Hi everyone,
I’m about to finish up my first month of Justin’s beginners course, having never played an instrument in my life. I’ve been practicing around 30 minutes a day, finished Module 1 and moved to Module 2 this past week. Here’s a quick snapshot so far:
Struggles: D chord - a work in progress
Successes: A chord - I struggled with this at first but actually feel confident and am progressing to where I can do this w/o looking.
Goals: Continue looking forward to practicing everyday. Be able to play a couple of my favorite Dead songs - Ripple, Uncle John’s Band and put a smile on my face!
Well done on your first month. The first months with guitar are hard. It takes a while to get to the point of feeling like you’re making something that sounds like music! Stick to what you’re doing, get those chords sounding good and you’ll get there
Hey Paul!
Congratulations! Echoing what Matt says, the first few weeks/months are hard… everything is very unfamiliar, the finger pain is very real, the learning curve is very steep! But way to go for persevering through the first month! Before you know it, that pesky D chord will be really easy & you’ll be focusing on something else that is a challenge! Just keep practicing, keep smiling & have lots of fun!
You’re on your way, Paul!!!
I needed super remedial lessons to start with. I had to practice chord changes with Em to Asus2 before I could graduate to the standard E, A, D entry level open chords. It did make a huge difference for me, though. My left hand dexterity/control is my biggest struggle and what determines how quickly I pick up new stuff.
The instrument I played as a kid was the trumpet, which I have to imagine played a role with the challenges I now I have with guitar. Since with trumpet, your left hand doesn’t really do anything except hold the instrument.
