Starting to lack learning structure

Hi Guys, been a guitar tricks subscriber for a few months, I've been dipping in and out of the lessons quite a bit.

I have dabbled in Electric guitar for more years than I can remember, but now I am more determined than ever to learn

My interest is Rock guitar, blues and Electric is my chosen weapon.

My problem is this,

My knowledge is all over the place.

I do a fairly good job of playing Most Guns n Roses stuff, can handle barre chords, string skipping etc. Play U2

Sultans of swing by Dire Straits is my pet project at the moment too

BUT, if some one said show me a G power chord, or most barre and power chords for that matter even though I have played 1000 times, wouldn't know how to show them.....why because I learnt how to play off YouTube, so know how to play but don't understand the theory.

So although I can play some tunes, I am not learning what the chords are, and not fully understanding the scales, although I do know all the open chords and can change chords without difficulty.

I have tried and progressed through the basic guitar course on guitar tricks by Lisa McCormick, but to be honest those courses don't motivate me due to the songs offered, which isn't my bag.

What I need I think is to learn all the scales, barre chords, Power Chords, but in a rock environment, but please correct me if I am wrong.

I can follow tabs, can keep time, understand beats to a bar tempo etc..

Improvising looks cool to me and you tend to see many guitarists, who can just pick up a guitar and go into a whole lick pattern at random, I would like to be one of those guitarists.

I would be grateful for any advice from you experienced guitarists maybe a recommended learning check list, because at the moment my skills are all scattered.

Please be as abrasive as you like with me, I need a good shaking...phew I hope the spell checker doesn't modify that :-)

Thanks

Excellent! Well summed up. How to learn theory and stay motivated Is also my biggest challenge. Just as I start settling in to major scales.....hang on.....dust my broom... back to scales later. Lisa too basic, Chris too advanced...i need a middle man to help me focus. ?. But it's always worth picking up aye.

Sorry I'm no wiser

Originally Posted by: W.A.S.P.

What I need I think is to learn all the scales, barre chords, Power Chords, but in a rock environment, but please correct me if I am wrong.

[/quote]

Work through my older GF2 course. It will explain all of those concepts.

https://www.guitartricks.com/course.php?input=fundamentals2(discontinued)

[quote=W.A.S.P.]

Improvising looks cool to me and you tend to see many guitarists, who can just pick up a guitar and go into a whole lick pattern at random, I would like to be one of those guitarists.

Work through my collection of tutorials on improv. It will show you how & why.

https://www.guitartricks.com/collection/learning-to-improvise

Hope that helps! Please ask more if necessary & best of success!

Thanks Chris, any feedback on my current situation?

Originally Posted by: W.A.S.P.

Thanks Chris, any feedback on my current situation?

I think you summed it up pretty well: you have some physical playing skills, but not enough theoretical knowledge to understand what you are doing, why you are doing it & therefore how to take your current playing skills & expand upon them to do something new.

You need conceptual understanding of what you are playing. This is literally what music theory is: the conceptual understanding of why you put your fingers in certain patterns to create certain sounds.

A little theoretical understanding goes a long way. I have a whole series of tutorials that go deep into music theory. But right now I think it's best for you to start with my old GF2 course. It will show you the basic foundation of music theory from the beginning. And since I play electric guitar & approach it from a pop-rock perspective in a concise manner I think it will help give you the foundation you lack.

Watch Chapters 1 & 3 then get back to me. :)

Brilliant Chris, I will do exactly what you suggest, when I have achieved the success I crave for, I will share what I at least think is my interesting story with you.

Thanks again

Originally Posted by: eerodekari

You need conceptual understanding of what you are playing. This is literally what music theory is: the conceptual understanding of why you put your fingers in certain patterns to create certain sounds.

Strange, isn't that a copy and paste of what Christopher said above your post!!!

Originally Posted by: W.A.S.P.

Strange, isn't that a copy and paste of what Christopher said above your post!!!

Yes. This is most likely a spammer account. They sign up for a free account, make a seemingly innocent post. Sometimes it's simply a copy-paste like this one. Then they go back & edit their original post to include a link to a website. We try to watch for them & delete them as necessary.

Originally Posted by: W.A.S.P.

Strange, isn't that a copy and paste of what Christopher said above your post!!!

