Great video.. as a noob, I can attest to the fact that learning “easy” songs is hard af. It’s taken a year for me to finally get the muscle memory down to quickly switch chords. So I’m finally at campfire strum level. Now that I’m learning different chord voicings, it makes so much more sense to focus on learning where the root notes are. The fancy voicings are almost a nice byproduct of actually knowing where the roots are

First example is great! Open chords and strumming are not easy for many - even beyond beginners. Also, the problems many late beginner it intermediate players have are often rooted in timing and tone - not theory (beyond note names on E and A - table stakes). And learning songs helps with all of that too.

So glad I found your channel. The more I watch your channel, the more I appreciate your humor, personality and skills. Thanks for this mini lesson! Very good stuff!

You crack me up. I don’t understand why people are mean on social media. I guess I am 50, so grew up in a different time. Still a beginner. Started guitar to get off of electronics and do something productive. Love your stuff. Your odd tick does nothing to distract from the lesson. Some people are just sad ass wipes, guess it’s just the way it is.

It's not fun being bad and it hurts.

CCR Bad moon rising Is a very easy song to learn.

great lesson, thank you Sean

When I started with guitar I told myself that it was going to be frustrating and that was okay. I told myself that if I stuck with it that it would eventually come to me. I still have to tell myself and I am okay with that. The more I've learned about guitar, the more I've found that there is to learn.

Loving your channel Sean. Good tips on following the root note to sneak up on a song and great tip on Big Thief - their whole style seems to be sneaking up on a song. Lovely.

I kinda learned like that, but I taught myself, so I never learned the chord progression. 20 years later I'm still playing, but am only now starting to learn how to actually play. Thanks for this lesson because now I have another path by which to learn and maybe I can learn chords by ear. Good stuff.

The beginner should ask, "Why do I want to learn guitar?" From one teacher to another...you rock...Thx

Great suggestion! Thanks!

100% agree on learning songs you like ASAP. I used Justin's site when I started. I liked the "learn these 2 chords and you can play these songs. Learn 2 more and now you can play these" approach. Some of the songs were simplified versions but you still felt like you were doing something. #1 reason people quit is bad teachers. #2 reason is buying nearly unplayable guitars. IMHO!

As rudimentary as it might seem, I appreciate that you a use note names verses referencing a string and fret number. Eventually learning where every named note appears on the fret board, combined with the basics of music theory, will make you the master of your instrument verses a slave to chord diagrams. If you combine singing note names as you practice melody lines and riffs it will help you master the role of harmony and leading / passing tones.

what a practical lesson, from the most practical man on the internet......NOT. Just kiddin my man. Excellent vid. Ryde brother Ryde!!!

Both beautiful sounding chords. That second one sounds particularly nice picked

Thanks Sean!

Great video Sean and a very important lesson for new players and teachers. I must have started and quit 3-4 times. Finally, at 45, I thought I’d give it one last go. I asked the guitar teacher where my kids were taking piano lessons if he had time to teach me. He did and the next week I brought my guitar to show him where I was; I must have sounded like Jim Carey in Yes Man fumbling through the Jumper chord changes. We agreed on Everlong (acoustic ver speed): drop D power chords, octaves, and an open D chord that you can play all 6 strings. I had it at full electric version speed a couple of months later and had developed the dexterity for the illusion F& B barre chords in the process. After that, I really wanted to get better and learning the shapes, changes, scales and riffs started to come. But I always rely on power chords to first learn a song if the open chords aren’t working for me.

Many good points in this video. One thing a beginner needs, and its the same for learning any instrument, or running a marathon, restoring an old car, making a quilt, building a garden, yadda yadda......is a burning desire to do so. You must WANT it. In my opinion, that is the common denominator of any start to doing/creating/finishing anything. The second would be patience, understanding that it will not happen overnight. Third, find yourself a good instructor and commit to 10 lessons. You need to sit across from a teacher who can a access your progress, critique your playing and ensure proper technique. And, I totally agree, the first time you play a song, you will be hooked.

You should teach everyone that song from Sound of Music…” Do/a deer,a female deer…. Ra/ a pocket fulla sunnnnnn….”🎶….🤣🤣🤣🤣 ..Just kiddin.. I always watch your shows.. tres’ entertaining..!!👍🏼

Bout 4 months now…. Dovydas keeps me motivated !!!! Great lesson Sean !!!

