To what degree of perfection...

Hi--I'm working my way through the course, am right now on the G chord, having just finished "Five Miles Out". I have a question, which will become more important as I continue: to what degree of perfection--or lack thereof--should I be trying to achieve while going through this? It's somewhere between incompetence and virtuosity, but I really don't know how far to take each individual lesson. Thoughts?

Generally speaking, there are four levels of mastery when learning: (These aren't mine, and I'm not immediately remembering who developed them, but it's easily searchable on Mr. Google):

Unconscious incompetence -- making mistakes without even realizing that they're mistakes

Conscious incompetence -- realizing that you're making mistakes, but stlil making those mistakes

Conscious competence -- being able to perform a skill without mistakes but only when specifically focused on doing so

Unconscious competence -- being able to perform the skill correctly and consistently without consciously having to think about it.

I would say get to the conscious competence stage before moving on to the next. Be able to do the thing correctly and reasonably consistently (not perfectly, too much pressure!) while focusing on it. The fourth stage comes with time and practice.

My two cents.

Hey & welcome! Congrats on making it through the single note melody section! It sounds like you've started work on the basic full open chords. Those are a handful for beginners. :)

Originally Posted by: metrowestalI have a question, which will become more important as I continue: to what degree of perfection--or lack thereof--should I be trying to achieve while going through this?

Great question. You should aim for being able to competently play whatever skill is taught in the lesson. But it's important to remember that there is a constant process of refinement in learning to play guitar.

So, you should spend as much time on any given lesson as necessary to completely get the idea or skill under your command. But don't let a misguided idea of perfection discourage you or halt your progress. At the same time you should keep moving forward in the course, watching new lessons to keep things interesting. But keep going back over the older material until it's second nature. This is the constant process of refinement. You won't play a chord exactly right, perfectly every time!

So in a sense, you are never done working on any melody, chord, chord progression, song because there is always skill & technique to maintain as well as learn & improve upon.

Just try to enjoy the learning & practicing process, as well as whatever you've already accomplished. Hope that helps!

Originally Posted by: metrowestal

Hi--I'm working my way through the course, am right now on the G chord, having just finished "Five Miles Out". I have a question, which will become more important as I continue: to what degree of perfection--or lack thereof--should I be trying to achieve while going through this? It's somewhere between incompetence and virtuosity, but I really don't know how far to take each individual lesson. Thoughts?

The answer is 'comfort' in my opinion.

A couple of things to keep in mind are; perfection is not a realistic goal, and accordingly, any definition your give your progress is subjective. It's not a math problem where 2+2 will always equals 4. It's more of a general reference of what someone defines as somewhere between ncompetent and a virtuoso. Also, as you get better, your baseline changes too. It's like grading on a curve; the better you get, the higher your skill definition curve goes.

Back to the comfort thing.

Since you're always prone to make mistakes, and every player no matter their skill does, perfection and virtuosity pretty much never apply. So I set my goal at how comfortable I am at playing something.

Example: This morning, I grabbed one of my guitars to play a little Eddie Van Halen (RIP) and started playing the main 'Ain't Talking 'bout Love' riff. It's an easy one that I played in a band a ton of times decades ago. But I hadn't played it in decades so I totally jacked up a pretty simple riff. I hadn't played it in a while and realized that I had to think at least for a second 'oh right, that's how the riff goes...oops'. But I'm very comfortable playing it.

For you, when you have something you're learning, like a song , even if not to complete perfection, does it feel comfortable? It doesn't even have to be to complete comfort but at least get to the point where you don't think you're going to burst a vain concentrating on what you're playing.

In the end, you'll notice it's comfortable because you're enjoying your playing of it.

That's how I see it anyway.

Hi and welcome,

I am 22 months into learning the guitar and what Chrisopher has down is exactly how it has worked for me. There is a balancing act we all need to sort out for ourselves between learning the lesson(s) and getting bored and not progressing.

good luck with your studies.

"So, you should spend as much time on any given lesson as necessary to completely get the idea or skill under your command. But don't let a misguided idea of perfection discourage you or halt your progress. At the same time you should keep moving forward in the course, watching new lessons to keep things interesting. But keep going back over the older material until it's second nature. This is the constant process of refinement. You won't play a chord exactly right, perfectly every time!"

These are ALL very helpful, thanks everyone!

Al

Originally Posted by: metrowestal

These are ALL very helpful, thanks everyone!

You're welcome!