability to strum without a plectrum, strum with a plectrum and finger pick. As you progress you will then move up to bar chords and power chords but by then your technique will be at a point where you will be able to execute them better.
Don't under estimate how sore your fingers will be initially as they get used to holding down strings and, as you are just beginning, work hard to make sure you don't fret the strings too heavily as it then becomes a difficult habit to break.

And enjoy it. It's a great instrument! 😆

Joy Division – Isolation.

But then it was on bass, so was a piece of cake! 😆

something from a 3 chord songbook – the true answer is probably blowing in the wind…..

Bobby Shaftoe – from Bert Weedon's Play in a Day, Circa 1963.

Then "As Tears Go By" by Marianne Faithfull. I still struggle with that B flat.

Something like smoke on the water is going to sound pretty gash without bar chords

Tosh, smoke on the water intro is played on 2 strings and is one of the easiest things to play on a guitar

Start with the basic open major chords (G…..

G is probably the hardest open chord for a beginner to form, I can see the look of disillusionment on my students faces when they strum their first attempt at G.

Me and Bobby McGhee was my first – country and western is a good place to start as three chords will get you a loooong way.

Scarborough Fair, must get on to second tune soon.

House of the rising Sun – the Stranglers, had a nice relativley easy chord progression.

Then every Oasis song………I say every, like status quo, once you've learned about 4/5 chords yo ucan play every one of their songs. (should you want to of course)

7 Nation Army. 1 string genius me

battleship chains by the georgia satellites

whole song using only two fingers :O)

Say It Ain't So by Weezer

After years of bashing away at acoustic guitar I've just started out on Mandolin which is a lot of fun and probably helping with my guitar technique too.

'smoke on the water'- Deep Purple

now I feel really old 😳

whats a chord?

G is probably the hardest open chord for a beginner to form

Nah, it's F.

Trust me it's F

wonderwall – had to be learnt in less than a week (from having never played before) as I cleverly told some bird at college I played guitar (when I didn't). She responded with "me too – you should come round and we can play some tunes…"

Emergency internet guitar lessons ensued and resulted in a, er, result 😀

It's definitely F

i can play (the more common) chords not a prob, but for the life of me i can't figure out how to play something like wonderwall. where am i going wrong?

Nah F is a Barre chord init? No open strings.
I would imagine G7 is tricky for beginners – bit of a stretch to that first fret on the top E string!

Oasis, live forever

next took 2 months and was country by Paul seller little finger twiddly bit and all sorts

It's deffo F!!!!

Gav YouTube is your friend

looks like i'm in for some fun with this! or more likely a trip to the carboot sale to get rid of the bloody thing when i cant do it!

mickasaki…you need to find yourself a teacher. I started when I was about 10, and learned a few basic chords. Stopped after a couple of years.
I've just started having lessons again, and am loving it.

I was thinking that too! Its the first time i have even picked up a guitar, let alone play the thing! I just need to get over my phobia of paying someone to do things! i'll give it a couple of weeks and see how i get on. I was given a starter pack with a book, dvd etc aswell, so we'll see! I dont have any aspirations to be a rockgod (cant be good at everything :lol:) I would just like to play a bit as it looks quite relaxing when you know how.

cheers timdrayton, can't believe i never looked there. just had a quick search for 'man who sold the world' and i see what you mean – bl@@dy F chord though!!!