Do i have to learn chords

Learning chords is so annoying. i learnd the basic ones. but then i learned how to read tabs. and now all i do is look up iron maiden tabs and play liek the 30 secs. of that part in the song. Can i just get nasty and finger picking and then try to learn their solos . or do i absoultly have to learn chords. Thanks!

The question you need to ask yourself is do I want to become a great guitar player. If all you want to do is casually play the guitar for your own enjoyment keep doing what you are doing. However, if the thrills of performing tickle your fancy, chords are the way to go. Also, by knowing chords your other aspects of guitar, like solos and finger picking, will improve because everything works together. Now, how you go about learning them is up to you. I find learning them when you need them is the best method because you will actually use them. I hope this helps :)

Yea learning chords should also be fun, you can get real awesome sounds and i do think it helps with your overall guitar playing.

The interesting point about playing guitar is that typically most licks are only about upto about 10 percent of the total guitar experience. I personnally started out by only learning scales, then blues licks, then improve, then I decided to learn chords, then music theory, which lead to writing music. In the end, I agree with Chimzar. It really depends what you want out of playing the guitar. if you are happy plating cool licks then go for it. But if you want the whole experience learn some chord progressions in a key and play some music. The licks that you learn will start to fit with the chord progressions. Then who knows what can happen!

Ok so. I agree with Chimzar. My name is Bryan :P. I've been playing guitar for like uhm 1 month or something ? And I learned all the basic chords. Now it's up to you what you want to do with guitar playing. But me I love using chords. They come in handy alot of times. Ofcourse there are tabs. Which I don't know anything about and others do. So it's really up to you what you do with it. You can always learn chords later. It's never to late.

yes you have to learn chords.

if you want to play, you have to be able to play chords. as far as memorizing the names... I wouldn't worry about that.

since you're beginning, buy a good guitar book with many if not all chords, this site is very useful as well, and learn what they are and what they sound like, train your ear its very important, also, learn the circle of fifths, that will help you tremendously...my thoughts..
~C

ok my first explination of this was way confusing so im rewording it. learn a barred F note. low pitch to high pitched 133211. the 1 next to the 3 is an F. so if you can play any note on the top string (even an open E, just have your bar finger rest past the necks nut thing) you can play the sliding chord.

ok this boards dumped 2 GIANT posts in a row. and one of them had in the text "this board software is a nitemare"