Leaderboard

@kenneth All perfectly normal. We have all been there. Session 4 is a huge session. Keep persevering as things will become easier and faster. Remember you are learning music theory, training muscle memory and hand co-ordination all at the same time! Also you are learning the foundations of guitar playing the correct way with a great teacher in Steve.

@kenneth Please don't feel bad about your progress so far! You're doing well and trust us, thousands of folks who learned guitar this way likely had the same experience; so it's normal! Just be patient, persistant, and practice regularly (daily 1/2 hour -1 hr achieves great results) and you'll get it! As Doug says, the time frame is just a loose guide and Session 4 is pretty big with a lot of new skills and concepts to absorb. So take it steady and learn it thoroghly. All the Best N ps just forget about looking at YouTube and all the other so called teachers... just focus on the course!

"I was down to St. James infirmary,..." This one is from Cab Calloway, in an arrangement I found at ActiveMelody.com. I listened to Earl Hines' version many times before recording this and tried to get a bit closer to his piano style by playing this fingerstyle. Wim.

Topic: TRIADS - Major Triads (1/3) I'm excited to start a new teaching series on Triads! If you're tired of playing the same old chords in the same old places let's learn some techniques to play great sounding guitar parts with chords all over the neck. This will be a three week series continuing on for the next three Tuesdays. Download the FREE 10 page book of examples, forms and progressions HERE. Watch on our Guitar Gathering YouTube Channel HERE - Steve

@kenneth As the folks above have said, your progress sounds totally normal. Remember, you are doing multiple things at once now: your eyes see the written note, your brain translates it, sends the signals to your fingers, your fingers go to the right fret and your other hand picks the right string. That will become more automatic as you go on. There will be less times through before a new piece sounds better. Take your time and have fun learning! If you want to see how far you've come, go back and revisit an earlier session and you will see how much easier that material is!

@Eracer_Team-DougH But can that critic in the crowd play guitar?

Printing issues aside, I found this session to be one of the most beneficial I have had since joining the gathering. Perhaps my ability has finally caught up with some of the lessons. But it’s a great feeling when you can say to yourself that “this finally makes sense!” I’ll be traveling on business next week but I definitely plan to catch the replay for the minor triads.

@kenneth the time to learn this session notes listed in the Bonus resources book can be ignored. Each session takes as long as you need, Session 4 and 4b can take the average beginner months Just watch that you don't stagnate in a session

Revster, Great question about why I didn't include the lower forms on string sets 3rd - 5th and 4th-6th. Here's the short answer. I'm a sucker for worksheets and could have gleefully added another 10 pages of exercises using the lower forms, but here's the deal. Closed voicing triads done in lower registers start to sound muddy making it hard to distinguish the notes. While, the lower voiced triads might be helpful in recognizing a few shapes and patterns, other than that I haven't found that they are used much in actual playing as chords. So, I decided to just focus on the upper string forms. But the helpful thing is that the major triad shapes on the 3rd-5th strings are the identical shapes for the same chords on the 4th-6th strings. (This is because the relationship of the tuning of the strings, in the interval of a fourth, is identical on all of the strings, 3rd-6th.) The lower the register that you play in the wider of the intervals needed to sound good. Hope this helps. Learn all you can! - Steve

Shovel guitar? I can dig it... Oil can? That'd made for some smooth licks... 😉 (So much for "tone woods" ...)

Well I cycle through self doubt all the time after a choir weekend. As I know how many mistakes I made, wrong chords, muted, timing off , muffed lyrics, etc And you never know where there's a critic in the crowd.

We all have days /practice sessions like that... not to worry; just brush it off and go back to it the next time with a clear head. N

Thanks, @matonanjin, @IanD, @Fretless and @Nutty 1. Mandy, I only deserve part of the credits for transposing. The ActiveMelody arrangement was a flatpicking version for guitar. I did change it to fingerstyle and added arpeggio's and some extra notes to mimic that rolling piano feel. To me, fingerstyle is a bit like playing piano on guitar. Wim.

I've found that a foot rest to elevate my right leg (I'm right handed) helps a lot too to get a proper and comfortable positsion while playing seated (as I do most of the time). I use the folding type classical guitarists use. https://www.long-mcquade.com/1754/Guitars/Accessories/Yorkville_Sound/Guitar_Foot_Stool.htm

I play guitar to share the joy in my heart.