I'm at a current point in my guitar-playing career that I have a lot of concepts and things memorized. I know about chords, scales, ryhym, melody, blah, blah. I can apply most things to playing, but I just ton'd play very well.
Now, the issues isn't of what I'm not understanding, it's just that I don't think I've set up a good practice regimine for myself, because there basically is no practice regimine for myself. I've sat down and thought about it so far, but there are somet thigns I just don't know how to structure into something I can practice regularly.
Things I'm really trying to work on right now are chord transitionst. I guess it would be kind of simple to work on that, I mean, it's just practicing over and over again; repitition. However, there are aspects of playing in ryhtym, playing with other instruments, etc., that I just don't think I understand, and don't know where I can get the information from. I'd like to be able to read the sheet music in one of my guitar books and be able to play it accordingly to the music, and not having to play the song to hear the rythym. But, I don't even own a metronome, so when I try to play to one, it's too fast.
Now, I was just thinking how it would be if I had an instructor. I mean, they would know what to have me work on, and have me work on it in a good way. But, I have no money for an instructor.
I would use the thigns here at Guitarnoise, but just so much of what it is I want to know, I have no idea where to begin to look for it, or how to explain to someone what it is.
It's tough to learn guitar on your own. Especially the part about not having a routine. When you have no plan, direction, how can you possibly progress forward?
Might I suggest if budget is an issue, try to find a really good guitar instructor and hire his services for maybe 2 sessions. What you want to do is have him 1) determine the key things/areas you need to learn, 2) set up a daily practice routine. From that point you now have a direction and a plan. Practive everyday and you will improve. Pick his brain, bombard him with as many questions and have him show you things. Be sure to check the guitar instructors references, that he is highly qualified. What you want to be careful of is getting a lousy instructor that points to a chapter in a book and says, "see you next week"
"The whole purpose in life is to not be bored"
Hireing a tutor is a crap shoot at best.
I would hate to waste my very limited resources on the chance that I got a bad one and learned nothing.
That said there are more good ones than bad and is worth the risk.
Don't have a metronome?
If your budget is real tight use one of the free online ones.
Take a piece you kind of know but just can't get the rhythm right and play it with a metronome VERY SLOWLY. then gradually increase speed.
One of my favorite things is to play something I never heard before, based only on the sheet music in front of me and seeing what comes out of my guitar.
OHH one last thing, sometimes the music you are reading from is not written the same as the recording so don't worry if you are playing what is written and it doesn't seem to sound right.
Well...guitar lessons are expensive and they want you to sign up and lock in for a day/time for steady income but I work shift rotations and I have been turned away by 2 guitar shops with 'built-in' instructors because I cannot commit to a specific day/time and they had not much room in their schedules as it was. Both shops/instructors were very busy with people who could lock in to long term, steady lessons. But I didn't look much farther than that for lessons.
I am doing it on my own and I agree it is very difficult to do from scratch and I don't even know another person who can play guitar...on top of being lefty and reversing some things in my head as I see them and try to learn them.
But much progress has been made. The biggest thing is developing the physical skills. I try to balance my practice with discipline...I started with putting labels on my fretboard and writing the letters of the notes/tones on them, practicing scales, finger exercises (so you can operate them individually), arpeggios and going through a strumming routine with about 21 chords (and G was the hardest to contort at first), reading anything and everything, mostly posts on this board where there is no shortage of help and theory articles/lessons, although I had trouble putting things into a proper 'order' for myself.
I just bought and read Noteboats book and it drove home a lot of the theory articles/lessons I read on this site.
Now I can do so many things I never thought I would see the day I could do and can do much of it blind-folded.
I can play pieces of many songs and I am real close to being able to play songs fluently....basic songs. I used to waste a lot of time memorizing picking routines in songs but I now feel this takes away too much time from useful practice.
So, you can do it on your own if you are disciplined, develop a good all around practice routine and add to it as you learn more and if you are not prone to giving up easily during times of frustration and I have had my share of that. Get through the frustration parts and it will become really fun. I look forward to my practice times and always look to sneak another one in when I can. And once you get passed the point where your fingers don't get that shape of a wire jammed in them and can't fret strings anymore, you will be able to practice for long periods and won't want to put the guitar down!
Keep posting for any help you need and enjoy the ride! :D
If it was easy it wouldn't be worth doing.
