Originally Posted by: cawoodfordWhat I'm asking is how long before you are playing songs?

It takes as long as it takes.

And it depends upon how complicated the songs are that you desire to play.
As long as you continue to practice and learn, you will find that you have a better, deeper understand of things you thought you "already knew all about".

To give you specific examples, I've seen it take absolute beginners anywhere from 1 month to 6 months to get through the basic skills presented in GF1&2. There are many factors involved in any given individual's learning curve. The most important come down to:

1. The amount of arm, hand, finger strength and dexterity an individual brings to the task of learning.

2. The dedicated time an individual practices.

I've had students that picked it up like "a fish to water". But they brought a lot of dexterity to the task. Even though they never played the guitar, some of them could play piano. Some could type very well (a skill used daily in their job). And they all practiced a lot, some did nothing else with their free time. Lots of little kids already have crude athletic skills that transfer well, and pliable fingers. And most just simply don't have the psychological baggage many adults have.

They don't approach the process thinking, "This is so hard. How will I ever do it. Is it worth it? How long will it take? I should have started sooner."

They simply want to. There is no stopping them. They will keep at it until they can do it.

I've had some older students that took longer than 6 months to get the basics. Most of them were trying to build skill totally from zero, however. And didn't practice enough! Once I taught a 70 year old guy. And he was just enjoying taking his time. He eventually did acquire basic guitar skills, just over a longer time schedule.

Glad you are getting value from the site. As long as you making progress and having fun, who could ask for anything more?

Keep learning and practicing! Let us know how your progress is going.