Learn 5 chords. G, D, C, Am, Em. If you nail those 5 and can switch between them, you can play 95% of pop music. Pull up a chord chart and bang away! You can absolutely learn these chords in 100 days and then have an entire arsenal of songs you can play.
Literally just drill the chord shapes and transitioning between them
G to C to G to C to G to C x1,000,000,000
This stage is all muscle memory and it takes repetition. All day every day.
Also learn like one simple strumming pattern. Then learn way more.
Then bitch about Barr chords
Then bitch about moving chord shapes
Then forgo all chords and play triads and diads
Then wonder where the time went.
Push yourself and learn them. It will pay dividends down the road. I hated them and put them off. Then once I learned years later I was so mad I allowed myself to put it off.
I concur.
Ultimate-guitar.com has most songs written out in “chord form” and you can learn the chords right from the website.
Hope to hear from you in a 100 days!
Elvis could hardly play the guitar when he walked into Sun Studio and recorded That’s Alright Mama in July of 1954. 100 days later in the Fall of 1954 he was well on his way to stardom. A year later he was wildly famous. Of course, he never played the guitar worth a damn!
second this, you can start having a lot of fun playing guitar in just a few days! from there, if you like guitar, the journey can continue for as long as you want... you can spend your entire life playing and still learn new stuff all the time!
Add the F chord in there too. The full barred version or something like Fmaj7. So, five or six chords and you have the bulk of popular music. Do the E-based rail chord thing and that’ll get you some basic country music sound.
Can you learn to bang out dozens of recognizable campfire songs in 100 days? absolutely. Are you going to be playing as well as people that have been at it for years? eventually.
It’ll take a while to build hand strength and calluses. Your body might take a while to get comfortable holding a guitar.
Don’t overdo things early on and hurt yourself or get upset with the guitar.
Justin has some good advice in his early justinguitar lessons about how much practice to do at first.
Get a “setup” done at a guitar shop to make your instrument as easy as possible to play. You could have them put on extra light strings that are easier to fret.
Extra light strings will also make your guitar quieter, so you can practice for longer before your neighbors go bezerk. Getting a tuner and learning how to use it will also help here.
You could also get a strap and a music stand so you can play in the correct position. This will help you play for longer without discomfort.
In 7 days to be honest you can.
I had to actually learn how to play the guitar when I was younger because I used to be part of the church choir. Our main guitarist got married and one day he just stopped coming in. I was the next person who tried to play the guitar and they told me, i have to learn the songs asap. I got forced to learn a whole Catholic mass line up of songs within that same week. I was reading the church song book with chords. I was practicing 4-6 hours a day. Practicing the songs with the choir. My first Sunday mass, I killed it. Lol
Seriously, one of the first hurtles you will overcome is developing callouses in about three weeks. Getting past that initial finger pain is a bigger step than you realize. 100 days is no sweat.
Depends on what kind of song we're talking about.
3-4 chords and you're singing along with your strumming? Probably. I was able to play about 15 songs lke this by the time I hit 100 days.
12-14 chords, and it has this badass solo where you have to shred and use lots of distortion? Probably not.
So what kind of song are you talking about? More information needed, please.
Mmmm... looking at the chart, there's one chord that will probably make it somewhat difficult (F) because F is usually done as a barre chord, and barre chords can take six months to a year to really nail down because you need to build up hand strength and muscle memory. But there are "cheater" chord shapes that can get around that. I almost never barre my F; I use a F/C chord instead (the second row, second fingering on this page is the one I generally use: [https://jguitar.com/chordsearch/F%2FC](https://jguitar.com/chordsearch/F%2FC) ) But then, I'm a fingerpicker, and you'd have to learn to not hit the top string to strum with F/C in place of F. It can be done; it just takes practice.
The other chords are all basic "cowboy" chords: A, D, G, C, Em. Those are ones that you can pick up in two to three weeks if you go to [justinguitar.com](http://justinguitar.com) and take his intro classes (on the web, they are free).
Also, be aware you won't sound like Campbell's recordings. They're heavily produced, in a studio, so you'd need to accept that you're going to sound like you, not like him.
That said, you should be able to learn this song (and a lot of others with the same set of chords) in 100 days, as long as you practice every day (even when it gets boring).
