Core learning - how long to complete?

I'm curious on average how long it takes to complete the different stages of the Core Learning system. I breezed through the basics part1 mainly because I've taken lessons in the past and knew the chords already. Now I'm on to the 2nd basics course and am learning scales. These are definitely trickier but I enjoy the theory. I actually have some questions about scales but will do that in another post. Anyway, I know this answer is different for everyone but wanted to get some input. I plan on going through the Rock courses first after I complete the basics.

As you said, it'll be different for each person. Like you I whizzed through the stage 1. I'm on stage 2 now but haven't really looked at it properly. You could technically say I have been at it two weeks but I've only watched 1 video! I have done a bit of music theory before so I should hopefully also go through it relatively quick when I do focus on it. I've also been mucking about on Rocksmith and they have a guitarcade game with scales so I've got some knowledge of those as well.
I think for me a couple of months might be a good answer, after I've consolidated everything and am happy to move on. I'm personally rather conflicted about what I should move onto next. My favourite genre is rock, but I really like country and I fancy trying out the blues! Might have to pick one out of a hat.

When I got to the second fundamentals section on House of the Rising Sun, I started to slow down. I needed way more practice to get my hands moving and it was getting boring just playing the same thing. I hit a wall. So, I went into the blues course and found the first several sections very accessible. Now I plan to go back and forth, probably digging into the rock and country sections when I hit another wall; always returning to chip away at the other sections.

It took me two months to get to this point, with varrying amounts of practice time. I imagine it will take me a while to get through all of it because I'll likely keep taking detours. Remember, you shouldn't expect to master all the elements that are covered before moving on. I lost two weeks on a theory tangent researching things that I shouldn't expect to understand before my hands are comfortable.

A professional musician (and teacher) friend said that as a beginner, it's more important that you learn to PLAY the guitar and stay motivated, then it is to try to "learn" the guitar through and through.

I think that my overall experience is like the one previous mention here. I begin on August with GF1 then last month move to GF2 but I hit the wall that my fingers need more practice time.

Almost every day I dedicate practice time with warm up exercises, playing some Metallica intro stuff (easy for beginneers like me) and more important chords changes. For me is very important the chord changes because I´m mostly focus on rhythm than lead. Also a couple of scales some days.

To keep me motivated I´m moving forward beetwen GF2 and learning songs. After this my plan is to move to rock section and after blues. This also coming back in learning more songs.

Overall GT is a great site I love the overall experience and learning here.

Below are links to articles Wildwoman1313 wrote and are threads on this site. She is not teaching you how to play. She has condensed an enormous amount of knowledge and emotions into just a few minutes reading that almost every musician will experience at some point, maybe many points and now have a way to understand them.


http://www.guitartricks.com/forum/s...ead.php?t=39329
http://www.guitartricks.com/forum/s...ead.php?t=37902

I hope you enjoy them.

I too came to GT with some knowledge of the basics and whizzed thru G1, but now I am learning some songs and it's jolly good. I really enjoy playing Lisa McCormick GF1 (section 2) has some really beginner(one string) fun songs. Well since I am past that, I go back and do the 'play along' using full chords and adding some magic to the strumming. It's fun and it makes me feel good.

I had never played a guitar and it took me about 9 months to get through GF1 and GF2. I practiced 1 hour every evening and usually 15 minutes in the morning. I probably missed 20 days over that 9 months. Maybe I'm slow maybe it's because I really did master everything except the arpaggiated House of the Rising Sun. Still work on that from time to time. When they put out the new GF courses with Lisa I went back through it in about a month.

I haven't gone much beyond that on the site, but I can play in the church praise band and not look like a fool. Still need a lot of work to be what I would consider a good guitarist but I'd say I can play the guitar at this point.

I agree mrsoul, and I am wondering the same thing, but also wondering if I am going too fast. I played garage band rock and roll in the 60's and haven't picked up a guitar in almost 50 years. Practiced for the past two months and got back to where I got callouses and learned most of the open chords. Since I had that already, I am 25% completed with Basics one after only two days, but being retired I have all day long to spend working on it. I decided to simply set a goal which might work for others. I try to spend at least two hours a day on Guitar Tricks, but having said that, and knowing that beginners have sore fingers etc and slow chord changes, it might be smart to take the two hours and separate it into 4 half hour sessions per day. I think it's all up the individual as to how much time they have available to spend practicing.