Easy guitar songs/tips for advancing

[James Casey]

So, I've been learning guitar for the last year or so, and I've kind of plateaud, skill wise.

I can play most of the major, minor and 7th chords, but no bar chords (so no F or B).

My father-in-law and brother-in-law are both very talented guitarists, and I have a couple of friends who can show off when the moment arises, so I'd like to have some tricks of my own. I figure that I can do this one of two ways:

* Being able to play lots of songs - but I already have the chords for over a hundred classic/well known/current songs in a folder, so unless I'm missing out on anything ridiculously obvious, I'm probably not going to gain many points here.

* Getting better - I went to a tutor for about a year, and didn't progress very far. Virtually everything I've learnt is stuff that I tought myself, and I've runt out of stuff to teach me. If anyone has any tips for progressing, I'd love to hear them.

If it helps, I mostly play chart/rock stuff - U2, Bon Jovi, Bryan Adams, David Gray... Basically, stuff with a guitar in it that you don't need to practise five hours a day for ten years to get the hang of I'm not very ambitious...

Edited September 7, 2006 by James Casey

[GhostMachine]

Its cliche, but its true: Just about every guitar player learns Deep Purple's `Smoke On The Water' as one of their first songs. I know a few guitar players and I think all but one learned that as one of their first, if not their actual first. (And the one who didn't plays gospel music)

[-A-]

Learn to barre

Seriously, with the F handshape down pat you've got everything you need for drunken guitar playing. I started playing Spanish guitar and moved into strumming so I'm not the best to give you chord advice - presumably Tenacious D is a bit cliche if you're wanting to play to others? Good stuff to learn in any case, there are a lot of easy parts.