been playing for a couple years now and i am wondering what percent during practicing, do people learn songs and study note locations/theory/etc.
kid, most folk get into that after they have been playin' some time and then the penny drops.....if you are thinkin' that way just now,cool by all means get started but don't neglect the physical hard work of knocking seven colours o' **** out of yer guitar
Not sure I really understand the question. I learned theory as a kid taking piano lessons. Learned not location decades ago just learning how to play. I'm in a cover band. When I practice by myself, it's about 50% figuring out songs, and the other 50% just repeating what I've learned, particularly the more difficult parts over and over till they're committed to muscle memory and I can play them properly.
I periodically assess my playing to figure out what my strong/weak points are, where i want to go... develop a gameplan to hit those areas harder for a few months. When coming up to speed with a new band, i will spend 3 hours a night transcribing and learning songs for few weeks. Once I have material down and we gig it, I find the rough spots in the performance and spend hours ironing those out and improving the quality... Usually to a metronome, or doing a deep dive on transcribing the parts. If I get my ass kicked by a better player, i figure out why and work on those areas. It is a process of constant improvement and i enjoy the journey.
1st u need to have a goal & then figure out how to get there there's not a lot to music theory & if all u wanna do is 3 chord songs then ..... running scales and learning modes ain't much use - u don't have to know everything feel is the hardest thing
Spend some time with YouTube lick lessons. So much fun. Free and gets you where you want to go faster than trying to figure it all out on your own. Good luck.
Don't do any of it to the point where it frustrates you and drives you away from it. It all really depends on what you want to do. If you just want to learn songs and play them, then focus on that. But if you want to actually completely understand what you are doing, how scales and chord progressions relate to each other, and harmony, I suggest you invest the time and money in a good teacher that will teach you basic sight reading and theory. The only reason I suggest basic sight reading is that understanding how music is written in notation makes theory easier to understand. But most of all, take your time and do it at your own pace. Don't be lazy about it, but don't turn into your own dungeonmaster over it either. Also don't let it bust your head. Theory seems more complex at times than it is.
