Sweet D-reams are Made of This

The last blog should have been about me trying to learn a new chord, however instead it focused on my fun and games with snapping strings. The chord learning happened either side of those problems so this will just be a general ramble about how I got on - which is what most of my posts are I suppose.

With A and E and changing between them under my belt next up was learning D. I had already messed around a bit with D using the videos on the GuitarJamz app, however it was a few weeks since I'd tried it and I'd almost forgotten the fingering.

Playing a chord shape is fairly straightforward. The difficult bit is being able to change between chords. I used to play golf and could hit a shot, however what separates me - and just about everyone else on the planet from the likes of Rory McIlroy is he can do all the complicated bits too, like getting the ball to go where he wants it to so he can link them together. It's the linking together of chords as well as learning strumming patters that is the difficult part for me just now.

Sergio and Rory's guitar playing is almost certainly better than my golf.

The good thing from my point of view is that the new way I have learned to play the A chord using Andy's videos (http://www.andyguitar.co.uk/) helps with the change to the D. One of my fingers stays in exactly the same fret and just has to move over a bit. Of course, that doesn't solve the whole problem but it does make things easier.

It's incredible how much difference a bit of practice makes. It sounds obvious but it's true - and I've never known it to be more true than playing the guitar. I started off my adventures with the D chord thinking it would be impossible to get the changes between it, A and E ever up to scratch - yet after about a quarter of an hour of strumming away my confidence rises and I think I'm fairly confident.

No idea who this chap is but he seems to agree with me about practice.

Before moving onto the songs I also have a play about with power chords. Despite the name, these are not a snappy pair of business trousers. Instead, they're slightly different versions of the chords I'd learned before. You only put your finger on the root or base note (the lowest of the strings that make up the chord) and play it and the one above it. It gives a darker sound and is used for blues stuff - it sounds kind of cool but it'll take a bit of practice before I'm anyway near up to scratch as I keep strumming the wrong strings or playing too many of them.

A power cord. Not to be confused with a power chord.

And so to the songs. As I said in a previous blog, I feel the best way to learn the chord changes is to put them into practice in a song. Learning chord sequences is all very well - it's vital and it's how I start my practice sessions to get me warmed up - but when you're playing something real, no matter how basic a version, it makes it more enjoyable and you're going to want to keep playing.

One of the first songs I tried with my new found - but still developing - skill was Twist and Shout. Until I watched Ferris Beuller's Day Off (and that was embarrassingly only a few years ago) I had no ideas it was a Beatles song. I'd managed to get their previous ones on the course OK so this should be the same.

My version of Twist and Shout wasn't quite like this...

WRONG! It may only have three chords, it may only be the same sequence over and over for much of the song but good God it's fast. Playing it along without the tune - no problem. Playing it with the song? Forget it! Whatever speed it's meant to be at and wherever it's meant to slot in I can't manage it.

Lean on Me was at the other end of the speed scale and incredibly easy by comparison. Pretty much one strum of a chord per bar and it was easy to match in with the songs. That gave me a bit of confidence back.

Some of the other songs in this part of the course are fantastic - not just from a learning point of view but also because it's stuff I like and regularly listen to on my iPod. Can't Explain by The Who has a great riff to play over and over and it's easy to pick up. Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol has lots of strumming and, as I mentioned in my previous blog, can be a great stress relief - especially the chorus when you can hear your guitar match up with the guitar in the song.

The Wombles - a group of people who live on a common.



And then there's Pulp's Common People. From the lesson this seemed straightforward. Strumming the same chord for four bars before changing, then changing again after another four bars and so on. What could go wrong? Turns out everything (and not just snapping strings). It's fast. And, just to confuse a beginner, it gets slightly faster after each verse.

However, once again practice pays off. When I started out I could just about manage the first verse then I'd get lost and have to give up. I've now almost abandoned counting the number of notes (and my awful attempts to sing) for bits of the song and am changing chords with the lyrics. The exception is a section where there are no lyrics - but I was delighted to discover the other day that I'd got my note counting pretty much spot on. It was a nice feeling when I realised I was bang on track with my chords just as the lyrics were about to start again.

Special mention must go to another website I've been using called Justin Guitar - http://www.justinguitar.com/ As the name suggests it's run by someone called Justin. I already knew about this but when Andy's website was down for a few days I turned to this one. It too has a beginner's course, although the first stage dives straight in with three chords rather than two. Despite already knowing these three chords I watched through the lessons and found them really handy. There were some great practice tips and help with techniques.

Remember when Facebook goes down? Well Andy's guitar website going down was far worse.

Handily, there were also some different songs - and it was helpful to get an alternative view on some of the ones I'd been struggling with. It's surely no coincidence I've got better with Common People since I watched the video on the site. I've also tried a bit of Bob Marley and also The Gambler by Kenny Rogers, which I'm now addicted to playing and reminds me of someone I used to work with! It's slightly harder to pick up the songs as there are no chord charts, you have to write things out yourself, but it's definitely another great site worth having a look at.

I'm still working my way through the D stuff and I'm nowhere near the level I'd like to be at, but I've also decided to dip my toe in the water by taking the first steps with another chord. How hard could it be?