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How easy is Letterbomb and Jesus of Suburbia on guitar?


AndrewUnknown

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I’ve only been playing for 3 months and these songs hella rock. I know Green Day is all power chords but with tempo and stuff, how hard are these songs. 

And yes I know Jesus of Suburbia is 9 minutes long.

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I'm not as sure about JOS and Letterbomb, but my boyfriend recently taught himself Whatsername and he said the only hard part about that one was the palm mute. Since you know their power chords and their general style, I think you could rock it!

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Back when I practiced guitar everyday I found some tabs and taught myself JOS. Took some practice but I wouldn't say it was hard. Go for it! 

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take it from someone who knows.... these songs are not hard to play. nothing is hard to play on guitar if you practice at it. learning is repetition. repetition is learning. learning is repetition. repetition is learning. 

 

love papa

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I have the official book for all of American Idiot, but does anyone have a tab site they find really useful or like a YouTube video?

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1 hour ago, AndrewUnknown said:

I have the official book for all of American Idiot, but does anyone have a tab site they find really useful or like a YouTube video?

why do you need a tab site or video when you have the chord book? figure it out. plenty of people learned how to play songs long before the internet was around, buddy.

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4 hours ago, papa said:

why do you need a tab site or video when you have the chord book? figure it out. plenty of people learned how to play songs long before the internet was around, buddy.

Um really only been playing for like 3 months. I was only asking a question. I’m well aware that guitarists learned songs before the internet.

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6 hours ago, AndrewUnknown said:

I have the official book for all of American Idiot, but does anyone have a tab site they find really useful or like a YouTube video?

You can use Songsterr or download GuitarPro and you can use these to play along with the tab. But if you have the official book, you'll be fine. Practice slowly and when you're ready to speed it up, you can try playing with a record. Letterbomb is fun to play but pretty fast so don't get discouraged :P

Also if you're a beginner I strongly recommend Holiday and Whatsername - you'll feel like a pro in no time :lol:

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43 minutes ago, Jane Lannister said:

You can use Songsterr or download GuitarPro and you can use these to play along with the tab. But if you have the official book, you'll be fine. Practice slowly and when you're ready to speed it up, you can try playing with a record. Letterbomb is fun to play but pretty fast so don't get discouraged :P

Also if you're a beginner I strongly recommend Holiday and Whatsername - you'll feel like a pro in no time :lol:

Ok thx. Holiday I’ve been trying for a while and I’m getting places. Also, isn’t Whatshername tuned to drop-d?

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Guitar Pro has definitely been the most valuable tool I've ever used for learning songs on guitar. I highly recommend Guitar Pro 5, as 6 and 7 have become convoluted messes. Both songs are pretty easy to play on guitar. Jesus of Suburbia revolves around the same 4 or so chords the entire song, and Letterbomb was one of the first songs I ever learned. You can get technical with it if you want to learn all the little intricate details if you want to be 100% exact to the album, but for the most part they're both incredibly easy.

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Powerchords (90% of the song), a few mid-chords (''Jesus of Suburbia'' ending), some single note licks (''At the center of the heart...) and a few lead guitar ''bits''. I wish I could record you a video to explain you the song but, like our friends already said here, you just need to get comfortable with these songs' style. Practice a lot, and listen to the record, don't look too much on the page (tabs). Oh, and octave chrods for ''letterbomb'', of course 🙂

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Shouldn't be too hard. I had trouble with the barre chords in JOS when I first started. Keep practicing and it shouldn't take long to get them down.

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11 hours ago, AndrewUnknown said:

Ok thx. Holiday I’ve been trying for a while and I’m getting places. Also, isn’t Whatshername tuned to drop-d?

Yes, it is. But it's easier to play it that way. 

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JOS usually uses bar chords which aren't too hard if you're used to playing them. If you are new, it'll be painful because you're playing guitar for 9 mins without a break but you'll get used to it soon enough.

I feel like Letterbomb's chords are harder because the song is more fast paced and you'll need to be strumming faster. If you're strumming like a classic punk rocker (strap way down, strumming with the movement of your upper arm instead of your wrist) then you'll need some biceps on ya to do it. Also the chords change pretty quickly so you'll need to get used to that.

Both songs I feel are probably on the intermediate range of difficulty. Whatsername and boulevard of broken dreams would be down the bottom at the easiest and American Idiot and St. Jimmy would be up top at the hardest. 

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8 hours ago, ExpiredBananas said:

JOS usually uses bar chords which aren't too hard if you're used to playing them. If you are new, it'll be painful because you're playing guitar for 9 mins without a break but you'll get used to it soon enough.

