Issue Playing Songs Using Chords

1

Hi there!
I wanted to share my experience so far to see if I can get any decent insight from others .

one the one hand I have been memorizing my chords and trying to use them to play songs but every time I try to learn a song using chords, it just ends up sounding very generic and very difficult to even distinct which song it is.
in addition a lot of chord tabs don’t have the strumming pattern available and as a beginner its still very difficult for me to figure that out on my own.
adding these factors together its just makes me very discouraged to try and use the chords that I learned for playing.

on the other hand when I use sites like Songsterr to play melodies of different songs I can pretty much play the full song in a few days and make it sound pretty similar to the original recording , its also easier to learn given the fact the sites make it way more friendly and intuitive to cut songs into pieces until you memorize them.

I very much enjoy learning from Justin’s video’s and it does improve my play immensely but I feel bad that I have difficulty finding any ambition learning songs using the chords I learn (which is in theory a requirement to move on from the different modules).

I do use an app that forces me to practice chord switches in songs but honestly I don’t bother really remembering any of the songs cause the collection there is not that great and currently chord wise I am still slightly behind from where I am at in Justin’s course.

to be frank my main reason for proceeding with chord learning and taking interest in it its because some of my favorite songs don’t have good Songsterr tab available but do have their chords available.

what do you think I should do?
Am I missing something about chords?
is it fine to proceed this way through the modules despite lacking practical usage of the chords in songs?
will it just click in eventually?

would appreciate some insight, thanks in advance and best regards.

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Well, afaik chords are the building blocks of any music.
You can solo over chords, play arpeggio’s etc…
It is definitly a must have, as a musician, to be able to play chords.
About rythm: have you ever tried to listen intently, with headphones on, to the songs you like?
If you tap your foot along with the rythm, you have a good starting point for a strumming pattern.
As a beginner it can be a struggle, learning chords, seeing the bigger picture behind it all.
But keep at it, keep practising. The more you practice, the better you’ll get.
You need chords, especially the basics. Start out with those.

And don’t forget, it’s marathon, not a sprint.

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Hi Ron,

Several points there which I will try and answer based on my experience. I have tried to play guitar since 11 I am now 67, I started playing again after a +20 years hiatus when I did a BTEC Music performance course, we had to learn and perform 3 new songs every 2 weeks. Learning or playing the songs was the vehicle to gaining experience, how to learn, musicality, Music theory, learning/improving guitar, playing with others. It was hard, at least I found it hard. I found JustinGuitar Sep 2025, and it is one of the best guitar learning sites I have found, I did JG’s Grade 1-3 and am currently on the Blues Immersion course.

With respect to chords and guitar, they are one of the fundamental basics of playing the instrument. If you are referring to the open chords that Justin teaches then the course starts with these as they are generally considered the starting point when learning the instrument. They serve several purposes, they get a beginners fingers moving around the strings to get the shapes and in one are of the fretboard, it enables the beginner to play virtually any song with the simple shapes open C, A, G, E, D F & B, and simple variants of dominant 7ths and minor versions. you can use a capo to change key. A beginner learns some of these and then starts strumming, and again simple 'Strum patterns" are used to get you going, with variations, this allows you to develop co-ordination and very importantly timing and keeping tempo, and to count rhythms. Put all together it is not easy. A few points on this, some would argue that there is no such thing as a ‘strum pattern’, there is no simple answer IMHO, they do exist as Justin clearly demonstrates, but that is not the end of it, and why you may feel what you are playing does not reflect the actual songs, often songs are created with there own strumming rhythms(patterns), and feel and these can be complex and change in parts of the song (I hope the make sense).

I also used JG’s app for a while and I found it a bit basic for playing songs compared to others, I believe a new improve version is on its way and may be in Beta testing. As you progress and explore Tabs from various sources it will become apparent that for one song there may be many takes on it, and only a few may be accurate or close, If you look at JG’s ‘Wish You Were Here’ lesson (Grade 2) I recall, then it is pretty close to the original version as on the album, but some of the strumming is simplified into one pattern, if you look at this WYWH lesson you will see there are subtle differences in the rhythms and strumming, does it matter probably not, they both sound good. Also if you listen to various versions of WYWH recorded by Pink Floyd in their career it is never exactly the same.

