I knew almost nothing about charting before I joined the VSA club.
I had read 'master the markets', and discussed what it meant with other Hot Copper members, and had read some of the posts on the XJO thread for instance (which made me aware of many other different types of technical analysis, but I didn't actually study any of these styles. At that time I was a real novice, and didn't really know where I fit in the markets yet.). I haven't read or owned any other books on charting, although I have since read a couple of Wyckoff's original books from the early 1900's.
Wave charts work well, particularly in large very liquid markets.
Yes, I use the standard bar chart function within excel.