...as a new player, with a MIM HSS fat Strat, learning & playing the blues, I get frustrated periodically wondering what I should be learning 1st. I started 3 months ago and have learned 12 main chords. I'll learn a little bit of a song (nutshell), then learn a lil blues lick. Then I think to myself,"I can't even play a song" so i go back to a song. Then I go back to minor pentatonic blues scale. I just learn from YouTube and Marty (GuitarJamz.com) DVDs. To be blues savvy, what should I be practicing at this 3 month mark?? I play EVERY day. Help!

I think the fact that you are playing every day and asking questions of other players is an important part of the learning process. But it is tough to do it that way. And it takes a long time. Have you considered taking some lessons from a professional Guitar/Blues Teacher? That would in My opinion be the best way to learn.
----Danny,

+1...taking lessons is important and even after 39 years of playing, every once in a while when I get in a rut I take a couple lessons and it gets me going again, or I learn something new playing with someone different...it is a never ending process...

T2

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What time is it? It's Fender Time.

Yea. Decent idea but im trying to save some money. Even if it takes a little longer. I'm just trying to learn things in the right order.

listen to songs that inspire you. buy song books and learn from them. they are cheaper than lessons. it's good when you get in a rut, it means you are ready to move foward with your playing. just wing it, freestyle just don't get upset with your playing. keep progressing.

Check out "Guitar Tricks" Their free lessons are great, but watch out....they just wet the appetite. Fender's free lessons are great too, but it's the same thing. They leave you wantin' more.

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Donnmac

'09 American Deluxe Strat Sunburst Rosewood
'63 Les Paul Jr SG body
'80's Fender F 15 Acoustic
'09 Larrivee D 03RE
'09 Squier Affinity J Bass
'10 Martin D12X1AE
'66 Traynor YGM1 (tube)
'08 Traynor TRM30
'11 G-DEC 30 Blues
'09 Fender Rumble 15

Learn a 12 bar blues progression in Am and learn to solo over that....for the next 20 years or until you get really good,whichever comes first.....for me I'm going on 40+ years,and I think I'm starting to be a decent blues player . at least that's what some tell me,...but you always need to be your own worst critic....so I might have been ahead of the game and in my prime at some point,but I don't know when.

I feel ya...

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Just think of how awesome a guitar player you could have been by now if you had only spent the last 10 years practicing instead of obsessing over pickups and roasted maple necks.

I got lost for a while trying to learn things in the right order. This led me to wonder how everyone seemed to flow nicely while I would plug in and be stiff as a board.

Many years later, 25 or so, there are a couple of things I know I should be doing.
1. Focus on one style of music and listen to that day in and day out. Go nuts about it.
2. Get into the habit of singing lines. Connecting what you hear in your head to your throat and then to producing the tone with your hands will make you intuitive, effective, creative.
3. Solid rythmic ability beats fast fingers any day of the week. Do you rush? Can you articulate? Can you play behind the beat and on top? When you play, is it contagious?
I thought I would never be able to swing. After listening to my heroes obsessively, now I am better at it because it has become a bodily feeling.
I hit good and bad notes here and there. But a scale is worthless without the underlying rythmic identity.
Funny feeling, I play my best when I have no idea what I´m doing.

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FIGHT!

honestey, i have no clue how i learn't. must of just picked up how to read tab's along the way and one day i figured i should learn some stuff

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riley

I feel that to learn quickly you need discipline and direction. I started taking lessons again to get that and I think it's paying off. My school has it's own Learn To Play The Blues study lessons and they're pretty good. I actually think someone could start at page one and be pretty proficient at the end if they put the practice time into it. So, I'd recommend finding a good lesson book and not move to the next lesson until you have nailed the first and so on. If you keep bouncing around too much you'll get in a rut. I try to balance practicing my lessons with playing along with my Ipod so I don't get bored.

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'10 American Deluxe HSS Sunset Metallic
'10 JA-90 Thinline Telecaster
'15 Music Man JP-15 Blueberry Burst
'07 Les Paul Standard Faded LCPG #82
'14 Carvin ST300
'12 Carvin CS424S
'66 Guild Starfire IV w/Bigsby
'14 Warmouth Partscaster Daphne Blue

If you can not afford private lessons, check with a local Community College. The community college in my county frequently offers guitar class with an instructor. You are in a class taking lessons and playing with others. It is a good environment for learning and structured. The course fee is about $40 which works out to just over $3 per lesson. Here the courses run evenings as part of the college's continuing education program. They offer Guitar I, II and III. They prefer acoustic guitars for the classes here. Just a thought.

thanks, everyone, for your input. I'm very disciplined with my practice so thats not an issue. As I practice, I wonder "Should I even be doing THIS right now?" Maybe I should be learning THAT first. Eh, who knows?!
For instance, I was learning "No woman, no cry" on my acoustic, when I started thinking "if I want to jam the blues, maybe I should be spending this time playing short licks over extended blues runs??

12 chords in 3 months??? i work with a kid who claims to be a guitar player who hasn't learned 3 chords in 12 months. why? he's lazy and doesn't practice. i quit trying to teach him simple tunes that he requested because he refused to practice on his own.
you will get out what you put in. just keep practicing and use the advice given here. it's all good. me, i just plug and play which is probably why i'm not a good lead player. but thats okay. i'm much happier playing rythym. i keep my solos short and simple.