When should I learn to play chords on guitar?

I am going to learn guitar again, and I am confused about what to learn first…chords or single notes. When I was 13, the band teacher said that it was best to learn single notes first. Her son said that was incorrect. Chords were best to learn first.

I’m 19 now, and have wanted to learn guitar for years. Which do I learn first? I’m not looking to be able to immediately play songs. I want to be able to eventually do everything….play scales and arpeggios, all sorts of music…from blues to classical. I can already read music from years of experience on flute and clarinet.

So, back to the question…which one should I learn first? Chords or single notes?

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Tags: chords, guitar, learn, play, should

4 Responses to “When should I learn to play chords on guitar?”

1. mscherpenberg says:

   September 5, 2010 at 9:55 pm

   I’d say chords because it’s the structure of the song. If you can play your basic open chords, you can play all kinds of songs. Most popular music is about 3 to 5 chords underneath it all. Even if you are skipping over the fancy riffs of a song, if you’ve got the basic rythm part down you can do a lot with it. You could sing along just playing the chord structures, jam with other people or write basic songs without ever doing anymore. I think being able to play rythm using chord changes is the most fundamental concept of guitar. Believe it or not, I’ve seen all kinds of fancy shred, solo players that can do all kinds of cool riffs all day as long as the bass player holds down one note and the drummer keeps a static beat. However, those same people can’t do anything at all outside of noodling around because they can’t do the most fundamental basic concepts of playing.
2. So's Your Face! says:

   September 5, 2010 at 10:42 pm

   I started teaching myself chords first on the internet, that way when it came to learning the technicalities i didn’t lose interest, so I could learn something fun and then take a while to learn a bit, then go back to the fun stuff because at the end of the day, it’s about having fun. That’s why you learn an instrument, to enjoy playing it, and leaning the notes, isn’t much fun.

   http://www.mahalo.com/how-to-play-guitar-chords

   This is the website I used to learn, it’s a good place to start. I’ve never had professional lessons but i’m playing gigs and things now.. And I haven’t been teaching myself for very long.

   Hope I could help.
   I was asking the same question on here about 2 years ago.. =D
3. <3 says:

   September 5, 2010 at 10:57 pm

   chords, you can play any basic song if you know g, em, d, c, f, a, am, bm. there super easy chords. once you know them this website http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/
   you can look up any song and it gives you the chords for it
4. Alexis G says:

   September 5, 2010 at 11:33 pm

   I recently started playing guitar too and the easiest thing is to learn the chords remembering them is the hard part. But once you get the chords down you should move on to learning how to strum then you’ll be able to play any song you want. When learning chords learn the basics first there super easy its 5 major chords A, C, D, E, and G
   then there are 3 minor A, D, and E
   This will help when you’re learning the chords so you know your playing them right Major chords are happy sounding chords, and Minor chords are sad sounding chords

   Hope I Helped!! and Good Luck on playing guitar I’m sure you’ll rock!! =)