How not to get overwhelmed too quickly?

Hey all,

I would like to post the question as this and If you can give me some food for thoughts I totally appreciate it. I am a drummer and a classically trained pianist, because of that my foundation of rhythm is pretty strong as my ear for harmony. I love guitartricks as the site it so dense and packs with information. But it's like going to the gym for the first time when you're not sure which machine you want to use and end up feeling scared.

I'm a high beginner, low intermediate guitar player as I know how to play rhythm guitar to my favorite songs and understand basic chords and scales without knowing how to apply them. (just up and down and the shape). There are things that I want to learn but im quite scared because it's marked difficult so I'm put off trying to see them. Here are all my goals with learning the guitars:

- design a good 2 hours practice routine

- being able to practice all the techniques efficiently (strumming, hmer on/pull off, slide, bend, vibrato, ...)

- being able to handle intermediate chord changes or intermediate harmony (7th, sus, 9, 11, 13, 6 chords)

- being able to move around the fretboard with a solid understanding of how to connect between one shape and another

- I love John Mayer so I'd love to be able to play blues and solo like Hendrix, SVR or BB King

- Being able to play guitar and sing at the same time. Finger picking is something I really love

- Understanding about gears and amps, effects of all kind and music recording.

Would love to hear your thoughts on this. Thank you!

Have you gone through the two Fundamentals courses of the Core Learning System? Have you from there, gone through one or more of the Style follow-ons? If not... start at the beginning. It may be repetitive for you... if so, good, it'll only take a short time.

Start at the beginning... it's a good course structure and will prepare you for your list of goals. Then resubmit your question if need be.

For me, your mentioned two-hour practice session, five or six times a week is ideal. Once the fundamentals are learned you can break that time into small sub-sets practicing several of the techniques you list; ten minutes here, 15 minutes there.

Take your time; it's neither a race nor competition. It's also endless... you stop learning when [u]you[/u] decide to stop. Otherwise, "the road goes on forever and the party never ends."

Good luck have fun.

john