First months for a total beginner

So basically i'm stuck with the problem i would only be able to practice in the weekends...
However, i'm still able to get my acoustic guitar with me, but here's my question:
is there a difference if i play the chords, etc. ... for the electric guitar on my acoustic guitar? Will i practice as good as i would do these exercices on electric?

The chords are going to be exactly the same whether on acoustic or electric. IMHO, I think it's better to learn and practice on an acoustic, then apply that to the electric than it is the other way around. My reasoning for this is: It's more difficult to correctly fret and sound the chords on an acoustic than it is on an electric, as you will see. It's also more difficult to do bends, pull offs, hammer ons, etc... so you will really have to get your techniques down on the acoustic to get it to sound properly. This means that when you return to your electric on the weekends, you will have the proper techniques already under your belt. Again, IMHO, it's easy to get sloppy when you learn on an electric (I know a few people will disagree with me, but I'm sticking to my guns!) because it is so much easier than an acoustic. If you don't learn proper technique on the electric, then try to play an acoustic, you're not going to be playing as well as you do on the electric and you will sound sloppy. So, I think it's great that you'll only play your electric on weekends here in the beginning! Technique is a big part of playing guitar. You might as well get it right in the beginning than have to come back to it and re-learn everything correctly later.

If i read what youre saying correctly about playing acoustic because you dont want to bring your amp to school... The more experienced folks might correct me here, but:

A) you dont need an amp to play the electric guitar and practice chords, etc. You can hear it just fine, you just wont have the natural amplification that an acoustic does.
B) Have you considered getting a traveling amp? http://www.musiciansfriend.com/navigation?q=amplug is one example, im sure there are others. It runs on batteries and you plug your headphones into it. Its not super sophisticated but you can still get sound (and theyre cheap and from what I can see pretty well reviewed).

Hope that was helpful. Im just beginning myself as well and trying to figure out where to go, I like your practice schedule.

Get a headphone amp... and, you can even plug computer speakers into it instead of headphones and it sounds just great (these days, there are a pair of computer speakers pretty much anywhere you go).

I have a Vox Amplug AC30 and would highly recommend it to anyone.

Also, I frequently practice with my acoustic "unplugged"... at this point, I have a good understanding of the theory and "how" to play... for me it is just getting my fingers to do what my brain wants them to do... practice, practice, practice... and I don't need amplification for that.

A) you dont need an amp to play the electric guitar and practice chords, etc. You can hear it just fine, you just wont have the natural amplification that an acoustic does.

Another option is a Pocket Rock-it. I got an older model with my Jackson guitar package, but it works just fine.

From monday till sunday i'm not at home and my parents don't want to move the amp and electric down to my studio (where i stay when i'm going to college in midweek ) which is understandable...

Excuse me for butting in, but I think some of you missed a very important part of his post regarding the amp & guitar.

Those VOX headphone amps are great, I've got one as well.

As far as the actual practice goes learning C and G (and changing between them) is fairly important as this crops up a lot in many songs. D7 is very similar to D, which is only one finger away from D minor. Speaking of learning C you can easily perfect the A minor to C major change.

Another important thing to master is not how many chords you can play but how you play them. Once you perfect the technique of fingering chords (keeping finger tips vertical, close to the frets etc) you will find the learn chords quickly and easily -ish.

As seem to be doing most of your practice on an acoustic, fingering chords will be a painful experience 'til calluses develop on your finger tips. Sadly this takes time and lots of regular practice which from your schedule shouldn't be a problem.

Don't become discourage when you can't play as fast or as well as your favourite bands or artists as the way I like to think of it “How long did they have to practice to play this song that well”. The answer? A lot.

When it comes to a song involving only D7 and C I doubt you will a song worth your while playing but there are many tabs of easy out there.

Tabs in case you don't know are a way of reading guitar music without learning treble clef. Basically there are 6 lines and each line represents a string. The number on the string indicates which fret to play it at. A 0 indicates a string which is not fretted or “open”.

