Beginner Progression

I started using Guitar Tricks as a 57-yr. old absolute beginner on 12/29. I've made it as far as Fundamentals 1, practicing songs in the keys of G & C. I practice chord transitions daily, some very basic songs, Fret Board trainer in Tools, and more. My question is, What level of mastery should I attain before moving on to Fundamentals 2? I still can't do B. F is still very hard.

Congratulations on your progress so far! I'm in Fundamentals 1 as well and just watched the final videos on that level. Lisa states that she doesn't expect you to be able to do everything with full mastery by the end of the course- but to understand it and be working on it in your practice.

It sounds to me like you are ready to move forward. Plus you can always return to the previous lessons if you need a reminder or want to practice there.

[u]Reasonable competence[/u] would be the more apt description of the necessary realistic [u]target[/u] level of skill to be acquired than "mastery".

Open F is a challenge for pretty much everyone starting out. [u]Multiple finger[/u] barre B is too, its difficulty exacerbated by shorter fingers and smaller hands. Open B is pretty easy as is the two finger barre B most guitarists including me use. But, it all takes time and is progressive in the learning and skill acquisition

[br]Can't recall how far F1 goes, but as I recall it covers all the common Open chords including those I'll mention in the paragraph below? If I'm errant on that, please forgive.

[br]With that salient in mind;

A. What type of guitar are you playing (i.e. electric or acoustic), and;

B. What kind of music/genre interests you that you would like to be able to play in future?

C. Can you play G,Em, C, D - C, D,G, Em and C, Am, F, G - F, G, C Am Open chord progressions fluidly with musicality yet? Both of those are pretty easy, common and solid progression finger trainers which will permit the playing of a zillion songs with rhythm, strum pattern and inflection adaptation.

[br]Use those and/or songs you like from the made easy songs or harder as you prefer selection here on GT or chord sheets elsewhere within capability of the chords taught in F1 as a tool to bring you up to speed if you self-assess either not comfortable with or not fluid with the progressions yet.

In conjunction, move on to Fundamentals 2 regardless, but keep working on all the salient practical material taught in F1 to achieve comfortable competency with it too.

Thanks for the replies.

A) acoustic

B) don't really have a genre in mind. Is there much carryover in the skill set needed to go from one to the other? I like country, singer-songwriter (Jim Croce, etc.)

C) since I don't understand the question, I'm guessing the answer is no.

After reading your replies, I think maybe I was trying to be too perfect before moving on.

Acoustic is generally harder/different to fret than electric. Keep that in mind.

Fundamentals are fundamentals.

That said, acoustic fingerpicking in the hauntingly beautiful exceptionally talented style of Jim Croce here (love this song, and Jim Croce RIP generally) is different technically and tonally from playing a Rock piece like John Paul Jones "Black Dog" played by Jimmy Page.

[br]But they share fundamentally in common they both use a selection of chords and notes played on six strings of a guitar. At our age, be guided by the tenet "One can do amost anything one wants, just not everything one wants". At some stage approaching the end of F2 when you are ready if not before, you'll know which and where you'll want to place your available energy and focus.

How you expand upon those fundamentals to develop further will depend upon what that decision of what you want to do with your playing, which will also be of influence in the type of guitar preferred if restricted to a single example. Nice to have an electric available for tone in the power chords lessons of Fundamentals, but your acoustic is fine to perform the tactile task necessary to have a hands on appreciation of the principles.

You'll 'know' when you're getting ahead of yourself when you can't do the stuff you've 'learned' previously to a standard of competency necessary to support your current point in the coursework. It's tempting to race through, but knowing isn't doing, the latter demanding perseverence in hands on application and longer for most of us in so far as learning guitar is concerned.

[br]Cheers mate. Always enjoy the journey, even in adversity.

An absolute treasure trove of advice and information. Thank you!