In other words, if you were a beginner, where would you start and where would you go? Start with all the Courses and then just go into general lessons? Anyone have a recommended flow?
- I’d like to know the answer to that question also
I started with learning some riffs from the second position and learning the easier songs first. I really didn’t know anything about country guitar music other than what I heard on the radio at first
I started 3 years ago on CGO with Banks of the Ohio as a beginner with ability to read music and basic open chords in my hat. Then, I went to Jerusalem Ridge. I still play Jerusalem Ridge as my warm up. Nice easy songs that sound like music when I play them. No crazy chord/finger positions in either of those. If a song had an F chord, I’d skip it immediately. Then, I started looking at scales and his very first lessons. Devin has the most comfortable teaching style I’ve had experience with. The features he uses in his lessons are also the best performing (behaving) one’s I’ve used across all the sites I use. The loop and speed functions are easy to use and I use them in every lesson. I just start with really slow, loop the interval I’m learning, and just keep playing it as slow as I need to until I can increase the speed. I subscribe to over 5 guitar lesson sites and probably 50 YouTube creators but I come back here everyday.
@jerseychicadee Are you still not playing songs with F chords J.C.? If not, I'd suggest just barring the G and B strings at the first fret instead of playing the full F chord. It will do in a pinch. That way you can enjoy learning pieces with F chords like Black Mountain Rag and Wildwood Flower.
If you have G C D Chords down already try the Improvisation course.
Devin doesn't have a listing for "easy" and "difficult" pieces and his reasoning for shying away from labeling songs as easy or hard is that his arrangements are, for the most part, very accessible to most guitar players; the only difference being some require a bit more practice. But overall, they are all very doable and one can usually determine for themselves after watching a song play through at slow speed whether they are cut out for learning a particular song. Basically he's afraid some beginners might shy away from pieces that are labeled as being difficult so he leaves it up to the individual to decide. When I joined about a year ago, I jumped right into learning songs but I haven't built up a huge repertoire so I can only recommend the ones I know how to play. The following are some of the easier ones I've learned (in my limited opinion). Arkansas Traveler, Cold Frosty Morning, Anne's Reel, Red Haired Boy, Old Grimes, Jerusalem Ridge. My absolute favourite so far is Nothing To It. This song is so much fun to play and well worth the effort. At some point, I will take some of the courses that Devin is offering, but right now I'm just enjoying learning new songs.
@jambongris You could add Nobodys darlin but mine to that list, He has a nice simple break to go along with the song.
@wjssavhotmail-co-uk String bending. Wow. That's something I'm not familiar with. Well, I guess if one wants to play country tunes, then one has to learn to bend strings. Thanks for the suggestion John!