I feel like Letterbomb's chords are harder because the song is more fast paced and you'll need to be strumming faster. If you're strumming like a classic punk rocker (strap way down, strumming with the movement of your upper arm instead of your wrist) then you'll need some biceps on ya to do it. Also the chords change pretty quickly so you'll need to get used to that.

Both songs I feel are probably on the intermediate range of difficulty. Whatsername and boulevard of broken dreams would be down the bottom at the easiest and American Idiot and St. Jimmy would be up top at the hardest. 

Thanks man!

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On 11/13/2018 at 4:49 PM, maryjanewhatsername said:

I'm not as sure about JOS and Letterbomb, but my boyfriend recently taught himself Whatsername and he said the only hard part about that one was the palm mute. Since you know their power chords and their general style, I think you could rock it!

The Whatername chords should be able to be played by anyone that is a beginner novice.

https://tabs.ultimate-guitar.com/tab/green_day/whatsername_chords_140754

The hardest chords in here are just a Bm and an F# which are both the first basic bar chords you’ll learn. This, as easy as it is is harder than both the other songs brought up in this thread. Play this on a hollow-body electric or an accoustic with no pic and pick it. It’s a beautiful song to play. Definitely one of my “around the beach” go to songs. There is a capo version flying around and a ukelele version that is even easier.

As for the other two. I prefer to listen to rather than play electric power chords all day which is about as simple as it gets and unless you’re in a band or something playing it, to me what’s the point? I play guitar when I want to relax but I’m old, although you wouldn’t know that at a show! :)

As a side note, that Bm and F# show up in a lot of Billie’s acoustic jams. Spend a day learning how to play those (especially Bm) if you can’t and you’re stepping into a larger world of guitar. It’s like the first “learning a C chord” for becoming an intermediate.  Also, playing a Bm will start forcing you to play your  Fs as a bar chord which I think makes the world easier. e-form on the first fret is an F and makes you wonder why you ever learned it anothetb way.

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On 11/14/2018 at 6:39 AM, papa said:

take it from someone who knows.... these songs are not hard to play. nothing is hard to play on guitar if you practice at it. learning is repetition. repetition is learning. learning is repetition. repetition is learning. 

 

love papa

Why I would love to share you optimism that “nothing is hard to play on guitar if you practice at it”, some people have a God given gift that yes indeed needs practice but everyone has a ceiling of potential.

Amen Tufani composed this piece for his Harvard talent contest and some people could practice every single day for 16 hours for the rest of their lives and NEVER even come close to this kind of skill. Make sure you watch to the end as it gets progressively better.

The best guitar player that’s super famous on the circuit is pretty much John Mayer, Trey Anastasio (Phish), and used to be Clapton before he got sick, but these guys have talent that just some people can never have. Believe me, I’ve tried. I used to spend 10 hours a day every day in my childhood and I couldn’t do what this guy is doing by a long shot. (No pun intended).

The other greatest living guitar player is probably Queen’s Brian May who is just too good to say you can be that good with practice. It’s an unfortunate, or fortunate fact that some people just have a God given talent. 

Take Billie, he’s been playing guitar since he was a kid and has been practicing daily and he isn’t even the best guitarist in his band.  Best lyricist, best front man, favorite front man, but when it comes to playing he isn’t even in the same league as May, Mayer, Clapton, Hendrix, Gilmour, or Tufani. 

But you are correct, practice practice practice! 

BB king famously took guitar lessons into his 80s and in fact had a lesson about a month before his death.

The best of the best.

peobably the most underrated guitarist of all time is Prince at the HOF induction of George Harrison off the heels of Rolling Stone not including him in the top 100 guitarist living, he famously did this. Practice this. 

And I was on the stage when Prince did this at Coachella ‘08 when Radiohead officially said this was now a Prince song.

ok, sorry, went post crazy and I’m out right now. :-X

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6 minutes ago, LaughingClock said:

The best of the best.

Dude. George Harrison, Jimi Hendricks, Eric Clapton, All of these guys. Masters of their craft. 100% agree 

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12 minutes ago, LaughingClock said:

Why I would love to share you optimism that “nothing is hard to play on guitar if you practice at it”, some people have a God given gift that yes indeed needs practice but everyone has a ceiling of potential.

Amen Tufani composed this piece for his Harvard talent contest and some people could practice every single day for 16 hours for the rest of their lives and NEVER even come close to this kind of skill. Make sure you watch to the end as it gets progressively better.