This is feckin' genius. I'm scraping intermediate level and I took a ton from this, but this would have been the lesson that would have got through to me each of the three previous times in my life I have started playing guitar and given up in frustration.

The same thing worked for me. The first time I tried learning the guitar, back in India, I went to a teacher (who was pretty good) but all he taught me were random chords and finger patterns. I had to learn them and come back next week to learn the next thing on top. It got overwhelming and there was never an aha moment. Later in life, I picked up the guitar again, this time with KZfaq and I started with a simple 2 chord song and I loved the satisfaction of playing that. It gave me the juices to run for the next thing. I have been gathering little knowledge pieces and tying them together. One reason I love your channel is that you acknowledge and understand how difficult this journey is and that's why you only share basics and tiny nuggets. Love your work and "company" Sean!

I found myself to be in a more intermediate guitar position. A quote i found that sums up what im going through is "pressure poisons creativity." Before i "quit," i was playing guitar less and less until i was offered a position to play a song of my choosing for a festival. I decided that i would play teardrops by joe satriani. Which is a fairly simple song. In about a week, i could roughly play through the entire song, but i knew i had to brush up on sections. However, when i went to my guitar lesson, my teacher put me fown and said i couldn't do it. With the pressure of the performance in a week and the guitar teacher not believing in me, i stopped playing. For about 5 months.

Ye, no one wants to play the songs that the beginner books teach for their friends when they ask you to play. Even though those are the foundation. When I began playing again I was lucky enough to get a really good teacher. We used the Mel Bay book, after a month he said: "Now I'm going to teach you a song, a really easy song and you'll be able to practice and it will help with your ear and keeping in time." He puts on "Lust for Life" by Iggy Pop and starts to just use the A Chord to change the sound, lifting off and on. He had me just keep doing that and he played the E and the G and D. He told me to practice just following the chord changes by lifting off and on the A. He gave me a CD with Lust for Life on a loop so I could play it over and over. He said to just keep going, if you mess up keep going. Then I added the E, and so on. But it was learning that fast strumming and staying with the band that was the real goal. For the semi-annual recital where they pick students to play, he got his students to play Lust for Life, with him on the drums and another adult student on Bass, and another teacher on lead guitar. Here I was a 54-year-old guy with these kids playing The Minut, and Fur Elise, etc and we come out with Iggy Pop.

I had a less then dedicated teacher in school paid for my lessons couldn't do it had a cheep guitar with strings about an inch off the fretboard. I quit bu started again when I met a guy who played songs and let me play to and sing. If I'd had you or someone like you but the same motivation it would have gone the same...but what resulted was I did not learn to play guitar I learned songs. Now at 56 I am trying to learn guitar it's so fascinating but probably because I am not a teen wanting to get to the payoff without the work. Thanks for being so varied and open

I enjoyed that first lesson here. It will help me learn the fretboard better as well. Please keep up the great work! From my perspective, you deserve 0 salty comments.

great video.. I'm a beginner, thanks for the encouragement ..

Super Mööp! Amazing Stuff!!!!!

BRILLIANT, thank you, I was just about to quit until I watched this video. THANK YOU!!!

I have quit so many times over the past 40 plus years it's not funny. But yours and other videos are helping me learn about music theory that I think this time I might stick with it because it makes it so much more interesting. Thank you for what you do.

On the money again Sean, things that have taken me years to learn. Keep telling them the truth

Nice Martin 👍

While I'm not a complete beginner anymore Im still not very good. I can say the hardest thing for me was the overwhelming nature of guitar and not being able to connect the dots on how chords worked or are used in a practical context outside of just learning a song that hardly ever used the basic chords i could play. I gave up very fast back then. These last couple of years I have made much bigger progress thanks to videos like yours and quite a few others I follow that give, I feel much better wisdom on how to approach guitar vs how I got started wich was a smoke on the water riff and 3 chords have at it. To summarize I wish I would have had this video 15 years ago.

I think a lot of beginners quit because too many start on a cheap, crappy acoustic that makes the beginning stages of learning harder than it needs to be (poor setup, high action, bad tuning stability). I would (and do) recommend the most expensive electric you're comfortable paying for.

You are in good company with Martin ! ✌🏼

This video perfectly explains the reason I've quit several times lol

I'm going to most definitely try your method of the (E,A STRING 7 FRET). So with this method there is no struming just picking. Until I advance to power cords,RIGHT!

