I seem to have reached a frustrating plateau in my development as a guitar player. Though I practice every day, my rate of improvement in the songs I am currently learning: Norwegian Wood, Fast Car, You Can Close Your Eyes and Don’t Fear the Reaper, is all but non-existent.

I had hoped that by now I would be playing a much better rendition of You Can Close Your Eyes – it’s been well over a month since I began to learn it. However, though I can play each of the individual parts if I separate them out, I still have trouble stringing them together and, overall, my performance is sloppy, fragmented, out of tempo and, in some areas, downright awful!

Norwegian Wood is pretty much the same; compounded by the fact that I’ve been practicing it even longer. I know the song and I have a good grasp of each of the elements but, when strung together, my performance lacks the correct flow and metre.

Since that start of April I have added Fast Car and Don’t Fear the Reaper to my list of songs and have already got the basics down. I’m a little less concerned about my lacklustre performances here – it’s only been a couple of weeks after all – but I suspect that issues I am experiencing with them serve only to highlight a common and underlining problem with my development.

You see I’m beginning to realise that in each case my problem is technique, and I’m starting to worry that these problems may be a) ingrained and b) insurmountable.

Consider the case of Don’t Fear the Reaper as an example. In his lesson, Neil suggests that you use an alternating up and down picking rhythm to play the main riff. The trouble is I’ve spent the last 30 years avoiding up strokes like the plague. I can play the riff using alternating strokes but I have to a) recite the phrase ‘down up’ in my head the whole time and b) play painfully slowly.

In Norwegian Wood I have a similar problem. Whilst I’m pretty good at strumming if I use only down strokes (very thrash metal), I struggle to incorporate alternating strokes. It’s almost funny. I either miss the strings altogether on the upstroke, hit them so hard that the strings twang against the fret board or catch the strings with the pick at a totally inappropriate upward angle which subsequently flips it out of my hand and catapults it across the room. My two cats now refuse to stay in the same room as me whenever I pick up the guitar: justly afraid of being hit by flying plectrums.

I suppose that everyone hits these little plateaus from time to time and I just have to man up, push through and bide my time patiently. Still, my technical problems are perturbing and I feel quite childish at having to slow things down so much and go back to basics.

Can you teach an old dog new tricks?

It's hard to believe that it's only been three weeks since I started to learn You Can Close Your Eyes ... it seems like a lot longer. I've got it all in my head now though I still struggle to play it all without stumbling and I still have to refer to the tab on almost every playthrough to get the fingering right. Never-the-less I'm quietly impressed with my progress in three weeks and have high hopes that I can polish it into something not-too-shabby by the end of April.

As it's the start of a new month tomorrow I get to choose another two songs as part of the Target Lite programme. I'm still sticking to my original plan - Fast Car and Don't Fear the Reaper - but who knows what will happen when tomorrow comes. I'm making no progress what-so-ever with River Man so perhaps a little break to learn one of my new songs will help.

I'm pleased to find that I'm still enjoying learning new songs and I'm happy that I chose Target Lite rather that splurging on the whole Traget programme. Though undoubtedly good value it's clear that two songs a month is more than enough for me at the moment.

I'll be back soon with more updates ... for anyone who's reading this. LOL :0)

I'm definitely getting better at You Can Close Your Eyes. I've learned the intro and the whole of the verse and constant practice is honing them into a fairly acceptable rendition. If I can memorise the chorus in the next few days I'll pretty much know the whole song since the verse and chorus are repeated for the second half of the song. Then I'll only have the outro to nail and all the rest is just practice, practice, practice ...

To add a little light relief to learning JT I've also started work on River Man by Nick Drake. This is a completely different kettle of fish; with less technical fingering and syncopated timing and more of a driving, almost monotonous rhythm in 5/4 time. This in itself is proving quite challenging and when you throw in the tortuous added 9th and 11th chords and the occasional five finger grab ... well let's just say I've set myself another hefty challenge. As with JT however, I'm sure the end result will be well worth the effort but I need to choose some simpler songs to add to my repertoire.