Take Billie, he’s been playing guitar since he was a kid and has been practicing daily and he isn’t even the best guitarist in his band.  Best lyricist, best front man, favorite front man, but when it comes to playing he isn’t even in the same league as May, Mayer, Clapton, Hendrix, Gilmour, or Tufani. 

ok, sorry, went post crazy and I’m out right now. :-X

Billie most definitely did not practice the same way the world's best guitarists of all times do. His music doesn't require shredding or even any advanced techniques as that's how he wanted to write those songs. He's an amazing rhythm player because that's what he decided to be. Billie's too busy running around the stage and his songwriting doesn't reflect flashy guitar playing so he doesn't necessarily benefit from striving to be a world class guitar player. That being said, Billie most definitely isn't given enough credit for his skill. Most people just assume he has little to no guitar playing ability which simply isn't true.

Do you have any concrete evidence that it's physically impossible for certain normal people with no health issues to reach the level that Amen Tufani reached?

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3 hours ago, Grinch said:

Billie most definitely did not practice the same way the world's best guitarists of all times do. His music doesn't require shredding or even any advanced techniques as that's how he wanted to write those songs. He's an amazing rhythm player because that's what he decided to be. Billie's too busy running around the stage and his songwriting doesn't reflect flashy guitar playing so he doesn't necessarily benefit from striving to be a world class guitar player. That being said, Billie most definitely isn't given enough credit for his skill. Most people just assume he has little to no guitar playing ability which simply isn't true.

Do you have any concrete evidence that it's physically impossible for certain normal people with no health issues to reach the level that Amen Tufani reached?

Of course not other than the world. Not gonna get into an argument with this. Believe whatever you like.

Edit: sorry. I tried but Anyway, why does health have anything to do with it. Here is a guy with one hand who can play a pretty mean lead.  FTR, this lends itself to what I’m saying.  Nothing was stopping this guy.

And how about a one handed pitcher who has to put his glove on between pitches pitching a no hitter for the New York Yankees and is one of the best pitchers to ever play for them.  Again, because he was always going to be a professional baseball pitcher:

So do I have proof? Not the type of thing you can prove but I do know that there are people that are just wired for certain things and some of them are inventing a biotech glue for NASA, design an electric car and invent a new type of rocket, a writer, a guitar player and some people just do it better than others no matter how badly they try or want to. It’s not a negative thing, it’s just everyone needs to find the thing they do and do it the best and yes, that takes practice but can everyone be Prince? Hendrix? BJA? Jim Abott? Michael Jordan? Freddie Mercury? Michael Jackson?

Fuck no.

And FTR. I NEVER SAID Billie isn’t an amazing guitarist. I would rather listen to the end of the night acoustic set from Billie then listen to Clapton shred a lead but that’s not what we’re talking about. I would also rather go to a Green Day concert than a Los Lobos mariachi show but those flamenco players like the Gypsies are way better musicians. So are jazz musicians. What’s the point? It’s about what you like. Billie’s skill playing acoustically is tear jerking.  I’d also rather watch a Green Day show than an Abott no hitter but Billie probably never could have been a pro baseball player.

Point taken or are you just going to say “anyone can be whatever they want”? That’s a lie that parents tell their children.  You need to figure out what you are and be the best version of that that you can be. 

That is wisdom you can take or leave.

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16 hours ago, LaughingClock said:

Why I would love to share you optimism that “nothing is hard to play on guitar if you practice at it”, some people have a God given gift that yes indeed needs practice but everyone has a ceiling of potential.

Amen Tufani composed this piece for his Harvard talent contest and some people could practice every single day for 16 hours for the rest of their lives and NEVER even come close to this kind of skill. Make sure you watch to the end as it gets progressively better.

The best guitar player that’s super famous on the circuit is pretty much John Mayer, Trey Anastasio (Phish), and used to be Clapton before he got sick, but these guys have talent that just some people can never have. Believe me, I’ve tried. I used to spend 10 hours a day every day in my childhood and I couldn’t do what this guy is doing by a long shot. (No pun intended).

The other greatest living guitar player is probably Queen’s Brian May who is just too good to say you can be that good with practice. It’s an unfortunate, or fortunate fact that some people just have a God given talent. 

Take Billie, he’s been playing guitar since he was a kid and has been practicing daily and he isn’t even the best guitarist in his band.  Best lyricist, best front man, favorite front man, but when it comes to playing he isn’t even in the same league as May, Mayer, Clapton, Hendrix, Gilmour, or Tufani. 

But you are correct, practice practice practice! 

BB king famously took guitar lessons into his 80s and in fact had a lesson about a month before his death.

The best of the best.

peobably the most underrated guitarist of all time is Prince at the HOF induction of George Harrison off the heels of Rolling Stone not including him in the top 100 guitarist living, he famously did this. Practice this. 

