I’ve been playing guitar for literal decades. I played bass primarily in high school, and had a beat up acoustic and would strum cowboy chords on it. After I got a bit older I didn’t have as much time to play and set my guitar and bass aside. From time to time I’d pick them up again but it wasn’t until COVID that I started playing consistently again. I bought a new electric guitar (and now I have four!) and tried to play as much as I could. These days, I probably play for 45 minutes or an hour a day.
Still, I’m frustrated with my progress. I can do a lot of exercises, I know my CAGED shapes, five scale shapes each for major, minor, and their pentatonics, and can play arpeggios and spider exercises all day long. But I’m not good at playing songs or anything really all that musical.
To try to rectify that I want to spend some time where I really try to learn actual songs or musical phrases. I’m going to pick a new song each week and see how far I get with it. If I can master a section of it, great. If I can play the whole song, even better. But at the end of the week, I’ll move on to a new song. I’m not banned from playing the old songs or anything—I’ll probably still noodle with the ones I like. But I’ll shift my practice focus to a new one. This is really to help me avoid my perfectionist tendency to not let myself move on until I feel like I have something down—that has led me to a lot of frustration.
I also want to take the somewhat more vulnerable step of recording myself play more often.
Anyway, that’s my plan. I’ll try to post here when I can, though it’s honestly a bit frightening. I’d welcome feedback, though.
This is what I have been working on this week—something that’s probably just a bit beyond my skill level, John Mayer’s “Slow Dancing in a Burning Room.” I chose it because it hits on a few things I am interested in getting better at, like using double stops in the context of CAGED shapes. What I didn’t realize when I chose it was that it’s actually finger-picked! That’s not something I am very good at yet and it added a bit more challenge than I was expecting.
There are a few attempts here, none of which is my best rendition but it’s probably a realistic representation of where I am at with it. Some things I notice is that my picking hand wants to default to the way I’d pick if I were playing bass rather than finger-picking guitar. I think there’s some unnecessary movement in my fretting hand, too. Clearly a lot more work to be done with this one.
Anybody have any feedback or suggestions for how I can improve?
After thinking it over and getting some advice on these very forums, this week I am going to try to take a step back and try to do some back to basics work, focused on fundamentals: playing things cleanly and accurately.
I think that if I kept at it for long enough I could get “Slow Dancing” under my fingers but I also think it also demonstrated a few things I need to get better at, including coordination between my right and left hands and being able to get my fretting hand to the right place on the neck at the right time. The thing where I struggle the most is the transition between the licks in that E-shaped C# minor chord and where it jumps down the neck to the A and E chords. I’m not totally sure what to do about that except keep practicing the shifts but I think that it’s a song I am going to come back to later.
This week, I am shifting gears. I looked through the Grade 3 songs on Justin Guitar and identified a bunch I like that I’ll focus for the next few weeks. The first one is Norwegian Wood by the Beatles, because it’s always worthwhile to study The Beatles. I think this one is good because it is deceptively tricky, with the various variations on the D-shaped chord (E accounting for the capo) that create that memorable melody. To complement that, I’ll use E scales, arpeggios, and triads to warm-up.
The other thing I think I need to work on is minimizing my hand movement. With that in mind I am going to incorporate Justin’s minimum movement exercise. It is HARD. It takes every fibre in my being to keep my third finger and pinky under control!
I’m also playing through some blues licks I have from a course on another site, and will keep working on testing my knowledge of the notes on the fretboard.
Now that is a worthwhile endeavour. It’ll affect your whole playing. It may sound tedious but the payoff is potentially huge. If you internalise the mindset, your hands/ fingers will follow.
And if you keep economising your movement, you keep buying yourself time.
And I have found that to be a most beneficial thing, especially for phrasing and rhythm.