And there is it with the links added. :)

Old gf2 course?

Originally Posted by: Tinpan

Old gf2 course?

I did the original Guitar Fundamentals courses, then Lisa did updated versions. My older courses are still available. You can get to them through links at the bottom of the landing page for the GF courses. Or here are the direct links.

https://www.guitartricks.com/course.php?input=guitarfundamentals1v1(discontinued)

https://www.guitartricks.com/course.php?input=fundamentals2(discontinued)

Hope that helps!

I'm in a similar position. Been playing for years but theory knowledge is patchy with gaps (no problems with chord names, though).

What I've done is force myself to start at the basic level. Went through both foundation courses really quickly, then found myself stumped on where to go next. Decided on Country 1simply because it starts with acoustic playing, so gave me an excuse to dust off and open my acoustic guitar's case.

I'm still finding I already know a lot of what the lessons cover but am learning bits here and there. Still having fun, though (and listening to a previously neglected music genre).

Originally Posted by: ChristopherSchlegel

Originally Posted by: W.A.S.P.

Strange, isn't that a copy and paste of what Christopher said above your post!!!

Yes. This is most likely a spammer account. They sign up for a free account, make a seemingly innocent post. Sometimes it's simply a copy-paste like this one. Then they go back & edit their original post to include a link to a website. We try to watch for them & delete them as necessary.

Ahh right I see, thanks Christopher

Originally Posted by: DraconusJLM

I'm in a similar position. Been playing for years but theory knowledge is patchy with gaps (no problems with chord names, though).

What I've done is force myself to start at the basic level. Went through both foundation courses really quickly, then found myself stumped on where to go next. Decided on Country 1simply because it starts with acoustic playing, so gave me an excuse to dust off and open my acoustic guitar's case.

I'm still finding I already know a lot of what the lessons cover but am learning bits here and there. Still having fun, though (and listening to a previously neglected music genre).

Thanks Bud, that intermediate stage is difficult to structure, I've found, I just can't for the life of me get any enthusiasm to play twinkle twinkle little star type tunes :-)

So it was good to see Christopher's tutorials here

I am in the same boat, but I have not been overly keen on the instruction, and this is not say GT is bad it just does not click for me, that's the joy of online learning is finding that instruction that works for you, I wanted to check out GT for myself, and I gave a good look, and I just say nah, but I not going to slag it, people do like it, its just not for me,

Originally Posted by: W.A.S.P.. . . that intermediate stage is difficult to structure, I've found, I just can't for the life of me get any enthusiasm to play twinkle twinkle little star type tunes :-)[/quote]

I'm not sure exactly what you are referring to here. But I get your intention. It helps to have material you are motivated by in order to learn.

Having said that, it's pretty common for me to find out that a student can't actually play any given simple melody, which is disappointing. And it's not as if it's important for you or anyone to spend much time playing nursery rhymes like Twinkle. But you should have enough musical skills (technical & conceptual) to play one of those melodies at any time if you had to. It's like a baseline skill level assessment.

[quote=W.A.S.P.]

So it was good to see Christopher's tutorials here

Hope those wind up being valuable!

Originally Posted by: martobluesman

I am in the same boat, but I have not been overly keen on the instruction, and this is not say GT is bad it just does not click for me

What exactly are you looking for? What instructors have you watched?

Originally Posted by: martobluesman

I am in the same boat, but I have not been overly keen on the instruction, and this is not say GT is bad it just does not click for me, that's the joy of online learning is finding that instruction that works for you, I wanted to check out GT for myself, and I gave a good look, and I just say nah, but I not going to slag it, people do like it, its just not for me,

Exactly, I think the structure seems to be all over the place, it wouldn't be bad playing "Sunday School" songs if it was clear what the end game was, but try as I may I just can't stay awake learning with this type of music.

I do realize you need the fundamentals, but surely there are more up to date methods.

Originally Posted by: W.A.S.P.

Exactly, I think the structure seems to be all over the place, it wouldn't be bad playing "Sunday School" songs if it was clear what the end game was, but try as I may I just can't stay awake learning with this type of music.

I do realize you need the fundamentals, but surely there are more up to date methods.

What type of music are you referring to that you aren't enjoying?

Exactly what type of material are you looking for & not finding?