Reply To: [unofficial weekender] And they are off!

[blinky465 17028xp 1]

I’ve spent about thirty years getting away with just two barre chord shapes (A and E) – for anyone learning, I’d strongly recommend starting there. That’s the absolute minimum you need to be able to play! They also give you far more control over rhythm and syncopation than those open “cowboy” chords we all learn right at the very beginning.

A couple of months ago I started learning lead guitar (being a leftie, but playing a right-handed guitar because that’s all I could afford as a teen, means I not only drop plectrums more often than @warzan drops his tools off his hobby table, I don’t quite have the right-hand control for fancy alternative picking). I found Robert Renman to be a really good online teacher – he just gets stuck in and says “copy this” and off you go! I love Brian from ActiveMelody for the “shapes and theory” method of teaching too. Papastache is always entertaining, Griff Hamlin makes it look far easier than it is and Tim Pierce is just mesmerising!

Playing a musical instrument has done more for me than anything else – I couldn’t recommend learning one enough! When you’re ready, a little music theory – like understanding the “Nashville system” and intervals makes playing with other people much more enjoyable, so worth spending a *little* time over too 😉