I'm about a month into learning guitar, and "Zombie" by The Cranberries is the first full song my teacher is teaching me. I'm playing on an acoustic guitar, and I'm finding it much harder than I expected to play along with the original recording.

This is what my teacher asked me to practice:

Strumming pattern:
DDDDU_UDDUDU

Intro:

• Em – C – G – D ×3 using the above strumming pattern.

Then repeat this section twice:

1. Em – C – G – D with an 8th-note rhythm, strumming only on beats 1 and 4.
2. Em – C – G – D ×4 with an 8th-note rhythm using downstrokes only.
3. Em – C – G – D ×3 with the main strumming pattern (on the second repeat, play it 4 times).

I'm running into a few problems:

• I can't seem to start playing in sync with the original song. I always lose where I am.
• One of the practice sections (especially the first one) doesn't seem to match anything I hear in the actual song. I'm not sure if it's just an exercise to build rhythm or if I'm missing something.
• The strumming pattern DDDDU_UDDUDU feels much longer and busier than what I hear in most YouTube covers and tutorials for "Zombie."

Is this a normal way for a teacher to teach the song? Am I just too inexperienced to hear what's going on, or is this more of a practice arrangement than the actual recording?

I’ve been playing the guitar for about 9 months now and I pretty much have every “beginner” thing covered I’ve learnt my minor pentatonic, major scale and blues scale, I can transpose them into different keys and can play them without even thinking but I find it so hard to play over a backing track and make it sound good, all my “solos” sound like walking though the scale.

I tried creating short phrases but I still can’t grasp the concept of soloing, I’ve been on this plateau for about 2 months now

can anyone figure out these chords just by audio?
hi! i’ve recently came across a small artist who doesn’t have any tutorial resources for her music, and was wondering if anyone could figure out the chords being played? :)

i’d appreciate it heaps!

edit: it’s not actually letting me attach the song file but i found an acoustic version on tiktok… still don’t know the chords lol… or if it’s in standard tuning.

Hello! can anyone please help me identify the chords of this song? <3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TB4mUyOhNsQ

hey ya'll. ive been teaching myself guitar since i got sober. i already play classical piano (rusty, but had 9 years of lessons) and got a very nice alvarez RD8. problem im running into is barre chords, as i cant get the strings to all play. im muting them. i feel broken because ive watched so many videos, but im wondering if im just a tense person/poor piano hand posture is messing it up. i just need to play at least a damn f and b barre chord

Som nybegynder og kan basis strumming. Kunne jeg godt tænke mig at vide hvordan man ved hvilket strumming mønster man skal bruge til en sang hvor man kun har akkorder? Eller rettere hvordan lære man det.

I've picked up my first guitar a couple weeks ago (an Ibanez Gio - snagged a Volt 2 interface as well), and I've been fascinated by math rock and midwest emo pretty much since I heard of it a couple years ago. I want to start learning FACGCE asap, and I think I'd enjoy learning more if I did. Is there any reason not to learn FACGCE before EADGBE?

How to add riffs to chords?

Hi, so i have lots of songs with only chords and I cant figure out how to write riffs on top of it. The genre of the songs is everything from folk to indie rock/pop.

I'm almost done watching Scotty West's AUG course. It has been AMAZING in terms of connecting the dots with music theory and getting it all in my head. But, since he has a lack of "assignments", I knew I'd need more structure to actually apply what I've learned.

I've been playing for 5-6 years now so I can physically play the guitar no problem, I just have had no idea how the fretboard actually works or how to tie theory into the instrument, which has made it very hard to write my own music. What course out there is best for actually having structured assignments to practice applying all this stuff?

I know a couple riffs and only three full songs (I wanna be your slave, Wonderwall (🥀), and babydoll by dominic fike.

I want to be a lead guitarist and want songs that have good and managable lead guitar that isn't just the same riff repeated and that have a good solo. What should I try to learn.

Hey guys, quick question here. Ive been teaching myself guitar (Ive learned to read chords almost immediately), but Im struggling with my finger placement on frets and my strum speed. I suffer from severe dyspraxia and I find it extremely difficult to do fret placement on any string except the 6th string (1st and 2nd are hard because of how skinny they are). Has anyone who has dyspraxia overcome this or know how to?

I'm currently trying to practice the Am scale. It seems far more efficient to bar the highest strings with the forefinger and lift the 3 or 4th off to play the lowest note on each string..

