Originally Posted by: markantonelli7

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.[/quote][p]Well, no. When I replied I wasn't exactly sure what your goals are. What I am saying is you need to keep your expectations realistic in relation to how much time you are able to devote to practicing.

If you can only manage 15 minutes, that's fine. But you need to maximize that time & manage your expectations accordingly.

Originally Posted by: markantonelli7I 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.[/quote]

If that's your only, or primary goal, then drop everything else & work on one song at a time, focusing on the chord changes & strumming/picking patterns required & drill those parts for your 15 mintues. Why work on anything else if that's your goal?

Originally Posted by: markantonelli7During 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).[/quote]

If those exercises are helping you improve technique, then that's great. But if they aren't helping you get better at the techniques you will need to play the songs you want to play then they might not be the best use of your time.

Any good guitar instructor will have a general curriculum that is a balanced approach of ideas & skills. But if it's not working for you, then you might want to have a discussion about prioritizing your goals with your instructor.

[quote=markantonelli7]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).

Well, those are more goals. I usually encourage students to learn to read music. But in some cases, I say it's okay to not worry about it. Or at least put it off until you have time to devote to it.

Another approach here is to combine tasks. If you're learning a particular song, then get the sheet music for it (a transcription that has both notation & tab) & you can work on learning the song while you are working on reading some music notation.

Not looking at your hands is a matter of playing until it becomes automated, completely second nature. You can practice that skill by drilling chord changes in a song you are working on. Just pick two chords in the song to move back & forth between as an exercise in itself. That will help automate those motions while working on technique required for part of the song.

[quote=markantonelli7]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.

Hey, that's progress! Congrats. :) Now you have a standard of how long it will realistically take you to learn a song. And I think that's a good indication of what I'm saying: if you only have a little time to devote, you can still accomplish musical guitar goals, but it will take some time. Be patient with yourself & the process. As long as you are making progress, then try to enjoy it!

[quote=markantonelli7]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 said that's not enough time to get much done. You can still get things done, but it will take longer than if you had an hour to practice. We have evidence of that in your reply about learning the Petty song.

I understand that you only have 15 minutes a day. And since it's important to prioritize & keep your expectations realistic, I encourage you to just work on songs you want to play. If a new skill or technique comes up in the context of learning a new song, then add it in as necessary. But only if it's necessary to learning a song. Make learning songs your priority. Don't worry about anything else, if that's what makes playing guitar fun for you. You know you can do that, because you've done it!

I hope this helps encourage you to keep playing guitar! Please ask more as necessary. Best of success!