I bought a guitar exactly a year ago but didn't get very far in terms of learning myself as I seem to have difficulty understanding music which then ended up being demotivated . Couldn't find the guitar class that fits my schedule so didn't enrol in music lessons yet. I am keen to learn fingerstyle and I did watch a few videos on YouTube. I find that my right fingers cant seem to stay on the correct strings, even though I planted my pinky below the e string as anchor so that my hand stays put. Looks easy on video but so difficult in real life

My question is...am I being overly ambitious to learn chords and fingerstyle at the same time or should I learn the chords + strumming first? I read up on how to read fingerstyle tabs but couldn't understand a single thing Is there hope for me to learn guitar without enrolling in classes??

This post has been edited by honkkydorry: Feb 24 2017, 12:36 PM

I'm a guitar player myself and attended no lessons before.
I started off learning basic chords from my dad, and then some more other chords online.
Similar like you, I was interested in fingerstyle. Up to now (which I seldom learn any new songs anymore), I can play stuffs like River flows in you, Titanic, Everytime we touch, sometimes when we touch, and a few other riffs.

I have no idea how musically talented you are, in terms of the understanding the rhythm and melody of a music. If you feel you can keep up with it, simply go for fingerstyle straight isn't much of a problem anyways.

Feel free to PM me if you're interested to know/share more tho

P/S: I'm just another lousy guitar player which enjoys playing guitar

Learning by yourself is absolutely possible. In fact, I feel that when you learn on your own, you can really appreciate music and the instrument more. Most people who attend classes feel like its an obligation to practice etc.

I started learning with chords first but I transitioned towards fingerstyle after watching Sungha Jung on youtube. You don't really need to know chords to learn fingerstyle because it wont be the same.

How I started learning was:

1) Pause video at a certain finger placement and try on the guitar.
2) Try to see the pattern of plucking (It wasnt very clear so I had to experiment a bit until I get the same sound)
3) Repeat for every finger placement.

Eventually you will get the hang of it. First song you learn might take a long time to master (took me a few months). After that it progressively got easier to learn songs and can learn in 1 day. The important thing is just play when you feel like it, not forced. Enjoying your music is the key to understanding it.

I started learning by myself with strumming. Fingerpicking has always been hard for me (still is) but getting better after learning something simple like Hallelujah by Jeff Buckley. Then it will progressively gets easier like others said.

Depends on what you want to learn

think logically for a moment, if you had the best finger style but no chords, then what you'd play?

they both come hand in hand.

Taking lesson might not be neccessary, but a good teacher should be able to make your progress faster.

I started with yamaha classical course for few years then stop when I go for u I move to acoustic fingerstyle instrumental when someone give the the fuitar tab, and move on to elec guitar after few year. Now more on electric.

Any good apps to learn fingerstyle?

Ok so over the past 1 week ++, I started learning chords, starting with the basic A D E, of course. Yesterday I made an attempt at learning the song Wild Thing..haha. Can recognise the song when I strum but wish I can change chord more quickly and smoothly. I thought O/S A O/S A is easy but y am I not able to do it at quicker pace without pausing...I even have my fingers ready to hit A before strumming the open chord.

Keep practising, practice makes perfect

One tip for you, dont rush into things. Play the song at a super slow speed to allow ur fingers to have more time to switch chords. Once you're confident and can play smoothly with slow speed, then increase the speed gradually. You'll get there eventually

Actually u cannot really play fingerstyle without being familiar with chords. U can by pure memorization but there is a limit to how much you can memorize.

When i learnt guitar, i just wanted to play chords and strum. But once i got familiar with various chords, i discovered that you can put melody to the chords. Thats how i was able to play fingerstyle.

Knowing the right concept in chords progression is important. Many people are not taught that even if the they paid money to learn.

If u know the right concept , the rest u can self learn..
To me the best way to learn is to be familiar with chords and work around those chords to get the melody. U can play by ear that way.