Happy New Year everyone! My first guitar post for 2023! I thought it would be fun to write out some lesson goals as a way to commit. I want to take my practice time much more serious in 2023. 

One of the things I love about Hive is the ability to look up old posts when I'm not sure how long I've been at something. I did this recently to see when I started playing guitar again and it looks like I got my Jasmine guitar sometime in June of 2020. I ordered it right around the time of Covid thinking I'd need a good boredom killer depending on how long the lockdowns lasted. 


https://peakd.com/music/@the-bitcoin-dood/new-guitar-arrived-the-other-day 

After about a 20-year break I forgot how much I enjoyed playing. This June will mark 3 years since I started playing again. I think I'm just getting to about the skill level I was at when I quit playing. 

Considering the time spent playing in my youth and the last 3 years, I feel I should and could be much better than I really am. It's not a lack of practice because I play a lot, A LOT MORE than I thought I'd be playing when I first got back into this hobby. 

I think it's a lack of structure. Being self-taught, I don't have any structured lesson plans. I'm just learning as I go and researching as I need to learn. I'll pick up a music book here, a Youtube video lesson over there, maybe fiddle around with some website lessons for a couple months. 

For 2023 I've decided to focus on structure. I picked out 3 lesson books that I plan on finishing front to back by the end of 2023. 2 books on fingerstyle and one book on blues lead guitar. I've got other song books to learn when I get bored with lessons, but I really want 2023 to be all about music theory, learning the fretboard, and actually finishing these books.


![3 books to finish in 2023](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/the-bitcoin-dood/23xKtBqQun5fTk1VCdAVWj4j8zKxzwfGBHcAj6JWksvAPtjehQyRMtr4AiCSi34boawjK.jpg)


### Blues Lead Guitar Method - Peter Gelling learntoplaymusic.com 


![Great book for learning the fretboard](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/the-bitcoin-dood/23tvgpvWmb1sSv5PNuwBmh2utFPqsRmgPCtgew1rss72u97ywUYZ9f4x3M6FsFS4YbGtk.jpg)


I'm exactly halfway through this book and shouldn't have a hard time meeting my goal of finishing this by the end of 2023.  This book pretty much covers all the notes of the fretboard and how they relate to playing blues. I spent last year learning all the forms, and I've already started putting it all together in my own practice which is what the second half of the book covers. I'll do book reviews down the road, but if you're trying to learn all the notes on the neck and fretboard and how they work together, IMHO this is a really great read and pretty easy to understand. 

# FingerStyle Books

The next two books are well above my current skill level, but I need to push myself out of my comfort zone if I'm going to start playing fingerstyle. I'd say these are both at intermediate levels for players that have a basic understanding of the guitar. 

### Beginning Fingerstyle Blues Guitar - Arnie Berle and Mark Galbo 


![A Challenging fingerstyle blues book.](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/the-bitcoin-dood/23tveHqUGVmVSR1QzEtV4cQiJNq4BnbrogkiVc8WAD8omVs1AjvnxwaGhtRtrYdDD4gLu.jpg)


I'm about a quarter of the way through this one already. This covers a lot of fingerstyle blues techniques. I don't know what skill level this would be for, but I find the book incredibly challenging and I really like the musical arrangements in it. Covers the basics of playing fingerstyle blues with a lot of 12-bar arrangements in different keys. 

### Fingerstyle Guitar - Hal Leonard 


![Book of traditional fingerstyle techniques](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/the-bitcoin-dood/23wMYf9qiby45V1FnTFNmDuyb6BQZsDPeRJeq3mKK3HhAket9Sk2XW1nbBiYMcHaga5Tv.jpg)


I love most of the Hal Leonard products. This book covers the more traditional styles of fingerstyle guitar. I'm only about 10 pages into this one, but so far so good. The exercises are challenging but not above my skill level. I'll be really happy if I can complete this by the end of 2023. This book also contains many popular fingerstyle songs like Dust In the Wind by Kansas, I've actually always wanted to learn that song so I'm pretty excited to get to that part. 

When I originally ordered this book I thought it was just a song book but it turns out that it's actually an excercise book with several popular songs and snippets. I was a little disappointed but when I dove into the material and started learning new stuff, I decided to just start at the front and work my way through. 

# Strategy 

I shouldn't have any problem finishing the first book in the list. I'm not new to lead guitar or blues. I'm always sitting around the house with a guitar in my lap playing blues licks and trying to figure out how to connect the dots on the fretboard. I'll often put the CD accompaniment on the stereo and just play along with each lick as practice. So I'll be really shocked and disappointed if I haven't got to the end of this book by 2023. On top of that, I'm ready to move on. I'm hoping I can get past this book by the start of summer and replace it with another Hal Leondard lesson book to start. 

As far as the two fingerstyle books are concerned, they're both about 100 pages each. I'd like to try and shoot for completing 1 page every two or three days. Technically both books would be completed within a year, but I'm guessing I'll get stumped or have some new chord forms I'll have to learn. So this will give me additional time for those days I get stumped which I'm happy to say is happening less and less lately. 
 
# Final Thoughts

Practicing hasn't been an issue for me. I actually can't believe how much I've been playing. One of the reasons I started playing again is because of all the access we have to tablature and of course internet lessons (websites, YouTube, etc.). I wanted to see how fast I could improve in this environment. I really just want to get through these books now, so I can start learning more. I'm happy about where I'm at, but I'm getting a little restless and ready to learn more and reach new levels. It's time to push myself out of my comfort zone and push myself forward with more advanced lessons. 

Wishing you all a happy new year and success with all your musical goals and life inspiration!