Stalled

Hey all,
need some advice/pep talk. The title says it all. I've stalled. I'm can nail down the 5 chords in the power pack from GF1. Nice tones with no plunky notes. Yay me! But that's it. I've been working on switching between chords, mixing them up, trying to keep things interesting but no dice. I just can't switch in rhythm. I use a metronome, simple 4/4 time, and no matter the speed I just can't seem to do it. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks

I went through this, I would imagine every new guitar player does. When I started I grabbed a shred neck so when I was away from my guitar at work etc, I could use it to form chords and practice scales. It was frustrating but if you keep practicing and complete guitar fundamentals 1 and play along with Lisa's songs like Skeeter loves Annie I promise you it will pass. Another teacher I use says taking a 100 foot view of what your doing and be patient. My 100 foot view is I look at players that were disabled and totally own the guitar. Tony Iommi, Les Paul and Django Reinhardt, all had accidents that affected there playing but over came it and continued to play and even became better players. So if they can do it so can I. Hope that helps.

Thanks. I'm trying to stay positive and have a long view (I've only been at this 3 months or so). Patience is not my strong suit but I guess I'm going to have to learn to be.

Originally Posted by: markpetten
Hey all,
need some advice/pep talk. The title says it all. I've stalled. I'm can nail down the 5 chords in the power pack from GF1. Nice tones with no plunky notes. Yay me! But that's it. I've been working on switching between chords, mixing them up, trying to keep things interesting but no dice. I just can't switch in rhythm. I use a metronome, simple 4/4 time, and no matter the speed I just can't seem to do it. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks

While I can't say I super-struggled with this when I started (maybe all my years of air guitar in the 70's meant something!), what will always remain true is learning chord changes no matter how good you get. Not that you will have a lifelong struggle with them but when you learn a new, unfamiliar pattern, even when you've been playing forever like I have, it takes time to get them down. Even when their your own riffs. This literally happened to me yesterday on a melody I was working out. I knew what I wanted to but had to spend a little time physically becoming comfortable with it....it just happens.

Point being, don't dog on yourself too much. It's the nature of the beast and you come to enjoy the challenge. Right now, you're bumping in to that brick wall. No worry, there's a secret passge to get through it but it's done through practice. Not a magic bullet but it is what you need to do.

My suggestion is to NOT speed up. Just don't. I know you said that you can't do it at any speed. So do a couple of things, first is just strum a chord for a while. Say like an open D. Then do a chord change to an open G and strum that for a while. Then switch back to the open D.

Key here is to NOT furiously switch chord to chord. Just get a couple down and expand from there. It's about building from a base. Also, many songs don't have rapid fire chord changes so strumming a while one chord is a natural thing.

Get one change down. Then expand to an open AMaj or something. Just make sure you get one thing down first, then move upward and onward.

We all have different starting points and have to accept that this is the case. It's not that you have to overcome something but how you approach overcoming.

How's it going Mark? Getting better? Wait till ya get to barre chords....enjoy the challenge, getting past those small things will be so rewarding.

Thanks Jeff. I see what you're saying.

I'm working through it Craig. Taking it slow. Practice practice practice. Key to getting good at anything I guess. It'll come in time I'm sure

It will Mark I swear. Keep at it, easy tasks are not half as rewarding as the hard ones.

I am on GF2 while I have a good grasp of GF1, there are some things I have not mastered so I go back and work on them a little while I push myself in GF2. I can play songs like CCR bad moon rising, and others. Some I can play up to speed others I can't right now. I just keep going everyday and what I thought was hard a few months ago when I go back to work on things I find it is not so hard now. This tells me I am improving. I remember there was a time that I almost quit guitar because I could not form an A chord, the F took me what seemed like forever to get. Now I can play barre chords, power chords..can't change between them very fast but I had that same problem with major and minor chords when I first started. Oh by the way I turn 64 in Oct, so if I can do this so can you. I hope this helps.

Thanks everyone for the comments. I appreciate the input and support. 3.5 months in I may have too high expectations for myself with no musical experience before hand. Practice practice practice and it will come in time I'm sure.