mr dave

no. what i'm saying is that you can learn the basics in about an hour. once you have that knowledge you need to practice it, but you don't 'need' someone to hold your hand remind you how to put your fingers to form the C shape everytime you pick up your guitar.

from the theoretical side of things the knowledge is easy to obtain. i'm talking the 8 most common chord shapes, 1 scale, and the reasoning ability to understand how to move the shapes up and down the neck.

so that's 8 diagrams, 1 small tab, and about 2 paragraphs. if it takes anyone more than an hour to understand the knowledge contained within those pieces then they're probably still stuck on learning how to tie their shoes.

with that minimal '1 hours worth' of knowledge that gives you the shapes for A, C, D, E, G, Am, Em, Dm. the pentatonic scale. along with the understanding of how to move those chords around the neck, using B and F as the simplest examples of how to apply the theory behind transposing shapes.

at that point, you're pretty much good to go. there's obviously more that can be learned but as far as understanding the basic theory behind playing the guitar that about covers it. with that simple knowledge you can play any chord anywhere on the neck with the ability to determine what that chord is on your own. (max 2 weeks of practicing for the better part of an hour per day)

i'm not saying triads, modes, and the multitude of other scales possible are worthless, but most definitely dependent upon the basic knowledge and theory i describe earlier.

basically the 1 hour deal gives you what you need to play the instrument for fun, like a campfire jammer. quite frankly the only other people i've EVER seen discuss the higher level theoretical stuff (especially when it comes to playing guitar) are either shredders, composers, or hung up on the technicality of the music they enjoy.

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