I’ve listened to They Might Be Giants from my earliest years and on, and their songs have pretty simple strum patterns. For starters, the chords follow progressions like II-V-I or IV-VI-V, as well as including some minor chords that follow neighboring tones up the scale. I think the music theory is something I can focus on to be more efficient when I play the music, as well as working on precision.
When I play piano music, I don’t have to worry about exactly where my hands are, because the keys are wider than my fingers and muscle memory takes over. As I’ve practiced with the guitar, I developed more muscle memory for “What an F feels like” or “How far to stretch my hand,” but now I need to find ways of moving quickly between them, and then how to pick specific strings in succession for guitar solos.
Another crucial element of this ISP will be tuning the guitar. My piano is electric, and I’ve never had any concerns with how it is tuned. With guitar, you’re supposed to tune down guitars if you don’t plan to play them, so you reduce tension on the neck of the guitar. Before I started practicing, I didn’t know anything about different guitar sounds and different levels of “dead strings.” Now that I’ve heard different guitars in acoustic and electric settings, I can tell which strings will go out of tune more often, and which strings feel “dead.” I will also learn more about maintaining these guitars, because keeping them in tune means that I have to listen more closely to each string.
Guitar Exploration 