Questions on Guitar Fundamentals 1 Progress

Been going through Guitar Fundamentals 1. This coming Friday (11/17) will mark 2 weeks of me learning guitar. So far, working on Key of D. Still need to practice Key of B to get better with the F Chord.

I've ready previous posts that you don't have to master the lessons but if you move on and struggle, that you should go back and practice more. And I do know that even when you do move on, you should still go back frequently and still have older material as part of your practice so you master previous lessons. I'm not really struggling that much other than wanting to get faster at chord changes which do get better every day.

My question is, I have not been learning any beginner songs other than what's included in the lessons. Is that bad? Am I inhibiting my progress by not learning beginner songs or is it ok to just keep moving along with the lessons (not too fast, I know) till I become fairly proficient in them. I do eventually want to learn songs, but want to focus more on the lessons and songs contained within so I can move faster.

It depends. At some point you'll need to start learning songs to progress. If you're very early on and very patient you could continue to grind the basic lessons for a while and start when you have a few more tools to work with.

Personally I find it speeds up my progress a LOT if I learn something and then apply it somewhere else (in different songs, rhythms, etc.). Usually that's time well spent and I can come back and perform a lot better in the original exercise than if I spent the same amount of time just repeating it.

By not learning songs you risk a couple things:

1) Not really dialing in the skills you've covered in the lessons (see above).

2) Getting bored. What fun is this if the only song you can play is "Lesson 2A"?

3) Not developing your ability to learn songs - if your ears (in terms of figuring out melody/chord changes) and reading ability lag significantly behind your playing ability then learning new songs will be frustrating and slow until you catch up.

Thank you. What you said helps a lot.

Also, i’ve been reading the last day or two that playing songs and making sure you’re keeping the rhythm somehow magically helps you develop your chord changes.

So I’ll start adding in song learning into the mix of GF1 and making sure I keep my rhythm.

absoluetly true regarding songs. there are lots of beginner songs on Guitar tricks but all most of old school rock and roll was three chord tunes. Playing songs makes the practice fun also. My method is fingering practice, then the lesson and then a song. Most of the time I also try to find a song that relates to the lesson. For example you are trying chord changes E to D to A. No better song than Gloria for that. My 2 cents!!