I need some basic advice

Don't worry. Your teacher may well be a dork. With all the praise heaped on getting lessons (and to a point rightly so, I think,) you can't escape the fact that a lot of good guitarists can't teach to save their life. It's this way with all endeavors, actually.
Any book that expects you to be familiar with advanced techniques by page four is definitely the wrong book for a beginner. I've seen many of these. The ones that are affiliated with any of the guitar magazines such as Guitar Player are the worst. They look like they are good books but not for beginners. I'd say you have to challenge yourself with new material before the current stuff is totally mastered but within reason.
I have no great innate musical talent, (an intense love of music does not mean you learn the technical end of an instrument any easier, in my case anyway,) but I'm going to stick with it. Don't let a bad teacher get you discouraged. Check out the beginners lessons on this site and ask questions whenever you need to. The folks around here like to help even with the most basic questions.
As for chords, lots of people, myself included, have trouble getting barre chords to sound good at first. These forums are full of questions about them. But work on them slowly and your fingers get stronger. Mine still often don't sound great. You will almost always find the advice to PRACTICE SLOWLY until you get things down, and then speed up. When you do this it doesn't sound like the song should. I think this is why it's hard to play slow until your technique catches up, because it doesn't sound good or doesn't sound like the song you know. But I find it is essential to helping you improve.

Don't compare your progress too much with others, we all learn at different rates. Some folks are in a band and writing songs within a year. More power to them, they are the exception. In addition to innate talent it also depends on how much practice time, friends that play, etc, many factors involved.

I'm sure you will get more good advice, but I hope this helped. Come back and tell us how it's going.

your teacher is being a hard@$$, it's seems like his approach is to scare you into thinking that if you can't handle the stress you're not cut out for guitar. That's bs, guitar is hard, but it's also really fun if you just focus on it and really work your goals, it's hard to find a goal in life that's a s quantified as something like,"I will play the major scale at 180 bpm", and when you do it, there, it right there for you to appreciate,

and if guitar seems hard, it means you're trying, and that's more important than playing well

Kev

I appreciate what you are on about TOTALLY. It strikes me that -

1. You have a teacher that does not understand you needs, and is probably bored with teaching beginners the basics. Look elsewhere!
2. The books you are reading assume a basic level of playing skill that is CURRENTLY beyond you.

If I were you I would rethink my approach totally. You can't run until you can walk, at least not without falling over.

I have been playing over 2 years, for much of that time i was practicing over 50 hours a week to get the hang of open chords. This time is VERY well spent and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Bear in mind that with imaginative use of a capo you can play a lot, and I mean a LOT, of songs using basic chord shapes. See my post on Hotel California on the Easy Song Database on this site - not a Barre chord in sight. Also, you will soon realise that from one chord shape, say Am, you can form a number of different chords shapes, and make different sounds, just by taking one finger off, or adding one. It not a case of learning 100 chords, just learn the basic ones as well as you can.

As for barre chords, it doesn't bother me that I can't play them YET. I know that I will, but for the time being I am really amazed at the number of songs I can now play ALL THE WAY THROUGH wow! When I started out, I used this site as a tool to get the basics right, use David Hodge's lesson in the Beginners section and go from there. You will be amazed how well you progress if you pick say two songs, and alternate between learning them. When I first started on his lesson on Johnny Cash's version of Hurt, I could not get the hang of it at all. A week later and I had it licked.

The secret is focus and goals. Pick yourself an ACHIEVABLE goal. It doesn't matter how mundane this goal is, say "I want to play "G C D Am" chord progression at 80 bmp, six times in a row without messing up....and then keep at it.

Put your teacher in the bin with your books for the time being, learn the basics well, invest in a capo, and most of all ENJOY it, its not meant to be torture. I have the most fun, late at night, just a guitar and a coffee and ciggy, just playing around and making sounds.

It will come, beleive in yourself, and practice as much as you can.

By the way two things before I go.

1. I am not in any way connected with promoting this site. I just honestly beleive that the beginners resources on here are way better than any book I have ever seen.
2. I have zero, and I mean zero, musical ability. I went to a music shop, explained that I wanted to play an intrument but was musically bemused, and was told that acoustic guitar is one of the only instruments that you can learn through practice and practice and practice. And they were right.