Thanks. You nailed it. I spend most of my time playing riffs and noodling on the pentatonic scale and don't know a complete song despite decades of on and off playing. Not sure about simplifying it to root notes but I'll try it. Thanks for the Big Thief recommendation. The groovy hypnotic acoustic guitar immediately sucked me in and I liked the song. Later on the tone on the solos sucked rotten eggs and the ending was kinda lame. I appreciated the live, spontaneous feel they were going for on the recording but someone should have told the guitarist he was being an annoying dick if he thought his guitar sounded good that way.

Your 💯 correct its not simple

Glad you got through the Covid in good shape. Mahogany guitars smell GREAT

UR right. There may not be a linear skill involved, where a newbie can find the lick w/o knowing the note names. Another student should learn 1st position crisp/clear. Doesn't matter if it's "Leavin' on a jet plane" or a song by Jet. Then demo-That chord can be played up the neck too.

Jeez, that's what I wanted, to play licks over a backing track or a friends rhythm guitar. Also play a bit of a blues shuffle by myself. Thankfully I know all the pentatonic shapes, not just one.

I got Rocksmith recently and I never realized how terrible I was. This program really opened my eyes. I have a long way to go. Don't know...I think i'm about done.

Yeah, The Sound. Was annoying at first, but you are a good teacher, and a funny dude!

Careful, Sean... folks start nailing down those root notes and they may just end up picking up a bass and stick with that 😉

good video i started with fingerpicking house of the rising sun lol g chords are alien to me lmao

Bob Dylan songs taught me to play guitar. Then I wanted to Learn how to play guitar. They inspired my desire for guitar knowledge by allowing me to have the open chord fundamentals to play comfortably with my friends.

If you want to play fast shreddy metal then you need to be born with different muscles and tendons in your hands and fingers in order to do it and if you don't then you will only ever be able play chords no matter how much practice. You will only be as good as your anatomy allows you to and that's something guitar teachers never tell you. That's why people get better and others don't no matter how much practice. I'm sorry to break it to all you people who can only play chords and I'm also a person who can only play chords

I actually do want to play nice sounding licks over a backing track as my main goal for learning guitar. Playing songs is a distant second place ((-; But I am happy to admit that I am an outlier....

You’re absolutely right…. I think a lot of “decent” guitar players, started with bass. Just what I’m noticing as a trend. I began playing bass around the time I started noticing females…. (Like most rock musicians😆) .. which lead to simple chords on guitar… which lead to song writing, so on so forth. To this day, I’m hell raiser on rhythm guitar. Which is where I like to keep it in respect to song writing. Thank you for your channel. It’s good to watch other musicians spill the beans on our hobby.

I loved this cause I miss the girls joining in, thanks for another great lesson.

If beginners started on baritone ukulele tuned to DGBe more people would stick with it. It makes many chord shapes simpler and easier. It makes strumming easier because you don't need to skip strings. The nylon strings don't hurt your fingers. A good instrument is about $100 But here's the kicker - once you make some progress and learn some songs if someone hands you a guitar you'll immediately be able to play it - and most people won't even know you're only playing the treble strings. Seriously it should be a thing.

What your option for beginners: Electric or Acoustic? And why? I started at 59 years old, right when covid hit and started with acoustic, and 3 weeks later bought my first electric, and found it a lot easier. I now play both, ( if you call what I do playing, lol) but I play/practice or noodling everyday.... and love my new addiction, even after almost 2 years!!! Thanks for the videos.... PS. Keep the Hallmark dream alive!!!!

What model Martin Guitar are you using in this video? My husband likes it and would like to look up some info on it.

If you aren't playing songs you like....like....what are you even playing? Even if you're tracing the root notes. My first full song: Bell Bottom Blues (acoustic). Took me a long time to get it right. But now I can barely get it wrong. Stay strong out there. Keep playing.

Thanks for the tips on what to do so that beginners don't quit guitar. I have been a beginner guitar player for over 50 years ;-) Love the salty blues comment response.

I actually do want to play blues licks over a backing track, but it’s not easy to do well! Lol.