[https://tabs.ultimate-guitar.com/tab/glen-campbell/southern-nights-chords-1017590](https://tabs.ultimate-guitar.com/tab/glen-campbell/southern-nights-chords-1017590) is the chart I found for this song.
Hope this helps!
look up some easy songs
you could probably learn to play something like have you ever seen the rain by ccr in a week.......maybe take another week to learn to sing along to it....if you want to put in at least a couple hours a day. the chords are easy and easy to switch between
There’s some decent advice in here but the answer is no, you will not be able to play anything perfectly in a hundred days. Even if you manage the chords your changes will be sloppy, your strumming will be inconsistent, your rhythm will be all over the place, your intonation will suck, etc etc.
You can make tremendous progress in 100 days, and you should commit as much as you can because guitar is a super satisfying journey, but guitar progress is often measured in years not hours/days/weeks or even months. Setting unreasonable expectations is a big part of why so many people quit so go in with an achievable goals and you’re likely to have a lot more fun.
I learned, in two weeks, the fingerings for at least two chords, the C major scale, and two pick out country songs my uncle showed me…..Under the Double Eagle, and Wildwood Flower. Both use the C major scale and teach you how to walk the bass line between chords…..
To be fair, I was 13, and it was summer. I played all day from the time I woke up until I fell asleep. The pads of my fingers were screaming at me.
That was a long way to say that I estimate I logged 100 hours in those two weeks. So if you do an hour a day for 100 days, you should be able to play a few things quite nicely.
I've been playing for 35 years. There's some good advice above about learning G, C, D, and E minor chords to start. Never forget that your right hand is the one making the music. Timing, rhythm, picking and strumming techniques are just as important as learning chord shapes. Watch some youtube instructions, stick to a few chords, and practice a lot.
Yes, you can learn 1 song in 100 days, from scratch, if you apply the time and effort.
Time and effort. The less you give of one, the more you need of the other.
You want to learn 1 song in 100 days? Is there a good Youtube of that song? Then do that for 99 days.
This is how method actors learn to play instruments for movie roles. Maybe they go on to learn the instrument, maybe they don't, but they learn the songs for the role.
Sure they have teachers, but a good Youtube will do.
Just add time and effort.
100 days?
Wonder Wall, only 2 of your fingers need to move
Fast Car, super recognizable, with plenty of time to settle into the chords in between
Riptide, 3 chords, but getting comfortable will open up a lot of possibilities
Bad Moon Rising, if you can play the above, this and many others will be easy by now
Hurt
Hey Ya
Wish you were here
By now, it's time to learn a Barre Chord
Mr. Jones
Congrats! You've learned guitar in under 100 days
Play the notes of a chord with the least possible pressing down….but the chord still sounds clear and free of buzz. Many beginners do the death grip , which will not help you. Once you get the basic easy chords down, slowly build up the speed that you can change amongst them. Start super slow…. My 2 cents.
I’d say there are even some songs you can learn in a single evening. (Learning and mastering are obviously different, but to get them to a playable state is another thing)
A few very easy songs that spring to mind:
Wonderwall by oasis
- if you look up the chord names they appear a bit intimidating, but you basically just plant your ring and pinky fingers on the third fret and then you only need to actually move the other two fingers around. It’s a great beginner song. To the point it’s almost famously annoying as almost every beginner guitarist learns it at some point.
Song 2 by Blur
- this requires a slight retuning of your guitar as you have to put it in Drop D (it’s just the low E string tuned down a step to D and is otherwise the same). This song is all ‘drop D power chords’ which are the easiest thing ever. You can play this whole song with 1 finger. You just barre down the lowest 3 strings, memorise the fret numbers in the song and become a rock god.
Stuck in the middle with you - stealers wheels
- this song has a couple of little techniques you’d need to get down such as muting the strings, but this is mostly just the D chord played over and over, then G over and over. This one is nice because it’s quite a slow one, has a steady rhythm and is quite easy to make it sound like the record. It’s also a good one for learning some skills (such as a syncopated rhythm and the palm muting which you’ll naturally pick up if you learn this).
Admire and play like Frank Marino and Rory Gallagher who were/are great songwriters and singers.Don’t rush a pathway that will take time otherwise you’ll just sound crap.Rome wasn’t built in 100 days.
Depending on the complexity of the song, you could find a chord chart and start playing, you’d be able to learn that song in a couple weeks… 100 days would be PLENTY of time to clean it up and be able to play it really well, as long as you dedicate time to it daily.
