I’m all over the place

[sabatini]

I am conducting a lifelong research project to determine how many pounds of guitar instructional material I have to own before I can actually play guitar.

I have "Book No. 1" of ten or twelve systems, including Mel Bay and Hal Leonard. I have Christopher Parkening, Pete Seeger, Mark Hanson, Ken Perlman, Stephan Grossman, Fred Sokolow, etc., etc., etc. Even Book 2 of a couple series. Several bookshelves crammed full.

In recent years, my research has been complicated by electronic media and the internet. How do I assign an equivalent pound weight to a Happy Traum DVD, which obviously can contain as much instructional material as several pounds of books? But, how many pounds? How many paper pounds does Justin's Beginners Course equal? Or JamPlay? Or Tony Polecastro's online lessons?

As you can see, I have been more "All over the place" than you could ever dream of being. So, I have no useful advice other than don't do what I did. I will let you know if I ever discover the answer to the "how many pounds" question.

[calstang66]

Originally Posted by catdaddy

Self-discipline is something that is critically important when trying to master any skill. Temporarily limiting your focus might give you more satisfying results. For instance, when you think about playing guitar imagine playing for someone else. Do you think they'll be more interested in hearing your ability to jump from barre chord to barre chord or to hear you play a complete piece of music? Learning a song and practicing it to perfection is an elemental building block of becoming a musician. You'll have time to learn it all, but a systematic focus on learning the basics is probably better than a helter skelter piecemeal approach to a plethora of music elements for most folks.

I say maybe 3 important aspects to entering into a efficient path of improvement.
1) either pretend you are preparing to play in front of an audience or actually do it, maybe a 1 person audience. Serious music teachers make even beginning students prepare (near perfect) songs, easy ones of course at first, for "Recitals" regularly. This creates confidence, pride and momentum!!!!
2) my 60 yr old brother told me the secret to becoming really good at guitar or piano. The secret is, practice 3 to 4 hours a day. I believe all "really good" performers to this.
3) I think most people don't have the discipline to create a good plan nor the discipline to stick to the plan, so most of us need to take lessons. This is like an insurance policy, greatly greatly increasing the "probability" that you will improve rapidly.
(This lesson is worth a couple hundred bucks, pls send private message for my paypal acct info.)

[SpiderTrap]

I've found great difficulty in finding a good music teacher , so i gave up long ago and went on my own , BooKs, VHS ( remember them ) but should have practiced way more often . I Finally figured that out . Spent too much time buying and selling guitars than practicing , VERY BAD HABIT . Good Luck on your journey . my advice is find a guitar you really enjoy playing , Pick up tips from watching others play , and practice at least a half hour a day .. 3 or 4 hours is too intensive for a beginner . But consistency is the key , little by little things will pop into your subconscious . When you play and dont have to think is when you've obtained 99% . The other 1% is impossible . no one one earth can completely figure out everything on any guitar . It's an enigma.

[Bain]

Thanks for all your thoughts on my situation guys , you know I think it has helped me think about what I need to do. And I appreciate that, so back to the drawing board, less internet , less books more structure practice , big thanks again to you all ........

[frankmcr]

I have often thought that a total beginner should start with open D tuning:

D A D F# A D

Learn how to play songs you know and like in this tuning

(transpose them to the key of D if they are in some other key).

This will let the beginner play songs they like almost right away, which is encouraging, which is really important. AND it will teach the beginner how theory works in real life (rather than in theory); that is, how a I - IV -V7 progression sounds and how a ii - V - I progression sounds.

THEN, move on to the most widely used open tuning: E minor 7th add 11th, EADGBE. Apply what you've learned and learn more.

Originally Posted by Bain

Hi I’m a new player, so I have been learning on my own for about a year, really not finished a song yet so busy just learning the chords , metronome , fretboard, etc know what I mean ... I keep jumping from song to song , and not really finishing them off,

I don't find this so unusual. When you first start out it's very difficult to play through an entire song; heck your muscles aren't even tuned up enough to keep it up for 4 minutes straight, right?

I think I was playing for a couple years before I was able to play through an entire song. Granted I wasn't at it all the time, but I wasn't really slacking either. My main problem was and still is lack of innate talent, so everything has to be learned and practiced a lot. Even now when I play something like Stairway to Heaven my left hand hurts a little toward the end the second time I play it. I think I still grip the neck too hard, boy that's a habit hard to break, don't start doing that.

But before I could play entire songs I'd play parts. A couple bars here, the chorus there, maybe a couple measures somewhere else. Even today I don't always play the whole song, I just kind of do whatever I feel like at the time. Even with Stairway I just play the acoustic part as the electric part doesn't interest me. If you plan to play with others or gig you'll need more discipline, but if you're playing for your own enjoyment, don't sweat it so much. The main thing is to keep playing, it'll work itself out naturally.

[lowrider]

I agree that you need a good teacher...............................for singing!

Like you I went through my first year not wanting to sing. I went through the first year using Justinguitar but not wanting to bother with those simple 1-2-3-4 strumming songs. Then I worked with Toby Walker's fingerpicking lessons and learned some cool stuff. At this point, I knew quite a bit about playing. I started going to a jam session and just strumming along and fingerpicking some parts, but I really couldn't contribute since I had no control of my voice.

I started working with a voice coach and now I'm learning and leading a song when I go to the jam sessions.

You already know a lot about playing. Voice lessons will let you put it all together.

[SprintBob]

Originally Posted by Texmex03

Sprint

Which of Mark Hanson's books would you start with if you did it all over again?

Need to pickup a finger style book. I am around 7 or 8 on Justin Guitar and bounce back to earlier lessons a lot to recap.