I’ve been doing Justin’s exercise (over a scale) alongside the spider exercise, except for the latter I have been very, very focused on moving just one finger at a time and leaving the others where they should be. I find that I’m getting better at moving each finger independently but when I come down the neck (that is, from the side of the neck closest to my face towards the floor) I am having trouble with my fingers on the previous string muting the next string. So if I have three fingers on the E string and move my index finger to the A string, I’m making contact and creating a buzz.
These exercises are certainly humbling! I don’t know how some players are able to keep their fingers so close without making accidental contact, and then move some fingers while keeping the others relaxed and motionless! I imagine it will just take time.
I’m also getting annoyed with my scale practice. I have slowed things down a lot to focus on making sure everything is clean and clear but even though I have played these scale shapes a thousand times I still hit a wrong note more often than I’d like. There are a couple of shapes—C and D especially—that are worse than others for this.
Song work is going okay. Norwegian Wood is getting there but I still sometimes am having difficulty with that D/F# chord. I think it’s actually my ring finger that makes contact with the open G string and I have to be very mindful to keep it out of the way. I’ve been trying to do rapid chord shape changes centered just around this fingers and I think that helps. I am sure my family is getting pretty tired of me playing the same couple of bars over and over again, though.
My intent is to try to get it to a place where I can film myself playing it this weekend. Then I think I might take a look at Blackbird. It’s one of those songs that I learned part of (in this case the verse) but not the whole thing, so I want to try to get the rest of it under my fingers. There are a couple of other candidates, though, that I think will build on what I’ve been working on with Norwegian Wood, so we’ll see!
The minimal movement exercises are difficult but I think they are already starting to pay off. I still move my fingers too far from the fretboard compared to what Justin recommends but compared to last week I am feeling better about both finger independence and keeping my flying fingers in check. Still a long, long way to go but progress is progress!
I also have been taking this approach to scales where I am playing through each key using the Circle of Fourths but not moving from a section of the fretboard. For example, I’ll run through all twelve keys but only using roots from frets 1—6 or from 7—12. I still make mistakes with some of the scale patterns so I am keeping it slow. I think this is mostly a mental issue—I go into auto-pilot instead of focusing on what I need to play. I am thinking of doing the same thing with arpeggios as well.
Norwegian Wood is also coming along. I think my issue with the unintentional muting comes down to my hand position on the back of the neck. I found one today that seemed to work and I was playing up to around 90% of the actual tempo. I’m going to record it and share tomorrow.
On another note, my 12-year-old asked me to teach him to play Wonderwall on guitar, which is pretty cool! He’s occasionally shown interest and played a little bit here and there but hasn’t sustained it. Now that his musical tends to be shifting (oddly?) towards 90s and 2000s rock maybe he’ll start to get the bug. I’m excited.
As promised, here’s my attempt at Norwegian Wood. There are a couple of little stumbles and I am still wrestling with that unintentional muting on the D/F# chord. A couple of other stumbles in there as well. I also noticed playing this through that my strumming doesn’t always sound as even as I think it ought to.
I’d welcome any feedback or suggestions from anyone! I am going to pick a new song to focus on this week, but I’ll probably continue to come back to this one as it is pretty fun to play (though I suspect my family’s getting quite tired of it).
Keeping on keeping on! I’m trying to figure out a good routine for practice. Right now I have a few exercises and things that I am using but I am not sure if they are the right ones for me at the moment. I think I need to refine my goals a bit more and figure out what I can apply but my goal is, essentially, get better at the basics. I think a lot of comes down to speed, coordination, and accuracy. Are running scales thing for that? They might help but I am not sure.
Anyway, this week I have been working on “Heart of Gold” and the fingerpicking version of “Greensleeves” in Grade 3. "Heart of Gold is in good shape and I recorded myself playing it today. In spite of the mistakes in this video, I would say that 90% of the time when the camera is NOT on I can play it through cleanly. I thought about doing another take but I don’t really have a lot of time today so I decided to go with it. My goal is not to impress anybody, but create a realistic snapshot of my progress over the year so I am not going to stress about it.