Don't give up on it, just have a rethink!

All the best

Matt

I've taught hundreds of beginners, Kev. It can be very frustrating, because teachers make things look easy - we can't help that, we've been doing it for years.

There's a big difference between making it look easy and assuming that it IS easy, though, and if your teacher is amazed that you can't get a change down in a couple of repetitions, it's no wonder most of his students give up the guitar. In order to play well, there are physical problems to be solved: how you move your fingers, how you pivot your wrist, the angle of the neck, your attack on the strings.... these are the areas where a teacher adds value. If guitar was as simple as doing what you see, everyone should simply buy a video and go from there.

Your teacher should be watching attentively to figure out what's causing you problems, and helping you overcome them. He should not be rushing you on to the next thing - at least until he's certain that you have a grasp of the fundamentals of what he's just shown you.

People learn at greatly different rates, and people who learn some things quickly will struggle with others; there's no one magic approach that helps all people. However, you need to get the basics down before moving on to more advanced applications. You've been playing about 6 months... that's probably about the average amount of time for introducing barre chords. It will take most people 3-6 months to be comfortable with changing between open chords and barres smoothly, so the material doesn't seem too far beyond where I'm guessing you are. Your book sounds like it's not the right one for you at this point in time, though.

If you feel your changing between open chords is choppy, you'll have to figure out why: is it on all chords, or just specific changes? It's likely that you're fine on closely related fingerings (say, C to Am and back), and you can probably move a couple fingers in a 'block' (like Em to Am and back). Isolate the ones that are giving you trouble - can you go from Am to Dm, but Dm to Am is trouble? Is it G to C that causes problems? Take specifics to your teacher and say "look, I'm having trouble with this - what am I doing wrong?". If he can't offer any advice, change teachers.

A year or so ago a trumpet player retired from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra after 50 years... brass players usually have 15-20 years, tops, in an orchestral career. Bud was brilliant - he never, ever missed a note. He also had a reputation as a fairly lousy teacher... since he was such a natural, he never had to overcome the problems of his instrument, so he couldn't help students solve their own issues. Maybe your teacher is too gifted a performer to be a good teacher.

Learn 3 chords (that sound good together), make up a simple pattern for them, and write some words for your song.
Jump right in with both feet.
It takes very little learning to have a good time.
Playing should be fun, and not all work!

I like playing background music for the TV show that I am watching. Plus you have to learn how to multi-task. (Girls are better at this than boys).
Give your brain time to make new pathways. I will try something new for a few minutes a day. and out of blue it will just kick in. I think it just takes time for my brain to put in a 4-lane highway. Like in body building, you not going to be a beef cake overnight. 6 months is nothing. It took me like a year before the pieces of the puzzle started to fit together.

Just play with deferent strumming, and jump between the few chords that you know.
Play slow when they are talking and fast when the action gets going.
Just have fun with it.
You can get a lot sound out of 3 chords.

Remember- some chords sound low, high, dark, bright, and so on. And you can play a full strum on the chord, or just play a short strum only on the low notes, or high notes, or just pick strings within the chord. Strum hard or soft. And mix it up. Think patterns, and be able to repeat what you just did.

Don't give up!
If the lessons are too hard, stop, learn your chords better, work on your strumming, and then go back to them. Or tell the teacher that you would like to space them out a little. This is not a race. I think learning is kind of boring, but not painful.

Good Luck- Bull

I apologize if the question's already been asked or if I missed the answer (I've read this pretty quickly), but as everyone's said, a teacher who has no empathy with a motivated student isn't a good teacher.

Can you find another teacher?

I think you may need to get a new teacher. It really sounds like he has natural talent and just expects everyone else to pick it up like he may have. If they don't, they must not have the talent. So he doesn't slow down and try to help induviduals. I think you need to discuss with him how you're feeling about his teaching in regards to your development. That you need help with certain things. If he doesn't understand that or does and doesn't improove, go find someone else.

I think the best teachers are ones who have struggled and had to work at being a great guitarist. They are more able to understand the struggles of being a beginner and can readily pace out your learning to fit you. Sombody with natural talent can't really describe that talent to you. It just comes to them, they didn't have to work nearly as much for it.

