This all depends on the original song. Alot of simple sounding songs are actually quite complicated recordings with all sorts of studio tricks used. For instance Free's 'Alright Now' has 3 guitar parts all playing slightly differently. Same for 'Honky Tonk Women' by the Rolling Stones, there are Keith Richards playing diferent tunings, different stringings etc.Try looking for the artist doing the song unplugged or live in concert. Usually not quite the same...

Other thing to bear in mind is alot of stuff on chordie is peoples 'this works for me' versions. They may have missed passing chords, hammer-ons, run-downs and all sorts. Sometimes they are just plain wrong.

You'll find folk and country songs are much more rooted in real guitar playing. Same goes for singer-songwriters who perform solo with guitar.

What you want to be doing is listening to yourself and asking. Is this a whole song? Does it flow without pauses and jerks. Is the timing regular? Are your vocals telling the story and making the notes. If you are getting all this together people will forget the precise shape of the original. Thats why some cover versions put a whole new spin a song...

Try mumbling the words without really trying to get the lyrics.  Just more like "scat" singing where you don't think so hard while strumming.   I had exactly the same problem.  Maybe try Knockin' On Heaven's Door for a starter.  G, D, Am....G, D, C all the way through.  You can put a capo on if you want.

- Zurf

I have been playing for under a year.  I am a bit stuck on strumming.  I find my strumming very loud, so loud it drowns out my voice.  Can anyone suggest what I'm doing wrong and how to make my strumming in the background

Maybe try palm muting?

Nela

Im a noob also. Only been playing 8 months or so. Everything Ive learned has been from youtube and Chordie.  I'm not good at all but I can play a few songs. Try and pick easy songs that you know really well.  One that comes to mind is Free Fallin' by Tom Petty. Really easy to learn. Easy to make it sound right too. As I said, youtube is the best thing I've found to help me. I can only learn by watching and imitating someone.

check these out, all on youtube

guitarsage
justinsanderco
Siggimertens
gally042
handsomealvin

As for the artistic freedom, it's up too you. But you sound like me, I want it to sound like I heard it. That's why I liked it in the first place so iIwant to play it that way. After you learn it well then add your own spin on it. At this point in my learning I am going back and adding stuff to the songs I know that I couldn't do a few months ago.

Practice practice practice. Sounds boring and tedious but that is the key. In just the past 2 days I have been able to switch to a barre F.  Been practicing that one for a while. The more you play the more things will fall into place.

Keep Rockin'

  Well....  If you have watched "Idol" the thing you always hear from the Judges is "Make it your own".  Just because you are doing covers, doesn't mean that you HAVE to, or even want to, necessarily do the tune EXACTLY like the original. If it is a tune you like, use a bit of that freedom (artistic freedom) to change things up a little.

  If you are having trouble with timing, use a metronome to give you a steady beat to follow with your strumming, a toe tap will do if you can keep it even.  Play along with a recording of the original music to learn the chord changes as they relate to the lyrics and if you use something like Audacity, you can speed up or slow down the tempo without changing pitch of your playback and record your progress at the same time.  Another thing to be aware of is that most of the music out there that is tabbed out or even scored in Chopro, is someone else's idea of what the chords are and may be transposed to suit their voice or preference.... may not even be close to the key of the original recording.  If your version sounds way off to what you are playing with... grab that capo and move it around to see where it sounds best, then hit the transpose button to move it up or down to suit you.

  Above all (here it comes) Practice practice practice!

Keep your chin up and hang in there.... it just gets better and better.  Naturally, hang around here awhile and you will meet a whole bunch of friendly helpful people to get to know.  Everybody's been where you are and understand where you are coming from.

Again Welcome!  And Take Care;
Doug

   Welcome to Chordie, not sure if you've heard of Justin Sandercoe, if not give him a try, he can teach you anything you need to know, another good source is  the guy at gutarjamz.com

http://www.justinguitar.com/

http://www.youtube.com/user/guitarjamzdotcom

  Hope this helps
Cam

all your help would be appreciated alot