So far for finger style I have found random videos, mainly GuitarJamz for Blackbird, Babe I'm Gonna Leave You and Wish you Were Here (very early on the last two).

Contemporary Travis Picking and in a few weeks Mark will be offering the 30th anniversary edition of Art of Solo Fingerstyle. Both books/studies are meant to be a progression so if new to fingerstyle, do CTP first. I chose this path to “stop the madness” of being overwhelmed by all the online material and resources (which is not a bad thing). When I started to flatpick, my main source book/study has been Dan Miller’s Flatpicking Essentials (Volume 1, Flatpick.com) subsequently supplemented with the Peghead Nation course. Adding Mark as a teacher helps pull it all together. No doubt I also use additional materials to supplement the above. In my case they include:

Pete Huttlinger Essential Exercises for Fingerstyle (Homespun)
Cathy Fink 30 Acoustic Americana Licks (Truefire, cool Fingerstyle riffs to add to your repertoire)
Muriel Anderson 50 Right Hand Techniques (Truefire, great tips and techniques)
Solo Flatpicking Handbook (Truefire)
Pumping Nylon (excellent source of woodshed exercises for any Fingerstyle player)
Guitar Players Guide to Speed Accuracy and Tone (Dan Miller and Brad Davis)

My regular practice routine normally includes 1-2 exercises from the above that supplements the primary work I do with Mark’s Fingerstyle material and the Peghead Nation material. Lots of songs work into this, both from the materials above and other sources based on what I prefer to play. It helps to keep a practice journal and also to record yourself regularly for self critique. The only thing I don’t have is other players to interact with regularly and I’d like to add that soon.

My total investment in materials that I actively use is about $200. My live subscriptions and my teaching costs are about $1,000 a year. It’s a relatively cheap passion if you compare it to golf, hunting, fishing, owning a boat, owning a motorcycle, etc.

Good luck in making good choices that keep you fresh, motivated, and inspired and #1 make sure you are having FUN.

[musicman1951]

I'm not sure there is a wrong way to get down this road. But there are frustrating ways and your current method (or lack there of) seems to be causing some frustration.

I suggest you decide what you want to be able to do - long range goals. It does take many years to be as good as I think you want to become, so some patience is required.

I suggest you try a written daily schedule, even if it's to work on a song for 10 minutes and then do the usual. It sounds like you'd be happier finishing a few songs and that probably will not take very long if you do a little woodshedding every day.

If you don't want to sing you might consider spending some time in a classic guitar method like Arron Shearer.

If you have the funds, a teacher would not be a bad suggestion.

Most important: be nice to yourself. I'll bet you're already making some fine music. Don't get so wrapped up in the learning process that you forget to enjoy the magic.

[Bain]

Really guys... the time and effort you all have put in to help is staggering , all the info is rebooting my small brain, in a good way. I want to be a reasanable player I think that’s why I spent so much time learning the basics but reading and watching does not get the fingers moving I suppose. I guess I lost the basic principle of enjoyment and got lost trying to get a degree in music if you will.
So thanks again fellas.

[SprintBob]

It took me about 3 years to find the right format that moved me down the road and was still a lot of fun to do and look forward to so you are certainly not alone.

[blindboyjimi]

I think you may want to take lessons. Find a good instructor. But keep up with all the instructional material. It’ll all start to gel in a year or two. I play the blues with Stefan Grossman’s DVDs but in all honesty even the basic ones were VERY hard at first. It used to take weeks to get a song down slowly. Now it takes a day or two to play along in time with the DVD. Use YouTube, use Justin, Mark Hanson, etc. They are all good. I think it’s better to start with materials that are easy, but you just can’t get there yet as even the simpler songs will throw in a barre cord. So just leave it and every now and then come back and try it again. You will build up strength and coordination. I have finally broke down and bought a pick and I’m learning normal popular Eagles and Neil Young songs and I feel like a beginner. I now play some tunes in DADGAD, Open D, Open G (Slack Key) and I’ll never leave the Blues, but I now bought a Strat and I’m learning Chicago Blues rather than Delta/Piedmont. I might suggest Happy Traum’s beginning DVDs. They are older but are quite good and get you up to speed a bit slower than the Stefan Grossman ones. In 5 years you’ll be here giving advice. But my best advice is go slow. It’s actually harder to play slow yet in time and get the right articulation. I use Amazing Slow downer and Video Surgeon. You might want to look into those. Best of luck.

https://www.homespun.com/shop/produc...picking-dvd-1/
https://www.homespun.com/shop/produc...picking-dvd-2/

want to learn finger picking? toby walker.

[troystory92]

Originally Posted by Rev Roy

Sounds like you need some structure. Either get a teacher or take an online beginner course. Justinguitar is free and gets lots of love on AGF for beginners. It’s mainly strumming, though. Another option is to pay and take a beginner fingerpicking course on JamPlay or other fee-based site.

This was my first thought.

I took lessons for 5 years. Now I've been giving lessons on/off for the past three years. Regardless of what you use (online, person, mel bay) try to balance your learning between stuff you need to know (strings, notes, scales, chords) and stuff you want to know (solos, songs). Obviously your gonna want to practice the stuff you want more, but the basics of guitar are so important to even make this possible. So be consistent with it.

In a world of choices and variety, it can be overwhelming and enticing to do a little bit of everything. Fight the urge to jump around and focus on only a few things a ta time.

Best of luck! Learning guitar is a fun and challenging experience.

[srick]

Originally Posted by jpmf

want to learn finger picking? toby walker.

I will second that. I have pretty much all of Toby's material. Even the most difficult pieces can be taken on several levels - and he presents the lessons that way. Also, he is very approachable and always available via e-mail.

best,

Rick