[NEWBIE] Anything else I can be doing to optimize my learning?

I suggest a looper, it accelerates learning imo. Its one thing to mindlessly learn scales, its a whole 'nother thing to recognize a key and creatively apply those scales you're learning to a "sweet" riff you just made up. Not only is a looper a good practice tool but its so fun it makes you wanna practice more.

Set goals and a practice time and use that practice time efficiently. You can spend a lot of time playing guitar and not actually improve that much, it's fine to screw around and have fun just outside of that practice time.

I've been playing for about a year now with no teacher. My roommate (who has been playing for about 15 years) said that I'm progressing at an incredible pace. And I'm entirely self taught.

Basically, I've found the key to progressing a lot, is to allocate your time well. Spend some time learning new techniques, scales, theory, fretboard. Spend some time learning a song you love. Spend some time jamming, and improvising (more important than I thought imo, will be dedicating more time towards this in the future. This also becomes much easier as you become more familiar with the guitar). Spend some time doing something completely different from what you're used to (I started playing without a pick for the hell of it a few weeks back, now I do a lot of fingerpicking stuff, and rarely use a pick).

Also just practice a fuck ton. Make sure to have a good balance of organized practice, and having fun.

Hi u/nween! Thanks for the post and welcome to r/Guitar! If you are new to guitar or our sub and looking for more ways to get the most out of the community, here's a few tips/resources to get you started:

• read the sidebar for posting guidelines/rules and helpful links

• take a look at our very own FAQ/Wiki which contains a ton of information on getting started among other in-depth info

• check out the recurring threads refreshed weekly and stickied the top of the page

• if you're new to reddit as a whole, also be sure to read up on "reddiquette"

If you have any questions or suggestions, always feel free to message the mods.

Thanks and enjoy r/Guitar!

-Your friendly neighborhood moderators :)

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

It's a pretty joyful pastime, innit? :)

You've got the right attitude, that's for sure - guitar is fun! You can be a serious player and still have fun with it. In fact, never stop having fun.

So, to your questions...

IMO, a teacher is a good investment at first. Now, there's some caveats to that - a "good" teacher is what you want to find. That's someone you get along with, can assess what you want and what you know, and can formulate a plan on how to get to where you want to be. You don't want to spend your hard-earned money on a teacher just so you can learn songs that you can learn for free off the internet. You want a teacher that will teach you some theory, help you develop technique, hold you accountable for practicing, and help you set and achieve your goals.

You want to avail yourself of internet resources as well, of course. Use it all.

I know if I really want to be improving I should be playing hours on end each day

Well, yes and no. At your level, steady wins the race. It's better to put in a good 30 minutes every day of focused practice than 4 hours in one sitting on the weekend and nothing else. You are, essentially, becoming an athlete of sorts. As such, you want to work up to the more intense sessions as you progress and can handle them (this is also where a good teacher can help).

I'm not at the level where playing for that long each day is enjoyable to me

If you're approaching this as a hobbyist, then absolutely only push yourself as hard as is comfortable. Often what happens, over time, is you'll hit "spikes" of progress and you can't get enough of it. When those times come, run with it. That's when it gets really satisfying and fun and they will offset the invariable plateaus and lulls along the way. :)

Anything else I should be doing as a beginner to get better as soon as possible?

The biggest thing, IMO, and the one thing I stress with my students when I occasionally teach is this: learn to listen. When you hear your favorite song, focus on the guitar part. Can you hear the individual notes being played? Get a feel for the rhythm? Can you commit those sounds to memory so you can hear them "in your head"? Can you recollect those sounds good enough to hum them when the song is done? Can you match those sounds in your head to the guitar? Do you hear familiar note combinations, intervals and cadences?

This is something you can work on with or without your guitar and, again IMO, ear training not only helps you play better and learn quicker, it also enhances the enjoyment of music. You will learn not to just pick out particular instrumental parts, but hear every part individually as well as a whole, and the interplay between various instruments (and singers, of course) becomes more apparent. You'll transition from music listener to music maker, and it will open up some nifty sonic worlds for you.

So, anyway...welcome to the club! You're officially a guitar player. :)

Jam with people, jam with music, jam with yourself (via recording/looper). And don't be a robot, always listen attentively to what you hear and what you are doing. Most people are checked out going through scales etc. when they play. Don't do that. Stevie Ray Vaughn said when he was playing his best he always felt like he was going slow. I'm not saying don't play fast. you should absolutely play fast so when you fall in the wrong place you can just move to the next things quickly and any mistake just becomes a blue note or added tension, but be attentive, be present. Don't be a robot.

1. Memorize the entire fretboard
2. Learn your Scales
3. Learn your basic chords
4. Find easy songs to start off
5. When in doubt, use YOUTUBE! (or this page)

LOL me too, justinguitar is sweet