Greensleeves is a bit more challenging! Fingerpicking is something I have long neglected, but I actually enjoy it. I just find it hard because my instinct is to use the hand positioning I would have used as a bassist and that just doesn’t work on the guitar for these kinds of songs. I will keep at it though.
Anyway, here’s Heart of Gold! One of my favourite songs. As I always, I would love any constructive feedback!
That was really good with well worked changes to the strumming pattern and good dynamics. There were a couple of slightly fumbled chord changes: you can probably focus on correcting those to further improve your performance. The song would be improved even more with the vocal: perhaps you can have a go at singing or have Neil’s vocal added to the mix. I love this song and like your version very much.
Thanks, @beejay56! I think I am still getting comfortable filming myself—when the camera is off I can get through it consistently without fumbling the chord changes but once I’m aware I have the camera’s lens on me something happens to my fingers.
I was playing along with a backing track but it didn’t get picked up in the audio. Singing is something I’d definitely like to learn but I don’t think I am at a stage where anyone else would want to hear me. Apart from the quality of my voice, I have a real problem when I try to even speak while I am playing—it’s like my brain short-circuits or something. I don’t know how else to describe it.
I’ve decided to start posting more often about what I am actually up to when I practice each day. I am not sure if my practice routine is the best or not. I usually spend about an hour a day with my guitar and I’ve been trying to be more focused on working on the important things without spreading my time too thin.
Here’s today:
Warmup
1234/4321 up and down the fingerboard in 1/8 notes @ 84bpm
1324/4231 up and down the fingerboard in 1/8 notes @ 84bpm
Major scales cycling through the Circle of Fourths (roots on frets 1—6 only) in 1/8 notes @ 84bpm
String-skipping Spider in whole notes @ 50bpm.
With the scales, I know all the patterns and can play them quickly but switching between them seems to make it much harder. I am not happy with the number of bum notes I hit, but slowing down feels like it would make the dexterity part too easy. So not sure what to do. The string-skipping spider is something new — it is similar to the 1234/4321 exercises except you skip strings and are meant to strictly alternate pick. It’s tough!
Technique
Hybrid picking practice (5:00): Play a chord progression of Dsus4 / D / Dsus2/ D using a pick for the open D root note. For half the time I do the top three strings in unison and for half I arpeggiate them. I haven’t done much hybrid picking and I find this really hard. My pinky finger doesn’t sound the note clearly.
Alternate picking exercise (Truefire): Progressed to 70bpm. This is pretty easy so far so I will keep adding to the tempo.
Rhythm Guitar Practice Plan (Truefire): Just starting this one. The exercise (“Parallel and Oblique Movement”) was easy until it wasn’t I got most of it down but for a few bars that tripped me up.
Songs
“Heart of Gold”: Although I’ve recorded this I want to keep practicing it in hopes of getting the arrangement memorized. I can play all the chords and riffs just fine, but I always get the sequencing wrong. So I will keep at it.
I’m planning to play some more later on and will probably practice “Greensleeves” from Justin’s lesson and maybe try doing the chord rolling a bit, though I think I’m content to file that technique under “come back to this later.” “Greensleeves” itself is fun to play, though. I am still trying to decide which song to focus on for the coming week. I have a few candidates…
1234/4321 up and down the fingerboard in 8ths @88bpm
1324/4231 up and down the fingerboard in 8ths @88bpm.
Made a couple of mistakes on this one. Nothing major but still keeping an eye on that.
Cycle 4 scales on with roots on frets 6—12 in 8ths @80bpm.
Did better than I expected, especially finding the roots quickly. Still made some mistakes but better than last time.
String skipping spider exercise in quarter notes @70bpm.
Not bad!
Technique
Hybrid picking exercise.
Did the root/chords at 60bpm and it was much better than yesterday. Had to slow down to about 48bpm for the arpeggiated chords though and was having some difficulty.
Alternate picking guitar gym (Truefire).
