[Rooh]

I have to say, I just came up past a year in December, and I even took maybe 6 months off because of my frustration with bar chords. I thought I’d literally be starting from scratch because I had taken so much time off.

I’m amazed, that I not only retained a lot of the things I learned, but I’m even better at it than I was when I started AND some of the newer things I’m trying to master, are coming more quickly than in the past (including the mini-F bar chord!). Some of the lessons we are doing now, seem easier than they were when I started. So there is definitely progress. I have to look at my fingers less and less.

I am also doing the lessons a little differently than when I started in case this helps anyone else. I am an audio/visual/tactile learner. And maybe this change has something to do with why I’m picking things up a little faster. I watch the whole lesson first. I don’t even pick up my guitar for that. Then I watch the “play back” of what the lesson is *supposed* to look and sound like. THEN I go get my guitar and go back to the lesson and learn it. I’ve also finally figured out how to read the tablature, though I’m not fast at it. And I will draw chord diagrams if I need to.

[Rooh]

One more thing. You may want to try learning on a smaller guitar, or an electric guitar, which is much easier on the left hand because the neck is either smaller or the strings are easier to hold down.

[Rooh]

Hi Kirk,

I was editing my comment when the whole thing disappeared and there is no back arrow to restore it.

I’m 57, and just started 2 days ago. The fingering is not completely foreign to me as I used to play violin, but the wider neck and fretboard with added strings makes it challenging with my small hands. I was having problems with hand and wrist cramping, and I also have to be careful not to aggravate an old left shoulder injury.

I would recommend going to youtube and looking up “hand (or wrist) proper position on guitar”. There are several good videos on there, and you can watch the thumb and wrist movement as they play different chords. I found that to be very helpful. I would recommend watching more than one, because there are some slight variations that might come in handy for you.

Also, I stumbled on a video about neuroplasticity (the brain’s ability to learn something new). Basically one way to trigger the plasticity is to try a balance exercise before you begin playing new things or skills on the guitar. It could be as simple as standing on one foot for a few minutes, but you want the balance exercise to be difficult enough that the brain is triggered to understand it needs to learn something. You can spend 5 minutes on that, and then start playing the guitar. You will find that the learning is easier after doing this. I’ve just started listening to the Huberman podcasts on spotify (he is the one that did the studies on neuroplasticity). I’m hoping to learn some more information.

Hope this helps! 🙂

[Rooh]

I am just starting out today. But I don’t even know where my fingers go on the fretboard. I have to look at each finger and practice each chord, so I don’t see myself playing even the lesson for the day yet. All I could do for today (worked on yesterday’s lesson) was switch back and forth between C and G chords. I haven’t even tried F or the other one (can’t remember what the 4th one was). And then today’s lesson was Dm7 and another one. I worked on that for a little bit too.

I’m trusting the process, but I’m assuming most people start where I am??

[Rooh]

OMG THANK YOU!! I have no idea how you did this, but these are all the lessons I missed last year when I got frustrated and put my guitar away LOL. I’m not planning to go back and try to do them all now, I’ll just get to them when I get to them, but I would love to have this list because I have marked other lessons as favorites and tried going back to access them and it just wasn’t working like your list does.

Do you have another list that covers the first half of the year? ETA: Nvmd!! I figured it out! This is AWESOME!

• This reply was modified 1 year, 1 month ago by  Rooh.