Originally Posted by: 3donkeyBruce,

it s amazing that you did all this in 2 years. I have question, what do you do when you re learning a new song, do you stick with it till you re able to play perfectly? or you rather practice different things at the same time?

Thanks, and I'll take the compliment, particularly since you haven't even heard me play!

For all of the songs, I've first learned a very basic version. Our band has generally stuck with "Three Chords and the Truth", according to our fearless leader. Since I'm playing rhythm mostly, some of the songs are pretty dead easy 3-chord progressions that I started playing only in the open position.

Then as I learned barre chords I started to throw them in there for variety. I also took the song lessons on here and some on YouTube to see how other people played the songs. These would often be above my level, but I'd take pieces of this one and pieces of that and add a bit to the song as my skills got better. And as mentioned in my last post, I'd have to "dumb down" some parts till I could gradually pick up speed or complexity in some areas.

Using that method, I keep working on all 50 or so songs that I play with some regularity, trying to get each one a little better all the time. I have to keep cycling back through all of them to keep the muscle or brain memory in shape. It's pretty easy for me to forget a song if I leave it unattended for too long.

That's the method, if you can call it that, which works for me. I don't worry about perfection, but I keep working toward "better". One of the many cool things about learning guitar is that you can make some useful music at a very basic level, but then there are endless ways to keep improving. Pretty soon you'll find yourself playing things you didn't think possible a few months ago, and then you can just stretch out further for the next goal.

Bruce