Hello, I am an old dude (almost 50) and though I have taken lessons at several points in my life for one reason or another it was never the right time. I have had some recent changes and it is a great fit now so I have begun to learn seriously and for real.

I found, in the past that most of both my time and my instructors' time has been wasted and this time I intend on not doing that.

At this point, I am taking on studying the music theory (too bad I don't still have access to a keyboard) as well as the mechanics of guitar playing. I want to get a good basis in the "grunt" basics down cold before either forraying into face to face lessons, or skype type lessons.

I am not exactly sure what all the basics are, but I supposed picking, chromatic, pentatonic and major scales and as many corresponding chords as I can manage might be a good place to start. I have most of the open major chords down fairly well except for B & F (is an "of course" necessary here?) I am still crappy at switching between them, but I assume that will come in a few months of practice.

Anyway, slowly but surely, I am going through every video you have on youtube, and at some point, I will try to follow some order of lessons, though I haven't quite figured out which correspond to the free ones. But once they are done I guess the next step is to sign up for the interactive ones.

Thanks, for making so much great information available. And, yes, I realize I suck. This is the first step of what I am doing about it. :)

-- Abs

Hi Abs,

I'm a new member as well, so I'm saying hello and pleased to meet you.
I've decided to be a bit more structured in my approach to learning guitar and music and like you I'm starting at the basics and working my way through. I'm going to try to motivate myself by spending a bit of time on this forum and connecting with other players at my own level, so feel free to message me or say hi if we see each other around :-)

Cheers!
Ivan

Hello Ivan:

By all means, please share your "more structured" approach. I am just winging it for the moment. Right now, I start my practice sessions off with the picking on each string, followed by chromatic scales on each string. Then I move on to trying to recall the chords I know, and adding new ones. Then, I go back to my Hal Leonard Guitar Method and repractice the sight reading to notes on as many strings as I have learned (I just added the D string, which gives me D,E,F,G,A,B,C,D,E,F,G). Somewhere in there I try to do some of that as a scale. Then as long as it is not too late at night, I will do the pentatonic scale shapes that I know.

When I feel I have gotten as much out of a session as I can, I will "play around" some and try to get some other things. I will practice placing a chord from my knee to the neck, or switching back and forth between chords. I have not added a metronome to the practice yet, but I am sure I will eventually. Then there are a few fun little things I keep trying, Strum patterns, shuffle patterns and stuff like that.

I have occasionally looked up the chords for songs I know and tried to play them, but other than the play by notes things in the Leonard book, they never sound like anything I can recognise. That and the fact that I have zero smooth transition for even the simplest of chord changes once I am doing anything more than one or two strums per bar probably adds to the lack or recognizeability.

When I am not actually working with the guitar in my hands, I spend time reviewing things like PB's you tube videos. I have gone most of the way through the workshop series that seemed like it was in a school, though I still haven't figured out which one. I really enjoyed the music theory (though I would assume that has to be one of the classes that "real music students" find as drudgery) There are a few other instructors whose youtube stuff has been helpful to me, but I am not sure if it is appropriate mentioning others in here.

I am not sure if what I am doing is the best, but I am trying to find something I can stick with. I liked the "Daily Practice" sheet, but I assume it would 1. take years before I could do all the items on it, and 2. If I did them all, a practice session would last longer than hours in a day. My best guess is that when I get to the point of doing all the things on it, I will have to break it up, the way weight lifters do with arm days and leg days and so forth.

So, if you such too, then we are at the same level. :) If I can be motivational in any way let me know.

