Confused and frustrated

thedancer
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Mon Feb 07, 2011 6:09 am

Hi Marc

You are right. When I joined TG I was like a big kid in a sweet shop with all these wonderful treats on display. But being a big kid I wanted to try every treat that was on offer. So I was opening one treat after another and trying to stuff them all in. To prevent that from happening I think it would be a good Idea for Neil to tell beginners like me to go to this section and learn this, then go to that section and learn that because if you don’t learn it in this order you will not get the maximum benefit from his site .

I have learned a very valuable lesson though. Eating to many treats and not digesting them has made me feel sluggish.

Dancer


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neverfoundthetime
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Mon Feb 07, 2011 7:04 am

I think it would be a good Idea for Neil to tell beginners like me to go to this section and learn this, then go to that section and learn that
That sound like a useful idea Dancer. I haven't looked at all the Beginner stuff yet but a How To Start And Progress Here At TG video up front from Neil could be a really good start. Neil could make suggestion for the beginner or the intermediate player as those will be very different routes.


thedancer
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Mon Feb 07, 2011 9:25 am

Hi Neil
I have just discovered a missing piece of the jigsaw. In Fundamentals I - From The Beginning, I only looked at how you described what was in that section.

Today we are introducing our Guitar Course For The Absolute Beginner. Many people come to the site with no experience at all with the guitar and wonder where to start. This series of lessons is what they are looking for. In Lesson 1 we start with some of the first things a student needs to know; What to look for in a guitar, a comparison of steel and nylon string guitars, a little talk about different sizes, and some of the different ways of holding the guitar.

I did not think I needed this section.

I have now looked in this section and discovered how important this section really is.

I feel I understand things much better now.
Dancer


thedancer
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Mon Feb 07, 2011 9:38 am

Hi Neverfoundthetime

I would love it if Neil would say learn this or that and then point us towards a song that would give me a chance to put what I am learning into practice.
I, like most people are working, have family and friends to see, and in my case take the wife dancing. And learn to play the guitar; there is so much stuff to learn from on TG that I feel there is not enough time in my day to do everything.

So come on Neil and his team. Please give us set homework. So that we can become the guitar players we all dream we can be.

Dancer


unclewalt
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Tue Feb 08, 2011 11:23 pm

yikes


JetReno
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Wed Feb 09, 2011 1:03 am

ConFrus,

Just my two cents. I don't know what the average time to go through Fundamentals I thru V is supposed to be. But I have been going back and forth to them for the better part of a year. I would say I am a pretty sharp guy. I have a couple of tough college degrees, so believe I have an above average ability to learn, but to me, learning just the major, minor and pentatonic scales is a challenging undertaking. Conceptually, not overwhelming, but practically, there is a lot to them. Then throwing in the concept of first position, second position etc. is a lot to get a firm grip on. Often, I will be confused and frustrated, then come back a few days later and listen to a segment for the second or third time and it is like, "oh, now I get it". Sometimes, I will just move to a song and work on it, then go back to the Fundamental lessons. I think it is especially tough if you can't devote a ton of time to it. I have often heard a half hour a day is a good amount of time to spend in "learning" the guitar, but at that rate, it takes time, a lot of time, especially if you are trying to learn a lot of the theory. But every new thing you learn is just one less thing to learn moving forward. So, I guess my message is be patient, write stuff down, go over it, move ahead a few lessons, go back, work on songs and it will sink in and you will be amazed at your progress. Make sure you are having fun with it as confused and frustrated doesn't sound fun and I can tell you, I have wanted to learn the guitar all my life and this web site has done wonders for my ability and understanding. Good luck.


tombo1230
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Wed Feb 09, 2011 8:28 am

Lavallee wrote:
I agree however that it would be a good idea to have a time line to follow. Without necessarily redo the video, to have at least a sequence of video to follow. With a bit of experience, it is easy to get your own answer as you have some questions to fill up which becomes a guiding line. But when you begin, you have no idea where to go. So some kind of step by step online sheet that could be in the profile per example so everybody would access to his own sheet could be interesting.

Marc
I think this is a very good idea. There is a software learning company on line and they have a system in place which charts your package learning progress for you and gives you a completion certificate at the end of a block of lessons. I am not suggesting we need certificates, but maybe a record of what we have covered as far as the acoustic genius series is concerned and maybe a plot of where to start and finish. I think when you complete one section then you can continue to the next and you will have covered everything you need to know to progress onto the next block of lessons, without being frustrated. If you then have a problem in the next section, you go back and go over what you don't know or are shaky on.

The idea of a quiz or questions is another good idea. There could be suggestions against questions you get wrong like, watch x or y video again to gain the missing answers.

To be honest I have tried different teachers and web sites and find Neils training to be the best yet and I like how he goes off track and back on again, (Trust me when I say I have dvd lessons on songs that are an hour long with 5 minutes teaching on them). but maybe some people need more guidance than others as we all learn in different ways and are at different knowledge levels. IMHO The Dancer, I think you are frustrated because there are gaps in your knowledge and the idea of going to look for those answers will take you away from what you are doing at that time, but on the flipside I think I would be frustrated if Neil did cover these "other points you can find in other lessons," because it would slow the lesson down too much for me. So maybe you have to go back at this stage to go forward. IMHO, I think that a guidance chart of some kind would help some students progress more smoothly without getting stuck and frustrated.

Tom N.


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