Chords for Courtney Barnett: How I Learned To Play The Guitar

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ Hi, my name's [A] Courtney Barnett.
I'm in Woonjer Guitars [Em] in London. _ _ _ _
We've got [B] so many guitars around the house, _ so [Em] _ _ it's kind [E] of, yeah, it always [C] happens, sit on the couch [E] and play guitar.
I've got a couple of old _ [A] acoustics at home, [Cm] kind of all tuned differently, so it's fun to pick [G] one up and see what kind [D] of happens.
There's a [E] song on the first album that Scotty says, which is kind of, _ [Em] _ _
_ _ [E] _ _ _ _ _ _
[A] _ _ [E] _ _ _ _ [A] _ _
_ _ [E] _ something like that.
That's what I normally do.
_ [G] And that's [D] why all my songs end up being like that, because it's what I always fucking do.
But, _ _ [G] yeah, [Ab] that's the main one.
_ I [Em] started playing properly when I was ten and getting _ [G] lessons and stuff.
My older brother and his friends always [D] played guitar, so I kind of begged [Am] them to teach [Eb] me.
And then I begged mum and dad [E] to buy me a guitar and get me lessons.
But it kind of took ages, and I had to use [G] like four birthday and Christmas presents at once to [Eb] _ [E] finally get one.
Yeah, I remember dad taught me _ Smoke on the Water.
I mean, he couldn't play guitar, but he kind of made it up.
It took him like an hour to figure it out and teach it to me.
And then _ _ _ _ _ _ my neighbour taught me Come As You Are, _ Something In The Way.
_ [D] _ _ _ _ And [G] that's all I can [E] remember.
_ _ _ [Gbm] _ _
_ _ [E] _ _ _ But the thing is, when I was learning it, I was [G] _ _ playing on an upside-down guitar.
I mean, like on a right-handed guitar, because that's all they had.
So it kind of took me even longer to [D] _ _
_ learn it [E] upside-down.
It's confusing.
So I can kind of play right-handed guitar upside-down [Em] pretty well.
_ _ _ _ This [Am] is my Telecaster, and I got [C] it, I think I got it last [D] year.
I _ _ [Abm] have this _ _ Harmony _ _ Rocket, which I love.
But I was taking it on tour, and it was kind of getting bashed around.
_ _ And [E] I was a bit scared it was going to die.
And I got a friend to help me buy it on eBay, because I didn't know how to use eBay. _
So [Ab] he helped me.
And there's never, any time I go to a guitar store, there's never any [Abm] _ _
good left-handed guitars.
I'm not a guitar nerd at all.
I [A] hardly know anything about guitars or about amps.
[E] But _ I love [Ab] this guitar.
I've kind of dinged it around a bit.
I've lost bits.
I got a big chip out of it the other week. _
[Gb] I think it was the last show of the tour, and I threw it around. _
[C] _ There's always a bit of [Bm] nerves before I release.
[E] You know, _ _ _ such private [Em] ideas and songs, and then to _ _ [E] _ release them [Db] into _ [C] the big [E] world
with people listening to them and judging them.
_ It's kind of a bit of a scary thing, but it _ doesn't [C]
really matter so much.
_ [E] I mean, you say that, but of course [E] you'd get upset if [Em] someone tells you your haircut sucks
after you've just got it done.
Well, I like the Elevator Operator riff.
[B] And that's the first one I had, and I always thought it was cool. _ _ _ _
[D] I thought it was so cool, but I couldn't come up with any lyrics for it for two years.
But it's kind of a bit in the _ Dan Kelly _ _ _ _ tabloid blues _ _ [B] vein.
_ _ _ [E] _
It _ _ _ _ [A] _ _ _
_ _ [E] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[B] _ _ _ [E] _ _ _ [G] _ _
_ _ [Em] _ _ _ _ [E] feels like the whole song [N] is in one breath as well.
So when I recorded it, _ if you listen to the _ _ whole first part,
_ _ _ well, maybe not the whole first part, but by the [D] end of the first chorus,
_ I'd totally lose my breath, because I think I've held [Ab] it for the whole thing.
_ Well, the thing is that I never get to play many different guitars,
so I never kind of [C] know what they, because of the left-handed [D] thing,
what they sound like or what they feel like.
[Em] I got a Strat this year, which is _ [E] fun to play,
but [Ab] I want to get a forest green _ _ [D] Jazzmaster, _ _ _ _ that specific colour.
And _ I wouldn't mind _ _ a _ 12-string _ _ Rickenbacker,
just for a bit of cliche kind of guitar buying.
But _ I don't know, like I said, I'm not much of a guitar nerd,
I'll probably play the same thing and make it sound exactly the same anyway.
_ _ _ [A] But yeah, _ [D]
maybe [Em] I'll get a new guitar in a couple of years. _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [A] _ _ _