How Well can you Play Guitar after Six Months?

I began playing/practicing guitar just over 6 months ago. Here is a progress update.

First Demo, playing “Angel Band” – Jet JS300 Electric Guitar

Here’s an electric guitar demo of me playing Angel Band (April 15, 2024) in my basement. This is my Jet JS400 electric guitar. I have named her Bela, which is Slovenian for the color white. It’s a Slovenian company that makes guitars in China.

Second Demo, playing “Angel Band” – Hohner HG-07 Acoustic Guitar

Here’s an acoustic guitar demo of me playing Angel Band (April 22, 2024) in my basement. The guitar is a 30-40 year old slightly beat-up Hohner HG-07 guitar made in Japan (I am fond of Hohner acoustic guitars). The guitar has no name yet, still thinking of one.

Now allow me to list what I have learned in my 6th month of playing guitars.

Low Humidity Hurts Guitars

I live in Chicago, IL. This has been my first winter with guitars and humidity in the 30’s in my basement. It changed some of my guitars. But I learned to adjust them, to purchase a good humidifier, and be constantly aware of a guitar’s constant enemy: too little or too much humidity.

Learning the dreaded F Chord

Much of the last month has been spent on learning the F chord. Perhaps I’ll do a blog post just on that. Let’s just say I am becoming decent on a mini-barre F chord and sometimes a full F chord.

The A chord was difficult at first. Now it’s an old friend. Learning the F chord may be 3x to 4x more difficult than learning the A chord. But I’m getting it done.

Using a Guitar Pick (Plectrum) Isn’t Easy

Here are some thoughts on using a guitar pick.

Face your guitar weaknesses; don’t avoid them (see #2).
Don’t avoid using a plectrum or pick. Embrace the pick.
Even if you think you’re good using your thumb to strum chords on a guitar, it limits your musical options. Yes, thumb picking has dulcet tones but using a guitar pick allows your guitar to ring out with clarity.
It’s better to learn guitar with both a pick and just using your thumb. Having choices is always better than being limited to one or another method.
Injured thumbs and plectrum “insurance”. One day soon as a beginner, your strumming thumb will get a slit that heals badly or slowly. Then you’ll wish you were better at using a pick (pleckard).

Using Fender Play when it’s a Bargain: $29

I was patient. Although interested in Fender Play I wasn’t interested in their $149 annual subscription.

On February 29, a leap year day, Fender ran a 29 dollar special on the Fender Play app. Purchased it immediately. It was too much of a bargain.

One great thing about Fender Play, it forces you to use a pick for playing. They describe how to use a pick and don’t even give you a choice: Use a Pick. That forced me to learn what I had been avoiding: Using a Pick.

And that was a good thing.

Tom G. taught me how to read Music

Jamming in my basement, my old friend Tom G. patiently answered my questions in understanding how to read music tabs.

I thought I understood them before but really didn’t.

I asked Tom to explain the Old Town School of Folk Music songbook to me. He did. Thanks Tom.

My Guitar Beginner Study Regimen

I do practice 2-3 hours a day. If I have a 90 minute session first, this is my guitar practice regimen:

30-45 minutes of warmup. (This once was 20 minutes but it’s grown to 30 minutes. It may be too much.)
- Practice all my 35-50 chords.
- Strumming: silent with muted strings, using my thumb, using my pick.
- Picking the C scale.
- Hammer Ons.
- Pinky finger stretches to increase my reach.
- Play fun chords I haven’t memorized yet.
Study Online Courses
- Justin Guitar online. Normally 2/3 of my time.
- Fender Play online. 1/3 of the time.
Fun Songs
- Justin Guitar
- Ultimate Guitar Tabs – I have an annual service for about $25.
Practice songs from Old Town School of Folk Music songbook.
- Practice at reading music.
- Using a metronome app for the beat.
- Playing the music.
- Singing when I’m alone.

I do think I am exercising guitar a bit too much (sometimes 30+ minutes). I need to keep a limit on that time usage and focus on learning new material and playing guitar songs.

Optional Learning Resources

I’d like to offer an honorable mention to these three Internet teachers in my order of precedence. If I need more info on a topic, I research a topic + their name. They are:

Lauren Bateman. She does great YouTube videos and I have no doubt is a fine teacher. I would have signed with her but I had already committed to Justin Guitar. Research her teaching 🙂
Mike Kennedy. Mike Kennedy of National Guitar Academy. Often when researching a guitar topic, I find Mike Kennedy’s good advice.
Chris Morton of ChrisMortonGuitar.com. I’ve recently found his articles and I think they have wonderful content. Check him out.

Next Month Goals and Song

Goals for the next month:

To improve my strumming. It’s lagging behind my other skills.
To use a metronome more often. Rhythm needs to be better.
Balance the guitar; the neck should float.
- If you need to support your guitar’s neck with your fretting hand, you’re doing something wrong.
- The guitar neck needs to be balanced so that your fretting hand can float around it with better reach on forming chords. BALANCED/FLOATING guitar neck is important.
To return to the Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago, IL.
- It’s in town, 20 minutes away.
- I can always jam with a group for free.
- I need to take another course that fits my skills.

Goals for the next two months:

Play simple songs blindfold; without looking at the neck for finger placement.
- Beginners turn the guitar neck a bit to face them so they can see it.
- This cuts down on “reach” of your fingers on your fretting hand.
- Begin to focus on turning the guitar neck away from sight; this will give your fingers greater reach than ever before.
Stand up; learn to play standing up.

Song: I’ll try to find a song more cheerful than Angel Band. We shall see.

Become a Kaizen Guitarist

How do you become a Kaizen Guitarist?

Just improve your guitar playing 1% every day with new chords, a new musical idea, better practice, a new song, scales, strumming, finger picking or learning more about maintaining your guitars.

Thanks for visiting my Kaizen Guitarist website today.