How I learned guitar

Everyone has a story, however weird or normal or so ordinary nobody would want to listen to it.

I would very much like to tell you a dramatic story - that I was self-taught, that I was poor, that my first guitar went through so many things, and tons of entertaining stories.

Alas, my story isn’t like Taylor Swift’s computer mechanic story. But here’s mine.

Guitar at school

I thought it’s cool to play guitar. So in school I enrolled for the extra-curricular activity (ECA) for guitar in year 6.

Yes, it was that simple.

The interesting bit was that we didn’t learn chords. We were taught picking. We would press on the strings with only one finger - my preferred was my middle finger, since it’s the longest - and strum it with our thumbs.

We played one note at a time. Our first song was called Ciranda; I had no idea what song that is, but I don’t think that matters. We learned how to pick notes and play it quickly.

This isn’t a guitar lesson, and I’m too lazy to make any diagrams nor show you my guitar notes.

I was one of the faster learners. The ones who couldn’t play as fast were given chords, which were seen as ’easier’. But my mind was set that chords are hard.

We learned two songs picking notes, but the first song we used chords on was The Best Day Of My Life. It had two chords - G and D. I took the challenge and learned the G chord, which was quite complicated.

However, it was mostly hard lol. We only played one chord at a time with a strumming pattern D D X. We would alternate between G and D. One group played D, another played G (like me).

But even then it was hard for me just to position my fingers on the frets. Like, 4 fingers is a little too much, right?

Cornelia Street

So, you might ask, what song did you seriously play on guitar? Like, all chords, and you sing along? Easy: Cornelia Street live in Paris, by Taylor Swift.

My parents told me to play it, along with a tutorial by for3v3rfaithful on YouTube. And wow, it was hard. And boring.

I procrastinated. I hated guitar after that…

Capo on 4th fret, with chords G, D/F#, Em7, and Cadd9. Oh, and a strumming pattern that’s simply torture.

D UUD UUD DU

It’s worse than you think. Then I had to sing along with it.

At that time, it was total torture. Thus, the guitar was bigger than I was used to at school… so my parents decided to get me a 3/4 guitar.

It was good.

Anyways, after that, there was a family reunion. There was a talent contest or something. I honestly don’t care about that contest, but my parents insisted that I play Cornelia Street.

We had no less than, like, 25 takes or something. I only played the chorus (it was too hard to do the strumming pattern, and I knew no other strumming pattern other than the classic down strums. And that was boring), but I was often out of sync with the strumming and singing.

But in the end, I did it. Not-so-good quality, but I did it.

Meanwhile, the winners were my cousins, who played Coffee by Beabadobee on ukulele.

The ukulele is a really cute instrument, with a pleasant sound.

Playing the ukulele

Naturally, my parents wanted me to play ukulele - “it’s a good opportunity!”. I admit I was excited. And sure enough, it was great. I mean, seriously, C G Am F chords and you only need three fingers!

Sadly, I had to play Coffee - a song I didn’t know with the hardest possible chords. I think it was A, Amaj7, Dmaj7 and D7. The last two chords are barres, with the pinky so far away from the rest of the fingers.

I tell you, that is H-A-R-D.

Beginner playing barre chords? Forget it.

But I did learn Champagne Problems by Taylor Swift… it was ever so easy. With just four chords I could learn nearly anything!

I kind of gave up on Coffee and guitar. I played ukulele every so often (kind of urgh, kind of nice). I learned the barre B chords, which were actually somewhat easy.

I loved the ukulele. But sometimes I hated it.

I could play, like, almost any song with the strumming patter DDU UDU or DDU or DDD DU or… yeah you get the point. Basic strumming patterns everyone knows.

But D UUD UUD DU was forgotten for its difficulty.

Guitar again

So, how come I love guitar now? Well, my dad said I should learn guitar again, since I play the ukulele so good now. And the guitar is the best instrument to learn, better than the ukulele.

So I decided to play one of my favourite songs - I’d Lie, an unreleased song by Taylor Swift (what? I’m a swiftie!). It was a little hard at first, but slowly I started shifting from ukulele to guitar. It sounded infinitely better.

I started playing tons of Taylor’s songs after that. The ukulele now looks like a mini guitar with a high sound, with only four strings. It still looks cute though, and it sounds great, but I prefer guitar.

Thing is, I struggled with the barre chords. A ukulele F didn’t have a barre (although B does), and guitars have 6 strings.

I mostly stuck to non-barre songs, adding the capo where necessary.

One of my favourite songs were Beautiful Eyes, I’d Lie and Our Song. I took time learning the strumming pattern (d d D du), but like Cornelia Street, it was difficult. So I tried a different tactic - playing along with the recordings.

I played guitar and sang along with the vocals. And it proved effective. I also tried it with Fifteen, which uses the Cornelia Street strumming pattern. Then suddenly I mastered it.

Overtime, I also learned barre chords; it’s still a bit buzzy, but it works for me.

I love guitar now haha.

Wait, what’s my point?

IDK I just wanna tell you. Why did you decide to read this article? Maybe just check out these other articles instead…