A Practical Plan For Learning Guitar As An Adult

You can love guitar for decades and still feel like you’re spinning your wheels. Ken joins me to talk through that exact frustration, from years of casual playing with no structure to a clear, focused plan that finally makes progress feel real. His story starts with classic rock inspiration and a powerful family moment, then turns into the question so many players avoid: what are you actually practicing, and why? 

We dig into the practical stuff that moves the needle for adult guitarists: bar chords that don’t fall apart, switching cleanly between open chords and barre shapes, and using the metronome as a daily anchor. Ken shares how he builds confidence the honest way, by improving execution, and how small technical choices can remove the “I’ll never get this” feeling. We also talk about the underrated breakthroughs that come from learning musical details like arpeggios, slash chords such as D/F sharp, and simple chord colors that make familiar songs sound alive. 

The heart of the conversation is goal-based practice. Ken’s main targets are personal and concrete: play a short concert for his wife and be able to sit down and play with his son. That leads to SMART goals, better routines, smarter song selection, and a plan for year two that expands into soloing skills, scales, and eventually bigger musical situations like a church band. If you’re searching for guitar motivation, a structured practice routine, and a way to stop wasting time on random lessons, you’ll get plenty to borrow here. 

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Transcript

Welcome And What You’ll Hear

Steve 0:00

Hey, thanks for joining me today. We're going to be listening to an interview that I did with one of our Guitar Zoom Academy students by the name of Ken. Now, Ken's a really cool guy, really awesome guy, really positive guy. We talk about his life, his history, and the struggles that he had with guitar playing and the kinds of things that we've been trying to work on, and we're going to continue to work on with Ken. And, you know, he's just a really honest guy. This is a great discussion about, you know, trying to reach your goals and your perception of what practice is, the frustrations, the lack of confidence that you've got, and trying to build those things up and what we're doing for him here in the Guitar Zoom Academy. So let's check this out. Okay. So Ken, tell me a little bit about yourself, where you grew up, you know, what you what you do or did for a living. Tell me just a little bit of background on you.

SPEAKER_00 0:51

So um I grew up in uh suburb of Cleveland, Ohio.

unknown 0:55

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 0:56

In this in the 60s, and um went to college there, played some baseball. Um always had uh a passion for music. Both my parents were conservatory majors. Um, I didn't have the talent, but I I think I got the gene for loving music. Um you know, when I was in high school, I was a big Joe Walsh,

Ken’s Background And Musical Roots

SPEAKER_00 1:19

Almond Brothers, Clapton fan, to buy albums and listen to guitar music and just had a passion for it, but never never really did anything with it. Um, fast forward, my um my son um picked up the guitar when he was, I think, four. We got him, we got him a little guitar and he was taking lessons and noodling around and everything. And um fast forward again to uh 2010, my daughter got engaged, and my son by that time was really accomplished. Um, he played Lagrange by Z Top at his high school graduation. Oh, great. By himself, end to end, right? So he uh, you know, so you know, he said we gotta start playing together. Um, so when my daughter got engaged, I said, Well, you know, let's do a song for uh her and her husband at at their rehearsal dinner. So we did uh Little Martha by the owner. Oh wow, okay, and it took me a year to learn it. Um but it well, yeah, I ground through that. It's the only time I've done a public performance, and then so ever since then, that's 2010, pick up the cut guitar and play, and you know, get these books and play some scales, and but you know, no structure, no goals, no focus. Um so I've been playing like that for 16 years. Okay. And um I got your um play guitar for life 10 video series. I got through seven videos, and there was a

