The juggling act

So I'm not sure if this is a problem, or more of a discovery. I love all kinds of music and find myself learning bits and pieces of songs from various genres.

Most of the songs are from here, but some are from other sources or even something I accidentally stumbled onto like this morning. I was just practicing some barre chords and all of a sudden I discovered what sounded like the opening riff to "My Favorite Mistake" by Sheryl Crow. That slide up to Bm7 in 7th fret. I wasn't even trying to learn it, but it sounded so familiar I then spend some time on another site, because the song is not taught here, trying to learn it.

I'm also working on other songs in fingerpicking style, as well as chord strumming exercises, arpeggios, triads, scales, some basic licks as well as the actual lessons I learned in past style courses. I was gonna start Acoustic 2 this morning.

It's getting tough balancing all this in to my already limited practice time. Is this a good way to learn or am I being counterproductive from spreading myself out too thin like this.

It seems like the more I learn the more I pick up on melodies from songs on the radio or youtube and say to myself "hey that sounds like something I'd like to play and it doesn't seem too hard." Then I'm off trying to learn how to play it and forego what I was originally working on. Then when I do go back to that I'm rusty cause I haven't worked on it for a while.

Anybody else experience this? Is this common? It's nice to have a lot of "tools" in your arsenal, but at what point do you say enough for now and get back to structured learning. Or maybe it's not a problem at all and just part of the process. I mean, I now can play the opening chord riff to " My Favorite Mistake". So it can't be all that bad right?

Moe

Just my own take Moe, it's part of the process for people our age.

Structure has long since left me. I was very structured when I started and I learned keys and what chords sounded good together and what scales went well with my progression. So I wrote a few songs. Had them recorded and thought "cool".

Now when I pick up the guitar, it's just fun and I only work on something that catches my attention for the moment. I'm 58. I will never be a great guitar player, but I know enough that I can put some of the pieces together when I want to. I probably spend most of my time noodling now.

Hi William, great to hear from you. I understand what your saying. I think I've reached that point too where everything was so structured at the beginning and then somewhere over the line it went in all directions. The main point though is that I still enjoy it and it's great that I can put some skills to good use now. I'm actually feeling like a guitar player even if I'm still a hack. [br]Good to know I wasn't alone. [br][br]

thanks,

Moe