Advice needed - 6 months progress

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Hello everybody,

I really need some advice, but let me provide a bit of context before. I walso wish to thank in advance all those who will take their time to answer this.

Starting today I’ll have a month of vacation and i plan to dedicate a lot of time to learning the guitar

In 12 days it will have been exactly 6 months since I started to learn the guitar, as a complete begginer. I have been playing various percussion instruments for the past 20 years, which proved more helful then i initially thought, as i don’t need to be preocupied much with rhytm and time signatures, syncopation etc…

I am currently sitting at Grade 2 Module 13, which, truth be told, was the first really difficult lesson for me so far. Perhaps i just need to calmly watch againd and practice…

Besides following Justin’s program I’ve been learning fingerstyle patterns basically since day on along practicing different strumming patterns. So i can confidently pla pima, pami, pimami, pamimi, Pimaimi (not very kosher, but beautiful nonetheless)

I’ve also learned quite a few chords that havent appeared in the program so far. Well, not exactly… The only bar chord so far taught was the F major chord and i was really surprised Fm, F#, Fm#, G, Gm, G#, Gm #… and Bm havent been mentioned since they are all esentially the same pattern. - Every now and then i fall in love with a new chord and Bm, when i first played it, sounded - and still does -amazing. Chord transitions I work on are mostly smooth. Bar chords -well it’s a hit and miss, but lately more smooth than not. I find them easy to play - the difficulty seems to be the consistency, but I trust it’s amatter of time and practice.

One of the biggest joys for me has been learning new chords and feeling the different moods they create in different combinations. The way a Bm can create a completely different mood if played in different chord contexts is beyond beautiful!

Playing different bar chords, same positions. Which brought me to understand how easily you can play bar chords with just 3 different shapes as long as you know the roo on the e or the A string. (it still tales me a while to figure out a new one though…)

I’ve learnd the first position pentatonic scale - which flows really well - and i’m able to improvise certain patterns on it, and i can play it up and down the fretboard. (shifting the whole position, not shifting between positions). I can confidently play the c major scale, up and down and can improvise synchopated rhytms. Problems is: i wouldnt really know how to solo accompanying someone as my knowlede of music theory is basically non existing besides understanding the note circle.

This is where it gets really weird: I spend most of my practice working on clean chord transitions - both strummed in different patterns and fingerpicked in different patterns. i haven’t really learned songs from start to finish. i can play along many songs, I can play songs looking at sheet music. I don’t really feell compelled to learn songs by heart. Strange, even i am surprised. Why? well, because I eventually wish to play jazz, blues, folk and some classical pieces. None of which i can do now beyond chord transition. I mostly practice chord transitions belonging to different genres in different keys using different techniques, rhytms, tempo. and that is most of my practice time. Oh, and the spider, I love the spider!

I apologize for the long, (too long?) introduction. Here come the questions

I realy need to:

  1. Most importand: understand better what i need to practice and how to divide my time. No one here wishes to see their time being wasted by practicing the wrong things. Should i work on Rock/pop songs I don’t really enjoy that much?

  2. When would it be suitable to start learning jazz. (the problem seems to be that all jazz related classes i can find for free are for intermediate or advanced players.

  3. Maybe other advice based on my description.

  4. I live in the foothils of the sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, so getting an in-person teacher with regularity is an issue rn
    Thank you in advance for your time.
    Be good!

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Are you in Colombia?

I’m not going to give advice on what to practice as I’m not the person to give advice on that. I leave it to the experts.

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I am in Colombia, yeah.

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Colombia / Santa Marta: Well in that case, you are in the right place for music and musicians!! Obviously, it depends how remote it is where you live and you may not find an official teacher but I bet you can find people who play guitar well to hang out with and learn from playing with them. That could be a good experience, although you are mostly going to find people who play latin music, so it depends whether you like that sort of music.

If I was living there, I would go to some bars where they play vallenato and then get to know some local vallenato musicians. You will learn something unique.

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Hey Aleksander,
nice to meet you!

firstly let me say, this all sounds like you are advancing pretty fast! So, I hope that you realize this and are happy about it.

What percussion instruments did you learn? Also some chromatic percussion instuments?

From reading about your journey I would think that it’s a good idea to continue Justin’s course, although you’re possibly seeking some more specialized lessons.
I think it’s a great base in general for lots of things to come.

Did you look at the practical music theory? It helps along your journey.

Also, there’s more interesting things coming up soon in Grade 3 for you!

And then, on the JG lesson site, there’s a search function and you can search for some topic that might interest you, like search for “Blues” for example.
I did this at times and skipped a bit ahead to look if those lessons are ok for my current level. I think it’s important to always have fun and learn things that motivate you.

While I’d recommend to continue where you left afterwards and not miss anything important.

When you say that you mostly didn’t finish the song learning so you could play a whole song beginning to end, I can relate to that. Very often I wanted to skip to the next challenge before I really could play a song well.

