Well Daphne once you learn the basics it opens up a whole new world of fun.

I would suggest the Bar CHord Masterclass course Nate & Chelsea have put out. I am going thru it and I don’t have much problems with bar chords but am still picking up things that I may have overlooked along the way.

But I am also playing songs that I want and having fun also. Gotta have fun.😁

@Daphne Turnbull

I agree with @David Lieder the bar chord masterclass would be ideal for you right now, and being it's a series it'll also help to keep you more focused. Especially if you already know all your basic open chords and power chords. I would also consider some basic theory and maybe learning the first pentatonic position. That said, I just wouldn't take on too much at your stage. Learning your favorite songs (easy versions) always keep things fun as well. Just try not to bounce around taking on too much that you find yourself waisting time and not achieving any progress. I strongly advise you try to utilize your practice time very wisely. Again I think the Bar Chord Masterclass is the way to go and what you should mostly focus on right now. Hopefully this was helpful and do keep us posted. :-)

@Daphne Turnbull

my daily email from a Blues instructor this morning is applicable to your situation.

“There's an age-old question that comes up often around these parts...

The question usually boils down to, “If I go learn a bunch of solos from various artists note for note, won’t that naturally lead into improvising?”

The short answer is “sort of”…

But as with most things, there’s a lot more to it.

Let’s say you go and learn an SRV tune, Texas Flood is one of my favorites, and you learn the whole solo note for note.

Do you know what key the tune is in? Do you know all the chords? Do you know the form?

Do you know, for each lick, when it starts and when it ends? And can you make a decent guess as to where the notes comes from? (Notice I did not say do you *know* where the notes come from...)

Chances are, the answer to most of those questions is, no...

And that's why the stuff in that tune won't be very useful for other tunes :(

Let’s go back to my baby learning to talk analogy…

If you teach your 1 year old how to say “thank you,” you haven’t taught him when to say “thank you,” only how.

He has no concept of how that phrase is to be used for the proper effect.

But let’s fast forward a bit, and now he’s grown up and 22 years old.

He’s learned the rules of grammar, and he knows deep down how to use words and phrases properly.

So now he sees a word in a book that he doesn’t know, but he can tell what it means just by looking at what is around that new word.

As adults this sort of thing happens all the time but we don’t notice it anymore...

And that’s *exactly* how it works when I learn a new lick now. I can look at the notes, the chords it’s played over, the style of music, and make an extremely educated guess as to exactly what the artist was thinking when he or she chose those particular notes.

Now eventually, through a lot of mistakes, a baby will learn how to use the phrase “thank you” in the right way.

But think about how long that will take...

Maybe a year or two? 

For many phrases it could take several years.

Now imagine the same scenario with your guitar playing…

How long is it going to take for you to make sense of the licks you learn if you're just going through the motions without knowing the "why" behind those licks?

There are, of course, many great guitar players who learned simply by copying the licks of their heroes. So it would be ridiculous of me to say that it can’t be done...

But it takes a long time and a lot of hard work. Those great players who learned that way played all day, every day. Most of us simply don’t have that luxury.

So take the time to learn what’s going on behind the scenes and it’ll invariably speed up your path to playing the blues.”

Great advice from @David Lieder and @J.Rod!

I run into this question too sometimes! The struggle with being a fan of music is that there are so many great songs and techniques to learn that it's hard to know where to start. I want to learn it all! :) What's worked best for me is dividing my time between learning from a course/drill/technique AND learning a song.

I love what @David Lieder 's blues instructor said about learning the building blocks behind the song you're learning and I couldn't agree more. I liken it to when I learned my multiplication tables in elementary school. I was really struggling in math class, so my mom helped me memorize most of the multiplication table from 1 to 10. THEN we went back and learned WHY 8 x 8 = 64. From that point on, I started getting good grades in math class because I had that foundation down cold both in memorization AND in the WHY.

Practically speaking, I picked a song that I am excited to learn (right now, it's "Gravity" by John Mayer). So as I work on the song I'm also keeping in mind the major pentatonic scale and looking at the chord shapes happening behind the guitar parts. And no matter what song I'm learning, I always work up to where I can play the entire song top to bottom with a metronome. Usually I have to start at half speed first and then slowly speed up the metronome by 5 or 10 BPM until I'm at full speed.

So I'd say pick one song you've always wanted to learn. Then find out what the building blocks are for that song. If the song contains bar chords, then you could divide your time between the bar chords masterclass and learning the song. If the song has a solo in it then you can learn both the song and the scale that the solo is based on. Then work your way up to where you can play the entire song from beginning to end with a metronome.

Lastly, here's some great advice from John Mayer:

@Chelsea Amber the John Mayer video hits the nail on the head. This applies to everything, especially the martial arts as well as music. Students can learn to kick and punch but to really be able to apply it involves understanding. Remember that animals can learn tricks but they can’t create new things. Very cool.

@Chelsea Amber

Me being a huge John Mayer fan, I had also shared that video on the forum site Nate was previously on when It was first released and I been keeping those concepts in mind ever since. Yes definitely important to dig deeper into what we’re learning so that it can always be applied elsewhere. :-)

Since this post, I was looking at an acoustic guitar class had bought several months ago. I realized I already knew a lot of it but I decided to go through the class to use what I bought and get my moneys worth. A lot of it was review but so far, I learned a non bar Bm chord. Some advice from the class also helped me to be able to do the partial bar F chord after struggling with it for several months. I have also learned some new strumming patterns. There is a section there on bar chords so I will definitely take the time to use bar chords. For one of my 1 riff a day posts, I played This Land is Your Land by Woody Guthrie and enjoyed playing it. I hadn't played it before and winged it but it turned out fine and I had fun with it. I have been looking at learning to play a Bob Dylan song too. Lately I have been getting more into folk music.

@David Lieder You make a good point about making sure I know the foundations. You and and JRod have talked me into learning bar chords. There are songs I like that I haven't learned because I don't know bar chords. I also like what your blues instructor said.

@J.Rod Since reading these replies, I decided to take the time to learn bar chords. I know how to read music and I want to learn more theory at some point. I hear what you are saying about focus. I like variety and get easily bored so I have to watch that and make sure I don't take on too much or go all over the place.

'

@Chelsea Amber I watched that video several months ago and like what he has to say. I also like to split my time between learning a skill and songs I like.

I hear you Daphne. It can be tough to decide what to work on. One thing if for sure, if you divide your time up too much it will take you much longer to notice progress in any one particular area. Focusing on the building blocks (fundamentals) and one main thing can be very beneficial. For example, you could focus on strumming, changing chords, or bar chords. Things like that are what I consider the "foundations". At the same time, it's important to have something stylistic and fun on the go (this often involves learning a specific song). For example, you could focus on the blues, fingerstyle, or a simpler rock or pop song using bar chords.

Here is an anecdote from my personal practice. I've been focusing on fingerstyle as my main "style" and I've been very focused on learning fingerstyle songs all year. I've experienced way more improvement than I would if I had been working on the blues and fingerstyle at the same time. As far as the foundations go, I've been working on my rock lead chops. Not my main focus but something like bar chords for you that doesn't require a ton of time relative to my fingerstyle practice.

I would seriously recommend going with one main style that you are MOST excited about. This can included learning a few songs. Throw in a basic building block such as bar chords, and you will be good to go. The bar chords will keep you busy for a while and the songs you choose for your main style will provide a never ending stream of things to work on in that style.

Set some goals and commit to 3-6 months of focused practice.

I'm curious to see what you end up doing.