-- Abs

Hi Guys :) im new here too !! been lurking and watching peppers vids ! for awhile now on you tube !!! Awesome sTuff !!! Pepper you Da man!!! Started playing guitar at 13 im 42 now lol so i can play !!!( I suck) but im not the ninja i plan to become lol Id love to get involved with this group... and take it to the next level !!! I have to be at work in 15 mins so i cant blab to much now !!! but i wanted to introduce myself and stop sitting on the side lines !!! soooo HI Quack Quack !! ive been practicing the single string picking !!! and the chromatic stuff :) and hands down !! seen a ton of improvment so far !!! i look fwd to a few more posts, soon !!! and a chance to properly say hi !!!! and start getting to work, by asking a few questions i have .... in another post . HI pepper !! truely a honor to have a chance to learn, and grow with your community ! and hi everyone !!!

wetduck. you're going to be so roasted for calling him that. anyway welcome to the forum.

for not paying attention to his name which he mentions in the beginning of every free video! and that's a lot of videos! guessing you have checked probably more than one by now! *facepalm*

What are the chances that "Pepper" as opposed to "Pebber" is an autocorrect problem rather than inattention to what he says in the videos and what's printed everywhere? Well, if it was, better him than me, is all I can say. :)

Quack, quack back at you wetduck, welcome from another n00b that sucks.

I would start apologizing now (Wetduck.... see how easy it is to get a name right)

How much detail and effort are you really putting into this stuff .
If you cant even get the name of the guy who invented it right.

People have been removed from the forum for less.

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh quack quack quack sorry sorry sorry sorry lol !!!!!!

Hey abs,
mate it looks like a little further along with the PB system than me right now. Well done mate! I haven't started sight reading or any theory yet. So far I'm spending a couple of hours a night on right hand technique only with a metronome to get my timing down.

Ive adopted the hand/finger/wrist warm up approach before every practice session, which I'd never done before, and I'm only doing all down strokes, all up strokes and practicing the scalpel picking method on alternate/adjacent strings nice and slow at this stage. I figure I'll follow Pebber's Guitar Basics 101 stuff on his daily practice sheet for the next 6 months or thereabouts and take it from there. There's enough on there to keep me busy for some time lol. It may sound odd, but I get a lot of satisfaction from this kind of practice and I'm in no hurry at all.

As far as looking up chords for songs and playing them, I do that occasionally on acoustic if I'm in the mood. Ive learned a few songs that I love listening to, just for pleasure. One of them is "sour girl" by Stone Temple Pilots, which has a cool riff and I like playing stuff like that. Keep practicing those strumming patterns and I'm sure you'll get better :-)

I'm mostly interested in just progressing at my own pace, as I get a lot of enjoyment from playing very minimalist guitar: you probably won't see me posting clips of my sweep picking efforts etc. I went through a phase of wanting to play really fast and technical guitar when I was a kid but honestly these days it does nothing for me musically. I'd rather listen to Moondog or Phillip Glass than the shred-metal kind of groups.

I think that daily practice sheet is supposed to be broken up depending on how much time you have. I think there's a clip where PB mentions if you've got 5 hours, you spend longer on each exercise, or if you only have an hour or two then you break it up into like 5/10 mins per exercises. Guitar practice is the best part of my night, and I stay up way too late once I get into it haha.

Great to hear back from you abs!
Ivan

Hey Ivan,
Last couple nights have been short practices (2 or less hours). However, last night I did have a 40 minute dance class (even though it may help, I don't think it counts). :) But now, not only do I suck at guitar, I can also such at Foxtrot, Merenge, Rumba and the Club Swing!!

Anyway, I can't or haven't yet done all the things on the first module of the daily practice sheet. I work on the picking exercises on each string, trying to get the wrist properly involved. Then I try to do udu, dud and so on through the strings and back up. I am still not good at all at hitting 2 strings at a time, but sometimes I get lucky. I added the trill exercises in after that. However, I have to mix them together when my left hand starts cramping. Once I have done all that I move on to single string chromatic scales I try to go up and down the string around 10 times then play around with picking each note more than once at a time 2,3,4 and so forth.
I am wanting more chords in my knowledge bank, so I printed out the sheets of chords. I am just looking at the first poage now. I work through fretting and naming the chords and stumming them to make sure I am properly fretting each string. I am starting to remember them but honestly haven't tried transitioning between them or doing the chord memorization exercise on them yet. I have found that lately, the A maj is getting harder and harder to do. I think I may have to come up with an alternative fingering, since 1,2,3 don't seem to fit in such a way that I don't either get buzz or dead strings. I was able to do 234 better last night so maybe that might be the answer.
When all that is done, I try to play Aura Lee some more. I am still missing some notes and mixing a few up from time to time, but it sounds like something I recognize so it acts as a confidence builder, second to Ode To Joy (which is somewhat committed to memory, at least the part I know) . Sometimes I just need something that makes me feel like I am actually making music to remind me why I am doing this in the first place.
At some point I will have to turn the page in the Leonard book, but I am in no rush yet.
:D