As much basics as you have already, you could write your own song or instrumental piece too - that’s a nice challenge too.

I hope you’ll continue to have fun!

PS. Now I see Ian has answered in the meantime…

Oh, that’s not me! :slight_smile:
I just wrote what I thought helped me on my own journey!

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Nice thought, thanks! but, although more traditional vallenato used to be played with guitar(s), it has now mostly been replaced by the accordion… I’ll ask around though…

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Let me know which town/village you are in and I can ask around. One of my close friends is a music composer & producer specialised in different types of Colombian music but especially from the Atlantic coast. It’s a small chance but he could know musicians in your area - you never know.

Yes, it’s true the accordion player is the king in that region!!! Everyone else is just accompaniment to him.

p.s. from your description, you are making great progress in the course.

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Hi Aleksandro,

I honestly do not Jazz very much, but I can say that learning a song is very different than learning a skill. Think of skills (fingerstyle patterns, chord changes etc.) like putting a tools in your tool bag, but playing a song is like building a deck. In order to be a good deck builder, you will need to build some decks. So in the same way, I would say you need to learn songs. I don’t think you need to learn Rock songs if that is not your jam, but pick some songs that work for you. I just googled Jazz guitar classics for beginner guitar player and got some hits there. I don’t know if that helps, but I do think you need to make songs part of the practice.

That said, I 100% agree with everyone else that said, it sounds like you are making smashing good progress for 6 months!!!
Well done you!

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Any more adviCe about praCtiCe routines?

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If you just follow Justin’s Practice Routine, you should be fine. His routine is pretty good and it helped a lot for me. Just like everyone else said, your making pretty good progress for 6 months!!

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I’ve been following Justin’s course on the website, but loosely. I think I feel similar in which music I actually enjoy and want to play at the end of the day. I started nearly 3 years ago and still slowly poke at grade 2. The reasons for “slow “ progress is that I am in constant wild goose chase after this and that. Explaining: I started with looking for actual music to play in parallel with the Justin’s course probably after 2 months of practicing just his material, playing along with the video’s of songs lessons etc. But it doesn’t hold my interest for long enough. I don’t sing and I don’t want to, also, I’m coming into this after years of piano and never playing by ear. So I started to look for fingerstyle arrangements for my level and happy with it, progressing steadily and now getting into delta blues pieces and obsessing over chord- melody thing.
I just wanted to hear something good to my ears right away and strumming just didn’t do it for me.
I tried all kind of things - from children and Christmas songs, to pop and blues arrangements, it is quite easy to see when I’m over my head, so then I back off and try something new, and the website here was all the way very helpful giving the whole thing structure.
Take a look at Sky Guitar channel on youtube, for example. Many pieces to choose and try, clearly marked by level. There is so many more of course, I can share more of my favourite if you want.

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To add to my first reply, I’d recommend learning complete songs or pieces. It’s nothing new, but with 15+ years of playing piano, I can’t stress enough how important it is for internalizing music theory. Playing full pieces from memory—and not “moving on” as soon as you can get through them—really helps you make the music your own. Change things, adapt them to your skills and style. I don’t take every piece to that level, but I try to bring each one to at least 80% of performance standard (I can still hear my old piano teacher in my head).

It’s also very useful not to get stuck in one style of music. Trying different genres builds a broader skill set.

So for a practice routine, I think it’s best to spend at least 50% of your practice time learning actual music and exploring new styles. It can feel slow at times, but after every plateau I find myself greeted by the occasional breakthrough.

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thank you for taking your time and replying, Natasha. WHat song s would you recommend, beyound The house of the rising sun :slight_smile: for fingerstyle, for relative begginers?

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Classic - Greensleeves comes first to my mind, I tried a couple of easier versions from different sources and one is still on my stick with it list.

And of course there is a lesson from Justin that has other useful things in it (it’s grade 3, but you are allowed to jump around - it seems to go along with what you are looking for):

From Sky guitar - choose something 2 or 3 stars, I tried a few. You really need to like it. From a quick look at the channel and from what I tried, recognizable pieces:

  • Canon in D (can be played very slowly and still sound good, and is very educational)
  • Romance de Amore
  • The Sound of Silence
  • Wonderful tonight (more challenging, but can be a stretch project, it’s a very good arrangement - still love it)
  • My Way (Sinatra)
  • Lagrima (beautiful and a little harder - 3 stars)
  • Moon river (easy, nice)
  • Hallelujah (mandatory :slight_smile: )
  • La Paloma - easy and much more fun than spider exercise :slight_smile:
    etc.

He has a bunch of other classical pieces - pick among the 2 or 3 star ratings - it should be something challenging, but possible and useful.

I’m recommending this channel specifically because you can learn proper fingering and hand positions, and his (easier) arrangements normally do not have any flashy techniques but sound full and correct. But there are so so many other sources for each taste.

Good luck and have fun!

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thank you, that’s really great! I appreciate you taking your time to answer so thoroughly

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