:D ...it was very uplifting to read all the wonderful replies to my situation...so a big thanks to you all......like all of you I want to play the guitar so badly (actually I think I have achomplished that :lol: ....playing badly that is!).......

I can play most of the open chords without too much problem but to change very quickly is difficult...especially between G to D and D to C.....and I still have to get my head around things like tempo etc......I guess it's a matter of coming to terms with so much conflicting advice....even holding my guitar some books say the neck must be very high and others say it can be low.....I have been practicing changing to a C chord by placing my ring finger first and then flowing down to my pointer but my teacher has told me that I have to place all three fingers onto the string at the same time which I fing impossible and I am hoping that doing it the way I currently do it now will result in them getting faster and nearly all dropping onto the strings at the same time......

So many of you have all learn't different ways and at different speeds that I guess my biggest fear is learning something the wrong way which will cause me big troubles later if I have to correct it.....

again thanks to everyone you have fueled me up again! :P

....even holding my guitar some books say the neck must be very high and others say it can be low...
That depends on what you're up to. If you need mobility and a long reach, a higher neck makes things much easier. If you're just strumming some open chords, you can get away with a much lower neck. Get used to playing both ways, since the first is more powerful, but the second is more relaxing.

yeah, I really llike where this is going

there's some fundamentals that all teachers know, but there is room to find what is more comftorable for you, as long as you can play and not develop an injury, it's fine in my book

I suppose you do have to straighten that back out for the real hard lines oyu'll be playing one day though

The thing about books is that they're all opinion, just like the postings on this forum. There is no requirement for the author to be 'fully qualified' before anyone will pubish his book, so any crazed loon can write one if he can baffle the publisher so he sounds like he/she knows what he's doing.

The explosion in popularity of the guitar in recent years has also seen a similar explosion in 'teach yourself' books. Because the current popular market is with punk and similar stuff, a lot of books are written to cater for the kid who wants to emulate their favourite band. The more responsible authors will say 'you are supposed to hold your guitar this way, because it gives you the most options of movement, reach, etc. But if you want to hold your guitar like Tom DeLonge, almost down to your knees then, hey, that's OK too!' The less responsible ones will encourage you to do it the Tom DeLonge way because its 'cool'.

I have bought a few books, and flipped through and put back a hell of a lot more. My criteria for a good book is in the songs that it wants to teach you. I generally put away the books that start you off with 'She'll Be Coming Round The Mountain' and 'Camptown Races'. They are probably the best way for a new guitarist to start, but they just don't inspire me. I found one that started off with 'Mull of Kintyre', 'Love Is All Around' and 'Hey Jude', and I snapped that up. Shop around and find a book with songs that appeal to you. They are nearly always put in the order of 'fewest chords first'.

It's all about instinct. If the guitar feels or sounds wrong for you, try another one. If the teacher feels wrong, look elsewhere. If the book doesn't inspire you to move onto the next page, get a different one. If the song fails to inspire you, try a different one (there are thousands of songs using virtually identical chords).

On the topic of 'mastering one thing before moving on to the next', I don't think it is possible to master any one thing alone as a beginner. You would have to spend years playing solely open chords before even looking at scales, and what fun is that? Find your own regime. Personally, I will practise something until I get bored, then try and push myself for a few more minutes before moving on to something else. I have a song that uses chords that I am aiming to be able to play all the way through cleanly (Space Oddity), a picking song (If) and a Holy Grail ('Eugene's Trick Bag' from the film Crossroads). I will revisit them from time to time and try to advance each time. I spend most of my time trying other things (I'm playing with power chords and some Green Day stuff at the moment) because I find it more engaging to do what feels fun at the time. I probably should knuckle down and learn how to play 'properly', but I'm having too much fun this way!

You need to draw a balance between learning and having fun. I still consider myself a cr*p guitarist, but I am pleased with the progress I am making, especially since Corbind gave that tip about trying to play your guitar left handed to see how far you've progressed (cheers Corbind!). The only thing getting in my way is time.

Neck angle will make a big difference in the mobility you have in your fretting hand. You want the headstock to be even with some point between the elbow and shoulder of your fretting hand arm - lower than that and you'll have trouble with your wrist when you're doing barre chords, higher than that and you'll have trouble with picking accuracy - your picking hand will either be making a 'sawing' motion to hit the strings, or you'll be cocking the picking hand wrist at an awkward angle.