Ivan ,Abs ! how long are you both trying to practice ? have you set a time limit, or just play untill you dont want to play anymore? i see most guys on the forums , going hard everyday ! and rest is not a option for some :) is this your approach as well :) ?

I have not setup a time limit per se. With work and life and all that I get to start practicing around 8 pm or so. I tend to go until about 10 or so unless I add a new exercise or something like that. If I get to where I feel disgusted because stuff isn't going my way, or otherwise just feel like I am not getting anything out of it, I may stop earlier. On the other hand, if I am feeling like I am setting things on fire, I may keep going. But the fact that I am no spring chicken coupled with the fact that my feet must be on the floor no later than 6:30 am keeps me honest about the latest I can stop.

I just don't think I can honestly give a 5 or more hour practice session, but for now I can get 2 hours in.

-- Abs

Hey wet duck ,
It depends on the day but I try to set 2 hours aside a night for practice minimum. It's normally around 3 hours at the moment. On the weekends I like to just play. I'll mess with keyboards and drum loops and sounds, and that's where I can feel the daily practice having an effect. Today I picked up my 7 string and played around with some heavy stuff, but using the thumb behind the neck, paying attention more to technique. I figure I can practice all day for years but it won't change my style as a guitarist until I begin incorporating the right techniques into my actual playing so I'm trying to do that from the start. I've got a timer set for 4 mins, and I do every exercise twice, so all down strokes on the A7 chord,all up, etc and I do the chord exploration thing with every new chord. So much fun learning new things!

About the same for me :) quack ! i try to play for a few hours a night. Right now i've slowed things right down ! 40bpm doing chromatic single sting runs. Really working hard to get my fingers all tucked in after i play the note. And really working hard on trying to stop my pinky from jumping up ! Not a easy task lol after a ton of years not worrying about it!!! its improved a ton the last few month :) i love doing all the chromatic stuff and love the spider !!! some of those make me feel like i've never played before !!! lol over the summer i plan to work on sequences !!! and get a few more under my belt !!! and really work my timing back up ! with the new hand position :) ...

how are you guys getting along this week? Im still working on right hand stuff, trying to resist the temptation to start on fancier stuff before Im ready lol. I've had a day off due to laziness but Ive got a 4 hour block put aside tonight to do trills, right hand picking and timing exercises so thats my saturday night :-) hows it going for you Abs?

Hey guys,

I started here almost 3 weeks ago. I started with module 2 with some LH exercises as adviced by Pebber. Im doing thrills, spiders and ladders and classical form exercises. This week i worked a lot but i was able to practice everyday at least 2 hours and i forced myself not to play anything else except the exercises. Well this is the hardest i used to grab my guitar and started to play whatever i was in the mood for. Besides the practical exercises i have done a lot of theory. I do everyday a couple of times the Major Scale worksheet A and B, this realy helps a lot. Well tomorrow it's sunday and i will do offcourse my exercises but i'm gonna play some really cool stuff as well.
Did you guys practice everyday only the exercises or other things as well?