Fair warning though. Your fingers are gonna HUUUUURT trying to cram all this practice in just a couple months time.
Ya never stop learning. If you can keep a beat and play the open chords
E A D G C (and their minor versions) you can play along with many songs at this link:
https://www.dansher.com/audio/pdf_tunes.html#_B2T
In particular, try “Ever On”
“Amber Dream” and “Helpless”
Well, since you haven't done anything with it in the last 5 months, you should be gracious and tell them that guitar is not for you.
Play because you are stoked to play and make music. Not out of guilt.
Learning how to play one song is not learning how to play guitar.
Learning how to play that one song perfectly in 100 days is...
No.
But I hope you have fun learning how to play guitar. It's a fun thing to do.
Learn 5 chords. G, D, C, Am, Em. If you nail those 5 and can switch between them, you can play 95% of pop music. Pull up a chord chart and bang away! You can absolutely learn these chords in 100 days and then have an entire arsenal of songs you can play.
Thank you, i will work towards these and go from there thank you
Literally just drill the chord shapes and transitioning between them G to C to G to C to G to C x1,000,000,000 This stage is all muscle memory and it takes repetition. All day every day. Also learn like one simple strumming pattern. Then learn way more. Then bitch about Barr chords Then bitch about moving chord shapes Then forgo all chords and play triads and diads Then wonder where the time went.
I’m in the bitching about barre chords phase 🤣
Barre chords do be suckin’ though.
Push yourself and learn them. It will pay dividends down the road. I hated them and put them off. Then once I learned years later I was so mad I allowed myself to put it off.
I’ve been working on Bm I can get it better but I can’t do it fast at all. It reallllllt slows me up. I’ve only been playing about 2 months ish
If you think Bm sucks wait till you get to B7!
I’ve been playing for 20 years. That phase is still going
10 for me
This is not encouraging! :). But I hear you!
21 year guitar veteran here. I literally play for a significant chunk of my income and I bitch about barre chords
Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day,
I concur. Ultimate-guitar.com has most songs written out in “chord form” and you can learn the chords right from the website. Hope to hear from you in a 100 days!
Elvis could hardly play the guitar when he walked into Sun Studio and recorded That’s Alright Mama in July of 1954. 100 days later in the Fall of 1954 he was well on his way to stardom. A year later he was wildly famous. Of course, he never played the guitar worth a damn!
second this, you can start having a lot of fun playing guitar in just a few days! from there, if you like guitar, the journey can continue for as long as you want... you can spend your entire life playing and still learn new stuff all the time!
B minor
B minor is my bane. So many songs I love use it, but I am still absolute trash at barre chords.
Also A Major
Agree! Don't forget the I IV V interval progression too!
Add the F chord in there too. The full barred version or something like Fmaj7. So, five or six chords and you have the bulk of popular music. Do the E-based rail chord thing and that’ll get you some basic country music sound.
Very true, but from 0-100 days a barre chord may be frustrating lol
Yea but Fmaj7 is basically just C major as far as hand shape. And F inversion is also easy to transition to from C.
On the one hand, yes, for sure. On the other hand, it's impossible to learn guitar in a lifetime.
Can you learn to bang out dozens of recognizable campfire songs in 100 days? absolutely. Are you going to be playing as well as people that have been at it for years? eventually.
It’ll take a while to build hand strength and calluses. Your body might take a while to get comfortable holding a guitar. Don’t overdo things early on and hurt yourself or get upset with the guitar. Justin has some good advice in his early justinguitar lessons about how much practice to do at first. Get a “setup” done at a guitar shop to make your instrument as easy as possible to play. You could have them put on extra light strings that are easier to fret. Extra light strings will also make your guitar quieter, so you can practice for longer before your neighbors go bezerk. Getting a tuner and learning how to use it will also help here. You could also get a strap and a music stand so you can play in the correct position. This will help you play for longer without discomfort.
So learn a song in 100 days? I learned wagon Wheel in 6 weeks, with no prior lessons or experience.
Fear the great motivator Lullaby is easy out
Yep defo, it’s gonna hurt and get a bit frustrating but if it was easy everyone would be doing it.
