Learn to play For What It's Worth by Buffalo Springfield on JustinGuitar!
View the full lesson at For What It's Worth by Buffalo Springfield | JustinGuitar
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I love ‘For What’ It’s Worth’! Glad I skipped the A & D chord songs as nothing interested me.
I found it both challenging and enjoyable strumming to the chorus with 2 strums on both the E & D, then switching to A, finishing off with a sweeping strum on the E and then the A.
I’ve also tried to incorporate the down and up strum on the 3 in my practice.
Thank you very much! It’s so rewarding to be able to play a song after 3 and a half weeks learning that is recognisable when I play. Even if I require more practice to become more fluid with the chord changes - especially from the E to the D (two strums) before 4 strums on the A
Cheers!
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I also love that song. I only recently (yesterday) started trying to apply the full strumming pattern (as opposed to just one downstrum per bar). The E to D chord change was already the hardest part of the song for me, so at first I was playing it with the tempo slowed down to 70%. Well, I finally got to 100% on the tempo, but now that two strums in the E followed by two in the D followed by the longer A is proving to be the most challenging part of the song for me.
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Snap!
I also switched to playing full strumming in each bar - throwing in an upstrum on the 3rd, after the down - and I’m still thinking the chord changes, and haven’t committed to muscle memory yet.
The 2 strum on the E and D - switching chords - is the most difficult aspect; especially on days like today when my playing feels generally sloppy.
The cure - aside from more sleep and less family distractions - is keep doing what we’ve been doing: daily practice.
Update: I’ve hit a wall, and some of my strings are buzzy when strumming, which would indicate either poor finger placement and/or insufficient finger pressure. More inclined to believe it is the former, and need to go back to basics to consolidate good finger placement.
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l just wanted to hear from anyone who is learning their first song and how that is going for them. I am learning ‘For what its worth’ and having fun doing it. The two-beat changes between E to D to A kicked my butt for a while following along in the app, I just practiced this chorus separately and got that down plus focused on these during my one minute chord changes and it made all the difference.
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Nick, I’m not in your position I’ve been playing for years; I’m 70 now but still learning!
For the 6 years that I’ve been learning on JG I’ve learned more than in the rest of my life, I started at 12!
Carry on as you are and make sure that you are having fun and enjoying what you are doing, don’t allow it to get to be a chore, that’s really bad news!
Looking forward to hearing from you in the not too far future on AVOYP, that’s where to post your first attempt at recording yourself.
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Darrell. Thank you for the encouragement, it is very much appreciated. I have always wanted to play guitar and now, having retired just one year ago, have the time to dedicate to it. I get the greatest pleasure with just little improvements; faster chord changes and ‘cleaner sounding chords’ for example. I am just about to start my daily practice and when ready, will post my first recording. Nick
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Thinking back to when I started this program, this was one of my favorite songs to play along with during practice. I think it’s specifically that |E D|A | part that made it special. It was the first song I played that had this switch to two chords in a bar, and it made me feel like I was really doing something musical. Also, it’s recognizable from that part in the original recording. Good stuff.
I think it’s one I’ll try to work into my repertoire now that I’m trying to build one up.
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Is this song in one of Justin’s song books? Because it’s not in the first beginner book which, of course, is the only one I have.
Hi Rebecca it is in Book 2.
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Thanks, guess it’s back to Amazon. 
There’s a bit easier way to do the harmonics which I can describe if anyone is interested.
I have no idea what you mean, lol so I don’t know if I’m interested or not.
2nd ETA: I rewatched the video and saw what was meant by the harmonics. 
But if it has anything to do with playing it at a higher, octave or whatever it might be called so that I could sing along that would be cool. I’ve tried the capo all over the place and nothing sounds right. I just don’t have a tenor voice!
ETA: I bought the 2nd volume of the beginner songbook and then also the app. It’s in the app and has made it so much more fun. It’s nice having a band backing track!
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I only recently remembered that there were videos for all the songs on the website, have only been using the app. Anyway, I just want to say, the harmonics are so cool. There’s gonna be some sciency reason for how they work but it boggles my mind and I really, really love having my mind boggled like that. I just sat there for two minutes doing the harmonics over and over grinning because it makes no sense to me and it’s so cool. (Can you tell I am a nerd…?) I’m probably gonna try it on every string… or jump ahead to wherever Justin explains it because like…I just think it’s neat.
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Natural harmonics are a neat element of a vibrating string. It is simply forcing the string to vibrate favoring that harmonic pitch by forcing a stationary point with your finger.
I found this example you can fiddle with. To see the stationary points, set the fundamental to 0%. So, by placing your finger at these stationary points, you can get the harmonic you want. Second harmonic will be at the string’s half-way point, fret 12. Fourth will be at fret 5. You need to get your finger off the string because it is wider than the zero point and will dampen the string if you leave it there.
Some terms they used:
fundamental: the frequency you will get just plucking the string. The frequency it is tuned to.
first overtone: we’d call this the second harmonic. It is double the frequency of the fundamental
second overtone: We’d call this the third harmonic
https://www.surendranath.org/GPA/Waves/Harmonics/StringHarmonics.html
edit above: 4th harmonic at 5th fret. it is 1/2 the distance from 12th fret to nut, so it is another double of the original pitch, therefore 4th harmonic.
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Fantastic, thank you! I’ll check it out.