First Songs And Years Without Structure

SPEAKER_00 3:04

segment in there on on um sevenths. And I I I I realized if you can't play a bar chord, you can't play a seventh. Okay, so that I that's the last video I watched. And I I would just you know pick up and try to play bar chords and put it down and then play some open chord songs, but nothing serious, um, until you know, last fall. And I saw the academy thing, because I've been following you on Facebook, and I saw the academy thing, and I interviewed, um, and they said, Yeah, you know, what you want to do, yeah, you're a good fit. And I thought, let's do it. So I signed up six weeks, uh six months ago today. And um happy anniversary, by the way. It's uh it has been uh uh from a guitar perspective, it's been life-changing. I just yeah, I'm getting more and more comfortable. I understand the theories, um, you know, the executions where where I gotta work, but I have a lot more structure. I get a lot of support from Eric. Um we don't video very much, but I will I will email him with questions and say, hey, you know, what do you think? You know, like spell bound as an example. Um the chord progression goes from D to B minor to F sharp. Okay, so that B minor is a uh fifth string bar chord at the second fret, and the F sharp minor is uh second fret sixth string bar chord, right? Or you could play the B minor at on the sixth string at the is that seventh fret? Okay, it is the seventh fret, yeah. That's good, man. That's good. So it would be like, so you know, should I do that as two six six string bar chords or or uh two seconds? Or yeah, you know, and he said, Whatever you're comfortable with, you know. So it's good to have someone that has that technical background and has played it to to know, okay. Um and I do that probably every other week. I've got some kind of just a little subtle technical question about something in my play. So here I am. I'm playing so my first my first goal um is to play um a concert for my wife, and so I picked a combination of songs, uh open bark or open chord songs that I can play that I've had some comfort with. But um, you know, when my wife joined uh when uh my wife found out I was doing this, was on the treadmill over here, and she walked in and she said, You need to play spellbound for me. It was the first song we ever danced to. And the next day she

Joining The Academy And Getting Support

SPEAKER_00 5:52

came in and said, You need to play Could I Have This Dance by Ann Murray for me? And that's the second song we ever danced to. Right. So I threw out my goals of what songs I wanted to learn, and and I've been, you know, I've been working on those. I got I got the tabs and the chord progressions, and I listened to them, and I found videos where I can play to the video and everything. Um but you know, I got I have goals, I know what I'm good at, I know what I'm not good at. Um you guys have encouraged, you know, stop and work on the things that you're not good at or that you struggle with. So, you know, chord progressions to to the bar chords and out of the bar chord back to an open chord, to the metrone, you know, start at 40, move it to 50, move it to 60, move it to 80, you know. Um, and I don't have I just, you know, from an aptitude perspective, I don't have really good left-hand speed. So I've been doing the four-finger fragments and and then you know, the the three-finger, three notes per, and it's interesting because the spellbound solo I'm doing is uh six, eighth, and tenth fret of the third string. That's awesome. So so when I now when I do my my uh spread finger stuff, I play the solo. Right. And I and and I focus on I started at 140, uh, I went to 150, and this week I moved to 160. Oh, that's that's awesome. Faster than the songs recorded, but it's a combination of learning the technique of the spread finger as well as improving the speed that I need to work on. So I'm trying to incorporate what I need, you know, what I need to learn with um uh uh hitting the goals. And and so Eric and I will check in periodically, and it's like, so go back and review my log. Um, am I doing stuff that will get me to my goals? Is there something I'm not doing that I need to do to get to my goal? And is there stuff I'm doing I don't need to do? So and one of the cool things, you know, about the whole success path thing is I had this list of you know eight classes to take. Well, caged wasn't one of them because caged doesn't get me to my goal. Yeah. Now, year two, we're gonna talk about caged because you know, my year two goals will focus more on probably um, you know, fragments and and uh arpeggios on chords and things like that. Um, but right now, no. So, you know, and I'm not gonna take a class on slide guitar because I I don't need it. So, and I think that's um, you know, I I kind of think through the things. Um, I work on developing the skills I need to achieve the goals. I don't just learn a bunch of skills that don't get me anywhere.

Steve 8:48

So that's great. I I like the fact that you, you know, you understand the discipline because there's it's so easy to come across a lot of stuff where you're like, man, I want to do this and I want to do this. But it's easy to get lost when we do that. And so, you know, it's it's nice to hear that you're you're trying to be diligent about these things. Can you tell me a little bit about like when I think of the academy, it's so different for me because I'm on the outside, right? I'm I'm living here, I'm I'm trying to build the the product, right? The construct that is the academy. And I love hearing from you

A Guitar Concert For His Wife

Steve 9:23

guys of you know what it's like on the inside. Like when you wake up every day and you're gonna do your thing, you know, do you do you take advantage of open rooms and do you, you know, talk to the other students like that kind of thing? Like what what what's your experience like with the academy? Well, the first couple of months, no, I didn't.