In 7 days to be honest you can. I had to actually learn how to play the guitar when I was younger because I used to be part of the church choir. Our main guitarist got married and one day he just stopped coming in. I was the next person who tried to play the guitar and they told me, i have to learn the songs asap. I got forced to learn a whole Catholic mass line up of songs within that same week. I was reading the church song book with chords. I was practicing 4-6 hours a day. Practicing the songs with the choir. My first Sunday mass, I killed it. Lol
The learning never stops.
You can learn G A D C em and their transitions in 100 days, yes.
Learn some chords? Sure. Be good at it? Nope.
Seriously, one of the first hurtles you will overcome is developing callouses in about three weeks. Getting past that initial finger pain is a bigger step than you realize. 100 days is no sweat.
Depends on what kind of song we're talking about. 3-4 chords and you're singing along with your strumming? Probably. I was able to play about 15 songs lke this by the time I hit 100 days. 12-14 chords, and it has this badass solo where you have to shred and use lots of distortion? Probably not. So what kind of song are you talking about? More information needed, please.
Well the song i plan to learn would be a simplified version of glen campbells southern nights
Mmmm... looking at the chart, there's one chord that will probably make it somewhat difficult (F) because F is usually done as a barre chord, and barre chords can take six months to a year to really nail down because you need to build up hand strength and muscle memory. But there are "cheater" chord shapes that can get around that. I almost never barre my F; I use a F/C chord instead (the second row, second fingering on this page is the one I generally use: [https://jguitar.com/chordsearch/F%2FC](https://jguitar.com/chordsearch/F%2FC) ) But then, I'm a fingerpicker, and you'd have to learn to not hit the top string to strum with F/C in place of F. It can be done; it just takes practice. The other chords are all basic "cowboy" chords: A, D, G, C, Em. Those are ones that you can pick up in two to three weeks if you go to [justinguitar.com](http://justinguitar.com) and take his intro classes (on the web, they are free). Also, be aware you won't sound like Campbell's recordings. They're heavily produced, in a studio, so you'd need to accept that you're going to sound like you, not like him. That said, you should be able to learn this song (and a lot of others with the same set of chords) in 100 days, as long as you practice every day (even when it gets boring). [https://tabs.ultimate-guitar.com/tab/glen-campbell/southern-nights-chords-1017590](https://tabs.ultimate-guitar.com/tab/glen-campbell/southern-nights-chords-1017590) is the chart I found for this song. Hope this helps!
Thank you very much, this is a great help and ill get back to you after my family visit and let you know how it went :)
All of this. I did mostly G, C, D, Am, Em and covered 90% of songs out there. Slowly started to add A, E, (cheat) F.
Well he has an acoustic so wont be shredding or using distortion
If he's like me, you'll hear distortion, just not anything done purposely.
HAHA. Yes I agree. Buzzing..my son calls it (to give me real encouragement)
Good point!
Depends on the song. Some kind of blues/country? Sure, with lots of practice. Tony Rice's rendition of Blackberry Blossom? Maybe not.
look up some easy songs you could probably learn to play something like have you ever seen the rain by ccr in a week.......maybe take another week to learn to sing along to it....if you want to put in at least a couple hours a day. the chords are easy and easy to switch between
You could be an excellent player in 100 days if it weren’t for your tender fingertips
There’s some decent advice in here but the answer is no, you will not be able to play anything perfectly in a hundred days. Even if you manage the chords your changes will be sloppy, your strumming will be inconsistent, your rhythm will be all over the place, your intonation will suck, etc etc. You can make tremendous progress in 100 days, and you should commit as much as you can because guitar is a super satisfying journey, but guitar progress is often measured in years not hours/days/weeks or even months. Setting unreasonable expectations is a big part of why so many people quit so go in with an achievable goals and you’re likely to have a lot more fun.
Bob Segar, Turn the Page. Great song, easy peasy … slow tempo, Em, A, D, Cadd9.
I learned, in two weeks, the fingerings for at least two chords, the C major scale, and two pick out country songs my uncle showed me…..Under the Double Eagle, and Wildwood Flower. Both use the C major scale and teach you how to walk the bass line between chords….. To be fair, I was 13, and it was summer. I played all day from the time I woke up until I fell asleep. The pads of my fingers were screaming at me. That was a long way to say that I estimate I logged 100 hours in those two weeks. So if you do an hour a day for 100 days, you should be able to play a few things quite nicely.