Apologies if this look horrible.

E:------------0-----
B:---------0-------
G:------0----------
D:----0-----------
A:--0------------
E-0---------------

This rather shoddy looking tab reads that you pluck the “thick” E string, then the A, D G B and top E strings one after another. All the string are open. As you become a more advance player the tablature you play becomes more confusing. The trouble with tabs is that they do not show the rhythm of the piece only the notes played.

Many people point to the lesson on “Horse with no name” as one for beginners, though it has none of your chords. I personally dislike this song because it uses a chord “Dadd6add9” which you may never play again. Although if you are want to put some words to something this may be worth a look.

In closing all I'm going to reel off some more advice.

- Don't expect everything to be perfect. If you strike a chord right once great but don't be discouraged if it doesn't work the second time.

- You are playing some simple right now so don't allow yourself to become bored because you can't perform more complicated things.

- Practice! Even if it is just a few minutes of up and down it will help you memories chord shapes and keep calluses developing.

From monday till sunday i'm not at home and my parents don't want to move the amp and electric down to my studio (where i stay when i'm going to college in midweek ) which is understandable...

Excuse me for butting in, but I think some of you missed a very important part of his post regarding the amp & guitar.
Ah, well I dont know what to tell you on that one. A guitar in a gig bag doesnt take up much more room than a person does, if theyre driving you back and forth put it in your lap. =)

Thx alot everyone!

I'll probably take the acoustic to practice in midweek now!

A few last questions:

*Is it better to practice a chord till i get them perfected and then move over to another one, or should i regularely switch between chords (even if i don't know them perfectly yet) and re-practice them after a week or 2?

* Can an acoustic be played with a pick? Or is it better to play fingerstyled?

On the question of learning new chords as long as you remember the shape and can get all the strings to sound clearly you could learn a new chord. Part of learning to change between chords is practice although there are some tips to make it easier by looking for certain things such as can you slide any of the fingers?, can you keep any fingers on the same string and can you move any 2 fingers together like E Major to A Minor you keep the chord shape but move them one string higher( one string towards the floor in actual fact.

You can use a pick or your fingers when strumming. When playing fingerstyle I prefer not to use a pick but you could if you wanted to but it would be hard for some pieces.

*Is it better to practice a chord till i get them perfected and then move over to another one, or should i regularely switch between chords (even if i don't know them perfectly yet) and re-practice them after a week or 2?

It's more like adding chords to your skill-set. Practice old and new. As Outlaw Pete just kind of elluded to, switching from one to another is part of practicing chords. That'll all come with practice.
* Can an acoustic be played with a pick? Or is it better to play fingerstyled?

Whatever you want. You tell us. Lots around here never use picks. Some of us (me included) rarely don't use a pick. I don't play finger style music either. Some day probably, and then I'll use the fingers.

Hi kenneth-

First let me say that I am highly impressed with your planning out of your practice sessions. You have really taken David's lesson on this to heart, and I am certain that if you continue to plan your practices like this, it will pay off. You should progress much more quicly than if you did not have a plan. As far as how long it should take to reach your goals, that I cannot say. It really is an individual thing. Some learn faster than others. if I were a teacher I'd have a better feel for what to expect. One thing to remember- be flexible with your plans. If something takes longer to get under your belt than you had anticipated, reset your goals accordingly. You will probably find that some things you will get easier than others, so you may have to modify the relative amouts of time you spend on various things to compensate for this.

Asd far as songs to learn- sounds like you are currently working on the G,C, and D7 chords. Naturally, this would lead you to wanting to learn something in the key of G major, since these three chords (well, D actually but D& also) are the most common chords fouind for songs that are in G major. I will spare you the theory on why at this point, but if you are intetrestyed in that there are tons of lessons on this site to explain all that. Check out the ESD (Easy Dong Database) on this forum. There should be lots and lots of songs that use just G,C, and D/D7.

Good luck!

Check out the ESD (Easy Dong Database) on this forum.
I laughed.

Funny the filters didn't catch that one!