Got to 100bpm for lesson 1 / pattern 1. Mostly good but hit the wrong string a couple of times at 100bpm. I’ll try that tempo again next time. I’ve also found that when I am playing the root and fifth with my index and ring finger I start to cramp up or get tight at the base of my thumb (between my thumb and index finger). Not sure what’s up with that!
Rhythm Guitar practice plan.
Continued with the parallel and oblique movement exercise I think partially because it’s a nice little song. It’s getting much cleaner. I am doing well with the section I had trouble with yesterday but I do make some small mistake (in different spots) each time I play through. I’ll keep at it a bit more.
Repertoire
Blackbird.
Decided to keep at it to learn the sections of the song I didn’t learn back when I first picked this up. Have to remember to go slowly and focus on playing cleanly especially with my fretting hand.
Greensleeves
Getting a bit better each day but still making lots of mistakes. I could probably approach this more strategically instead of just trying to play through it a bunch of times. Slow down!
Cry Baby Cry.
Decided to try this one out for fun. It’s not too challenging but there are some little wrinkles with the structure to get under my fingers.
Didn’t get as much time to practice today as I had on the weekend, and tomorrow looks like I’ll be lucky if I get any time to play.
Warmup
1234/4321 up and down in 8ths at 92bpm
1324/4231 up and down in 8ths at 88bpm
Cycle 5 scales with roots on frets 1—6 in 8ths at 84bpm
String-skipping spider in quarter notes at 70bpm
Played through the cycle of fourths without having to look at the chart!
Technique
Alternate picking exercise 2: 40—70bpm
Rhythm Guitar Practice Plan: Parallel and Oblique finger exercise.
*Still doing that parallel and oblique finger exercise. Today seemed worse than yesterday. Trying to break myself out of the habit of barring the first and second strings for the G chord as I think it does affect my playing of the D chord. I just like the tune, though, on top of that. I am content to keep working at it for a few days to really get it down.
Repertoire
Blackbird: Tried playing along with a recording and it was rough! I need to get the transitional pieces and the chorus better. I lost the plot every time it changed.
Cry Baby Cry: Just played this for a bit. Such a good song.
Other
Had my in-person guitar lesson tonight and we looked at My Funny Valentine, the latest of a few jazz standards. I have a lot of trouble remembering all those chords. I really love the progression, though. I am not sure if I want to continue getting lessons from this guy—he’s been teaching for something like 30+ years and has probably forgotten more than I’ll ever know, but I feel like I’m not getting much out of the lessons. He’s the most highly recommended guy in my town but I think we spend half the lesson with him telling me the same things he told me last week, or some other story or anecdote that’s on his mind. He doesn’t give me much feedback on my playing apart from if I am getting the right chords for these standards. I feel like I haven’t had much luck with lessons and I wonder if it’s me, not the teachers…
Work has been busy this week and I haven’t had quite as much time to practice as last week. I am looking forward to the weekend!
I admit I have been feeling a bit of frustration or maybe impatience this week. I’ve been asking myself if I am actually getting better, or if I am just learning new things. That might seem like an odd question but what I mean is, I am wondering if my skills are improving, or if I am just playing new pieces or exercises at the same level at skill. If I had picked up this new song or exercise five years ago, would I have been able to play it? Would I have been able to go as fast?
Obviously there’s been some growth, but it seems so darn slow! I have a bad habit of comparing myself to others and when I see people who have been playing for much less time than me able to play much better than me, it’s disheartening. I’m trying to just enjoy the process—I do like just having a guitar in my hands—but it just makes me wonder if I am not using my time effectively. I wish I could get a real, honest assessment of my skills and a clear plan of what to do.
Anyway, last night’s practice looked like this:
Warm-up
1234/4321 in 8ths @ 100bpm
1324/4231 in 8ths @ 100bpm
Skipping spider in quarters @ 74bpm
Cycle of fourth scales in 8ths @ 88bpm.
