Re: excited about lessons.

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Only had one lesson. Everything else is self-taught. I plan on taking four lessons at Guitar Center for a couple of reasons: First, overtly, to make sure I'm not developing bad habits that can inhibit progress; Second, covertly, for the discounts and the guitar lesson books. The price cut I got on a Taylor Guitar was about twice what the four lessons cost, and the three volumes of their curriculum are gold.

[br]RE: Mary had a little lamb.

[br]I hear you about "Mary had a little lamb." Haven't run into that in any of the books I'm using, but that would annoy me too. The Guitar Center Curriculum starts with well-known riffs for practice, and an eclectic assortment of classic and modern songs for instruction. Main ones I'm working on now are "Good Riddance" from Green Day and "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" by Bob Dillan. The goal at the end: to finger pick "Hallelujah" by Leonard Cohen. Easy enough to strum; but, the picking is a few weeks away.

[br]The Proline "Play Guitar Today!" books were the best starters for me because they took the approach to teach one note at a time, one string at a time, while providing the underlying theory; building blocks for building chords. With that barrier broken, the other resources have more value and fun.

[br]RE: Chord transitions.

[br]I'm working through Lisa McCormick's Guitar Fundamentals videos; These are a sound reinforcement of what I've already learned. The best value at this point is how she shows strategies for smoother chord transition. Even though I've already learned the chords she covers, her strategies are helping play them together rather than one at a time. A problem I'm having with it is that I like to follow along by reading the music, but the music is usually more than four screens long. Kind of hard to stop strumming so I can scroll. Lisa says to print it, but Guitartricks generates this message when I attempt to print: "This is a licensed song, and we're not able to offer notation printing."

[br]RE: holding on to the pick.

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I've tossed a few myself; they often seem to land inside the guitar. Maybe there should be a lesson about safely extracting a pick from inside a guitar. My approach involves some bouncing to get the pick into the center of the body where I can see it through the strings, then flip the guitar over quickly so the centrifugal force can allow it to drop onto the floor. Now that I have a real guitar, I'm a little more careful to clear the area, so I don't bang it into furniture. One of the mistakes I was making was to grip the pick in a fist. I have to relax my hand and lightly grip the pick and relax my other fingers so they can help me fell my way around the strings and the body while I strum. Also, I bought a pack of a dozen picks and keep them close. Something I learned is that losing a pick isn't necessarily a problem. Strumming with the back of my fingertips generates a quite intriguing and almost mechanical sound.