SPEAKER_00 9:42

Uh because I was so focused on me working on me, right? Um and now that I've gotten more comfortable with execution, okay, I can start listening to like cage this week. Okay. Sit and listen to that and say, okay, I may not need that now, but at six months in, um, I'm six months away from I'm gonna need that. And it's it's just nice to have that kind of stuff. Um and I've had conversations, you know, email conversations with a couple of the other um folks in the program, and everybody's encouraging, you know, there just isn't any negativity, and um you know, we're all here to learn, and one of the biggest detriments to learning is you know the negativity that people lay on you, and then you start doubting yourself and the confidence issues and those other kinds of things. So I um I've opened up more, and um, you know, I did um the last couple of well, I guess the second ones this week. I sat in on Pete's thing on Wonderful Tonight, which is one of the eight songs I'm playing for my wife, right? And I thought, okay, I know how to play this. You know, I know the court of Russian, I even know the solos, and uh, there are four different versions of the solo that, you know, so I'm really comfortable with all that, but it's like, okay, uh, you know, let's see what he's got. And it was just so cool because he talked about using arpeggios instead of strumming all the way through. And I thought, I'm sure I've seen and heard Clapton play that a number of times, and yeah, he does the arpeggios, and and then you know, something that came up in the theory class that um he just he reinforced was this uh the slash chord d slash f sharp. And I had uh it's like, oh yeah, second fret of the sixth string is the same as the second fret of the first string, and that's an F sharp, and that's part of the D chord, and now and I had never wrapped my thumb around the neck until Saturday. Oh, gotcha. Okay, so it's just some of those little things, right? And then I think he's he I think he said a D sus 4, just putting the pinky on the third fret of the first string. That's correct, just to add some texture and color, you know. And I those are the kinds of things um that that can make a difference for a guy like me who's you know D, C add nine, G, D, C, you know, it it changes it up a bit. So and like I say, the guy that I play with on Wednesday, he's like you're light years ahead of me. Just a lot of it is just taking the time to sit in on these classes.

Steve 12:34

So yeah, Ken, I I always think, you know, the you know, step one is the the plan, like what are we trying to do? What do we need to get there? But so often step two is the aha moments, like, oh, I never thought about that, or I didn't know that was something I could do, or like those for me are I I honestly think for me growing up myself, I think those were the most powerful moments that I had were things where I would I would learn some new way of doing something or and go, man, I I I didn't even know I could do it that way. And then and then explore that. So I I I really do appreciate hearing that. What what do you kind of feel like you can do whether it's confidence, whether it's skill set, what do you feel like you, you're what makes you different now from the six months ago that you first started?

SPEAKER_00 13:25

Um I I have I have more confidence, but I think great um I think the reason I have more confidence is because my execution's better. I know you you had a thing on earlier um about you know you lacking confidence, and I thought, no, you know, I lack confidence because there are times when I suck.

Small Breakthroughs From Classes

SPEAKER_00 13:47

Okay. That that you know, I'll mute the fifth string trying to play a G chord. I mute, you know, it's like um so I have more confidence because I think my execution's better. My execution's better because I'm following a plan. And I'm I'm I'm really diligent. Um, you know, I have a morning routine and I have an afternoon routine. And I uh you know, I get up in the morning and I do all my other things, and and then I sit down, and it was, I don't know, half hour, 40 minutes today. It was you know, right hand speed picking and and speed strumming, and then left hand four and three finger fragments, split finger, and then hammer-ons and pull-offs. And uh one of the songs I'm playing needs uh has a double stop. So I practice my double stops, and it's all to the metronome. I never turned the metronome off. And that was you know, something took me a while to really get it. That no, you you need to put that structure in there. Um that's um and this afternoon, you know, the afternoon after getting through the morning root uh practice kind of stuff, I give my fingers a you know four, six hour break, and then I will practice, you know, one, two, or three of the songs that I'm gonna play for my wife. And I I don't want to try to play all eight because then I get one pass through and I get three minutes in the song, and then I move on. No, uh it's like the wonderful tonight on Saturday morning. I'm gonna spend an hour on Wonderful Tonight, and I'm gonna take the notes and and work on the bugs and everything, and then move on to the next song. And it's you know, one reason why I pick some easy songs and some difficult songs is if I did eight difficult songs, it'd take me two to three years to, you know, and then you get frustrated, right? Because you're not seeing the the true progress.

