6 months of learning guitar influenced by Green Day

Jake Rutter
Jul 30, 2017 · 4 min read

I used to play drums, I started when I was about 13 and purchased a Ludwig set off a friend. I taught myself from the start, just by picking up books, trying to play along with my favorite songs. My older brother is a guitarist and it would have been great to jam together, but by the time I started learning, he had already left home.

I played for about 8 years, but never felt that I was good enough, I was in a few small bands with friends, we mostly just had jam sessions. I did play a few open mic nights which was very exciting. I had a few lessons here and there, but never seemed to progress beyond 5 or 6 beats. I never wanted to practice for more than 30 min and wasn’t interested in the fundamental principles, etc.

Fast forward 10 years, by this time I had sold the drums and wasn’t playing anything. I tried Piano, but couldnt get into it. I’m married, no kids, but with a house and a basement. So I picked up a Roland TD3 electronic drumset used on eBay, I started playing again. I was able to plug my headphones and iPhone into the kit and play along with my favorite songs. I enjoyed playing when I needed to burn off some stress, I hoped to play with a band at some point. But during the 3 years that I had the drumkit, I never once played with anyone else.

I started to feel as though I wanted to try something new, I tried my brother’s guitar when I was younger, but felt my fingers were not long enough or it would hurt my hands. All myths actually…around December of 2016, I decided to sell my drum kit and try my hand at guitar.

I picked up an acoustic Ibanez, pretty basic from Sam Ash in New York City. I thought I would start here, my thought was it would be fun to play some actual songs and not just the beat, some melodies! I had done some research, mainly just talked to friends who also play guitar and everyone told me that it’s best to start with an acoustic. The strings are harder and you will find it easier to train your fingers.

My First Guitar Ibanez AC240

About 3 months in, I did buy an Epiphone Les Paul Standard and a little Blackstar 1w tube amp. But I still prefer to play the acoustic, I find the strings are easier to play. It’s fun to rock out with the amp on songs that sound better amplified (mostly Green Day songs so far).

My Electric Guitar — Epiphone Les Paul Standard Ebony
My Little Tube Amp — Blackstar Ht1r — Sounds great!

My wife and I are big Green Day fans (we just recently traveled to London, Paris and Dublin to see them) and had heard that Green Day songs are pretty easy to play on guitar.

Green Day in Dublin, Ireland — June 30, 2017

I’ve found that I learn best with goals, if I give myself a goal and track my progress on it, I have a better chance of hitting it. My first goal was to learn When I Come Around by Green Day, it’s my wife’s favorite song so it seemed like a great one to start off with. This was a tricky song to start with because it uses power chords and up until this point I just knew the basic chords.

Practice, practice, practice really makes perfect.

It’s a pretty tough song to play, being that the guitar is tuned half a step down and there are about 3–4 different ways to play it according to different youtube videos that I have watched. Below is the one that I have watched the most…this guy puts up a lot of videos!

I’ve now been playing for about 6 months and am really happy with my progress. I know about 10 chords and have been surprised to find out that many songs use the basic chords. I have been using a combination of Yousician and Youtube, there is so much free stuff out there, it’s amazing.

My current song list that I can play to 75% accuracy is:

  • Wild Thing — The Troggs
  • When I Come Around — Green Day
  • Boulevard of Broken Dreams — Green Day
  • Brain Stew — Green Day
  • Oh Love — Green Day
  • Wonderwall — Oasis (same chords as above)

My first cut at Oasis Wonderwall, it’s just the chorus, but I think it’s amazing that it actually resembles the song. My goal is to record myself and put up videos on youtube, it’s a nice way to hear and see the progress.

Next up to learn or currently in progress:

  • American Idiot — Green Day
  • Some Ska…not sure where to start

I feel really good about my progression and would encourage others to pick an instrument and learn how to play it. I love being able to look back at a project and see how far you have come, especially with a musical instrument. When people start recognizing what you are playing, that’s an amazing feeling.

Jake Rutter

Written by

Leads a Digital UX Team at Direct Wines. Loves the ocean traveling, sailing, tennis, drone photography, MINIs and Music.

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