At the moment I am on BG 2 Mod 12 power chords and learning some of the suggested songs, however I also have about 6 others not on the course I am trying to learn what’s the best way to do this concentrate on 1 particular song until I master it or spend a few minutes on each one my practice time is limited to about 4 hrs per week
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I always suggest to my students to rotate songs and keep things moving and fresh between those on your learn-list.
Concentrating only on one song is so tight a focus it narrows the learning scope and opportunities.
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I currently have 5 songs on my learning list. 1 is at a reasonable standard the other 4 in varying states of disarray.
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Chris, do you do as Richard suggests and rotate your song learning
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I think it varies by how much practice time you have. Having 6 songs on rotation probably is fine if you practice for 1+ hour every day whereas if you struggle to do 30 minutes then it’s likely to mean you’ll make very slow progress on all of them.
I do agree with the general point that you can get stale if you’re just bashing away on one song for an extended period - it might be that by you’ve learned it you’ll never want to hear it again!
I’ve typically got 1 or 2 songs that I’m truly learning and a few other songs where I’ve got the basics but need some polish
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I play all of them each day, some more than others.
Fast Car is the song I can play reasonably well. That’s what I play as a warm up at the start of each practice session.
One and Society both have similar 16th note strumming technique, I usually play both but I might spend more time on one or the other.
When You Say Nothing At All has a flatpicking technique which I want to get better at. I’ve only added that to the list very recently, but I plan to do at least 5 minutes on that each day.
I’ve been struggling a bit with Rockin In The Free World, I don’t quite understand Justin’s lesson on it, it’s an old lesson from 10+ years ago. But I get the intro, so I’ve been doing that as a rhythm playing exercise.
I have a whole list of songs that I am learning and playing regularly. It probably does slow my per-song progress somewhat, but it keeps things fresh and interesting too. For me, laser-focusing on one thing for too long just ends up feeling tedious and boring, my interest decreases, and I learn less as a result.
Variety is the spice of life, as they say.
That would depend on the difficulty of these songs. If they are to far above your play grade and you only practice 4 hours a week then I cut it back to 2 or 3.
If these songs are fairly easy for you then fit them into your practice schedule but leave enough time for the basics.
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Hi John. I wish I had the answer to this question of approach to song learning. I had some health and family issues earlier this year and only recently picked up guitar again. It used to be my approach to focus on one song until I got it to the level i was after or as close as I could get or just got sick of it. Of all the OM songs and workshop songs I learned this way I dont think i played any of them again after the event I was practicing for. I am now doing it differently, I have no set deadlines, though this might change if I sign up for OMs again 
. I have several songs on rotation right now and I only play them in short bursts maybe 3 in one session. I focus more on the sound of my playing/singing now rather than just getting through it. I am finding that my progress is quicker , I feel my previous learning/practicing approach of intense focus on one song for prolonged periods led to my progress hitting the law of diminishing returns. So that is where i am at now , good luck in finding the right approach for yourself.
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well here is the list, surfing USA using the shuffle method fairly easy, come together fairly easy, living on an island has a few barre chords depends on which version you play, Margurita time again some barre chords, pictures of match stick men fairly easy picture of you 1 barre chord, and waterloo sunset quite a few barre chords depending on which version I can play some barre chords but can’t move between them and open chords very fast
I might add that`ll be the day a fairly easy one so that makes 8 I think I need to stop there no more!
Are you doing chord perfect and one minute changes exercises from Barre to open chords as part of your practice routine?
If not I’d add them. Would be a good warm up to song practice.
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good idea will start doing that
well that seems to be working had 4 songs that move from A to F#m so doing some chord perfect and minute changes getting faster definitely
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I think that sometime we forget that the exercises Justin teaches to learn the open chord changes work for every chord. Learning 4 songs with similar chord changes is another good way to learn faster.
happy my post helped you out.
For that chord change, and others where the chord formations are similar, the single index finger barre grip is the better choice for A major.
A → F#m
A → Bm
etc
I have experimented with that but not sure need to give it more practice