And I was on the stage when Prince did this at Coachella ‘08 when Radiohead officially said this was now a Prince song.

ok, sorry, went post crazy and I’m out right now. :-X

I agree with the amazing guitarists, especially on Gilmour and May. Floyd and Queen are my 2nd and 3rd favorite bands respectively, behind Green Day of course.

God given talent is very important. I can’t imagine someone like Slash playing like he does without it, but practice is more important. Even if Gilmour is incredibly talented out of the gate, not even he could just play the solos from Comfortably Numb with out the amount of practice he and other guitar gods put forward.

also if you look up best guitar players on google BJ is like 25th so he’s among the best

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19 hours ago, LaughingClock said:

Of course not other than the world. Not gonna get into an argument with this. Believe whatever you like.

Edit: sorry. I tried but Anyway, why does health have anything to do with it. Here is a guy with one hand who can play a pretty mean lead.  FTR, this lends itself to what I’m saying.  Nothing was stopping this guy.

And FTR. I NEVER SAID Billie isn’t an amazing guitarist. I would rather listen to the end of the night acoustic set from Billie then listen to Clapton shred a lead but that’s not what we’re talking about. I would also rather go to a Green Day concert than a Los Lobos mariachi show but those flamenco players like the Gypsies are way better musicians. So are jazz musicians. What’s the point? It’s about what you like. Billie’s skill playing acoustically is tear jerking.  I’d also rather watch a Green Day show than an Abott no hitter but Billie probably never could have been a pro baseball player.

Before I read that wall of a message, by health I mean like if someone is literally missing their fingers or, like Clapton, nerve damage that prevents him from playing like he used to. You're taking my reply into a whole different topic. I also never said that you're the one who said he wasn't a great guitarist. I was simply mentioning that because it's a general consensus that guitar players make. I'm replying to your quote saying that Billie isn't as good as the world's best guitar players because he doesn't have the physical/mental ability to do so (or should I say, lacks the natural god-given talent apparently). I'm saying he doesn't shred like them because he doesn't want to and has no reason to. 

Quote

Take Billie, he’s been playing guitar since he was a kid and has been practicing daily and he isn’t even the best guitarist in his band.  Best lyricist, best front man, favorite front man, but when it comes to playing he isn’t even in the same league as May, Mayer, Clapton, Hendrix, Gilmour, or Tufani.

To tell someone that it's not possible that they will ever be as good as one of the greats no matter how much they practice because some philosophy ideals that have no proof is bullshit. Sorry. 

Spoiler

and for the record, your videos of the one handed guitar player and the pitcher agree with my original point, so I'm not sure why you used them as an argument against my agreement on that. They have the health/ability to do so thus they were successful because they practiced.

Anyways sorry for derailing the topic even though it was already derailed!

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 ^^^Everyone has the same exact ability ceiling to do anything just isn’t true. You can be the BEST at anything you do if you just practice hard enough. Also, if you’re not gonna read the posts in our discussion then tell me and I won’t write them. I’m not trying to argue with you. I’m just trying to impart what I believe to be true which you can take or leave but at least respect, not make fun of that I’ll write more than 122 characters because I come from a long ago time when people used to communicate. ;)

Its a great poster but it’s not even a mathematical possibility.

The reason I included the one handed pitcher and guitar player is because those guys are that good not because they want it more than some people who practice with two arms as much or more and can’t reach their ability. Do you have any idea how many millions of people across the world dream and practice every day to get to a point where they pitch a no hitter for the Yanks?!

Believe what you like but there is a saying in the music business and I’d imagine it’s one in most businesses “get in where you fit in because that’s what you’ll excel in”. @AndrewUnknown, im pretty much in agreement with you on favorite bands although I would put Queen at #1 but BJA is not even close to the top 25 guitarists in the world and id you asked him, he would laugh at the notion.  Best lyricist in rock? For sure a contender and for me, yes. Best frontman? Definitely but there are roadies lugging cables for Green Day with guitarists that could play a better guitar. He’s serviceable to write songs. He is fun to watch play (low hanging is his signature, often emulated) but he’s just not even near top 25 fro  a technical standpoint. He shreds power chords and the only time you can really see his talent is when he’s playing an accounting version of some song but even then, he’s just a great every day guitarist. Again, yes the Gilmours of the world need to practice all the time but no, he’s not a top 25 rock guitarists. He’s the best song writer in rock music to me though. I’d rather him write an album then just watch a solo acoustic show (which I would still love) but because I love his music, voice, and yes guitar playing but he’s just simply not even close to top 25.   I feel like I, gonna get flamed did all this. This is a fan community, not a guitar forum but keep listening to the good music you are. Also, don’t wait until you’re 25 like most people do to step out of your music listening comfort world which it sounds like you’re not. Check out some of the Syd Barret Floyd stuff.

