So basically, Christopher, you're telling me that I have to practice for an hour every day to get my playing where I want it to be. The fact that my schedule, at least for the next couple of weeks, doesn't allow for me to do that seems to be irrelevant. I mentioned earlier in the thread that the only goal I have been able to come up with is that I would like to be able to play the few songs that I like, in the privacy of my home, where nobody will ever hear me play. I will say that there are certain aspects of the guitar, like barre chords for example, that I have no desire to even attempt to learn. Given the seemingly infinite number of songs that just use the basic chords of G, C, D, and E minor, I think I'll be able to find something to play.

During the time I was taking weekly lessons, my 15 minutes of practice was spent working on whatever was discussed in the lesson. Usually that consisted of working through the exercises in the method book that I have (A Modern Method for Guitar: Volume 1 by William Leavitt). The two goals that I worked towards with this book were learning how to read musical notation, and learning how to play without looking at either my fretting hand or my strumming hand (trying to develop the feel that any proficient guitar player has while playing). As of the last lesson I took, which was about a month ago, I had gone up to exercise 8 in the book. I've not yet achieved any feel when it comes to playing the guitar, because I still have to look at my fretting hand. This is the only way I can get my fretting hand to get to where it needs to be while still being in time. I also still have no ability to read musical notation.

The other item discussed during my lesson was a particular song I want to play, whether it be in the songbook I have, or something I would look up the chords and the strumming pattern for. Once those two things were determined, I would then play through the chord progression, in the correct strumming pattern, with a metronome clicking, as my way to work toward playing the song at the correct tempo. The only song I have been able to do this with is Free Fallin by Tom Petty. According to my notes, I started working on this song on February 8, and was finally able to play it at the correct tempo on April 30. I'm not sure how long it should take someone to play this song, but that's how long it took me, at 15 minutes of practice every day.

It seems to me that your response to my question in this thread, Christopher, is that if I can't practice for an hour every day, then I just shouldn't bother even trying to play the guitar at all. I don't think that the goal that I stated at the start of this post is asking too much. This is just a fun hobby that I would like to acquire, I'm not trying to get a record deal so that I can record all the songs that I've written (which is another aspect of the guitar that I have absolutely no desire to attempt). I just want to feel like I'm actually making progress, while still having fun, because picking up the guitar is feeling more like a chore then anything else