Scales were very sloppy today. I am not sure what my block is with these. Also not sure if this is the best way to practice scales or not. I am not totally sure what my goal is with scale practice, I guess. Right now it’s just a warm-up exercise for me. They seem too important for that but not sure what else I can do besides running them in different formats.
Parallel and Oblique Movement exercise (Truefire) @ target tempo (66bpm)
Forearm rotation exercise (Trufire). Just played through once to hear it.
My technique work is focused on improving my hand movements. The alternate picking work is fine. The Parallel and Oblique Movement exercise I am not sure if I am doing right—it involves the “Big G” chord that I barre instead of fingering with my third and fourth fingers and when I barre it I can play it. If I try to do it “properly” it’s much harder in places. I am not sure how much effort I should put into breaking that habit if it is working for me. The exercise is meant to be very mindful of how the fretting hand transitions between chords and maybe I need to slow down and pay more attention. At least I enjoy playing the little exercise/etude!
Repertoire
Played “Greensleeves.” The second half of the song is getting stronger than the first. Today I think there was some improvement but this is still pretty challenging for me to coordinate everything.
“Cry Baby Cry.” I can play this along pretty well with the transcription in front of me.
“My Funny Valentine.” Still working on getting the chords figured out. Probably need to sit down and diagram them out to help me internalize them.
I need to figure out which song I want to record this week… Whatever it is, it will not be perfect, that’s for sure!
Trying to keep myself accountable to learning more songs this year by recording and posting videos. Here’s “Cry Baby Cry.” I used a backing track and I think it might have been too loud in the mix so I am not sure if my guitar is as audible as it should be. I am not sure if this was the best take I had of it but it’ll do—just a couple of sloppy chord transitions. It’s one of my favourite Beatles songs and I think being a bit messy is kind of appropriate for it, so that’s my excuse.
EDIT: On rewatching, my timing was really messy! Something else to work on, I guess.
It’s a new month! On the advice of a former teacher of mine, I want to try to be intentional about what I work on each month and set some clear areas of focus, at least technique-wise.
For March, I want to continue working on my fretting hand efficiency and my picking hand accuracy. I recently started the Alternate Picking course on Truefire and I will continue forward with that, as well as another mechanics-focused course.
I am also going to spend a lot of time on Justin’s lesson about picking individual strings while strumming. When I hit this lesson going through the Grade 3 Curriculum, I admit that I thought it would be no big deal—it felt like something I could already do. Reader, it was not. I’m finding the exercises quite challenging, and have had to slow down a lot to get to anything close to accuracy. It feels like a good place to spend some more time.
I’m also going to continue to work at “Greensleeves” from the previous Grade 3 module. I don’t plan to spend too much time on the rolling technique, but I enjoy playing it and I often neglect anything like finger picking. I think it’s also been helping me get better at making sure the chord changes are accurate as there’s no real place to hide when you are finger picking specific strings.
I have my eye on a few other songs to tackle but that’s where I will probably spend the bulk of my time this week.
Something different—just a recording of me doing some scales and exercises. This is warts and all—there are mistakes but again, trying to track progress and identify issues that are causing me to make mistakes, so I am leaving them in there. I’m not here to impress anyone.
I think I have a lot of wasted, big movements in my fretting hand and so maybe focusing on minimal movement exercises is the right move!
Does anyone else spot any big, obvious technique issues? Please let me know if you do!
I could have written this myself, word for word. We’re in the same boat - it may not be sinking, but at times it does seem to be adrift on the open sea.
I also get a bit downhearted when I see newer players ‘passing’ me. One thing that somewhat offsets this feeling is wondering how many hours of actual practice they are putting in. If their dedication exceeds mine, then it’s perhaps not so bad. I have to admit there are periods when I put in less time than I probably should, and conversely, when I do practice a lot, I feel things getting smoother and easier.
Keep up the good work and maybe you’ll find an outboard motor hidden under a thwart somewhere.
Give my regards to Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich. I really liked ‘