Im learning guitar...Self Teaching Myself...and Im have a few questions...

[Iron Maiden]

...that I hope you guys can answer!...? Thanks in advance....here they are

1.Im starting off by learning chords...but it seems like a lot to remember...Do you ever forget any of them..and is that ok?...There seems to be a lot of them.

2.Also do I need to remember all of thier names?

3.Also when do I need to start practicing cover songs?..about how long after I start practicing to I start to try to learn songs?

Thanks so much for answers..it really helps!

[Lucky Star]

Hi, I'm teaching myself guitar too. I started a few weeks ago and I really think I've come quite a long way.

I started by learning chords as well. At first, it was a bit overwhelming, and I couldn't remember them all, but I just concentrate on learning a couple of chords each time I practice (that's learning the names and hand shapes), and it's getting easier. Every time you practice, learn a new chord, but keep practicing the ones you already know and you'll soon progress.

There's no particular time that you have to start learning to play songs, but I started pretty quickly. I go to www.e-chords.com and search for whatever songs I know. The good thing about EChords is that if you can't remember the shape of the chord, you can mouse over the lettering and it will show you a diagram. Most chord sites do this, but I find EChords' diagrams the easiest to read.

Good luck!

[Zach The Riffer]

First off, chords are very easy to remember after the first few months of practice, I'd say start off with about 5-10 chords a week, and just practice them over and over, but don't get too comfortable with them, otherwise you will just want to make songs out of those chords because those are the only ones you can do well at the time.

2nd of all, you won't NEED to memorize all of the chord names right off of the bat, but after a few months of playing, you should go back and match the shapes of the chords to a chart and figure out what the chord names are. My best advice would be to learn the names with the chord, that way you won't have to look behind what you have already done, thats just like double the time it will take if you memorize the names with the chords.

And last but not least, I'd start doing some cover songs around your 3rd month of playing.

Hope this helps!

~ZTR

[Capodastaro]

1. you will forget, its ok to just practice practice practice

once you have played for a while you will learn some much more technical named chords such as sus, aug, dim, 7, 5,sus7 etc

2. yes it would help to remember the name of the chords you learnt

3. when ever you feel ready to take on the challenge of learning a song

[Lax]

i suggest u get a few lessons from a teacher so u get ur basics
1. ull get used 2 the chords aftr a while
2. yes remember their names, lot easier dat way
3. once u can play at a fairly steady rate (u dont have 2 pause between chrods 2 set up ur fingers)
hope it helped

[Chris]

well first off... you are doing the right thing by learning all of the chords first. that's what you should start learning. I started when i was twelve and i practised all the basic chords everyday for about 45 min - 1 hour. i am now 13 n i know all the basic chords and their names off the back of my hand. it may seem like the most boring thing on earth at first but when you learn all of them, it will be very easy to pick up songs and licks so...good luck.