To sum up Chords and learning them is very important, and you will as you progress move from open chords to barre chords and then variation of them and using chord tones and voicings. Grade 3 starts with barre chords. Chords are made from and fit into scales (major, minor, pentatonic and many more), this is very important to learn as you develop, and some basic music theory I would recommend you study. I would stick with JustinGuitar as you tutor and if you find a song you would like to play more accurately, then find a TAB or music that is accurate and after learning the basic way, learn that. I would avoid going off the many tutorial rabbit hole on the net, I have been there and it can be a big waste of time, better to stick with JG, practice and learn, it will be quicker in the long run IMHO.

Something you could try, which Justin suggests is to develop transcribing skills, pick a favourite song and slowly work out the chords from what you hear and writing them down along with the strumming and even the solo if there is one. Use Audacity(free) or Guitar Pro to slow section down and repeat bars to work out. You should end up play a close resemblance to it that you like. You will also develop your tonal listening skills.

I hope that helps a bit, keep playing and enjoy you guitar journey.

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I memorize the chords I learned flawlessly, I do know them and can switch between them.
the songs just dont sound as good, I did try to listen to the rhythm of the songs with tapping my foot to try and find the strumming pattern, I followed a youtube tutorial on how to approach it but I still find it very difficult.

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when did you start playing ?
in september ?

if so its pretty normal that songs do not sound like what you hear on the radio
you re only beginning

take things one step at a time

at this stage do not compare your learning with pro musicians it will only hinder you

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Like I said in the original post.
its not that I do not learn chords at all, I do and I am able to switch between them and the app I am using makes me practice them regularly.
in fact I can even somewhat play an F bar chord now.

but when it comes to actually playing songs using these chords, it just ends up not sounding very good or too generic which makes me discouraged to learn more songs.

When I learn a melody of a song using the available resources it usually clicks a lot faster and sounds better too which makes it harder to put time into trying to play songs using the chords given the fact it yields a worse result.

I already saw videos about strumming pattern I understand its not set in stone but as a beginner its hard to figure it out on your own and I just find that the chord pages for songs are way less friendly to the user as a beginner.

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Hi Ron. I’m a bit confused. In your posts you’ve mentioned watching videos and YouTube tutorials for songs.
Have you been following and completed Justin’s lesson programme ie the grade system ie. grades 1,2, 3 etc?
These grades start with chords, move on to simple then more complex strumming patterns and their use in songs. If you’ve progressed through at least grade 1 I don’t understand why you can’t strum a recognisable song.
You also mention that you’re using an app. Which app are you using?

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A few things to keep in mind.

The songs you play yourself vs a studio recording of that song, will always be different.

If you think it doesn’t sound good, you can either ask somebody to have a listen to what your playing (often we are our own worst critics), or you need more practice.

If you’re just starting out, you shouldn’t be too worried if it doesn’t sound “right”.
Practice usually cures that. A lot of practice. A whole lot of practice… :laughing:

Just keep at it and have fun playing. That’s what ultimatly counts. (at least for me it does…)

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Hi Ron,

Yes, I get that you are learning and playing chords now. where are you at in JG’s grades?

What I was trying to explain was that as a beginner you start simply with open chords and then move forward to other chord types and voicing and as your strumming and technique improves then what you play will sound more accurate or closer to the original, but that will also depend on the accuracy of the TAB or music transcription.

It takes time and patience to learn and play guitar, I have been trying to play several songs accurately or sounding close the the original for the past year and I am still working on them. If I do not play them for several weeks then the quality of what I play degrades from where I was, and I have to practice or relearn difficult parts to get them back to where I was with them. I think that is much the same for most people. I think it takes years of playing and experience to be able to just pick up a guitar and bass out a wonderful rendition of a song, and even professional musicians will run practice and run through material before performing.

it will get better Ron it just takes time. :slightly_smiling_face:

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I am using Yousican, it makes you practice chord switches on various songs one of the main reason I got the app is to force me to learn songs because I had difficulty doing it on my own.

I am in grade 2 right now, I was able to play simple songs with simple strumming patterns with like 3 chords which sounded REALLY generic, its not that it needed more practice that’s the way it suppose to sound according to the example videos its just not great to begin with.

I did try to move on to songs that have 6 different chords in them, its really hard to figure out the strumming pattern for me personally and even after practice it doesn’t even start to resemble anything musical.

when it comes to learning from songsterr usually in a few days you can get the entire song down and sounding at least reasonable but they dont use chords for their tabs.

so its just very hard to keep your motivation messing around with these chords when at least so far I didn’t get any mileage out of them besides just knowing them.

