I had an interesting talk with a student the other day.
We talked about learning challenging songs…
…but we also talked about him having some fall-back songs to rely on.
Having two types of songs like this is powerful.
I often say your first big goal is that you should learn 5 songs from start to finish.
This is what I call building up your “setlist” …
I love the idea of us all having our own setlists…
…Just like you see the setlists of songs, handwritten on paper by the likes of The Rolling Stones or Neil Young at their gigs to remind them what they are playing that night.
Building up your own set list of five songs is a great first goal and the songs can be anything.
Often, when starting out, the simpler they are, the better.
You’ll learn lots of good skills when learning to play any 5 songs, no matter what they are.
…But once you’ve learnt your first five, what’s next?
Well, once you’ve learnt five songs, it’s a good idea to learn five more…
…But make the next five truly stunning and a bit more challenging.
That way you have five “bankers” so to speak and you’re also on your way to having five “stunners”.
You can play the bankers anytime, anyplace, and be confident with them, so these are your fall-back songs.
You can also tweak, refine, and add to them over time.
As for the five stunners, these will take more practice and they’ll challenge you, test you, and improve you.
They’ll also be mighty fun to play and listen to.
The key thing is though, to choose your songs wisely.
It’s easy to choose the wrong song for you.
Sometimes it might be too tough, sometimes it might start easy and then get hard.
… And other times you might start learning it because it has a nice intro, but then you realise it gets boring.
Try your best to avoid the above.
Instead, it’s wise to really focus on learning a song that is fun to play, is recognisable, and can be learnt at your current skill level.
So how do you find a song like this?
It’s not always easy, but as I’ve been talking about the last few days, I’ve got one for you.
The song is “House of the Rising Sun” (which checks the above boxes), but to get this lesson, and the other ones on improving your “musicality” making all your songs sound better (plus a mini barre chord lesson), you will need to join before tomorrow night’s midnight deadline.
Here’s the link to find out more about the membership.
The Dan Thorpe Acoustic Academy
Enjoy and have fun building up your “set list.”
Dan Thorpe
Guitar Domination
P.S. This post was originally taken from Dan Thorpe’s private email list. To get blog posts like this sent to you which are full of gxreat tips to make fingerpicking, strumming, and learning guitar more enjoyable (especially if you are over 40) join Dan’s list. It’s 100% free, HERE.
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