How long will it take to play simple guitar songs?
I never played acoustic guitar before, but i wanna learn how to play simple songs like by Odetta, Bob Dylan, and some Hank Williams Sr.
I always wanted to play “Lost Highway” by Hank. How long do you think it’ll take of learning and practicing?
I also need some suggestions on some good books that give you a good understanding of folk acoustic guitar. and how to play.
i cant afford lessons.
Twig,
Alot of the songs you will play only use 3 to 4 chords for the whole song. They just mix em up a bit. Folk music is pretty diverse in style and will take a bit longer than simple strumming Hank. You can play a heck of alot of songs using the same 4 chords and be playing it decent in a month if you practice switching between chords. Just give your fingers the chance to memorize where they need to be.
Get a very light pick (bends easy) and practice strumming those chords. You’ll get it b4 you know it. 
December 25th, 2008 at 6:39 pm
Twig,
Alot of the songs you will play only use 3 to 4 chords for the whole song. They just mix em up a bit. Folk music is pretty diverse in style and will take a bit longer than simple strumming Hank. You can play a heck of alot of songs using the same 4 chords and be playing it decent in a month if you practice switching between chords. Just give your fingers the chance to memorize where they need to be.
Get a very light pick (bends easy) and practice strumming those chords. You’ll get it b4 you know it.
References :
December 26th, 2008 at 12:59 pm
Twig,
That was really good advice from Fused. There are hundreds of songs which only require you to know 3-4 chords, across all genres, even some ‘heavy’ rock songs can be carried quite well playing a few chords on acoustic guitar.
Afraid I don’t have any Odetta songs on my site, but I have dozens of easy-to-play versions of Dylan songs on my Bob Dylan page and a few Hank songs either on the ‘Oldstuff’ or on the Folk Songs page
If you find that the key of a song produces some difficult chords you can try to transpose it to a key which gives more playable chords. I have a guide to song chord transposition, see my main page.
There are many other free sites like mine aimed at helping learning guitar players like yourself, not least Freeguitarlessons central.
In recent times a number of comprehensive multimedia lessons sites have emerged, which include video, audio as well as the written materials you would find in guitar books, most of these are fairly inexpensive.
Above all, enjoy your music and stick with it, you’ll always be glad you did!
PJ