Self-taught electric guitarists...

Self-taught electric guitarists, I need some tips since I'm just starting out and all I can do is play 3 chords somewhat poorly.

you'll get sick of hearing this but honestly just practice fuckloads.. Try to push yourself, repeat until it becomes second nature and you don't have to think a lot.

Also play without distortion to make sure you're playing right if you actually want to get good

You think I should always have it hooked up to the amp?

Play things you find fun too, and riffs .
Also Metallica are a great starting point

They are? Fuck, I don't think so. I can barely move my hand up and down the neck trying to switch notes

I always say if you're not good at something right away, stop trying.

If you hadn't bought an electric guitar already I'd say get an acoustic. Hook it up to the amp so you can hear it, just play it clean. No effects or distortion

Get a good practice exercise to teach you keys.

Get a Looper there like my favorite thing to practice with.

The big multi effects pedals have enough options to play with for a while.

You can practice an hour a day but, you'll learn pretty quick if you sit down and play for 8-12 hours straight.

Great guitarists don't always play technically difficult music.

Listen to all the wierd little riffs that you barely notice in expensively produced country and pop music they're pretty sweet.

the very first thing to do: learn three more chords.
other than that: learn chords, practice, practice, practice the changes.
then look up a few techniques at picking.
then practice a shitload more.

Slow and steady bro

Start by playing the chromatic scale up and down one hour a day for a week.

If you play chords and they sound slightly out of tune it's because your bending the strings. If you look at the how to put your hand around the neck diagram. How the thumb is quite low on the back of the neck and the wrists twist around slightly that form helps with that but, I and a lot of people just learn to occasionally use the thumb on the top stringk. It's not common but it happens.

Play something you cannot play yet. Play it fucking slow. Slower. No seriously. FUCKING SLOW DOWN. It should practically feel like a massage to your brain.Then once you can do that, play it ever so slightly faster. Rinse and repeat.

There you go, the secret to getting good at anything. It's what I did and I'm a successful multi-instrumentalist now.

Enjoy the trip, playing music is one of the most rewarding experiences in life!

That's not necessary. A lot of musicians dumb down songs a bit when playing live. If you could imagine playing stairway to heaven, free bird, or going to the mountain ( I think that's what it's called) led zep you would spend months practicing the intro. That's where you can just use music theory to dumb it down a little bit.

Also a good practice exercise for learning songs via tab is to practice the intro ten 15 times with a stopwatch and tally then move onto.the next part.

Practice by ear too. Playing by ear is probably the most useful thing. There are tricks to doing it that involve using pentatonic scales to find the key. Then you just use your ear to pick out major, minor, seventh, or ninth chords etc.

Play c mahor, a minor, then d major, then a seventh chord you'll realize how the minors sound sad, the majors more upbeat, and the seventh have a distinct sound too.

do you recommend any songs?

Learn all major and minor open chords
Learn major, minor, major 7, minor 7 in both the 5 and 6 string barre chord shapes.

These two things will allow you to strum along to most songs in some form.

Other things to learn:

Minor pentatonic scale in all 5 (CAGED) positions

Other than that, learn songs you enjoy. There are plenty of great YouTube lessons now where the song is explained, played slow and with tabs on the screen.

Master of puppets!

What kind of music do you like to play, what are your goals?

If you've ever seen two people sit down and rock out without ever having met it's because they know the keys, timing, and are using certain popular chord progression.

A 1,3,5 chord progression in c major will have the same feel to it in any other major key. Your essentially just moving all the notes up or down together in proportion.

Ultimate-guitar.com has pretty much every song on it.

If you type in desperado by the eagles and click on a version labeled chords it just tells you the chords to a song with the lyrics above or below the chords.

That's actually a pretty good way to learn chords

You want to get your fingers all working somewhat independently. Chromatic exercises are great for all levels. Start at the 9th fret as they are closer together higher up. 1st finger 9th fret, 2nd finger 10th fret, 3rd finger 11th fret, fourth finger 12th fret. Do this for all the strings, real slow so the notes come out clean and when you get comfy, move down a fret. Repeat until you're at the 1st fret. This'll be frustrating at first, hand cramps and such, but it's a great practice exercise.

heavy metal in general, kinda more inclined toward thrash and power although i like Inquisition

Learn progressively challenging songs. Don't ask for tips from a bunch of failed everythings in the hopes that they magically know how to succeed at this one thing.

go to youtube and learn some licks

learn more chords, faggot.

It's ok just keep playing " Smoke On The Water" until someone shoots you.

practice for few weeks with a higher gauge strings than you would usually play, also practice string bending. this will give you callouses and more strength in your fingers. when you go back to the lower gauge everything will feel much easier.

Just look up seven nation army as a starting tab to get used to playing something and finger movement .. papa roach last resort is also a good beginner song