Hey, new Blender user, have you seen the many tutorials about Blender 2.79 Cycles nodes and making materials. Believe me, that's something very common for Blender new users.

However, none of those "popular" Blender 2.79 tutorials ever mentioned the T-panel in the node editor. WHY? Not sure. It could be because they've been conditioned to use the ADD tab, the search bar or SHIFT-A.

If you need proof, find those 2.79 tutorials and you'll see, they add each node one by one, the hard way. They can create intricate materials, but they didn't use, or inform their audience about the node editor's T-Panel, to add nodes. WOW.

Unfortunately, Blender 2.8+ dropped this most useful section. (if it's there, I can't find it...oh, well).

Alas, the are other ways to streamline adding nodes into the Shader editor, thereby, making learning materials less monotonous and to increase your proficiency.

There's no need to use shift-a, shift-a, shift-a every time you add a node.

You can "prepare" all your nodes and have them easily available.

Now, learning how to network each node to create: water, glass, metal, wood and other materials, well, that's a horse of a different color.

Nonetheless, this tutorial will show new Blender users a shortcut process of material making and see how different material networks are put together.

To new users, learning how to make materials can be daunting. The frustration is because, you want to know how to make the materials mentioned above, plus more, but there's not a good source to teach - anyone.

Blender has a way for you to preview "how it's made". It's not new to Blender, but I wish I paid attention when I first started. It would've have saved loads of questions, self-doubt and anguish.

You may go on a node quest, seeking information from a wide variety of sources. However, none of those "videos", tell you where to start.

These Blender "teachers", start with complexity. I start with simplicity.

*You'll hear some lectures are out of order, due to re-structure.

Thanks for your time.