Teodor's Learning Log - My journey so far (4 months in)

Hi guys,

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.

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Hi Teodor,
Greetings from Poland! :slight_smile:
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.

Thanks dude! I love Poland!

I play an electric, got a Epiphone SG.

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 :smiley:), 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?

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Hi Teodor,

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.

Good luck on your musical journey,

Simon

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I didn’t know he had one, I’ll 100% check when I get back home. Fantastic song too!

Hi Teodor,

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!!!

Tod

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Hey all!

I’ll soon hit half a year of practicing guitar and I need some guidance on what to concentrate on.

I can freely play barre chords (E and A rooted minor and major barre chords, the fancier ones are still a little complicated, but I’m getting there). I’ve gotten the pentatonic scale shapes down, although I can only use 1 and a half in musical context when improvising. I’m exploring barre chord embellishments and recently I gave transcribing a shot, I even managed to transcribe the entire Californiacation solo without looking at tabs or lessons, I’m able to play the whole song from start to finish by myself, which is dope.

I’ve partially learned some songs and riffs like:

Born Under a Bad Sign (very fun to play and improvise over)

Crossroads

Black Dog

Bring it On Home (still figuring this one out)

Californiacation (fully!)

Sunshine Of Your Love (I need to get back to that one, cause I learned it way back in a very simplified version)

Layla

A couple of Nirvana riffs

John Frusciante’s bedroom lick (I am SO proud of that one, such a great sounding riff)

Hey Joe (learned my open chords with that song, then I learned barre chords with it, I improved my rhythm 10-fold with it, now I’m working on barre chord embellishments with it, this is an excellent song for practicing for me)

And some more that I probably forgot.

I understand where and why chords are located, I can play a few voicings of the same chord, I can somewhat navigate the fretboard on a basic level.

My sessions are normally just practicing a riff or a part of a song that I’m struggling with, i try to implement playing rhythm and much as lead while doing so. I try to play along songs at the end of my sessions.

Right now I’m at that point where I really really want to play more complicated music, but I’m a little too early for that. I want to get to that level, but I feel like I might be approaching this the wrong way.

Would you say that sticking to learning pieces of music is a good approach and would eventually improve my overall playing, or is there something else I should spend my time doing?

It sounds like an obvious question, but I’ve heard so many people that practicing incorrectly is a huge waste of time, and i definitely don’t want that.

@TeodorTsanov Teodor, our convention wrt Learning Logs is for each member to have a single Learning Log topic. As you progress you add entries to your Learning Log by making replies on your Learning Log topic.

I have appended your Part 2 topic to the end of your original Learning Log topic.

You may want to amend your Learning Log title since it is ongoing, rather than reflecting just a point in time (‘4 months in’ in the original).

And more importantly you sound like you are making great progress.

My simple answer to your questions would be to continue to learn songs and solos in order to apply the theory and skills you learn AND to continue with Justin’s lessons to structure your learning. There is far moer flexibility in approach from Grade 4 onwards, so you need to set your goals and use the material appropriately.

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Hi David,

Oh, sorry, I got the format now, thanks :sweat_smile:

Thank you. I’m around halfway through grade 3 at the moment, I’ve decided to pause it for a bit and actually apply what I’ve learned into songs that I like & test where I’m at exactly.

I’ll get back to the lessons very soon!

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No worries and you approach sounds good.

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