Please someone give me some inspiration!  I always wanted to learn guitar and finally did somethng about it now in my adult life and been taking lessons from the ground up (music theory, practicing chords, learning strumming patterns).  I've only had 6 weekly lessons so far and practice about 30 mins a day (more when I find the time).  This is so difficult.  But I still love it and really trying hard to learn.  I know 10 chords but there is hesitation while switching and then of course you don't quite get a clean ring off the strings.  You know how it goes.  So I stop, look at my fingers where they're touching extra strings and slowly adjust and ring the strings again till I get it right.  But man, am I doing something wrong, or is this painstaking slow way to learn the only way?  I'm asking when I should realistically expect to play something that is recognizable?  Is it realistic to get good enough to play a song in months or am I in this for a year before I can expect more from myself and actually play a real song with the right tempo?  I can't beleive how guitarists don't even look at the guitar and position their fingers in the right place while switching chords so fast.  WOW.  I realize now how amazing that is.

It's funny, you don't realize how hard playing a guitar is until you actually try to play one.  After a year of playing, what still amazes me is these guys who can absolutely shred out ridiculously fast solos (i.e. Herman Li of Dragonforce) and make it sound good.  Whenever I try to play like that, it sounds like a messed up jumble of sound.  I guess it's true what they say about practicing scales.

I have aslo been playing now for 40+ years, and there are some who have played 1-2 years that blow me away.  whew...

It is not all about technical ability (for me)  There is style, class, grace, wisdom, it all needs to be wrapped up for a true preformer to catch ones attention.

ghanlon

Have a good one...Badeye.

Just keep practicing changing between chords you know. Don't stop your strumming rhythm, even if you can't get the chord, just move on.

Good luck!

if you know 10 chords, there are a multitude of songs that you will be able to play.

You might want to find a song that you like that has chords in it that you know, then learn to play that song. It will teach you changes, and learning a song is motivation. Hearing all those lonely chords come together into something you recognize is certainly a revolution!

My daughter had been learning a few weeks and had a few chords. She made up a song with two of those chords and invited her friends around to form a band! To get around the chord changing problem she showed one of her mates ( who couldn't play at all!) how to play a D on one guitar and she took the other chord on another guitar. When a D was needed her mate would play and when a G was needed she would play.

It actually sounded really good - but, then as a parent, I'm biased.

Something that helps me tremendously is using a metronome while practicing chord changes. For me anyway, the ability to track my progress and see daily improvement is a wonderful motivator. I have a small korg metronome, but also use this free on line one frequently.

http://www.metronomeonline.com/

Nela

What you are doing with all this practice, practice, practice is training your finger muscles and tendons  to immediately go to a certain position each time you think to play a different chord and it does take time for this to become automatic.

I have been playing a number of years (my first guitar used dinosaur gut for strings ) but I still come across a song with a chord I do not normally use and have to spend time learning it. OK, it comes easier with experience but it is never instantaneous.

So keep at it, everyone's progress is different, but the rewards make the effort worthwhile.

Roger