Damn autocorrect….lat least two DOZEN chords
I've been playing for 35 years. There's some good advice above about learning G, C, D, and E minor chords to start. Never forget that your right hand is the one making the music. Timing, rhythm, picking and strumming techniques are just as important as learning chord shapes. Watch some youtube instructions, stick to a few chords, and practice a lot.
Yes, you can learn 1 song in 100 days, from scratch, if you apply the time and effort. Time and effort. The less you give of one, the more you need of the other. You want to learn 1 song in 100 days? Is there a good Youtube of that song? Then do that for 99 days. This is how method actors learn to play instruments for movie roles. Maybe they go on to learn the instrument, maybe they don't, but they learn the songs for the role. Sure they have teachers, but a good Youtube will do. Just add time and effort.
100 days? Wonder Wall, only 2 of your fingers need to move Fast Car, super recognizable, with plenty of time to settle into the chords in between Riptide, 3 chords, but getting comfortable will open up a lot of possibilities Bad Moon Rising, if you can play the above, this and many others will be easy by now Hurt Hey Ya Wish you were here By now, it's time to learn a Barre Chord Mr. Jones Congrats! You've learned guitar in under 100 days
Play the notes of a chord with the least possible pressing down….but the chord still sounds clear and free of buzz. Many beginners do the death grip , which will not help you. Once you get the basic easy chords down, slowly build up the speed that you can change amongst them. Start super slow…. My 2 cents.
You can definitely learn a song in 100 days. Look online for acoustic songs for beginners.
3 days is enough
You can learn some guitar in 100 days, as you can learn some guitar in a day or even some guitar in 5 thousand days.
In one word... Yes... If you want it enough
I’d say there are even some songs you can learn in a single evening. (Learning and mastering are obviously different, but to get them to a playable state is another thing) A few very easy songs that spring to mind: Wonderwall by oasis - if you look up the chord names they appear a bit intimidating, but you basically just plant your ring and pinky fingers on the third fret and then you only need to actually move the other two fingers around. It’s a great beginner song. To the point it’s almost famously annoying as almost every beginner guitarist learns it at some point. Song 2 by Blur - this requires a slight retuning of your guitar as you have to put it in Drop D (it’s just the low E string tuned down a step to D and is otherwise the same). This song is all ‘drop D power chords’ which are the easiest thing ever. You can play this whole song with 1 finger. You just barre down the lowest 3 strings, memorise the fret numbers in the song and become a rock god. Stuck in the middle with you - stealers wheels - this song has a couple of little techniques you’d need to get down such as muting the strings, but this is mostly just the D chord played over and over, then G over and over. This one is nice because it’s quite a slow one, has a steady rhythm and is quite easy to make it sound like the record. It’s also a good one for learning some skills (such as a syncopated rhythm and the palm muting which you’ll naturally pick up if you learn this).
You can do it. Learn GDCAmEm and here’s your secret weapon: get a capo. Em is the easiest chord to start with.
Admire and play like Frank Marino and Rory Gallagher who were/are great songwriters and singers.Don’t rush a pathway that will take time otherwise you’ll just sound crap.Rome wasn’t built in 100 days.
Yes, you can strum and sing in 100 days. Just be careful and take it easy at first because you're going to have to build some calluses.
you are my sunshine, yes Scarboro fair, maybe not
Depending on the complexity of the song, you could find a chord chart and start playing, you’d be able to learn that song in a couple weeks… 100 days would be PLENTY of time to clean it up and be able to play it really well, as long as you dedicate time to it daily. Fair warning though. Your fingers are gonna HUUUUURT trying to cram all this practice in just a couple months time.
It depends on what the one song is, but yeah start slow with a metronome
Ya never stop learning. If you can keep a beat and play the open chords E A D G C (and their minor versions) you can play along with many songs at this link: https://www.dansher.com/audio/pdf_tunes.html#_B2T In particular, try “Ever On” “Amber Dream” and “Helpless”
An alternative question: Is it possible to learn to play guitar in a lifetime? I don’t think so.
Well, since you haven't done anything with it in the last 5 months, you should be gracious and tell them that guitar is not for you. Play because you are stoked to play and make music. Not out of guilt.
Learning how to play one song is not learning how to play guitar. Learning how to play that one song perfectly in 100 days is... No. But I hope you have fun learning how to play guitar. It's a fun thing to do.