I was saying what I said about Billie and then the one handed pitcher and guitar player and the amazing guitar player that NO NOT anyone can play like that because they want to.

l happen to be friends with Hiromi (Japanese girl who can play piano like you wouldn’t believe. Generally considered the best piano player living). She attended Burklee School of Music and dropped out to travel the world. I know her because my brother was her bassist and he himself is a musical director to a couple of the biggest bands in the world. He also dropped out.

Hiromi has been playing acoustic piano and that Nord Lead since I’ve kniwn her. She’s a better pianist than people that practice much more than her and people that want it more than her. Dirty secret: she HATES the music business and would have quit years ago if it wasn’t for $ because as Blue Note has denoted her as the best living pianist. She writes and plays better than almost anyone and there are people who try JUST as hard or harder: (and no, that IS NOT Mitch on bass here), just randomly picked something new. He left her to go make money producing and MDing RnB a decade ago but he started with her on her first two albums and they were fuxking amazing. Man, she’s so cute too. That smile breaks hearts.

They did not practice more than everyone else. More natural ability at what they do. When Mitch, my brother was 4, he could play piano better than most anyone you know. Literally when he was 4 he looked like a freak he was so good.  My daughter is 6 and she practices daily and she is on song book 3 for kids while he was writing and winning international awards for his “Quartet in E Minor” at 5! He picked up an electric bass at 16 and at 17 had a free ride to Berkeley (which he dropped out of).

Im not arguing with you. You can’t argue with 2+2=4. Well actually you can but that argument goes out of real world reality as we know it.

Fact is, for better or worse, being “good” at something and your talent doesn’t make you the most fun to watch. I’d rather watch BJA over Mayer every day of the week, but there is nobody in the entire band better technically at playing guitar in the whole band then him (including Jason) and they would not argue this point. They are great for other reasons than straight musicianship which they are great at for who they are. Also, it’s plain silly to think that “Billie just doesn’t want to play lead”. He can play lead but he isn’t the best person to do it, enter Jason.

What you’re not getting is it’s not a slight it’s a simple discussion over “anyone can be as good  as anyone if they just practice hard enough” with like most things can be disproven with simple math.

Everyone practicing the same + Everyone practicing the same ≠ everyone playing the same.

You can can yell all day that this is untrue but I would advise you to understand that brains are wired differently and that all people aren’t created the same and that’s good. But for sports, being the best technically does not mean you’re the best to listen to. In fact, the opposite. The best players that play at Japanese jazz bars playing music that even great musicians don’t understand how they can  do what they can do. The Harvard guy above is a good example. He’s good but he’s not near as good as some flemenco players and Spanish guitar players. My point is being the best at something doesn’t even appeal to most people. Hiromi who is literally probably the best technical player (as dubbed by Blue) is not going to attract as many people as Billy’s Joel or Elton John although she is light years above their playing level (and yes, even if she played the same songs). Intangibles matter. Also, why I included Armen is because he’s great but he’s still earth bound. YT Japanese jazz musicians and you’ll hate the music but it’s the best players in the world.

Here is one of the many scientific breakdown of Freddy Mercury’s amazing voice (Billie’s idol btw) and there are 100s of these scientific brewkdowns of why some people can do something better than another but this one says it quite well.

Hey man. If you feel you’re right and I’m wrong that we are all created equally and have the same abilities, more power to you. Go be all you can be but again I’d advise you that you should find what you do best and do those things. I’m a concert promoter, VFX Supervisor and writer and occasional producer but I’d rather be singing in a rock band but no matter how many lessons I took or how hard I wanted it and tried, I was never gonna be that. My family were realists and not “you can be WHATEVER you want”.

The one handed pitcher I believe proves that.

If not, here is more evidence. I say this to say EXPLORE not, don’t try. Dig?

At the end of the day, I don’t completely disagree with you. You need to have the desire, you do need some natural ability but only the small percentage that REALLY AND TRULY want it will do “it”,  whatever that THING is. Practice does indeed make near perfect but you need desire even more.  If you try and practice what you don’t desire (like many doctors and lawyers), you can read your way to success but one would be wise to find out what they desire and take the small, NOT VAGUE, efforts to get there. Anyone can be what they can be is more accurate then anyone can be whatever they want. Whether you agree with me or not, this for me, has been a great discussion which is why I wrote so much. I believe this to the core and I’ve seen in my middle life, many people become rich and famous while others with more talent, don’t. Reason? Desire. If you want something bad enough, nothing to it but to do it but you gotta wanna.

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