After 1 month what should be learned?

There's such a range it's not even funny.

My slowest student this year: in one month, he'd learned two chords, could strum them haltingly and change very slowly, could read the first string E-F-G notes ok, could struggle through second string B-C-D notes, and could do a so-so 'Enter Sandman' riff. (He's 13 and a big Metallica fan - I used that to try to keep him interested)

My fastest student this year: in one month, mastered all the first position natural notes and could read them in quarter note rhythms at sight, in time, at moderate tempos. He could sight read accidentals applied to notes with just slight variations in his tempo. He could play all the first position major and minor chords (including the F major) from memory with reasonably efficient changes, and his sense of time was excellent. (He's retired, has a lot of time to devote to practice, and plays another instrument)

Those are really the extremes - it's even kind of unusual for me to have one student at each end in the same year. An 'average' student knows 6-10 chords from memory, can do simple strums in time, and is struggling with some chord changes... and they've probably learned the notes on the first three strings in open position (I teach almost everyone standard notation reading).

Some students who start out on the 'slow' track end up surpassing those who learn more quickly at the beginning - so here's the fairest measure: realistically, do you think you could have absorbed more than you have?

Most student musicians think it's easier than it really is - there are a lot of muscle skills to be learned, and teachers make it look easy. If you're impatient to learn, you might be developing bad habits or giving too little attention to skills that seem unimportant... you won't realize how important they are until later on, when the lack of development in one area hinders your progress in others.

The rate you should go at depends on you - everyone is different. People bring to the guitar different skills in coordination, musical exposure, and the ability to hear (a really critical skill!)

How do you know if you're going at the right rate?

Well, if you play the wrong notes, you're moving too fast. Slow it down or choose easier music, and make the skills solid - precision is essential to playing well.

If you play the right notes, but sometimes at the wrong time, you're probably working at a level that's appropriate. This is the stuff you need to practice, make solid, and then move on.

If you can play all the notes right, and at the right times, you can move on to new material - BUT you should continue to review the piece periodically and see what you can add to it musically. Making sounds requires mechanical skills, but making music requires emotional input too - work with pieces that are 'below your level' (i.e., you can do the notes flawlessly) to improve your actual musicianship. To work at both learning a skill and phrasing it well at the same time is overload for almost all students.

Tom,

I wish I lived in the windy city I'd sign up with you right now.

Excellent advice.

After 4 1/2 weeks, you should be wondering EXACTLY what you are wondering about, so I think you are right on target.

But really..........what Noteboat said. :)

Well, I'm about 4 months in to it, and as an interesting comparison, so is my daughter. Mind you, I am 47, she is 16. I'll try to remember back 3 months ago.

I practiced about an hour a day pretty faithfully. After a month using my “Complete Guitarist” lesson book, I was pretty comfortable with A, D, E, playing simple versions of “The Times They Are A Changing”” and “Mull of Kintyre”. And even singing sometimes. Like all students, I wanted more than the “book” and started seeking out some tabs of songs I wanted to play. A couple I found that suited my chord knowledge were “Not Fade Away” and “Well All right”. These were a little advanced for me but I plugged away at them.

Want some advice from a 4 month self taught veteran? (Like you have a choice):

Take little steps, follow the book or your teacher, don't skip ahead. Not to say you have to know something perfect to move on, but as you know, each lesson builds on the proceeding one. And it is really cool to go back and play the first lessons and see how far you have come;

Make one of your practice sessions each week a “fun” one. No exercises, etc, just pick up the “gee-tar” and try and play from memory, or find the tab for a song you hated as a teenager and tackle it;

Don't always practice in isolation. Plunk yourself down on the porch or where a family member can hear or see you. If you have a pal who is a Beatle fan coming over, learn a simple Beatle song or a recognizable part of it;

Finally, ask these folks on here questions, they are amazingly helpful to us beginners.

I can only answer by where I was at after 1 month with similar amount of practice time.
I knew the following chords, G, C, A, E, D, Am, Em, Dm and G7.
I could change between chords at a somewhat slow rate. (real slow on the D and Dm)
I started working on the fingerpick pattern for Dust in the Wind at about the 3rd week (just picking without fingering the chords) I about had that pattern down good at the end of the 4th week.
I could play some simple songs out of lesson books (at a slower than normal rate)
My fingers where just starting to not hurt very much as long as I didn't play too long.
(I finally played something that someone recognized in my second month, 1st 5 or 6 bars of Stairway to heaven followed shortly after by Dust in the Wind)

After 4 1/2 weeks, you should be wondering EXACTLY what you are wondering about, so I think you are right on target.

But really..........what Noteboat said. :)

I had a feeling someone was going to say this!

NoteBoat thank you for the extensive excpanation. I guess I fit somewhere in between your 2 extreme students (I haven't tried to learn the notes on the strings yet but I was panning on starting today...HONEST!)

Here's an example of me playing the intro to Wanted Dead Or Alive after working on it for 4 days (about 20-30 minutes each time) .Wanted

I can also play Wish You Were Here (Dave's version in the lesson on this site) fairly well with some minor chord change blunders during the verse (however that D chord is coming along nicely!)

I know I need to work with a metronome but it is jusy so hard to bring myself to use it. When I practice strum patterns I can play them without it fairly steadily. But I seem to get confused when I use it. My problem is not being able to change up the strumming patterns...I can do many different patterns but I have to play the same one and then start over with the next pattern (I think that's normal?). I have been working on the strum patter for You'll Accompany Me by Bob Seger but I think I have the pattern wrong (I tried figuring it out by ear) (You'll Accompany ME (recorded 2 weeks ago...its a bit better now!) Using 2 chords A & E.