Steve 15:44

So where do you see yourself going? Like in the next six months, what are you what are you gonna try and continue to try and develop?

SPEAKER_00 15:55

Oh yeah, I'm I'm already there. Um yeah, well the other half, the the second goal is my son is just an accomplished guitarist, and um to be able to play with him, which I just haven't been able to do because he's just so far ahead of me. Um he lives in Germany now, um, working on a master's. He's gonna I think he's gonna come back this summer.

Confidence Built Through Better Execution

SPEAKER_00 16:20

Um, but to be able to sit down, I yeah, you can see in the background, I got a I got a I gotta rack. Um I do the two of us to just sit down and and you know, give me a song. And if I don't know the chord progression, give me the chord progression, I'll follow, you know, to be able to play with him, I think would be kind of a uh dad son bonding thing that I'll do, you know. So though and you know when when you guys wrote up the success path, those were the two goals. It's like play for your wife and play for play with your son. And it's like there's no better goals. So if you want to get there, you know, it's it's like one of the other guys in the academy said, you know, you get those eight songs done, and it's gonna become 16 and then 32 and then 64, and then it's like, you know, uh, so this uh, you know, when I when I kind of get through that, I want to stay on that path. But um, you know, I've got a dobro back here that I haven't touched in a couple of years. Um so I want to learn that and I want to be able to slide on that. So it's and in order to be able to to solo and stuff like that, okay. So now I gotta start working on on um uh soloing skills, right? Scales and caged, and so I need those other things behind. Um so that's kind of you know, that's that's year two, right? And it's a lifelong path. I you know I'll never get to where where I probably want to get. Um, you know, Eric Latton and Dwayne Alman are safe. Um I get you, man.

Steve 18:01

I mean, that's a thing I've been playing my whole life and it never ends. I mean, you just keep that's it's the love of the instrument, it's the love of playing the music. Um it's not just how good you are. You know, it's not just those things. It's it's playing. You know, I think about and I'm sure you do the same thing. Every day when I wake up, I think about I think about my family and I think about my wife, right? I of course I do, but I certainly think about playing. Like it's just it's embedded in my my DNA to grab that guitar and play. And I love, love the fact that your goals have to do with playing with and for your family, you know? Yeah, and that's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 18:42

You know, the kind of a further down the road is you know, I'd I'd like to get good enough to play in it in the church band, kind of a thing. And you know, that that so I have to overcome the confidence hurdles and be able to play standing up and some of those other kinds of things, and and that that's part of the path. That maybe I'll make it maybe I won't, but you know, you might find me on the side of the road, but I'm gonna be on the path.

Steve 19:08

What would you say to somebody who you know is on the fence about like doing the academy? They've been playing for years and you know, they're still struggling with trying to put stuff together and you know, maybe don't have a home. Like they don't have other people that they play with or hang out, other musicians. Like, what would you say to them as far as being on the fence with the academy?

SPEAKER_00 19:29

Uh you need to give it a look. You need to give it a hard look. Um it works for me. Um and every program doesn't work

