Hi guys
I’ll jump right to it. I want to create a proper roadmap of my goals in this journey.
but I find it very difficult to do so.
not the sticking to the plan part. I am very disciplined. to the point of slightly obsessed
what i find difficult is the creating this plan myself. the videos that i have watched from justin havent really been able to help me mutch.
maybe you guys can.
so my ultimate goals i guess are full mastery of the guitar, and by that i mean. I want to be able to play which ever song i want. so just grab my guitar and play.
at friends gathering, in a garage band
one day i would love to be able to give back and teach others too
i just dont know how to creat a roadmap out of all this. smaller goals that i can work on. anyone can help?
How have you approached Justin’s courses so far? Have you worked through Beginners Grade 1, 2, 3? They are all broken down into nice easy chunks with clear aims and goals.
yes I have been using the course so far its going great, i really love the system. they have done a very good job with it.
i was more looking to define my own personal goals. I am following the program of course, but would like to define my personal goals, and maybe put a time line to it.
right now i am doing about 5hrs of guitar a week. i am working to increase this to 7 hrs a week. with a full time job and half time going to the university. + a family is the best i can do at the moment
So defining your personal goals should be easy. You say you want to be able to play songs and play with others. Well if you’re progressing through the course you should already be learning songs AND the other skills to be able to play with others. That really is the aim of playing guitar.
Putting a timeline to things is difficult because your progress is dictated by the time you put in and how well you absorb/learn the material. It really is variable. On the old Classic Beginners course we used to say anything from - a very rapid - 6 months upto a more reasonable 12-18 months. But that is very much just a rule of thumb and at that point you will have all the basics you need BUT still require lots of practice to improve/perfect things. However you will be able to play songs etc.
5-7 hours of guitar a week is absolutely plenty whilst learning so I wouldn’t worry about that.
To get competent (I wont say master as that implies something else) at guitar will take time (and I’m thinking years).
Can you be more specific about the goals you are aiming at other than play songs, play with other people. Playing songs is something you should start trying do within a short period of beginning the course.
If you’re already following Justin’s program and practicing 5-7 hours per week you’re on a solid path. I’d aim personal goals more towards the “make music” side of things. You’re already using a songbook to play for friends, which is excellent. You could set some other goals, like:
Play three songs (from memory) for friends.
Play one or more songs for strangers (at an open mic, street corner, whatever).
Get together with one or more other musicians and play together for fun.
Get together with one or more other musicians and perform together for an audience.
I was going to respond that the original posters goals, while admirable were too vague, not specific enough. This set of goals gives that specificity. It could be made more specific, if wanted, by stating which three songs would be played for friends.
Okay so if you can play songs okay and from a songbook/chordsheet that’s one thing ticked off…perhaps another way of looking at it is what do you feel you CAN’T do with the guitar that you should be able to do? Maybe it’s time to get a 1-2-1 with a guitar teacher and have a chat (BTW there are justin approved teachers available now as well).
this is actually one amazing list thank you for it, is exactly what I was looking for. I will writing this whole list down. if u got any more suggestion.
Goal setting can be a rough road until you need to do it a few times. You already have some long term goals defined.
Think of the path needed to achieve the goal, then break it into a sequence of steps to get there. (yes, this is where my forum nick comes from, in part). Each of those steps may need a sequence of steps as well. After a couple steps are broken down, you will find a lot of common events that need to happen, like knowing your open chords, being able to move between chords in a minimum time. Eventually you will get to more difficult and time consuming things you need to be proficient at, like Barre chords, finger style, or whatever is taking you further toward your goal.
I like to start with something I can achieve that will build on a follow-up goal that will build on the final goal.
here is a simplified example for me: I want to play blues - so what do I need for that?
What kind of blues do I want to play - I can answer Delta
What do my fingers need to do? - thumb and finger independence; string bending; note accuracy; picking accuracy
What does my brain need to do? rhythm accuracy; song memorization; build speed to play at tempo
other? - pick songs I like; research songs I do not know about that I can learn
I look at those things to do and put them into my practice routines.
Bends need to come after note accuracy since bending on a missed note seems useless.
I can work on picking accuracy with note accuracy concurrently.
I can research other songs to play outside of my formal practice time.
This is one way to break down goals into shorter and manageable pieces. It helps to also see progress when you feel like you are stalled - look at the small pieces, not the long term ones.
You might try searching for “goal setting techniques”. I used Google and found this. I have used a couple of these. I found them more for keeping on track than help creating the goal. Maybe these can help too.
Play three songs (from memory) for friends by the end of February 2023.
That sort of thing. I’ve been amazed at how well this has helped me in the past. Be realistic when you are setting the goals, you don’t want to demotivate yourself by setting unachievable goals.
This thread got me thinking about goals because even after two & half years doing this learning guitar thing I’m still not sure that I have a goal. My original intention was to ‘learn to play guitar’! How naive was I
Don’t get me wrong I’m still practicing and not going anywhere soon but still not sure what I want achieve out of this. I don’t want to perform in front of others that’s for sure, and singing is not my bag.
I do actually like practicing technique more than playing songs at the moment, and probably haven’t played a song for 3-4 weeks as being doing PFC’s with the F barre chord. I’ll probably get back to songs at some point!
Many years ago I learned the value of writing down one’s goals. I remember writing down some very specific goals for a project of mine and when I came across those goals some time later, it was a bit uncanny how well they had been achieved.
Yet, with my guitar playing / singing / performing, while I had one specific goal when I started, I’ve not written any down and the goals along the way have been about learning a specific song, that’s it, and yet I’m thrilled with the progress I’ve made. Well and truly exceeded my expectations.
So as with many things, it’s different strokes for different folks.
It doesn’t feel like much fun at the moment. I’ve got to the point where I can play the F barre chord OK but can’t use that in any songs as can’t change quick enough. The same goes for 7th chords. I can ply the chords but can’t change quick enough. Feels like I’m back at the beginning again!!
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