New to GuitarTricks

Hey everyone, I'm Joe. 

I've been a professor of Theatre design for over 30 years and have always wanted to learn guitar. So...I'm jumping in. I've JUST begun, but I'm not seeing anything about practicing or what to practice. Should I simply replay the lessons over and over again? I'm currently spending about 45-hour a day on these lessons but that will likely diminish when the school year starts up again in the fall - I do plan to retire after this year though, so I'll have much more time to myself in about a year. 

Welcome.

I am curious about your user name, would it be a hint as to Ace Frehley and Angus Young?

Anyway, Fundamentals is usually the best to start. Once through these it's an open field as to what to study and entirely user directed. 

If I am correct about your username you would benefit in taking a deeper dive into Ace and Angus once you have some basics down. Artist studies you won't find here. But there are many avenues open to us to pursue learning. 

For sometime now I have been seeing a private teacher focusing strictly on SRV, his influences and style of play.

Good luck and have fun with it.

Agree with Mr. MG. Get to know Fundamentals I and II like the back of your hand. You will have a solid foundation to take your music anywhere you want to go. I go back to Fundamentals II to brush up on a certain technique frequently. Good luck on your journey...

Hi Ace,

Your practice schedule sounds great!

I recommend starting your session with something fun and easy, just to get the music in the room, and get your fingers and hands loosened up. 

Then, choose one thing as a starting-point for today's session. It could be one song, it could be a particular chord-change exercise, a scale, what-have-you. 

Spend some time with that project, and assess where it is going well, and where it still needs some more focussed attention and problem-solving. 

Break the project down into smaller components, and work on the spots that are still a little rough, one at a time. Put on your 'investigator hat' and see if you can figure out WHY a particular section is still not coming together smoothly. What, exactly, is happening there? 

Once you identify the issue, get creative with experimenting with various ways of adjusting your technique - whether it be a tweak in your hand-angle, your strategy of getting from Point A to Point B, or whatever else you can think of to try.

Once you discover a solution, something that improves your results, REPEAT it over and over and over, so it begins to sink in to your physical memory.

Then try re-integrating that smaller spot into the larger whole of the project. 

Hope this helps a little!

Have fun - Lisa

Thanks for all the suggestions. I'm confident this is typical (I hope it's typical) that my left hand seems to have a mind of its own. In trying to get my fingers to hit the frets/strings they're supposed to, it's like they belong to someone else. Any tips on training fingers? I've only ever played a wind instrument so the strings are completely new to me. 

Joe