How would you submerse yourself if you had 4 weeks

Hello community,

I'm a 48yr old begginer. Never took a music class of any sort ever in my life. Started guitar on April 1st, 2019 in a once a week group class that will soon end. I will begin the Level 1 Guitar Fundamentals course right after that ends at begining of June.

I am interested in really focusing my attention on learning chords, the fretboard and maybe dip into the begining of scales.

My question is How would you submerse yourself in learning these things if you had 4 weeks where you didn't have to work?

How would you structure a practice schedule for your day?

Would it be wise to just focus the entire time on learning chords?

Would it be a good idea to focus on a couple of things at different times of the day as if i were in school (chords in the morning, fretboard in the afternoon, scales at night)?

I'm interested and open to hearing ideas and view points as I start out on my journey as a guitar player.

Thank you,

Carlos

Hi Carlos,

I am pretty focussed on a regular routine. I spend time on specific chords and chord transitions and learning some licks and learning some songs. I spend a bit of time on each for an hour or so each day.

Good luck.

Originally Posted by: cfeliz70

Hello community,

I'm a 48yr old begginer. Never took a music class of any sort ever in my life. Started guitar on April 1st, 2019 in a once a week group class that will soon end. I will begin the Level 1 Guitar Fundamentals course right after that ends at begining of June.

I am interested in really focusing my attention on learning chords, the fretboard and maybe dip into the begining of scales.

My question is How would you submerse yourself in learning these things if you had 4 weeks where you didn't have to work?

How would you structure a practice schedule for your day?

Would it be wise to just focus the entire time on learning chords?

Would it be a good idea to focus on a couple of things at different times of the day as if i were in school (chords in the morning, fretboard in the afternoon, scales at night)?

I'm interested and open to hearing ideas and view points as I start out on my journey as a guitar player.

Thank you,

Carlos

If you're reasonably confortable with ergonomics (how to hold the guitar) and tuning, start with Fundementals 1, Chapter 2. If that's too easy, you'll zip through it quickly. But it builds forward to the next chapters of chords, chords structure and melodies etc.

It is the foundation of playing. I would say be far less concerned with scales for now (for now). If you understand chord structures (like what is the root versus the fifth, for example), this will matter in the furure. Once you know that stuff, it very much helps apply knowledge to scales and how to use them when you're crossing that bridge.

Trust me on this. I've been playing playing for 35+ years and skipped all that stuff early on and it is much harder to go back to the roots when you (think) you already know something...and don't. Know it from the start. Like a house, the foundation comes first.

Also, chords and rhythm is a huge help in timing for other parts of playing that come later. Being a good rhythm player is fundemental to good lead playing.

How should you practice? As much as you and your body allow it. First of all, it's not drudgery. It's fun. Never play to the point that you hurt yourself or to the point where you don't enjoy it..even when it feel like work...so long as it seems like fun work. That part is up to you personally but if you enjoy it and you're not killing your fingers..play as much as you can get away with.

Carlos--

If I had a month of un-obligated time to practice, and get ready for a structured course of study such as Guitar Fundamentals, there's one thing I'd be sure to incorporate: chromatic finger exercises. (You may know them as "spider leg exercises.") Every practice session would start with them, and most practice sessions during that month would concentrate a great deal, sometimes even solely, on them. There would be quite a few days where I would do nothing but those exercises.

I'd start with the most basic, one-finger-per-fret, 1-2-3-4 pattern, up and down the neck, on each string, slowly and deliberately, making sure each note sounds cleanly, using alternate picking. When I could do that one fairly well, I'd mix up the fingering: 1-3-2-4...4-3-2-1...2-3-1-4, or about a million other variations I'm sure you can think of. Every session, up and down the neck, slowly, deliberatly, cleanly, and alternately picked.

Further on, I'd use those same patterns across adjacent strings, fingering the first two notes on one string and the other two on the one above or below it, up and down the neck, slowly and cleanly. After some time running chromatics over the neck on adjacent strings, I'd do it skipping a string (or two, or three, or four), fingering two (or one, or three) notes on, say, the A string and the other two (or one, or three) on, say, the G or B. Up and down the neck, slow, steady, and clean.

And in my month off, I'd do a lot of this. It won't sound particularly musical. What it will do, though, is help you build hand strength, finger independence, and callouses to help your fingers not hurt. You'll improve your control, and will find your accuracy and dexterity increasing with each passing practice session. Incorporate a metronome or drum track and you can work on your timing too. If you tune up before each practice session--and you absolutely should--hearing the notes while you concentrate on your fingering and picking of them makes for some decent ear training; the more you hear a clean, in-tune note played on a specific string at a specific fret, the faster you'll be able to hear when something's out of whack.

Guitar Fundamentals is a structured process, and you'll get a nice introduction to chords, and the chance to work with them, pretty early the program. You'll get to scales further along, and you'll have a chance to work with them a lot. All that lies ahead.

But if you start doing chormatic exercises now, and you do them regularly, when you get to those chords and scales you'll get there with stronger fingers and hands, and you'll be more accurate, more controlled, and your fingertips will feel a lot better too. So start doing them and keep doing them. There is no finish line.

All my best. Enjoy the journey.

--Matthew

Thank you Matthew! I'll make sure to include those spider exercises.

JeffS65 thank you,

You gave me a bunch of gold nuggets!

Thanks Matthew you've just given me a clear refocus on how to conduct my dexterity exercises 👍