Those chord changes can be tough to learn. First a disclaimer: I don't teach everyone exactly the same way, so I'm guessing at how your hands are moving. These things are tough to get across in text.

Now, the easier change first: For C to D, you're going to pivot the fingers around a point that's roughly above the fourth string - the index moves down through that point while the 2nd and 3rd fingers move up. This one is easier to get down:

Put your index finger on the 2nd fret of the 3rd string. Now move it to the 1st fret of the 2nd string. Notice that this is the only finger that ends up on a different fret - you need to be able to do this move practically in your sleep. Notice that as you do this, there's a tiny bit of rotation that happens in your fretting hand - you're going to exploit that. Practice just this finger - slowly. Don't worry about strumming, you're just concentrating on finger movement.

Now add the third finger. Using just these two fingers, practice going back and forth between the two chord forms. Your third finger is moving farther, but you can feel how it follows that rotation, right? Practice going back and forth with those two, slowly, until it's a comfortable motion for your fingers to find their places. Now, gradually build up speed.

Now add the second finger. This motion should feel pretty natural... it's been hovering there waiting for action, and with the rotation that you're now aware of, it should want to follow that third finger. Again, practice slowly. Your fingers should be falling into place at pretty much the same time - you can't really develop speed if you're placing fingers one after the other.

The C to G change is a hard one, perhaps the hardest you'll face for a while. You don't have a pivot happening in this change... you have two simultaneous motions. We'll break 'em down.

Form a C chord. You're going to leave your 2nd and 3rd fingers rooted right where they are for a while. While you hold them down, lift the index finger, and place the pinky. Make sure you're not hooking your thumb over the top of the neck - a common mistake that complicates the movement. Practice just this 1st/4th finger change until it's comfortable.

Next, leave that pinky down. The second movement to isolate is moving the 2nd and 3rd fingers as a 'block'. They're going to the same frets, one string over. Practice moving them as a unit, back and forth. Keep that pinky planted - otherwise you might be introducing extra movements that will keep you from getting fast at this change.

Now the hardest part, putting the two together. Work slowly, and don't worry about strumming. Again, don't build up speed until it's comfortable, and then do it gradually.

The secret to learning any physical task, like fretting guitar strings, is to break it down into parts, and master each part in isolation. You don't want to try to be a speed demon with each part, though, or it will just be frustrating as you 'start over' with each new addition. Get the motion to where it's fluid and confident, then add the next bit.

Let me know how it comes along, ok?

Tom

Hey, just to answer that question about waiting until you master something to move on, I'd work on a couple thigns at the same time. I've been playing 7 months, and I used the first month COMPLETELY to study music theory. The end result is that I don't really have that great of an understanding of it (beacues I was just reading, and not learning with my guitar), and I'm far behind where I want to be.

I spent about 3 months just working on powerchords, but in that same three months, I learned a lot of scales, too. The end result of that? I can play powerchords farily easily, very quickly, and I can whip up a quick improved solo in 3 different scales. But, I still need to work on induvidual note playing, techniques, and after that I'm probably going to move on to open chords.

Something I noticed that really built up my playing ability (not really my skill), was playing other people's music. About a month ago, most of what I played was just random stuff I pieced together out of powerchords, chords, and scales. I could play my own stuff, and it sounded all right, but I couldn't really "play", because writing your own stuff, and then practicing takes a lot more time than practicing stuff that's already been written. As a result, I'd like to be working on open and barre chords right now, but I'm still working on simple techniques like hammer ons, pull offs, tremolos, and things like that that I never incorporated into my own music.

So, I don't think it's really a good idea to only learn one thing at one time, because if you're working on being self-taught, then you're going to be working a trial and error thing of what to learn first, and what to learn. So, naturally, if you spend a couple months on something you shouldn't be learning before something else, the prcoess will probably be a lot more frustrating. Because, seriously, being able to play a cool metal lick comprised of mostly powerchords, and then whipping up a solo that will impress a few people is fun and all, but not being able to do a simple chord progression while being able to do this feels... I don't know, a bit embarrassing.

Just my $0.02