[speckpgh]

As someone who is around 3 months into his own journey, and started here with TAC as well, I would agree with Bill, don’t worry about the daily routine stuff, do the “30 days to play” and focus on that, until you are able to make all of those chords cleanly and ideally work your way to being able to transition reasonably, and then follow that with the “5 day guitar routine challenge”, which will explain how the 5 day a week challenge works etc.

You certainly could do the daily challenges while doing the 30 days to play, but honestly, I honestly found them more confusing than anything early on.. not that you can’t do a daily challenge, you certainly can, but when you can’t even make a chord consistently, what good is trying to do all the chords of a family?

I personally stuck to spending my time whatever the lesson was for the day, and then on making the open chords and transitioning cleanly between them… My typical day during the 30 days to play was to spend so much time on the lessons, and then try to play a simple version of a song I wanted to learn once I had a few chords in my belt. I admit it took me more than 30 days to finish it all, but that’s okay.

It was only after finishing the two courses I mentioned that I started really doing the daily challenges. Now I spend at least 10 minutes working on the challenge, and still spend about an hour to two a day practicing other things I want, like playing a songs, or transitioning into and out of new chords, (currently trying to get the F to C transition speedy enough to actually play songs with this transition with the full version of F) etc.

Whatever you decide to do, good luck.

[speckpgh]

Thank you everyone.

[speckpgh]

Its been a month since your original Post… Have you noticed an improvement?

[speckpgh]

I am still trying to find the best fingering of this chord for me.

The barring of DGB with first finger certainly seems the easiest for me, but lose the high e (muted) with this approach, but definitely easiest.

The traditional shape, I wind up with Index finger too far back on the D, and wind up with buzzing, and trying to squish everything forward can get it to stop buzzing, kind of.. Tony’s alternate away works, but still a lot of squishing and… using Middle, Ring and Pinky seems to get them all to fit nicely and consistent sound, but then lose the free pinky to do other things down the road so hesitant to train that one.

Have been trying this approach as well (d7 shape in this single fret), do seem to be able to get reasonably consistent sound without needing to smush the fingers too much, and has the added benefit that the index finger doesn’t need to change strings between D, A and E chords.

[speckpgh]

How many times a week?

I try to make it every single day, though I do occasionally miss a day, but they are rare. So far I have been able to maybe miss 1 or 2 days a month at most, and usually because I have no choice in the matter.

When do I play?

I work from home, and have guitar on its stand next to my desk. When I take a break I tend to pick it up and at least strum through some chord changes or a verse or chorus of a song I am trying to learn. These aren’t always long 5 or 10 minutes generally, but they happen throughout the day.

The longer times are in the evening after my kids are in bed, I usually will practice for 30 minutes to an hour, and sometimes much more.

Where do I play?

In my office.

How has routine changed my guitar life?

Well so far have had this routine since I decided to play the guitar, so I can’t really compare it to anything before. I do see the progress I am making, though it is slow, and certainly not linear. I definitely don’t think I would be where I am, and I am not very far at all, without this routine. Not quite 2 months into this journey, and while nothing I am doing is remotely perfect, being able to strum through some 3 and 4 chord songs and keeping reasonable tempo, well enough to where they are recognizable, is a long way from where I was just a month ago.

Yes I still miss a string, mess up the tempo, don’t change the chord in time, screw up the strum pattern, get occasional buzz, lose track of where I am and all the other things a beginner does… but I do see the progress. I am using far less mental energy to play, and beginning to be able to “feel the music” as they say when I do.

Took 3 days of trying, but finally was able to have enough strength to create a F Barre chord, and no way I can transition to one in a reasonable time frame yet, but will keep working on it.

It’s definitely in my blood now to practice and play ever day, even when what I am trying to accomplish is frustrating.

[speckpgh]

Learning any new skill can be frustrating. I am working my way through the 30 days to play myself, and about 20 days in, and I can say with certainty I won’t finish it in 30 days in spite of probably playing/practicing 1- 2 hours a day every day (not all at one sitting, 10-20 minutes generally several times a day, and occasionally will just lose myself and have a 30 minute to hour long session.

Right now I am frustrated with my chord transition speed, particularly into and out of C, weeks now of work and I see small improvements but my transitions are still far too slow to play anything and have it actually sound like what I hear in my mind. around 30-35BPM to get a consistently good chord when into or out of C… Using a metronome, doing the 1 minute drills, etc.. but still slow and frustrating at times… especially once you mess up… get a good rhythm, and then FWANG… fingers go down in complete wrong positions, then start thinking way too much about everything, and everything falls apart because I then overthink every move and slow down even further and make even more mistakes, rather than trusting myself.

