Last week if anyone had asked, I would have called myself an āIntermediate Guitar Player.ā
But I decided to start at the beginning of Grade 1, Module 1. Gawd. How humbling.
I was 7 minutes into the āsongā and Iām thinking, āMama make the music stop - Arggh, my fingers!ā My fingers hurt because Iām putting them into positions that they are not accustomed to being in, plus changing between only two chords. Example. My finger position on the A chord is below:
But now:
Then the āanchor finger.ā If you asked me what an 'anchor finger is 2 days ago, Iād be, āHuh?ā 
All very humbling and yet, also an exercise in perception. Iām really aware of muting strings as well as my solid vs incorrect fingering, and I finally simply let go of strumming patterns and just focused on attempting to make the chord changes in the song without really munging them up.
Then I ended the session by practicing the chords in James Brown āSex Machine.ā Yeah - level 6 stuff, go figure. Itās a different practice with a different finger muscle set and my hand actually relaxed into that practice. Iām starting to have some success with the Root-9 and Root-13 funk chords. Go figure, as A and D and anchor fingers exercises were kicking my butt.
Yeah, itās a convoluted story, but it was Jusinās rendition of Sex Machine that pulled me over to his site initially. Iām glad I found it. I just got kicked out of my rut 
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Itās a good story, Daniel, thanks for sharing! Glad the rut has been busted! 
Love the Gary Larson cartoon on the cup too (takes me back!), a good reference for that part of practicing guitar! 
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Every time Iāve learned a different finger placement for a chord, it burns lol. I use your ādefaultā finger placement depending on the songā¦ i.e.: if itās an A maj ā E maj on a quicker song, it makes a lot of sense, and the transition is easier and quicker. Someone with more experience should def weigh in, but I think different songs can often call for alternate finger placement. I learned Justinās finger placement firstā¦ but now I find myself more often than not just barring the 2-4th strings with my index fingerā¦ thatās become my new default and leaves a whole bunch of fingers free to add a little sparkle (especially when fingerpicking on an acoustic) with things like an Asus4/hammer on to the 3rd fret, 2nd string ā¦ Iāve also seen people use fingers 1 (4th string),2 (3rd string),3 (2nd string)ā¦ I hate that one. I feel like my fingers are too fat, and I always mute the second string by accident - I go back to barring with my index. Iām not sure thereās one ācorrectā finger placementā¦ some are definitely more widely used/make it easier. I am glad I learned Justinās first, I still go back to it with songs that have an A->D chord progression. I was interested to hear you mention letting go of strumming. I actually practice them separate. I had a huge issue with strumming my first few weeks - or more specifically, not strumming until my fingers were placed, which made for, well, songs that my mother couldnāt even fake recognition of. Personally, I practice them separatelyā¦ so if a song has a chord change Iām not comfortable withā¦ i practice the perfect chords, and one minute chord changes and drill those, practicing for perfectionā¦ but when Iām actually playing a song or working on a new strumming pattern, I practice for flow (after Iāve practiced the chord changes) instead and make sure my right-hand keeps the strumming pattern and I keep the beatā¦ Iām wondering what other people do. Iāve read and heard from several ppl that stopping in the middle of a song is the worst habit to get into.
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