With this in mind I've been thinking about the two songs I can add to my TARGET Lite programme next month. I'm fairly sure I will probably change my mind when the time comes (I'm very fickle like that) but I'm thinking I'll go for Fast Car by Tracy Chapman and Don't Fear the Reaper by Blue Oyster Cult. The former I'm choosing because I really like the song and have wanted to be able to play it for a long time. The latter I'm choosing because Neil says he makes all his students learn it. And if it's good enough for all his students then Hey! It's good enough for me.

Now ... back to JT.

See you all soon.

Though improving rapidly, Norwegian Wood is still far from presentable. No matter how hard I try, and despite hours of practice, I still cannot play a flawless version. I suspect that I may be expecting too much - bearing in mind that I've only been learning the song for about a week - but I've always had high expectations of myself. :0)

In addition to NW I've also undertaken You Can Close Your Eyes by James Taylor. So far I've managed to learn the Intro and part of the verse. As with NW it's very much a work in progress and I'm finding the combination of fingering and strumming techniques quite challenging in their transitions. This is, I suppose, to be expected. I also expect that mastering this song will take quite some time.

My rendition of Norwegian Wood continues to improve but is still nowhere near good enough to share. I still stumble over the change from strumming to picking the single notes and the whole thing ends up sounding slightly disjointed as a result.

I'm trying to be as faithful as possible to Neil's version but I'm having trouble fingering a couple of the chords the way he advises. I can't move at all swiftly into the Em7 using my second and middle fingers so have to use my first and second instead. And as for the triangular 'cluster' arrangement he uses for the Amaj chord ... well the less said the better. I struggle to get my fingers there without thinking about it and even when I do the middle note (first finger) ends up being muted rather than fretted. Perhaps it doesn't treally matter which finger pattern you use?

I suppose I'll find out in due course.

I've come to the conclusion that I can help myself immensely over the next few months by listening almost exclusively to my favourite guitarists and musicians. In preparation for this, and bearing in mind that I recently bought a new MP4 player which is currently empty, I've spent a good part of the weekend uploading music to my laptop. So far I have the entire Nick Drake catalogue and the entire John Martyn catalogue ready to transfer to my player.

I was somewhat surprised to discover however that I have no James Taylor on CD - only on vinyl. Luckily my birthday is in a little over a month so I'm now furiously rewriting my birthday list accordingly. After JT I just have some Led Zeppelin, Alexi Murdoch, José González and a few other choice albums to go and I'm all set.

Norwegian Wood is going okay so far - but it's not ready to share just yet :)

Okay. I've paid for Target Lite, chosen a few songs to learn, hit my first hurdle, made some new friends, gotten some excellent advice and it's still only teatime.

Not a bad week's work all in all.

The picture of my guitar which I uploaded seems to have been tuned sideways for no apparent reason ... but Hey, you can't have everything.

If you read my post 'Teething Troubles' in the forum you'll see that I'm a somewhat ambitious newbie here at TG. I've set myself some pretty impressive targets with my choices but I'm hugely motivated, highly caffinated, I have a guitar and I'm not afraid to use it!

The next few months should be interesting to say the least.

First of all, it is really amazing to have such a well-qualified site gifted with grace and professional's skills just for free.

I am from Israel making my first steps with notes and new guitar method.

I am 60 years old and have played on a guitar 35 years ago infrequently.

Before I encountered your site, I had found myself advising an Israeli internet site to make some efforts teaching music to incapable community for the main reason that music is for all and by all.

Even not gust our race, bees and bags and all the animal kingdom.

With this belief in my mind, I think I will enjoy your graceful offer.

Izea

Neil, just wanted to say thank you for the Guess Who lessons. American Woman was the first album I ever bought and that was to replace my sisters copy which I had worn out. Since your probably going to do a few more can I suggest something from Share the Land? Perhaps even Come Down Off the Money Bag/Song of the Dog? 

Neil,

A recommendation which you've probably gotten before. Instead of referrring to the strings as the 1st, 2nd, etc, call 'em by their names.  It will cut down on the number of numbers that need to be processed. "did he say third finger on the second string, or second finger on the third string?"

Granted, the fret position on the neck will alter the note, but the string name never changes. 

boray1