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comment by thenewgreen
thenewgreen  ·  3771 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: My fingers hurt

    I still don't understand chords. Am I only supposed to be strumming the strings my fingers are on, or all of them?
this depends entirely on the chord you're playing, the song you are playing and your intentions. Usually, if you individually play each note in the chord you can pretty will discern which ones belong and which don't. A general rule of thumb is that the bass note in the cord should be the lowest note played in that chord. So, if you are playing an "A" chord, you shouldn't allow the open "E" string to be heard. You need to mute it or just not play it. After a while all of this becomes second nature.

I've been playing guitar for 25 years and I'm still figuring it all out. -that's what makes it so much fun!

Good luck!