Stuck a 3 chord playing!

[6stringedRamble]

Okay I probably know 15 chords. Been playing
About 5 years, and never progress. I like Woody Guthrie and Carter Family style. Not really sure how to progress from basic rhythm playing, bass brush alternative bass brush, etc.
A YouTuber explained Woody would play rhythm when singing then Carter style melody during the breaks.

What can help me go forward? I've a few Carter style tab books, they're helping, but I'm not there. Should I learn more chords, scales, something? What am I missing?

[hubcapsc]

Find people to play music with if you're not doing that already is my
suggestion...

-Mike "have fun"

[zeeway]

There are many tutorials on YouTube that show songs with more than three chords and some light finger picking. My suggestions is search for some of those on songs you like, and pick one and work on it.

[Silly Moustache]

Hi, in a "normal" world" you could indeed benefit from doing as hubcaps suggests but as we are all in lockdown that isn't viable.

however, if you can do C,A,G,E, and D shapes you can do them with capo or by making small variations all over the fretboard - using less strings (you only really need three notes to make a chord). Look up "CAGED" system.

This bumbling old git "might" help :

Here is soehing that might halp too : Cowboy chords.

and this possibly :

[srbell]

Understand the major scale and how each chord in a key is based on each note in that scale. The 1, 4 and 5 chords are major. The 2, 3 and 6 are minor chords. The seventh is half-diminished. The same pattern is repeated for all of the keys.

[TBman]

Originally Posted by 6stringedRamble

Okay I probably know 15 chords. Been playing
About 5 years, and never progress. I like Woody Guthrie and Carter Family style. Not really sure how to progress from basic rhythm playing, bass brush alternative bass brush, etc.
A YouTuber explained Woody would play rhythm when singing then Carter style melody during the breaks.

What can help me go forward? I've a few Carter style tab books, they're helping, but I'm not there. Should I learn more chords, scales, something? What am I missing?

If you can read tab get Mark Hanson's two books on Travis picking. They will change your world.

Art of Contemporary Travis Picking

The Art of Solo Fingerpicking

[srbell]

Originally Posted by srbell

Understand the major scale and how each chord in a key is based on each note in that scale. The 1, 4 and 5 chords are major. The 2, 3 and 6 are minor chords. The seventh is half-diminished. The same pattern is repeated for all of the keys.

To add to what I said earlier, you should look into the common chord progressions that get used over and over in songs. You mentioned that you play only 3-chord songs. I'm guessing most of those will be the 1, 4, and 5 in whatever key you're playing in, such as G, C, and D. Another common progression is the 1, 5, 6m, and 4. You'll hear this all the time. In G it would be G, D, E minor, C. Once you familiarize yourself with the most common progressions and how they sound youll start to recognize them when you hear them. That's when you'll begin to realize you don't need to look at the chords for songs anymore to learn how to play them! In the key of G you'll also occasionally run into the 2 and 3 chords, which would be Am and Bm. In any case, the knowledge of how to determine which chords are commonly used in each key, and the common patterns they're used in, is really a key to the puzzle.

[Riverwolf]

I took a few instructor lessons on Boom-Chicka and Carter Style.
I seldom listen to those styles but they are fun and challenging to play.
I picked up songs and skills mostly from this site.
Low cost, full tab and note by note video lessons.

https://musicwithryan.com/

[Ben M.]

The most common keys for this style of playing are G and C. I think your best bet would be to learn the G and C scale patterns for the first 5 frets.
Just practice the scales until you’re comfortable with them and build up some muscle memory. It shouldn’t take too long.
When you get that down you’ll find it’s pretty easy to find the melodies of most of those old songs.
Then it’s just a matter of combining the melody notes with a strumming pattern while holding down the right chord.

[T.Lime]

Best thing to do is go find some open mics etc and play out, meet other musicians listen, watch learn, chat, grow. Jsut about every musician is happy to collaborate, and sometime that means showing your friends a new chord or new progression. My bass player and sometimes just sit and noodle for a couple of hours. One day we thought we had learnt a new way to play C#m..... then discovered The Band had been doing it that way all along

[zztush]

We've just finished lock down here. There are 11 music groups in our community centre. We are planning to have small concert end of October. Music friends, open mic or concerts may really help your improvement.