I just signed up to continue my second year at Guitar Tricks. I have always wanted to play guitar and finally decided last July to just do it. I have thoroughly enjoyed it. As a beginner, I have often wondered how my progress compared to other players. I have searched this forum for similar postings to give me something to benchmark my experiences against. I thought that I would post my summary of the past year, not to brag, but just to let others know my struggles. I would hope other new players would also post their stories as well.
When I was 10 years old, my 4th grade teacher taught a guitar class. I still remembered a handful of open chords. I did not stick with the guitar then because I was only interested in playing basketball. However, the desire to play has always been with me. Last year, at age 53, I began to research several on-line guitar sites and settled on Guitar Tricks. I purchased an Epiphone Les Paul and began the Fundamentals 1 course. I really enjoyed Lisa's lessons. She takes to time to explain things very well and does not talk down to you. I progressed fairly well with the lessons. I was not able to practice every day as is recommended. The best I have ever done is pacticing about 4 times a week. Life just gets in the way. In fact, I was out of town for two weeks one time and was not able to practice at all.
One question that is asked a lot, is when should I move on to the next lesson. I don't know the answer to that, but for me, I moved on when I felt that I fully understood the concept. That does not mean that I could play the exercise fast enough or without any mistakes. I don't think I have ever played any of the songs without mistakes. The one song that hung me up for quite a while was "I Get It Now". I could not make the chord changes fast enough. I probably practiced that over and over for three weeks. Sometimes I would sit on the couch and practice the chord changes while I watched a football game. After about a month, there was a break through and - I get it now. It took me about four months to get through Fundamentals 1.
I went right into Fundamentals 2. I don't remember any real struggles until Barre Chords came up. The concept of barre chords is not difficult. It just takes time to build up speed to change between chords. I am still working on that but I have been able to see progress. I have the 5th string barres down pretty well but 6th string barres still are a bit slow. I have practiced the scales off and on but have never really developed any speed with them. It took another four months to get through Fundamentals 2. I still go back and practice several of the songs in both Fundamentals 1 and 2 to keep up with the chord changes.
I started into Rock 1. I was very excited to get into this course because that is where my interest is. It was a great course. I just finished it this week. The first two chapters were good. I really appreciated the repeat of barre chords and power chords. The rest of the course I felt was more reference material. I thought it was very interesting. I suspect that I will refer back to it many times in the future. I don't think I am ready to solo or play lead just yet.
When I started the Rock 1 course, I also started playing some of the easy songs. I have about five or six that I have been working on. I really enjoy playing "Runaway Train". I like the chord changes and the fact that It doesn't have the mind numbing repitition. I noticed a big jump in the difficulty between songs rated one guitar and two guitar. Most of this seems to be the speed. I struggle with speed but figure if I have enough songs to keep me occupied, I don't mind practicing them over and over.
My plans are to begin Blues 1 and then move on to Rock 2. I also have a whole bunch of songs that I will begin. So far, this has been a blast!. I am amazed at the progress I have made in a year. Hopefully someone will find my story helpful as they try to compare their experience.