Daily Routines And Metronome Discipline

SPEAKER_00 19:40

for every person, but um it it works for me. Yeah, um it it's very structured. You have goals, you have check-ins, you have assessments, you have uh you know, strengths and weaknesses, um, they give you the tools, there are people in place. It's it is it is um a means to the end. And you know, I I wrote this down so I wouldn't forget to tell you. If you don't know where you're going, any road will get you there. So if a guy if a person doesn't know where they're going, then okay, you need to talk with someone about where you want to go. Um and that was the beauty. My you know, my my uh onboarding interview was really good for me to really think about what is it you want to do? What do you want to get out of this? And if you don't know, um you know you're just not gonna be successful because you don't know how to get there, and you don't you can't even define success. Yeah, and I think that's one of the things with my goals. I can now define success, right? Get these eight songs down, right? Play them for your wife, sit down and be able to jam with my son. Boom, okay. There's progress, measurable, because goals have to be smart, right? Specific, measurable, action-oriented, relevant, and timed. You got it, dude. That's exactly right. And if you and if you're missing one of those letters, then you you know, if it's not timed, then you're just gonna wait and take two or three years, and then it's gonna fall apart, right? So it's gotta be all five of those elements. And I got that. Yeah, and it's very clear, very clear path of where I needed to go. Yeah. And I think that's you know, I've suggested it to the guy I play uh with on Wednesdays, and he's not passionate enough. So I you know, I think that's another element. If you're if it's kind of a hobby, like, well, you know, I think I'll go fishing and then when I get home, I'll strum the guitar. Yeah. The Academy isn't for you, quite honestly. Yeah, that's right. You know, that's right. It requires a level of commitment. There's no doubt about it. There's commitment and an investment of your time. And if you're not willing to do it, you know, I I talk to this guy and I say, So, you know, have you played my Yeah, you know, I I guess I play it every day. Yeah. Yeah, you know.

Steve 22:05

So yeah. So when you grab the guitar, you know what you're working on and you know why you're working on it.

SPEAKER_00 22:17

Yeah, I know before I pick up the guitar what I'm gonna do. Or I don't pick it up. And obviously the morning's easy because it's uh you know, I got I have my routine, I got my right hand, I work on my left hand, I work on my solos, and everything's to the metronome, and uh boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And in half an hour or 40 minutes, I've I've accomplished everything I want to accomplish, call it a warm-up or you know, practicing those four skills I need to develop, and then get away, and in the afternoon I can say, okay, well, you know, do I want to work on free falling or sweet home Alabama? Yeah, and I really need more work on the solos than I do, you know, the chords, but I really need to work on that core change, you know, between E and and B sus 4. Okay. And turn on the metronome and put the capo on and E B, you know, and it's just and then okay, now I think I'm I'm warmed up enough on that song that I can play it and I'll turn it on and play it.

Steve 23:23

So right. Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, cool. Well, Ken, thank you so much for taking your time today. We are I I personally am just very thankful that you're here in the academy making this place better and interacting and helping. And, you know, anytime you have suggestions of things that we could do differently or do, you know, do better. I just always appreciate any feedback you have.

SPEAKER_00 23:48

Uh to uh I put in a feedback yesterday, and I'll I'll I'll tell you online while we're here. Um it came to me Saturday that that class that Pete's doing. On Saturdays, yep. Do more of those.

SPEAKER_02 24:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:01

Where you know, we're gonna take two one-hour

Future Goals And Advice For Newbies

SPEAKER_00 24:04

Saturdays and go through some of this uh stuff around one song, Blue on Black. And maybe it's a song that's beyond my skill level, but the other other people will enjoy it. Okay. And maybe I'll watch it and say, well, I can still learn something from it. Right. But I think um, you know, taking that hour to talk about arpeggios and um, you know, the slash chords and you know, some of those other little enhancements. Um, it really, you know, I I I get away from that and I say, okay, when I pick my guitar up again, I'm gonna try and play that D slash F sharp. Right. Run roll it in there, you know. Yeah, right. And I think that that's what makes you a better guitarist is you know, you know, if if you're comfortable, you're not learning. Right.

Steve 24:53

So you gotta Well, I'm definitely gonna mention something to to Pete about that and and to the team, because that's great, man. That's great.

SPEAKER_00 25:00

Yeah, well, I I sent him a I sent him a note Saturday afternoon and said, I really appreciate this. So oh, that's great. I told him, you know, it's gonna be my concert. And he says, Oh, you have a band. I said, No. Not yet.

Steve 25:15

Neither. That's awesome. Yeah. So well, Ken, thank you so much for your time today. I sure do appreciate it. And I'm just again very blessed that you're here and we'll see you inside the academy, okay, buddy? You bet, man. Talk to you later. Yep, see ya, buddy.