Video Question: Chord Songbook

Return to Video Question and Answer Listings
Date: February 20th, 2008 | Length: 2.12 | Instructor: Dennis Hodges

Mogs asks, "Hi wonder if you can help please. I've only been playing guitar for a few months and still mastering the basic chords. Somtimes this gets a little boring so I try learn a popular song to add a little fun to my practice sessions. The problem I have is how to read chord songbooks. For example I have a Johnny Cash Song 'Ballad of A Teenage Queen' the intro is written in the book as: CAPO 1ST FRET [A] Dream on, Dream on, [D] teenage [A] queen [D] Prettiest [A] girl we've [E] ever [A] seen. I understand the capo part and have it set up correctly. My question is how many times do I strum the chords ? Looking at the above is it, (A) on 'dream' only or (A) on 'dream' and 'on'. I kind of get it if theres only one word after the chord but when theres two or three I'm not sure wether I strum on each word even though it doesnt show the chord before each word. Hope this is not a silly question, but would really appreciate your advice. Thanks Mogs PS. The site is fantastic, its given me so much motivation to keep on with the practice sessions." Another benefit of being a member of JamPlay is the video response section. Our expert staff fields questions from our members and provides video responses each week.

Other Video Responses:

Scales and Improvisation - October 10th, 2007 (2 minutes, 43 seconds)

KevinT says, "HI, I checked out Brads scales lesson and have a question. I always warm up with minor pentatonic 1st position so I know it blindfolded, I am working on the others. My question is that when I just start messing around with improv it always ends up still sounding like scales. How do I get away from that? Thanks" View Response

Finger Positioning - March 21st, 2008 (2 minutes, 11 seconds)

Fairchildj asks, "I have just recently began with Phase I of training. One issue that I am having is that I find placing my fingers in the right frets extremely difficult for my middle two fingers. My fingers curl on each other a bit 3rd finger overlapping the 4th finger...so when I place them on the frets, the 3rd finger wants to poing back towards the 2nd fret instead of where it should be on the 3rd fret. By sliding my hand a bit, I can overcome this but I don't want to pick up a bad habit that will limit my advancement in the future...any recommendations?" View Response

Acoustic Guitar Strumming Patterns - October 10th, 2007 (1 minutes, 59 seconds)

John Oconnor59 says, "Hi i have just joined jamplay its fabulous lessons thank you i am doing them with steve eulberg he is a great teacher so laid back and makes it easy to understand now i must admit i have been playing for a year but i went back to the basics i enjoyed it i have done lesson 3 the strumming technique it was brilliant cos i have had problems with my strumming... he showed me the different patterns thank you so much to steve and all you folk a marvelous site indeed when Steve show the strumming patterns how it was made easy to me when you got the proper teacher to explain it to you i am from Ireland so i have taken 4 lessons so far as i want spend a bit a time on me strumming no point going next lesson till i get that one right..the question i want to ask hope its not a silly question when it says its best to master phase one before you move to phase 2..does that mean you have to master all the lessons from all the teachers before i move on ? also as i am not that great on my computer skills still learning that as well how do i post a reply so the teacher can see my reply and the other members too ? and if a friend sends me a message how do i reply to that sorry if i seem a bit silly with these questions its just i am learning this computer too kind regards johnny.." View Response

- September 24th, 2008 (6 minutes, 20 seconds)

Nachob asks, "Hey guys! I wanted to ask you something about guitar strings... Last month i had to change them on my guitar because it where breaking, so i went to the shop and the guy made me choose between different prices and qualities. I finally chose ones not too cheap and not too expensive. My question is: Is there a lot of quality differences between strings or is it something mostly for the ear-experienced? Do you suggest buying always the best ones or is it okay to use some cheap stings for an apprentice like me? Thanks! Nacho.- (feel free to rephrase or modify my question, i know my english isn't perfect, hehe.)" View Response

Black Sabbath Paranoid - October 10th, 2007 (0 minutes, 58 seconds)

Metalman says ,"Hello my name is David,i was wondering if you guys can teach me the song my favorite black sabbath song Paranoid. Thank You P.S.-you have truly sent me along way in my electric guitar learning experience and i Thank all of you very much.." View Response