I know the whole Major scale by heart (no I can't name the notes just play it) and I know the first 2 cages of the Blues scale. I know every open chord (3 note open chord) along with it's minor. I know a few partial barre chords (F, A, A7). My chord progressions are coming along (not as fast as I would like them). I can play various riffs from Ted Nugent, Deep Purple, Queensryche, Rolling Stones,

I do know for a fact I am farther than I was 7 years ago when I attempted playing guitar before. I guess without a teacher it tough to know where you should be. But this is something I have wanted to do for years. I'll get a teacher eventually but I just want to see what I can do myself (With all your help of course!).

Thanks

Missleman...Thanks for reminding me...

Note to self...PUT Stairway to Heaven on my list!

I've been playing six months now and I too have been practicing the Wanted Dead of Alive song a little and i can tell you that you are much further along with the intro than I am. I dont practice it consistantly but atleast you can recognize yours. Sounded pretty good.

You kinda knew your answer when you asked the question. I have a teacher and by the way you describe your progress, it sounds like you are right about where we are. Just dont burn yourself out worrying, buddy, cause as seriously as you seem to be taking it.. your definately going to get where you wanna be.

I asked my instructor a similar question the other day. I asked "So when does all this get easy enough that I can sit back and play some pretty cool stuff without it being hard." He told me that most his students get pretty confident within about a year and a half. Obviously, thats not the end of learning since there are guys here at GN that have played 20+ years and are still learning.

Anyways, nuff rambling. Keep at it!! :D

Geoo

geoo,

Thank you for the kind words and feedback! For me I know practice time will be limited once I go back to work in September. I want to get as far ahead as I can before then. Right now if I wanted to I could practice 8 hours per day...but physically that would drain me. Once work starts up if I can get 1 hour per day that'll be a lot.

Tom,

I wish I lived in the windy city I'd sign up with you right now.

Excellent advice.

Ditto, or Alan, or many of the other teacher types here. Thank goodness we get to "tap" into their advice via the internet.

Geoo

Timely topic for me personally...I think it's great to hear where others are early in their guitar lives as most beginners wonder "how am I progressing?". I've been at this now for almost 4 months (I'm 38 yrs. old), I practice an hour+ each day. I decided early on that playing a bunch of strummed intros wasn't the path I wanted to take initially...so to date, I've spent more time on technique (hand position, making sure I'm playing relaxed, looking at chord changes to see what fingers need to move...and which don't, learning the blues scale and minor pentatonic, strumming, alternate picking etc.).

As for chords, I'm comfortable with the majors (still working on F and B), a few minors and most of the 7th's. As part of my regular practice, I always do the CAGED progressions (CFG7, ADE7, GCD7 etc.). I started taking lessons at the 2 month mark and have really seen an improvement. It really focuses my practice...

In really wanting to play Blues, I'm currently working on some 12 bar blues progressions (shuffles for the most part) with a few different turnarounds. This is AWESOME because it actually sounds like music....especially single note turnaround runs. I'm also working on Floyd's "Wish you were here" and "Pig on the Wing". Both give me some nice chord progression work and "Wish..." gives me some nice single note work (the intro especially). My issue with songs is the desire to NOT sing. However, I'm quickly finding out that I have to do it...everything just flows better for me (even though my voice is a mess!).

I have a metronome and do "some" timing exercises but I need to step this up a notch. I'm also trying to get my arms around the theory and reading music.

My biggest issue has truely been myself (mentally). I think I finally realized that this darn thing is gonna take time, so there's no hurry...and... there is no set of finite rules. This bothered me at first because I wanted to learn how to do things "the right way" (not knowing that there are many right ways!). I'm having more fun now (always had fun but now it's a less "intense" fun if that makes any sense) and expect it to only get better!

Take care all,

Mike

Hey Mike...it sounds like you're on the right track (and my age...its good to see other mid-lifers just starting guitar!)

I try to mix the songs and technique up just to keep it fun. Let;s face it...the main reason we all want to play the guitar is to play covers (at least at the beginning) and then eventually start writing our own stuff. Plus with the songs it gives you an incentive to learn new techniques...Obviously chord progressions...but like Wish You Were Here has hammer-ons and slides, Wanted Dead Or Alive alternate picking, and with a new song many times comes learning new chords...

The whole idea about learning the songs is to pick songs you want to learn the whole way through. Yes the intros & riffs are fun to play and I still do learn them as I get better. But like you said, being able to play a "bunch of strummed intros" is not the right path to take.

Hey Mike (and all)...if playing a bunch of strummed intro's is what the player is into, I say GREAT...have a blast. I hope I didn't come across as this being "wrong"...it's not. For me personally though, I just felt I had to get my fingers arounds around some funda"mentals" so I didn't kick-start my playing with some bad habits. Keep pickin...and grinning :lol:

Take care!

Mike

During the first weeks and months you'll be laying the foundation, and it is quite hard to see how well you're coming along. Playing the guitar requires many different skills and there's no way you can have learned the basics of them all in one month. So if you did your best, enjoyed yourself and currently know more then you did a week ago, you're doing well.

If your timing is decent, you can change between some chords fluently and know enough chords to play a song you really need not to worry. Keep on working on the chords you know, and add a new chord every week. Start doing some simple melody lines, and take a shot at barre-chords. If you can do the basic major/minor open&barre chords, know the notes of the first four frets on all strings and have the dexterity to do some simple runs after a year or so you'll be ready to teach yourself whatever you want. Try to understand what you're doing instead of mechanically doing the moves. Once you understand how chords are formed and the relation between them learning new stuff gets easier. It just starts to make sense.

Keep on recording yourself, really helps to see how you're progressing. Sometimes it might feel as though you're going nowhere but most of the times progress just sneaks up on you. Have fun!