I am old enough to know, I just have to put in the time, though I have certainly put in more time for this, than anything else I have tried in a long long time, and progress is slow. I tend to want to run before I can walk, so have to fight my instincts on this constantly… Want to play something and have it sound reasonably correct… but just not there yet.

Don’t give up, you’ll get there.

[speckpgh]

Hi @Bill_Brown ,

Thanks for the info on the strings.

Happy to get together sometime. I’m near Carnegie

[speckpgh]

Agreed, in my third month of learning, and I concluded around 6-8 weeks in I really do need to find an in person coach/teacher/mentor. I know not everyone can afford weekly guitar lessons, and it doesn’t need to necessarily be a professional teacher every week, but l think @Ping would benefit from just finding someone locally who is an experienced player/teacher who she can meet with in person from time to time. Perhaps someone else here on TAC is close by who could help her?

If she hasn’t gotten past this issue in a month on her own, I think she really needs someone to sit down with her in person. (Assuming she is actively practicing daily etc). You should see some level of progress after that much time, and since she still isn’t that means she needs some help, and clearly, internet recommendations aren’t getting it done. I give her credit, extreme credit, that she is still working hard after a month of little to no progress.. but I would fear, she may not be able to get past this on her own, and nothing is more likely to cause someone to quit, than frustration without progress.

[speckpgh]

Wow, I am sure that is frustrating. Maybe you should try to find someone local who can help you in person. Internet is great, without question, but sometimes someone face to face, in 5 seconds can do things you just can’t virtually.

• This reply was modified 4 years ago by  speckpgh.

[speckpgh]

Agreed, I tried this too.. not just hovering but also making the shape, pulling my hand completely away from the neck and placing back. This has helped. My C is still the slowest of the original chords I had learned, but I have seen pronounced improvements in the last week, so hopefully over the hump as they say

[speckpgh]

Thank you… little victories and all that…

[speckpgh]

Thanks Cadgirl. Believe it or not, speeding up my tempo of play actually improved my ability to put the C down, still not 100% right all the time, but no longer hitting the next time to strum, while still fiddling with my fingers… not sure why, but seems my body all works together better and a faster pace.

[speckpgh]

Hi Loraine,

Well I am definitely not ready for an audience, but like they say all work and no play makes Jonny a dull boy. I personally have no problem running through drills or doing things, but there has to be an end game. Sure its great when I can run through the chord transitions at a faster tempo, but eventually that gets boring…. So switch over from drills, to play (or try to play) a simple (or simplified) 3 or 4 chord song… at the end of the day… I’m still doing the same thing, playing and transitioning chords, but instead of randomly switching between chords, or doing the same chord switches over and over again there is a more fun to it.

C still is giving me issues, but I am improving, and can see the movement.

One of the most surprising things so far was finding out I STRUGGLE more with slow tempo. Metronome at 30-40 bpm and I find I have a hard time getting my body into that groove.. moving to 45 and smoothly moving to next chord just couldn’t get past… Just for fun I actually bumped up to 60, and even though struggled at 40, found I could get all my parts working in sequence better, and actually do better with Transitions, and found, I was suddenly had all kinds of time between the switch and the metronome click for the next strum, even though at 2/3 the speed I would struggle to just get the chord laid down before I was supposed to strum.

I am certainly nowhere near perfect, I still lay a chord down wrong or miss the beat now and again, but always improving.

[speckpgh]

Thanks Bill, definitely happy to be here, and I am seeing improvement, just slower than I like…. like most things in life. I will keep working with and playing C. Right now, I am just wanting to play some simple songs, and I know there are plenty of them that are or simplify down to these 3 chords, so just want to get to where I can transition reasonably consistently between them at a reasonable speed so playing them actually sounds something like them, rather that pretty good and then complete loss of the rhythm when I hit a C and have to go into and out of it.

I know its just me wanting to run before I can walk, and i know it will come. I see the improvement.. I no longer and placing down the C one finger at a time, and am hitting the shape and position correctly without looking more and more often… its starting to stick, but just haven’t QUITE got it fully into the automatic brain system/muscle memory yet fully.

Thank you for the support and wishes. Go Pens.

[speckpgh]

Thanks for the info