I dont think i have a problem with work ethic or discipline. Matter of fact, im hardcore af practicing stuff. Could i still be depresses? I never really learned to express myself through almost anything. I realized this when my friend asked me to listen to the groove. I could finally hear it when i let myself get taken by the beat. Iv3 always been stiff and stuck up. Proabably due to having terrible anxiety and fked up childhood that put me onguard all the time. Heh im putting it down for now again at 32. I love music and instrument but i really think i need to expeess myself more than robotically do things

Serious question… why do you keep your middle finger bent when you’re playing power chords..?? Thanks..

I’ve been practicing for a year for 1-2 hours a day and still terrible. 😞

Sounds like a good, developmentally sound method.

I've been playing guitar for about 8yrs now. In all of that time I've considered quitting multiple times

What is your website bro so i can buy your lessons?

Other possibilities....fretboard action too high (hadn’t been taught truss adjustment and seasonal changes to instrument) , naive on time commitment required, unwillingness to budget time required, impatient with progress, cares about what other people think (comparison to others).

Excessive finger pain due to high action on guitar, mainly cheap guitars in my experience but could be high action on expensive guitars too. For adults accepting they don't sound great at first is very hard and disheartening and it's difficult to believe you will get better and so you have to be easy in yourself at first. Kids don't know they sound crap. They probably believe they sound great so don't get discouraged at all or as much as adults anyway.

how do you know the chord progressions

Simplicity at its finest

I Just need someone to tell me if what I’m learning/doing is right or wrong

Come up and see me ,Steve Harley brilliant, you spend year’s coming back to it to implement the intro and solo ❤️

I think the reason people quit guitar is the same reason they quit anything: Not motivated enough, expectations too high, and not patient. Any musical instrument demands a lot of patience.

I almost quit probably 500 times but I refused it definitely takes dedication and a hell of alot of practice but if I can learn literally anyone can learn, words people use like gifted or talent Words that mean nothing nobody is any more gifted or talented then anyone else them people just practice more had a drive but nothing no one else can't have even people like Slash or the late great Randy Rhoads or Jimmi Hendrix etc. They didn't have anything special to make it possible for them to play they practice 14-15 hours a day or more and had a passion to get better I hear that everyday that they can't ever play like one of them guys because they were born with a gift bullshit...

Loved the listening homework! You probably haven't heard there's a new *Voivod* album out? (Don't let anyone tell you it's "thrash metal"; it's its own thing, and the link I give has the artwork of their drummer, that's always been part of the "package", now animated. Some lovely(?) dystopian images to behold there.) *Planet Eaters* (which is more about how we, right now, today, in yesterday's sci-fi years, are already planet eaters - and how that's probably not such a good thing). kzfaq.info/get/bejne/otx4nbGUz7PVpok.html I quit for the first time for a forgotten reason. Just ended up among people who didn't want guitar noise round them or something. And then I quit for the second time because I realized I would never ever be Joe Satch's right toenail. I was never going to be able to play the music I liked. And so far, I'm back for good these days. Changed tastes a bit, I think.That probably helped. I've found that simplified versions of songs played in the middle of the neck (low resistance - I have acoustics) on three "soft strings" work quite nicely. Blues scales against backing tracks is almost getting boring now, but it worked for a long time. And there are always things like trying wrong notes, out-of-time notes, and "vibrato for everything" type exaggerations that bring it back into Funspace. Oddly enough I've also found that a sufficiently challenging song can keep you going. I'm still trying to learn The Sage, by Emerson Lake and Palmer, but it's still just out of reach (in its entirety). Just knowing that "it's hard" (please don't anyone come tell me how easy that is; it'll shatter my self-esteem) is enough to keep me at it year in year out. I expect to "fail", so it doesn't throw me when I do. Trying to do something a bit too difficult makes it easier/ more natural to notice what you've done right instead of wrong. It would be nice if I could finish learning it, but I almost don't want to. In fact if I ever get it right I think I'll just shift the goal posts and find a way to tell myself there's still work to do. Anyway, just a counterintuitive, non-counter-example (just an additional trick the beginner can play on themself. Take on something Impossible, then you never really fail at it - since it's Impossible, anyway.

The reason most people quit, is because it's difficult. It takes a lot of work to get to a level where playing is enjoyable, rather than a chore.

Unless one is blessed with a musical brain, it takes time and hard work to train yourself to learn to recognize the sound of the chord harmony intervals. It don't come easy.

For me it’s holding strings with multiple fingers that’s why I quit easily

Chet Atkins said he made a living never going beyond the 5th fret.