Grtz Ray

HI guys :) quack !!! been a really busy week :) but I've been able to play or watch Pebber every day ! for the last 4 days.
really made some solid break thru's this week ! :) my chromatic practice is really starting to pay off lol and my left hand is getting really tight and clean :) I'm happy... man that neo classical pattern in the daily practice vid(mod)#5 is a blast lol i kept up till 120 16th notes :) then He(Pebber) left me in the dust :) lol so, I just let the left hand rest, and played along with the right hand. no problems keeping time at 184 or all the speeds with the pick.
but my fingers at the moment, top out about 110-120 bpm depending on the scale or exersize. But after today's practice so far. I can see ill break that soon.... my fingers are starting to fly through the spirals.... Spider 1and3-2and4 hates me !!! i truly believe im developing Jedi mind powers trying to make those fingers move together.... lol lol well!! i can blab forever about guitar lol so ill stop for tonight ... great work guys !!!! Lets keep it rollin.... up on the river at 2 am Stonefly hatch going off on the Bow river here in Calgary Ab, canada has been epic !!! (flyfishing) been running all nighters for 2 weeks now !!!!!(on the river) getting home !!! Playing guitar !! Getting High on the bug spray leaning over playing my guitar lol passing out!!! teaching,guiding, in the days getting a few hours and all night fishing for my myself lol all most done :) few more days!!! and a more normal crazyness will begin untill the snow flys :) keep up the great practice!!~ p.s make sure you leave time to just have fun with your guitar !!! after all that why we play it lol

wetduck !! quack

Thank you ! THANK YOU !! for the chance to make it up to you !! believe me , i feel aweeefullllll . and will spend the rest of my days here :) making ammends !!! and working hard !!! to be a good student :) Quack Quack . One of those cases where one, sooo badly wants to make a good impression... And makes the worst..... a million SORRY'S Im truly honored,to be learning from you. and your community...

Hi guys!
Hey Pebber, Wetduck (you fuck!)

Been using my practice downtime to work on some theory basics on Youtube. Fantastic lessons!
I've been terrified of even the basics for years. Its so liberating so learn this stuff as an adult. I'm diligently drawing my treble/bass/alto/tenor clefs as shown in internet music class :)

Wish I'd started this when I was 15!

How's the practice going Mr Duck?

i to wish i learned my theory younger too. Playing a ton Ivan!!!! the most i've ever practiced in my life. quack quack :) the problem with my pinky finger jumping up while playing. ive pretty much corrected :) so that makes me happy.... and shocked at how much hand strength Is developing from week to week....and some of the spiders that were almost impossible ... the right fingers are moving when i tell them too now... lol lol glad to here your making good progress !!! when you have the right person explain theory to ya, it all make's easy sense ... my wife thinks im crazy on how much i love playing my guitar and wanting to keep pushing my boundary's .. after all im 42 probley never be in a band again lol and to late to be a rock star lol BUT if im ever in a audience.... and someone pulled me to the stage, !!! iz gonna cut some heads lol lol

WETDUCK (Future Headcutter) quack quack quack

p.s mabe some day ill have the courage to post a vid for some help :) still pretty rattled, for sticking my foot in my mouth sooo bad my first post :( getting past it thou

haha great to hear man.
And you didnt get permabanned so he must have accepted your apology :D

I'm going through lescture 3 of the music theory basics series.. recapping the chromatic scale.
Even 3 lessons in and things seem way clearer than before. Guess it helps to learn something if you're genuinely interested in it. I did some recording for a project I'm doing with another guy online and in just a month or so of proper positioning and paying attention to my walrus fingers etc I could notice the difference in my playing. Chords have less buzz and even though I'm playing heavier stuff not clean I can just tell the notes are clearer.. they FEEL tighter when I play. Fuck yeah ! Cant wait to put this stuff into practice when my hand is fixed up properly.
Great to chat to you man!
Keep up the practice!

Interesting stuff. I just signed here too, though probably have watched Pepper since he started on Youtube. It was just so much fun to see good playing and see someone actually paying attention to teaching aspect. If you guys haven't seen Peppers older videos go check them out. There is a classic troll sandwich song that is just pure genius! Trolls are dealt in it summarily and of course the Liszt calls and Worlds Fastest Guitarist contest. It is not all about work and no play. No siree!

Welcome to the party ! Mr.Gurgle.. Ya Troll sandwich is my fav !!!! feels good not to be a lurker anymore eh? lol Quack quack !! should be a fun year ! a few of us just getting going on the boards. and Im sure we'll all see a ton of improvement this year. i know my picking ability has doubled over the summer. And i cant wait to see what i can do in the year ahead. Welcome !!! again . Let get this Board shakin'