During the last couple of weeks I have just been focusing on session 1 and2, but I decided it was time to move on to session 3. I have gotten all the finger exercises from session 1 down to where I can play them at about 100bpm and the songs can be played at 90bpm.

The last two sessions have been a little tough for me to stay as focused as I wanted, just because of me going through some of the guitar method 1 book some and I was pretty familiar with the notes on high E and B strings. But I stuck to it and got down to some acceptable speeds. The C and G7 chord are proving to be my hurdle at this point and after reading the encouragement given to multiple users on the forum facing the same problems as me I have decided to move on to session 3. My problem is not so much forming the chords as moving between the two without the buzzing and muting of strings for the first strum or 2 of the new chord.

All excited I fired up session 3 and got ready (I was concerned it still may not be much of a challenge) and BANG!!! Steve got me. The eight notes slowed me down something huge and I loved it. The finger switching and the up-down strumming are making for a real challenge. Walking the notes up and down the strings at a decent pace has my fingers not know what I want them to do. For the last three nights I have just practiced the session 3 standard material and I plan on firing up the bonus disc on Friday to expand on what I have been learning. This session so far is making me feel more and more like a guitar player, forcing my fingers to move faster and my picking to be more pronounced and controlled.

Till next time…. Keep strumming!!

ThBeer

Ok. So this post has been sitting on my computer for a couple of weeks (due to holidays) but I wanted to go ahead and put it up since it gives my initial excitement with the course. It was written on 12/5/2008.

So today the LMG course arrived at my house and it made for a very tough day at work. All I could think about was coming home and putting that first DVD in and starting out. During the last week or so I have spent quite a bit of time reading a lot of posts on the forum and it really worked up my appetite for wanting to get started. So in the midst of thinking about the course during my lunch, I decided it would be a great time to get the bonus book printed up at Kinkos. So I logged onto their site and submitted the Bonus PDF and all of the additional chord sheets that Steve has made available on the site. 10 minutes later I had submitted my job to them and the total cost was about $24, this included binding and plastic covers.

Now during the last couple of months I have been trying to learn the guitar through various instruction books, such as Hal Leonard and Guitar for Dummies, but I have found it very difficult to know when to move on and it felt like do-this-do-this flip the page. The learning was not very gratifying for me and I started thinking about lessons which would have been tough with my schedule. All I had gotten was the first couple of frets on 1-4 strings and felt that I was stalling.  My quest for a better way to learn led me through several internet sites and several DVD programs (I did try the Hal Leonard DVD for Guitar Method 1-3 and it felt like reading the book). Then I came across the LMG program and the forum is what sold me on the course, I wanted a place to discuss what I was going through with people that had been there and understand exactly what I was working on. Ok enough of that rant.

Upon opening the package I was very happy with what I saw, lots of DVDs, some CDs, nice printed book and a great storage case. I quickly got my guitar and amp out and started the first DVD. Right away I liked the course a lot and enjoyed spending the time with Steve. It made my learning feel more personal instead of just going through the motions.

So at this point I have just gone through the first session (including the bonus material) and I am going to take a couple of weeks to focus on the content. My current issue is working on my left hand position and the angle of attack my fingers are using on the D, A and low E strings. Doing the four finger exercises is really helping me and I can feel my hand growing accustomed to it.

I really liked reading the different blogs that I have seen up here about learning guitar, so I thought I would give it a shot.

My name is Chris Coneybeer and I live in Columbus, Ohio. I have wanted to learn to play the guitar for a long time and just never did it. During my school days I played the Alto Sax for about 6 years and it made me very happy to learn music. I always enjoyed playing around and just making things that sounded good to me and I want to do the same with the guitar. Now, I have not played an instrument in about 15 years so this is like brand new to me.

About 4 months ago I was at my uncle in-law (is that even a real description of a family memeber) and we started to talk about playing guitar. He has been playinng for about 25 years and he invited me to pick up one of his guitars and start playing around. So I grabbed the Strat that he had and started just messing around. A little while later he walks in and grabs his Les Paul and starts try to teach me a little. It was the most fun I have had in long time. By the end of our week long visit he sent me home with the Strat. And here I am now.

During the last couple of months I have picked up some different books from Guitar Center and watched some videos on the internet, but I have not bee happy with my progress. It has been tough to make sure I am challenged and also when to move foward in my lessons. About 2 weeks ago I decided I was fed up and started looking at local instructors and training courses I could fine. Go to a instructor is pretty tough for me because of my job, so I focused on training software and I found the LMG system and really liked what I saw.

Now I sit and wait. The package should be here tomorrow and I will be on my way to becoming a better Guitarist.

More later,

ThBeer