I’m all over the place

[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 , fingerstyle is what I’m about I don’t like strumming at all mainly because I hate my voice when I sing to the chords, I can’t seem to get it all together , I can play the barrr chords easily enough, so I think I keep jumping from song to song , and not really finishing them off,
I feel I need to learn everything but I feel I am learning nothing as far as music is conserned , now I have found DADGAD tuning and I want to try that , it ia all driving me crazy , HOW do I slow down ......... I seem to be spiralling out of control , and not getting anywhere .......... any suggestion would be a great help guys....
Love to you all(

[jim1960]

I've seen people do this. They learn the easiest parts of a song first, then they give up when frustrated by the harder parts and wind up never learning the whole song. My suggestion would be to start with the hardest part of a new song. Get that under control and the rest will fall into place much more easily.

[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.

[Earwitness]

I may have a different take than others but I think you need to do what you like the most. If staying on one song until you made it perfect would bore you and make you want to quit then you should not do that. On the other hand if never learning a song completely correctly would frustrate you and make you want to quit then you should do that. It sounds like you are learning a lot.

[Bain]

Your right I am learning a lot in my mind but not musically if you get my drift it just that there is so much info I want to inhale , I want to eat all the sweets in the shop but I am not tasting the flavour ......

[Rosewood99]

I think it's important to choose your songs wisely and don't start on something too advanced. Why don't you start with a song that is just cowboy chords? Next, find one that has some easier barre chords.

[Bain]

Yep good point it may help me slow down

[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.

[Gordon Currie]

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 , fingerstyle is what I’m about I don’t like strumming at all mainly because I hate my voice when I sing to the chords, I can’t seem to get it all together , I can play the barrr chords easily enough, so I think I keep jumping from song to song , and not really finishing them off,
I feel I need to learn everything but I feel I am learning nothing as far as music is conserned , now I have found DADGAD tuning and I want to try that , it ia all driving me crazy , HOW do I slow down ......... I seem to be spiralling out of control , and not getting anywhere .......... any suggestion would be a great help guys....
Love to you all(

I have a close friend who acts a lot like this. He flits around from guitar to guitar, from style to style, from technique to technique, but never is able to master anything.

He has pretty severe ADHD which makes it even more difficult to focus on something frustrating and/or boring.

He has a really good ear, so he theoretically can pick things up faster, but can't stay with one thing long enough to get the full benefit of practice time.

The key here is to ignore the shiny objects (oooh slide guitar! wow, celtic music!) and focus on building fundamentals. Don't worry, that cool style you want to explore will be there six months from now. Yet, if you have no more grasp of fundamentals than today, it will still be out of your reach.

I think a good teacher could help to give you structure and focus, and most importantly accountability. When you show up for a lesson and haven't improved at all on the current focus, then you will become (painfully) aware that other people don't care about something interesting you discovered, but only what can you play right now?

[Inyo]

Originally Posted by Bain

I have found DADGAD tuning, it ia all driving me crazy , HOW do I slow down ......... I seem to be spiralling out of control , and not getting anywhere.

Not in the least surprised that DADGAD has become the bain of the poster's existence...grin...

[Steadfastly]

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.

Mr. Roy, you took the words right out of my mouth (well, off my keyboard).

I was going to suggest he go to Justinguitar as well and stick to his program. He has a number of easy songs to learn. Learn them and keep moving on. Justin also makes you set goals. Work on those goals and go to the next one. It's how you advance.

[srick]

Bain -

I started out pretty much the same way (11 years ago). I picked up numerous how-tos (books way back when), kept playing different guitars, pored through online resources, spent afternoons in various music stores,etc. In retrospect, I needed to get all of that out of my system first before ‘really’ learning.

I would say that my biggest influence was playing with others. Being in the presence of friends not only makes for a social gathering, but you learn about rhthym and basic chord changes. You also get to hear their mistakes.

Maybe five years in, I was ready to apply myself. I have learned mainly from online resources, but have found that several weekend workshops propelled me forward. I am now a fairly solid intermediate fingerstyle player, have played several open mics and have a growing repertoire. I am not giving up my day job to begin a career on the road, however!

You are likely stymied because there is so much to learn and (I assume) not enough time to incorporate everything you want to achieve. My advice is to have fun - don’t worry about the destination. There are no grades here and no permanent record.

Best,

Rick

[SprintBob]

My progression has been:

1. Completed Steve Eulberg beginner course (start to finish) at Jamplay.
2. Completed JustinGuitar beginner course.
3. Decided fingerstyle was to be my main focus.
4. Started with Mark Hanson’s Beyond Fingerstyle book, completed 60% of it.
5. Switched to Mark Hanson’s Contemporary Travis Picking book, completed 80% of it and picked up Mark as my Skype teacher as I finished my study with it.
6. Started Mark’s Art of Solo Fingerstyle course with lesson from Mark every 3 weeks. I have done all but two songs in this book and continue my study with it.
7. Got subscription to Peghead Nation and taking Flat picking Rhythm course as taught by Scott Nygard. This is supplemental to my Fingerstyle work.
8. I am currently about 60/40 Fingerstyle/flatpicking that I split my work on.

All of the above supplemented with additional songs from various sources and a couple of Truefire and Homespun courses that are supplemental.

Everything I start I try to do as a building block and that has served me well.
I’m 59 and 5 years into this very fun journey. Hope this helps and good luck.

[reeve21]

I really think you would benefit from a good teacher. Someone who plays in multiple styles and can help you acquire the fundamentals you need to play what you want to play (and help you figure that out).

Best of luck. It is possible to do it on your own, too. But there is more floundering around involved, as you are finding out.

[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).