Lesson-related question about chord progressions

[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by WilliamTK1974

Hey all,

Today was the second of a month's worth of guitar lessons I received as a birthday gift. I'm glad to have received them because I like the personal guidance and sense of structure.

I've had a couple of doubts about the teacher's technique, but he has an encouraging personality, and it's good when someone really seems to care and is patient with their assistance.

Now, he was talking about chord progressions, and how music has a sensible order to it, and once you "crack the code," you become more than a walking tape deck that can play three or four songs by rote but is otherwise lost. That all makes perfect sense. He went on to demonstrate one such series.

Here's where things went a bit wrong: the progression he demoed had an F played with a barre. I'm just learning that and am not speedy yet. So, he said to try a different one. I *think* it was something like E to A to C to G, but that seems almost too simple

Am I missing something? Would someone mind cluing me in a bit?

I told him that when it came to stuff like this, I needed something written down that I could take with me, otherwise there's that real risk that I'll lose something between the lesson site and home. He said he would be prepared for that next week.

As an aside, he said that given the proficiency I demonstrated with my open chords, I know enough to play some Gordon Lightfoot. That's good news. Bad news is that I have a hard time keeping it straight in my head til I get home...

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thank you,

Hi William

May I suggest you use your smart phone (if you own one) and record the parts of the lesson you need to take home and practice.

I've had students use phones for video, or a Zoom H1 to capture audio examples and explanations (must faster than writing them down). These proved most useful for recall.