Cool Guy Chords

So I have been taking guitar lessons lately. I really like it. In fact, I have been practicing my chords when ever I have free time and I can no longer feel with the tips of the fingers on my left hand. The chords seem pretty tough to master. Moving two, three or even four fingers to different configurations on the frets of the guitar in sync with the beat or strum pattern of the song -- brutal! My teacher kept telling me that it would soon be done through muscle memory -- no more difficult than picking up a pencil properly to write a note. So this week at practice I did pretty good. I was playing "Knocking On Heaven's Door" by Mr. Dylan -- G G D D Am Am Am Am G G D D C C C C. I am strumming and you can even recognize the song. So, now I was feeling pretty good and ready to move on. Right?

The teacher says I can pick some songs and he will write the music down for me to practice. We listen to Ordinary World by Duran Duran, Kryptonite by 3 Doors Down, Good Riddance by Green Day. Turns out these guys don't play traditional chords. You know, the ones I have created muscle memory for and have calluses on my finger tips to prove it.

They play "cool guy" chords (what my teacher calls them). What does that mean? Well basically it means that they don't play the third note in the chord, i.e., the ring finger. The finger that is totally retarded and does not like to do anything unless the middle finger does it too. The finger I have been struggling with all month. Cool guys don't use it. Oh, and if you don't use it, it appears that it gives your guitar playing a more "wild" sound.

So all the songs my teacher wrote down for me to play, don't work with the chords in MY muscle memory. Somehow after battling with my ring finger to do more than just hold my wedding ring, I am now suppose train it to stay home when we play the "cool guy" chords. Wasn't it obvious from the beginning that I was only going to want to play the cool guy chords. Sheesh!

And don't even get me started about Black Sabbath. I asked if I could play Iron Man, and he said that their guitarist didn't play a guitar that was tuned traditionally. He said that the rest of the bank must have tuned their instruments to his lead guitar. Appears to be a progression from cool guy chords that bread a few rules to the bad boy chords that have no rules. Which, of course, makes me want to learn the bad boy chords even more. Rock on!