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Hi Ron, guitar and frustration we have all had it, there is some good advice above mate, just stick with Justin and practice his lessons :+1:

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in my view you re just a bit impatient and its pretty normal ^^
we all want to progress fast but our fingers do not always agree with that

stick to the program and to Yousician and with time , you ll get to play more complex songs

dont put the cart before the horse , it takes time

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Wait, they just give you tabs, and not also tell you what chords these tabs correspond to? That sounds weird to me, because usually, for each tab there’s a chord behind it, even if you play a melody.

As for your actual question, I had the same problem when I was starting. I wanted to play a few German songs for my friends and family, and there weren’t always good tutorials around, or any at all. I only had chords, if I was lucky, and the original recording, of course. I decided to wait playing these songs for the time being, until I knew more about strumming patterns, and fingerpicking, and chord melodies, and how to make a song interesting. It was a good decision, since now I can come back to them, and tentatively try a few things. I did play one or two songs with just the chords and an easy, generic strumming or fingerpicking pattern, but that was because I was also singing to them, which made the whole thing less boring, and sounded more like the actual song.

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Grade 2 songs will sound generic, you’re effectively right at the start of your journey and only have a handful of chords/voicings at your disposal. The early grades as I see them are effectively about familiarisation, finger coordination, and to get you playing some basic campfire tunes to give the foundations to build on as you progress.

Sorry to be blunt - but you’re absolutely not going to be playing studio level recordings in a couple of weeks if you’ve only just recently picked a guitar up for the first time. As others have said, keep practising, follow the grade structure and be patient :grinning_face_with_big_eyes:

For a beginner you absolutely need to know what chord any given tab relates to. There’s no point in just placing your fingers on the frets without the context. - you won’t be learning anything, only how to parrot a diagram.

Yes, tabs are useful later once you have some chord knowledge (and obviously for lead lines) but at the very least I’d hope the tab also shows the corresponding chord name above - I know many do although I’ve not used songster for ages - so not sure if it does?.

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If I’ve understood the issue, it might be that you are not playing chords with dynamics, which is understandable if you are at grade 2. By dynamics I mean playing loud or soft or emphasising the base notes or palm muting etc. You don’t need many chords, rather it’s all about playing the same chords in a different way.

At this stage that all probably sounds like gobbledygook. You will come across dynamics in latter grades in the course.

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There’s also the potential element that usually beginner songs often tend to use the rhythm part, depending on a (vocal) melody to make it instantly recognisable.

Being limited to open A, D, E, G for example covers 1,000s of songs but it’s the application of those chords and dynamics as you say…

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Are you singing as well? If you are just playing a chord progression without vocals it won’t sound that recognisable.

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Ah
its not about getting a studio level recording I dont expect that.
its about the song being at least recognizable lol.

but yeah if all the songs in the first grade sound very generic like I said its kinda hard to find the motivation practicing them.

I dont sing so at least when I “parrot” a tab at least the sound I make sounds like the actual song and in a few days I can play the whole damn thing and people know what it is.

I can move on through the modules only practicing the chords through the app I learn with but it doesn’t follow 1 to 1 to Justin’s grades.
I just feel like I can’t find any joy using these chords until I can do something that feels better to do than just generic strumming.

Like let me describe you the experience of both ends :

when I try to use chords I have to put time into doing the chords switches efficiently that takes a few days.
I have to find the strumming pattern which is very difficult as a beginner if there are no references so you might spend a few days on that.
I have to learn then to do it consistently while switching also takes a day or two.
end result when you glue it all together - very generic sounding song that you can barely even distinguish what it is.

When I learn the melody on songsterr :
I see the parts of the songs
I use muscle memory to repeat and learn each part individually
then I chain all of them together
all of that only takes a few days which is way less then the whole process of learning the chords/pattern and the end result is you can actually hear the song its recognizable.

so when I approach doing songs with chords I just finding myself rolling my eyes.

I DO WANT to learn the chords and I do practice them regularly by myself and with the app but when it comes to the song work, I just cant force myself to do it , its just not fun…

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I think dynamics is the answer to your question. As I say that does come up latter in the course.

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Also have a look at the recent lesson Justin did on All I want Is You. It has only 3 chords but justin demonstrates what I mean by dynamics, it changes the feel of the song and makes it way more interesting.

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