i liked the idea of the goals thread that was made already, but didn't want it to be really broad or confined to this year (since it is just about over). so, post in here what your specific goals are for music whehter it be the guitar, piano, electronic...whatever.
important thing for goals is that they be specific enough to break down in to a plan to get there and a timeline. i have always struggled doing this, so i thought i would put it in a thread.

-i would like to know all the notes on the fretboard within the next month.
-within 2 months, i would like to know one song up to tempo that i can play all the way through (no, i still can't do that).

i will update as i either progress or put new goals to myself.

post yours as well as maybe others might have the same ones and we can all help each other attain them.

I've been trying to come up with some specific goals but I don't think I'm ready yet. I have a lot of big picture stuff but still working on breaking it down into bite-sized chunks. Good thread idea though, and I wish more people were interested in this sub-forum!

big picture goals are good too as long as they are specific. that way you can break it down into steps.

i wish that as well.

Do you like Turn the Page by Bob Seger?

It has a pretty easy rhythm line that might be a good one for you to work on your non strummed chords. The notes are picked but you let them ring together as a chord. It's all pretty much a repeating pattern through the entire song and fairly slow.

The chords are easy. You could get by with just Em, D, Am, C.

(Although if you want to nail it there is one spot where he uses A instead Am, another spot where he uses Asus2 instead of Am, and then a spot with Dsus2 instead of D.)

This here is the most accurate chord info for the song imo: http://www.chordie.com/chord.pere/ge...ThePage.chopro


If you're interested, there is a good quality mp3 backing tracking track available with the guitars parts removed. I can find it again and link it here if you want. You can stream or download it. To me if you're not playing with other people, then using backing tracks is the best way to learn play songs all the way through.

I could try to do the tab for the picking pattern, but there is probably something online or you could pick it up by ear.

Edit: Decided to just link the backing track in case someone else is interested in the future.

http://www.guitarbackingtrack.com/pl...n_the_page.htm

will def check that out.
been looking at some backing tracks and that does look like a good way to learn. haven't used any yet, but i am sure i will.
thanks mang.

didn't play any kind of picking or strum pattern, but was def able to get through that song. nice easy changes and slow tempo. i guess i can play a song all the way through. thanks mang!!!

Sweet!

Definitely work out a picking pattern for it once you have the changes wired. It sounds really nice. A little tip is to use fingers 1 and 2 for the Em so you can move up to D really easy. (I forgot to mention -- I play all the chords open except for D which I play as the A shaped barre at the 5th fret. Think it sounds much better than the open D in this song.)

Sometimes I actually play the slide up to the D (just on the A string) and sometimes not. Sometimes I want to do the slide but find I have fingers 2 and 3 playing the Em due to habit.

don't know that d chord off the top of my head, but will look it up. i was just playing the open chords of all of them. knew the 'sus' chords, just didn't know that is what i knew. heh. i find that a lot on the guitar. that i musically know something without knowing on the instrument what i am doing.

For that D in this song I just barre the A string at the 5th fret with my index (1) finger (mute the low E at the same time with tip of finger) and then barre the D, G, and B strings at the 7th fret with my ring finger. The high E ends up muted, but it doesn't matter for my picking pattern.

So that's also why I recommend playing the Em with the 1 and 2 fingers, because then the index finger is already in place on the A string and it just needs to come up to the 5th fret.

oh, i know that barre pattern. i can't do it with my ring finger though. i have to use my first and pinky. still works though.

So my big picture goals are:

1) Get rock solid at rhythm guitar. (Was always kind of sloppy back in the day.)
2) Learn all the pentatonic/blues positions and get more fluent at playing between the positions.
3) Get comfortable improvising in more keys than Em and Am.
4) Start working more chord tone stuff into my solos (by playing "good" notes through the chord changes with the pentatonic scales and also working in arpeggios).
5) Learn some soul and funk classics/chops.
6) Develop my ear and transposing skills.
7) Learn the fretboard notes.
8) Figure out how to really use effects (particularly delay) and build my own tone.
9) Theory stuff (don't know enough to even understand what I need to know but I know I want to learn).

Need to break this stuff up into bite size chunks with shorter term more specific goals I guess. Making tons of progress so far though! Figured out the opening solo to Alice Cooper's "Caught in a Dream" on one listen today. It's easy, stays in one position, and is really easy to hear in the mix -- but still that's never happened to me before!

awesome goals.
like you said, break those down into exercises and chunks of learning and you will get there. if you need any theory help, let me know. will be working on some of those same goals myself, so if you come up with a way to break it down to daily practice, let me know as well. especially the shifting positions and fretboard knowledge.