Learning guitar order for songwriting

I've gotten right back into guitar after half arsing it for years and never really got past basic chords an learning a few songs so I can sing. I'd like to know what I should be learning and in what rough order to get to being comfortable enough to write songs without having to waste time looking up theory. [br][br]

Basicallyi want to be a decent guitar player and knowledgeable enough with what I need to know to write music with my guitar without over doing theory. [br][br]

Also any suggestions on practice routines would be good, I waste a lot of time not knowing what I should be practicing.

cheers legends

Welcome back to the guitar!

Originally Posted by: truck_2516

I've gotten right back into guitar after half arsing it for years and never really got past basic chords an learning a few songs so I can sing. I'd like to know what I should be learning and in what rough order to get to being comfortable enough to write songs without having to waste time looking up theory.[/quote][p]That depends on your current skill level & knowledge. And what style of music you want to play.

I encourage you to:

1. Have a look GF2 for review, if not shore up any weak spots in your skills or understanding.

2. Pick a style course to work through.

3. Learn songs. [br]

Originally Posted by: truck_2516[p]Basicallyi want to be a decent guitar player and knowledgeable enough with what I need to know to write music with my guitar without over doing theory.

[p]The vast majority of songwriters learn by analyzing songs they love & the work of artists they admire.

If you completely learn & take apart a song you really love, then you will be able to see how it works, what makes it tick. What it took to put together & make it work. If you learn a few songs you don't like, then you can even learn what to avoid![br][quote=truck_2516]Also any suggestions on practice routines would be good, I waste a lot of time not knowing what I should be practicing.

If you tell me your skill level, your goals & how much time you have to dedicate to practice daily or weekly I can give you suggestions for how to break up that time.

Hope that helps!

Originally Posted by: truck_2516

Basicallyi want to be a decent guitar player and knowledgeable enough with what I need to know to write music with my guitar without over doing theory.[/quote][p]

[quote=ChristopherSchlegel]

The vast majority of songwriters learn by analyzing songs they love & the work of artists they admire.

If you completely learn & take apart a song you really love, then you will be able to see how it works, what makes it tick. What it took to put together & make it work. If you learn a few songs you don't like, then you can even learn what to avoid!

This is great advice by Chris. So many people think that they can forego learning songs by other artists because said person wants to focus on their 'original material'. When I've heard that stated in my years of playing, my internal voice was all like, 'oh, so you're too lazy to learn songs'.

You learn so much, as Chris noted, about what works and what doesn't work in original material. Just playing along with songs is very enlightening. You'll get moments of revelation just playing along where you realize that a certain chord change or key change works and even a little bit of why. You'll learn how a good artist builds songs and how to build emotion in to those songs simply because of certain musical choices the artist made.

It's funny, I've been a member of GT for a good long time but mostly now I use it to learn songs just to know them. I still challenge myself by learning songs by ear, which has never been as strong as I'd like, but once in a while (more often than that really), I'll pop in to the song list and go 'that will be a fun one to learn'.

Originally Posted by: ChristopherSchlegel

Welcome back to the guitar!

Originally Posted by: truck_2516

I've gotten right back into guitar after half arsing it for years and never really got past basic chords an learning a few songs so I can sing. I'd like to know what I should be learning and in what rough order to get to being comfortable enough to write songs without having to waste time looking up theory.[/quote][p]That depends on your current skill level & knowledge. And what style of music you want to play.

I encourage you to:

1. Have a look GF2 for review, if not shore up any weak spots in your skills or understanding.

2. Pick a style course to work through.

3. Learn songs. [br]

Originally Posted by: truck_2516[p]Basicallyi want to be a decent guitar player and knowledgeable enough with what I need to know to write music with my guitar without over doing theory.

[p]The vast majority of songwriters learn by analyzing songs they love & the work of artists they admire.

If you completely learn & take apart a song you really love, then you will be able to see how it works, what makes it tick. What it took to put together & make it work. If you learn a few songs you don't like, then you can even learn what to avoid![br][quote=truck_2516]Also any suggestions on practice routines would be good, I waste a lot of time not knowing what I should be practicing.

[p]You should be building skills, expanding knowledge, learning songs. And then eventually trying to write your own songs.

If you tell me your skill level, your goals & how much time you have to dedicate to practice daily or weekly I can give you suggestions for how to break up that time.

Hope that helps!

Awsome cheers mate. I'd say I'm intermediate skill level I can strum along all basic open chords and barre chords and can play a few songs all the way through but yeah a plan of what theory to learn and what not and some basic routines would be good!

Originally Posted by: truck_2516I'd say I'm intermediate skill level I can strum along all basic open chords and barre chords and can play a few songs all the way through[/quote]

Good deal. What about playing single note lines? Reading music? Understanding chord progressions?

I definitely suggest GF 2 will be a good place to start for review & shore up weak areas. Even though you can play open & barre chords, all those other ideas & skills will be valuable.

https://www.guitartricks.com/course.php?input=fundamentals2

And what style of music do you want to play? That will determine the Style course you want to work through (blues, rock, country). You can do them all of course if you want!

https://www.guitartricks.com/experienced.php

[quote=truck_2516]but yeah a plan of what theory to learn and what not and some basic routines would be good!

If you follow one of the courses (Fundamentals or Style Courses), you will get the appropriate amount of theory along with the application all integrated together. It's important to keep your theoretical learning & knowledge on par with & at the same level as your physical skills & practical applications.

If one outpaces the other, then you have an unbalanced situation. Either you can play things that you don't fully understand or know how to use, or how they work. Or you know concepts that you can't apply & have no practical use for.

And there are other catalog tutorials on the site that you can use as you get deeper into learning the instrument.

So if you are working through the rock course, for example, & you learn how to play the examples, but you want to know more about how scales are structured across the fretboard. You can work on these.

Major Scale Patterns and Positions

https://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=453

Minor Scale Patterns and Positions

https://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=887

If you are learning how chords are formed & structured & how to play them all over the fretboard, then this collection on triads & inversions is great.

https://www.guitartricks.com/collection/triads-and-inversions

If you are trying to connect scales & chords.

https://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=426

https://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=427

https://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=428

If you are trying to apply music theory concepts to blues.

https://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=217

Or to jazz.

https://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=1697

And most importantly, if you aspire to songwriting: start learning songs. NOW.

https://www.guitartricks.com/songs/

Pick songs close to your level. Start building your repertoire. While you are working through one of the courses, your skill & knowledge will increase & you can learn more difficult songs.

Almost every tutorial contains some theory, at least enough to understand & explain how & why the lesson content is being taught.

Lastly, please ask here in the forum if you can't find what you are looking for. Best of success!