I always recommend a student starts practicing the 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 exercise right from day one.
In terms of single note playing, you will probably want to start with some simple exercises to build coordination and synchronise your right and left hands. Both of these streams should be supplemented by their own theory and techniques. One is your single note playing and the other is learning chords. If your starting out at guitar, I’d recommend to tackle two parallel streams of practice at the same time. This can be useful to understand where your current material fits in the overall scheme of things and see other areas you may want to start to research and practice to take that next step. I think irrespective of your skill level at the instrument, it is useful to develop a conceptual map of the overall process and range of skills involved. I’ve put this roadmap together to give one possible birds eye view of the stages and skills you develop when learning the instrument.
You often see people who are teaching themselves to play guitar get quite confused about what to practice or what they should focus on with the instrument.