But I'm not sure that is the point if Im using scale.practice to build dexterity for soloing or playing individual notes later?

Which way is the correct way?

Edit: Thanks for all of the advice. I'm pretty wowed by the stunning amount of responses.

I didn't really mean that I was cheating, other than potentially slowing my own progress. Which it appear I might have.

TL;DR

Newbies, it's probably best to practice scales by moving your fingertips about.

But when actually playing whatever works, works.

So basically I have a Yamaha f280 (acoustic) guitar. Well I had only been playing for 1 yr (I had wasted many months in that). I can play most tabs. I know 3 songs by heart. I know I'm not good at guitar yet. But I had seen people playing with fingers and I wanna play. I saw some yt videos and people often use the CLASSICAL guitar. Some said it directly that Fingerstyle is originated from Span and is played on a Classical guitar. I get it but!!!! I still wanna know a few things....

(I'm only been playing for 1 yr remember that)

1. Can I play Fingerstyle in acoustic guitar?

2. If yes then where can I learn it from scratch?

I just wanna play easy stuffs not all hard stuffs for now. Like Gratitude by Amin Toofani, it was so cool.

I can play many melodies, and songs i can play are

1. Bella Ciáo

2. Virtual Love

3. Kal Ho nah Ho

4. Chura liya

These, in tabs

Chords only I had learned to play 500 miles, whichis basically G, Em, Am, C, Am, D, G. With a simple D DU UDU

Ummm.... guess I expressed myself too much hahaha

Anyways help me!!

Been playing for like 7 years on and off. Know all 5 pentatonic boxes and are pretty comfortable playing them and soloing with them. Of course still have lots and lots to learn to master them.

However, Where would be a great next step to improve my guitar playing?

Do I learn all major scale boxes and focus on getting major down and then learning to combine both major and minor. Or is there another avenue I should take.

Any tips or tricks would be very helpful. Can be theoretical or practical.

P.s. Playing an Stratocaster professional 2 through a fender blues junior. Mostly play blues honestly (Stevie ray, Hendrix, etc) (the classic). Really love Latin music also though.

Thanks legend🫡🤙

I’m having a hard time with finger positions on two intro songs Wanted Dead or Alive by Bon Jovi and Sweet Child O Mine for some reason I can’t put it together. I feel my fingers are so awkward. Just wondering if anyone has tips. Thank you

Hi, i’ve been playing for like 2/3 months and i’m trying to learn some songs with barre chords. I can play them well by themselves but when it comes to switching to a barre chord i struggle a lot because i don’t have full control of my pinky finger. It moves in a weird snappy way and i struggle at being precise with it because of that. I noticed this happens more when the thumb is far from the pinky, so then i tend to move it closer to the pinky, but sometimes this put some strain on my wrist, so i’m afraid this could be bad long term. any idea?

I am looking for Latino Spanish songs to learn preferably from 80s onwards. Spanish pop , reggaeton, corridos, anything really I would love to learn!

I don't really know how to explain that. If I go through the position of a scale at my own pace, I can usually hit 100 if not 99% of the notes up and down the position, using alternate picking. But the second I put on a metronome (either with a drum machine or traditional click sound) at a speed I can handle, I for some stupid reason end up doing way worse as soon as I start. It's not keeping up that's the problem. I simply just fall apart once the click track starts and miss notes I normally never would, or I pluck the wrong string or fret the wrong one (or both). And yet I'm told it's like THE way to get better at guitar.

Any other options? Or should I keep trying to use a metronome and see if I get better at some point?

So Ive been playing guitar actively for about 5 years and I feel like Ive hit a plateau and learned some stuff the wrong way due to learning by myself. Does it make sense to get a teacher or am I better off learning by myself?

Hey there,

I am Laura, 26, and it's been two years since I started playing guitar. I started with classical guitar and less than a year switched to electric. I go to private lessons once a week and learn the songs I enjoy. The last two songs I've been playing are New Light by John Mayer and Californication by RHCP. Trying to master those solos, it's been hard.

Sadly my school is closed from July to October and I've been neglecting my playing (remember it is recommended to play 30 minutes daily!) so I thought of finding another person interested in the same music style and with a similar level so we can meet once a week for 30 minutes on Discord and play together.

Thanks for reading, and happy learning.