6 Guitar Areas You Should Practice

Welcome to the community SkyBlue.
In grade 3 Justin also says you need to decide where you are taking
your guitar playing. If all you want to do is strum open chords
and sing along the you don’t need to do every module.

Also what difference would it make if it was broken into 2 or 5
grades. It would still be the same amount of information and
take the same amount of time.

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Yeah, I guess you are right. I think I got over excited and as TheMadman_ttobyjenner said it’s marathon, and I wanted to sprint :stuck_out_tongue:

All in all I am really enjoying Justin’s lessons, he does it really awesome! It sometimes feel like my brain is going to explode, but in the end it’s really fun. I’ll be in grade 3 this whole year for sure :slight_smile:

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Thanks, and all of this makes sense. I am trying to break down the various lessons from the Beginner Course that I think I need to work on into these 6 Areas.
What lessons should go into the “Timing” practice area? Is that primarily, strumming exercises? Or, should strumming be considered a technique? What are the best strumming lessons/exercises for “Timing” and/or what are the other best lessons in the Beginner/Intermediate Courses that fall into “Timing” as opposed to “Technique” or “Knowledge.”
I realize that it is somewhat of a grey area and certain things crossover between technique, knowledge and timing.
Thanks

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I am a a beginner working hard to learn basic things. What do I can that is fun stuff?

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Learn songs!

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And don’t forget to work towards your personal goals!

You want to learn specific songs?
You want to seek out which songs you like along the way getting there?

It doesn’t need to be 100% grind or you’ll love all the love for it!

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I wish I had two hours a day to practice…

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One of the best things about Justin’s site is the ability to go back and watch these lessons over and over. Sometimes you’re not ready to learn what’s in them. Sometimes you are.
This one seems a good reset from time to time. Particularly helpful if you combine it with reading Victor Wooten’s The Music Lesson. Justin opened the door to music being so much more than notes or chords with his early rhythm instruction. Thanks Justin!

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Hey Justin, just wanted to say thanks for these classes. I’m on my second time through; the first time I petered out towards the end of grade 2. Two months ago I started over, and made it through to grade 3 and ready for more! Feeling much better about my playing this time and ready for this next section. In only the best of ways you’re like the Mr Rogers of Guitar Teaching - so glad I get to hang in your hood!

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I am really thankful for all the modules and lessons in Grade 3. When I first went through the beginner course Justin warned that you need to spend a considerable amount of time to consolidate your knowledge and to use the new guitar skills. I got bored after a few weeks of consolidation and moved on the intermediate lessons too soon.

I enjoy all the song video lessons and can see that there are over 160 Grade 3 songs with videos. If I learned an average of one song per day, then it would take about 6 months to complete, but I will really enjoy the journey. The Grade 3 lessons give me some sense of moving forward in my knowledge of the guitar as I learn the Grade 3 songs.

My practice will always include 1 song video lesson to keep it fun and as many elements of the practice schedule as I can do in a 30 minute lesson. I always start my lesson early in the morning, first thing, so I never have an excuse for missing the lesson. Since I am only probably doing about 20 minutes of the practice routine each day in that 30 minutes, I need to allow 3 times longer to complete Grade 3, so 6 months is certainly not an excessive amount of time to plan for completing Grade 3.

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A post was split to a new topic: Where is the interval ear trainer?

I’ve gone through this practice 4x and it’s been tricky for me especially when I focus on keeping my index finger from flying about and try to keep all fingers other than the hammer one close to the fret. I miss 1/5 of the time. Any tips? Should i just slow it down to something like 30bpm or continue to stick to 60bpm and improve my accuracy + fingering.

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My suggestion would be to turn the metronome off and just focus on relaxation and accuracy for a while. Then start playing to the metronome at a slow tempo…slow enough that you can maintain that relaxed accuracy.

If that takes a few days or weeks, that’s fine.

In my case, progress was quite slow compared to other exercises like OMC. It was only noticeable over a period of weeks.

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Right. So really get back to basics without even the metronome. I’ll give that a whirl and probably add some extra time on this exercise, with a 30bpm metronome session just to make sure I practise with some sense of rhythm even if I muck up.

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That sounds like a good approach.

BTW, there’s an active topic just on Finger Gym…lots of good advice there.

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Hey Justin, Thanks so much for spelling this out for us. I am really enjoying this course, you are the first teacher I have had in 3+ years of playing and I am stoked to have found this site. I went ahead and started from the beginning and it has so helpful to fill in the large gaps in my knowledge.
I also appreciate your stumbling self-awareness and your attempts at non-gendered language.
Folx (or folks) is a favorite inclusive word of mine. Cheers!

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I think these 6 practice areas are a great way to keep track of my progress. I realized I need to spend more time on repertoire and really learn a song all the way through rather than skipping from one to another and never feeling comfortable enough to play something for someone. Another area I’m focusing on now is knowledge - understanding chords, keys and scales. Not my favorite thing to do, but I am already benefitting from studying it and now I actually find it more interesting!
To remember the 6 areas I came up with a word: TREKIT (as in “track it”): Time - Repertoire - Ear training - Knowledge - Improvisation - Technique. :grinning::notes::notes:

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Where’s the resources tab and download that Justin mentions the end of this lesson?

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I’m very excited about Grade 3 stuff!

I’ve been playing acoustic guitar so far, but I’ve just bought my first electric a few weeks ago. As a consolidation of Grade 2 I’ve played on the electric mostly in the previous weeks (practiced mainly power chord songs and experimented with tones on guitar and amp).
I like to play both instrument and some songs which I like to play and sing along with are good on acoustic, some on electric.
What can be a good way to practice with both? One day on this, other day on that? Or maybe practice on both guitars in one session (one exercise is on acoustic, other is on electric, on the other day switching up)? Maybe one week with one guitar, other week with the other? Or doesn’t matter that much at this stage?
Thanks!

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@Stuartw
Resources and downloads, where they are appropriate and available, appear under individual lessons.
The only extras in this module are here: https://www.justinguitar.com/guitar-lessons/how-to-link-guitar-chords-using-scales-bg-1504#resources
Then there is the practice routine at the end.
Remember, in addressing a Youtube audience, Justin is also alerting people that the website has more written content for each video lesson.