At the end of the month I’ll hit 4 months since I started learning guitar. This has been a huge thing for me, I feel passion for this hobby that I never felt before, I’m loving it so far.
The thing I’m currently struggling the most with is picking accuracy and speed with a pick. (Finger picking is definitely my strength)
(I’m a right handed person playing a left handed guitar, got a very bad thumb on my left hand and fretting is nearly impossible)
At the moment I’m practicing some scales, trying out alternate picking and overall trying to get my strumming hand to be more accurate and less shaky.
So far I’ve gotten down 2-3 scales, I can change between the basic chords pretty easily and quickly, and I’m just now getting the hang of the F barre chord, I think I got it down pretty easily, I thought I’d struggle with it for longer because of how impossible it felt the first time. I’ve got a few licks and riffs down as well. I suppose I can pick up most open chord songs pretty fast and play them, but that’s all I got so far.
I’m just now starting to learn some theory, how chords are constructed and what scales mean, what notes stay where on the fretboard and overall the basics of guitar/music theory. Theory has been surprisingly interesting and fun for me and I think I’ll got further into it, once I get better at actually playing the stuff I’m learning about.
I’m very eager to get better, and be able to play stuff off the top of my head.
Hi Teodor,
Greetings from Poland!
I must say I love your attitude towards learning the guitar thoroughly… It reminds me of my beginnings and how I fell in love with the instrument and gradually discovered it enormous possibilities.
If you are eager to get better, I’m sure you will, just follow the usual learner’s route as recommended by Justin’s lessons, but also (the advice comes from my own experience) start learning songs as soon as feasible. It will make your learning/playing all the more enjoyable.
Do you play an acoustic or electric guitar?
All the best, friend, I wish you all successes on the path you’ve chosen.
That’s something that I’m looking to improve on - actually playing songs. I’ve had some troubles with that simply because the songs I wanna play are a little too difficult for me still.
I’m a big Pink Floyd fan, would you recommend some Pink Floyd / Pink Floid-ish song that a beginner could pick up? The only one I can play is Wish You Were Here (thanks to Justin of course ), and the baseline of Money, although I haven’t tried playing the rest of it.
Well, Pink Floyd songs aren’t generally very easy to play. However, there’s Justin’s lesson on ‘Breathe’, explaining the chord progression in detail (I first found it on YT but it must be somewhere here within the forums). Perhaps you could try that one?
If you discount the 25 years I’ve had a guitar and never really bothered to learn it properly, then I’m at a similar stage to you with guitar. I do however have to close to 50 years of piano/ keyboards behind me (some of which have been spent learning properly ) and 12 years of bass (3 spent learning properly).
I think it’s good you are enjoying theory - learning the right theory helps.
For maybe the 1st 15 years of my musical journey I didn’t pay much attention to theory. Then I started assimilating what I needed for what I was doing - I suspect this is a good place for most people to be. It’s only recently I’ve started learning theory to help me explore music and do things I might not otherwise have done.
Theory will help you. It’s just a case of getting the right balance on learning theory and how it is helping on your musical journey. I think also an understanding of how you learn also helps when it comes to learning theory.
And finally; Justin’s advice to “learn songs” is, in my view, quite likely the best advice you’ll pick up from any of us in this community.
On the Justin Guitar website, select songs & then search Pink Floyd & you’ll find all the Floyd lessons Justin teaches! He doesn’t have a LOT of songs, but several multi-part lessons that are really in depth!
Good luck & congrats on your progress so far!!!
), and the baseline of Money, although I haven’t tried playing the rest of it.