Have you met your guitar goals for the year?

nope not even close.....not even a little bit

I started classes in Sept and finished Nov., I can play six songs (but only 3 without looking at my songbook) am now working on City of New Orleans by Arlo. I was wondering if you can sit down and play a song with no tabliture or chord notation in front of you does this qualify as knowing the song, or if you need the chords in front of you does that mean you can't play the song.
I'm pretty satisfied with my progress as I never plucked a string untill Sept, my goal for the new year will be to learn tab (I can read it OK just can't play it) and work on my strumming which I find the hardest part of my learning curve.

yep, i have. i think ive improved a lot, and hopefully by the end of next year, ill be even better.

I had no goals, so ... yeah :lol:

I haven't... I didn't make any formal goals, but I was hoping to be done with one of the guitar books I was working through by now. Reading this makes me think I'll write down what I know now, and then plan out the next year.

My long term goal is to 'get' music. To have some good relative pitch, to be able to construct an interesting song on guitar with interesting chords, to play it and sing it for an audience (even an open mic). I'm not very interested in the rock-metal-shredding, more in the John Mayer mold: good songwriting, good acoustic guitar, good electric blues, decent singing.

I don't think I can get all the way to this long term goal by next year, but I can get close...

I think I have done pretty well. Here are my goals for the last year (in no particular order) and progress since a year ago November:

1) Find a guitar instructor for myself, my son and my daughter. Goal met! We are quite happy with our instructor and I am pleased with the progress we all have made.
2) Learn to read standard notation. Goal in progress (and will be for some time).
3) Jam with some folks on a regular or semi-regular basis. Goal met! I formed a monthly jam session at work. 8)
4) Learn some songs. Goal met! I purposely left this one vague because I was not sure what I would be able to learn. Some of the songs I learned in the last year: Hurt, Day Tripper, American Girl, Rumble, Bad Moon Rising... and about six others in progress right now.
5) Participate in a show/performance. Goal met! My son and did a duet at our 'music school' early this year.
6) HAVE FUN!!! Goal met! :D

I am thinking about goals for the upcoming year. It might be nice to start a thread on that in Beginners or Opinions forums to discuss goal setting.

My only real goals are to be still playing at the end of each year, still improving, and still enjoying it. So I guess that's a yes. :)

There are some things in life that I do plan carefully - perhaps like a mountain climber would. The overall ascent is broken down into sections, the routes and equipment selected with great attention to detail, and each step carefully considered and executed....

But there are other things that I approach more like a skydiver. I still pick the equipment carefully, but once I jump my only real plan is to reach the ground without dying, and to have fun on the way. :D

With music I try to make plans like a Mountaineer, but I still mostly act like a Skydiver... :wink:

Cheers,

Chris

(Disclaimer: I'm neither a Mountaineer or Skydiver in the real sense. Please excuse the corny stereotyping if you are either one yourself. :) )

I reached nearly none of my goals. I did archieve things I wasn't at all planning. Guess the beatles were right: life's what happens when you're making other plans.

the other problems i have is that i can't sing too good and though i've taken some voice lessons i need to work on that still.

Of course! I'd forgotten that one. That's definitely my goal for next year. I sort of had in in the back of my mind for the later part of this year but never did anything about it.

I've bought the book with the CD - I just haven't started working throught it. :oops:

Getting better at singing is a big deal on my agenda, as it would hugely improve my enjoyment.

I think we get a bit overawed by tackling some aspects of music because we're so used to hearing recordings that are not only the result of many 'takes' and much technical cleaning up and adjusting, but are also a product of several people playing. If you can listen to just the rhythm track, or whatever, they are often not all that complicated. But the one track might not sound all that impressive on its own.

For a player in the early stages it's often impossible to make a song sound "right" because there's no way you can match a band in a recording studio with just one instrument at home...

But if you can SING - well, hey, you are effectively playing two instruments at once. Your fairly basic accompaniment now doesn't have to be the cake, the icing and the candles all at once... :)

But singing really is playing another instrument, it's not just something we can all automatically do properly, or keep in time with or whatever. It needs its own chunk of study and practice.

So next year it will get some.

No, darn it, TODAY it will get some...where's that book...

Thanks for the reminder Pearl. :D

Cheers,

Chris

yes. and I am still excited. :D

Not quite

My main goal was to literally to "Get my act together". I've worked
in that direction but 3 originals and 2 covers is not really an act.

Is it?

John

I did accomplish at least one goal - I am now, more or less, happy with my gear! :D

My goal was not to make any goal.(And i saw many real goals being scored in the FIFA 2006 )

I think i succeeded.

However, 2006 has been overall good musically.I got into recording, which was a great experience.So having 20 songs (cruedly done) on my soundpage, a little goal is met there too.

More and more songs to come.Hopefully i shall start writing my own as well...

Happy new year !

This being my first year I didn't set myself any rigid goals because I didn't know how I would progress.

I'm still playing, I'm still enjoying myself and I'm making good progress. I'm pretty much where I wanted to be after about a year. So I guess my original goals are met.

Next year I may be a little more demanding of myself. I guess now would be as good a time as any to decide where I want to be this time next year.

More online jams is a must. I've only had time for one this last couple of months but really enjoyed it. So I guess that is one goal for the next year.

8)