What a feeling when we cross over that nasty chord-switching barrier and can strum along without missing a beat (most of the time) and switch through a bunch of chords round and round and back again and bouncing off a D to others and back again all without even looking!... mixing up strumming patterns and overall just sounding like someone who can actually play guitar!
I lose track of time lately and don't want to put this guitar down. Really! I hardly have time to read through all the posts here lately because all I want to do with my spare time is play with this guitar! At times a year ago I thought this day would never come but it is so great!
So, I suppose this post is for people still in that 'chord switching barrier' and raw fingers....keep at it! Practice is cumulative, every minute you practice is a minute closer to strumming along with a BIG SMILE on your face! :D
If it was easy it wouldn't be worth doing.
I can't wait for that day. :) I try to do something productive guitar wise every day, even if I'm working too much, if it be studying theory or whatever. I just try to keep in the back of my mind, that after a certian length of time it's all gonna come together.
I have been at it 5 weeks or so and I have five songs on notepad I been trying to memorize. I think the barrier of chord changes is the big one. It seems I am just filling in time until that happens
man it must be nice!! i feel like a total clutz my mind knows where my fingers should go but not unless i (look) them there, and i won't even start on the mute string thing :oops: . good to here that you have broken on threw to the other side!
Cash is cool
I'm doing quite good as well, and the better I've become on the guitar the more I practice and the more fun it is. It's great to know that I've gone through all the shitty stuff in the beginning when you can't change chords without messing up, without giving up. I stuck at it, and now I'm being rewarded.
I guess my breakthrough was before christmas when I learned how to play Radiohead - Street Spirit. I had tried it a couple of weeks after I started learning to play (last july), and then it was impossible. I still had a bit of a struggle with it before christmas, but decided that "now I'm gonna learn it", and I practiced until I could play it perfectly. I sort of realised that I've become so dextrous and fast with my fingers now that I can play a lot of songs, and all it takes to be able to play more is practice.
On average, I think I've practiced for more than 1 hour every single day since I started out. Sometimes a lot more (usually), sometimes less, but I play every day, and I do finger exercises to build up speed and dexterity, I don't just try and play songs all the time. I guess it helps that I find practicing fun and relaxing :) (been playing for 2 hours straight now)
yep, i remember when i couldnt change anything, now i feel .... good! It's so awesome, but its so discouraging when youre a beginner and you cant do it. :(
Stairway to Freebird!
i remember well the days sitting in front of my Emmy Lou Harris song book and trying to figure out ....how do i do this???///i started playing using fake books ...the internet hadn't been born ..as we know it...yet ....i found that trying to learn 2 or 3 chord songs that i already knew and loved helped me progress very nicely....go get a fake book....what ever style you like there are millions of them out there....they have chord charts and tabs most the time...just pick a song you like and go for it :-)....ive been playing guitar seriously for about 6 yrs now and the last three yrs i began to really get into jazz and gypsy style guitar ...really great chord formations ...hardly ever a barre chord lol...anyway i was right back at the begining again learning new chord formations ...so i agree you never stop being a beginner...ive reciently purchased some lesson vids from homespuntapes....fantastic resource ... as i continue my gypsy/ django studies i also have started studying travis style picking...now i am really lost...but i know in a few months if i stick to it
ill be travis pickin like a .....well at least you will be able to reconize what im doing lol......
hang in there ....
Joyce