SEAN ! and Arthritis in the hands ? Is a bummer for Cords ! But Physical Therapists say is good for Me ? hahahahe........... Ol West 👍👍👍

The reason I've given up guitar every day for the last 20 years is that it's upside down. I tried hanging from my feet but the guitar is always upside down.

I think im just 2 slow to learn guitar im F frustrated

Problem is Beatles are 70 years old, their simplest songs were their best (at the time) but now “good” songs aren’t simple fun songs. Punk rock and post-grunge was fun to play, but sounding good without a band requires a level of creativity that people who want to play Wonderwall may not have. I don’t understand quitting guitar, just don’t sell it. I do understand people liking songs that don’t sound good on guitar. Most “old music” can sound good on guitar, most new guitarist are insanely technical (like all YT teachers) so the path for beginners is not from 0-JohnnyBGoode, it’s 0-ThatAsianKidPlayingTwoGuitars and if you can’t keep up or don’t have musical friends you’re gonna run out of songs that are within your abilities because you don’t want to sound like a boomer playing cowboy chords, and you’re not gonna be Jon Bonerama so why bother learning guitar? Cause guitar is fun. There’s just less fun-songs then flex-songs nowadays. Guitar became popular because of easy songs, and became unpopular as songs became overproduced.

As a beginner I cannot tell you why. But I know when. When they realize there is no progress without practicing ;)

I quit.. I sold a fender American Stratocaster in 2014 for 500 bucks that my poor mom and dad got me for Christmas one year., sold the Marshall tube amp I had with it for 50 more dollars I didn’t know it was a $1000 amp.. I picked up guitar again last year high as a kite on fb marketplace. That pos pink squier saved my life. I quit hanging out with junkies. I went to rehab by choice. And I got an American pro ii now with an ac15 and i am in a shitty cover band.. most importantly I’ve got my family and happiness back. That F**ckin pink squier Stratocaster

I'm sure you know this but the fact that people complain about your lip smacking, arrogance or other things, it's just a reflection of how jealous they are. It's really no different than high school girls....always jealous of the hot girl (you are probably the hot girl to them...only male, but with lots of subs and money). Smack away Sean, be your weird. Thanks for the teaching.

Sadly, showing my spouse other people's guitar collections isn't going to remove her objections to my getting more guitars. Simply put: you have more space than we do. She doesn't mind that I've spent a ton of money on guitars; but she does mind not being able to take a deep breath without bumping into a guitar. She doesn't mind the principle of having a boatload of guitars; but she does mind my having crammed guitars into every fscking crevice in the house.

Here’s how you do it - buy so many awesome beautiful expensive guitars that you can’t quit. It would just be such a waste of money.

My opinion: a cheap, bad, inappropriate, unplayable instrument. Also, I agree about learning a song. My first guitar "teacher" had me once a week for six months never learned a song. Or a chord. He had me reading music. I gave up but picked it up myself years later. Also, Internet was a gamechanger.

Barre chords

They can't put chords together to form a song.and bar chords and speed change in chords,plus comparing themselves with somebody else,and the dreaded F# chord..😬😬

Sean makes the 🧂 salty comment about jam tracks an pentatonic scales. 😭

I quit because of *F cord*

Most people have an air freshener. Sean? A Martin guitar.

The Beatles did not write easy songs.... They used A LOT of "exotic" chords in unexpected ways.

Because it’s not fun to practice when you sound like crap. It takes awhile to go past that stage.

this guy looks like pewdiepie

you re confusing

Nice guitar, but I'm not spending $1500 on an acoustic guitar.

frustrating af..been same level forever. being older aint helpful.

I remember my first guitar teacher from “Huber n Breeze “ i remember sitting there thinking how I didn’t want to learn any songs but what I came up with creatively ..I could tell he was a little irritated as he started playing a bunch of heavy cool songs. I was like , how about ventures “ walk don’t run “ or something like “dick dale “.. maybe that solo from that mtv dire straights song or cat scratch fever ?he just looked , “ walk don’t run “ then ?? 🤣🤣🤣🤣I was like yeah, I have an uncirculated promo record I can put on tape cassette🤣yep, my first lesson at my favorite music location .. good ol days - any day before covid was good however .. anyhow, love the videos

Careful, Sean... folks start nailing down those root notes and they may just end up picking up a bass and stick with that 😉