Congratulations Alexis. You should be really proud of how far you have come along. Yes, tab books can be inaccurate, just trust your ears. Enjoy Grade.
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Hi Alexis, well done completing Grade 2, paving the way as ever!
You’re obviously keen to get going in Grade 3.
Go for it!
🎸 David
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Congrats Alexis,
How nice if you are so structured and focused on not everything at once (can you focus on everything at once???)…have fun and I will continue my chaotic learning path…
Greetings,…
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Great thread Alex, just scanned it all. I admire your dedication to the log! I’m working on consolidating grade 3 right now and I’m curious how your experience will be. The material is excellent btw, but you already know that 
Best regards
Bill
Hi Alex, congratulations for completing Grade 2. Keep doing a good job into Grade 3.
October 12th, 2022
How it’s been going:
It’s been over a month since my last learning log, wow! Since then, I’ve started Justin’s grade 3 but have only finished 1 module. This is due to me spending most of my daily hour of practice on songs, but I do plan on moving on to the 2nd grade 3 module sometime this week as well. I also finished chapter 4 in Troy Stetina’s Metal Rhythm Guitar method which has been great!
I also was an audience member at the last Justinguitar OM. Seeing other community members playing and showing off their talent has been really inspiring. I plan to show up in the audience when I can and hopefully one day perform.
What I’ve been Playing:
- Rock and Roll All Nite - I posted this a couple of weeks back, but this song is really great! Fun to play and uses some great rock techniques. AVOYP
- Rock ‘N’ Roller - By far the hardest song I’ve learned to play. This is the chapter 4 song for Metal Rhythm Guitar Vol. 1. I’ve been averaging about a month from starting a chapter in this book to posting an AVOYP for it but this one took a whole 2 weeks longer. I’m really happy with how it turned out, mistakes and all. AVOYP
- There She Goes - This is the song I’m currently working on for my Justinguitar rock study. This is also taking me longer than usual to get correct for 2 reasons: one, the main riff is played continuously throughout the song, so it requires me to play accurately for more time than I had done in the past. Two, Justin’s rock song book gets you about 90% there. There are too many variations for Justin to put in the book or in the video, so I’ve been trying to get those by ear. I have most of the song but not 100% I feel like I’ll be ready to post this by the end of the month though. Maybe early November.
The Plan:
Speaking of November, I’m going to be going on a short weekend vacation next month, so I won’t be able to play for 3 whole days! That may not seem like a lot, but I have picked up my guitar every single day since I started playing in January. Going to be weird not being able to pick it up and at least muck around.
Besides that, I’m planning on continuing what I’ve been doing with Justin’s Grades, Troy’s Metal Guitar method, and Justin’s rock songbook study. Regarding Troy’s method, I can’t believe I only have 2 chapters left of Volume 1. It’s crazy to think about but I’ve been learning from that book for 4 or 5 months now. I have Volume 2 to look forward to after and I have 3 books on metal lead from him so plenty of “content” to get through. I expect that I’ll catch up with Justin’s grade 3 posting soon enough so I’m glad there’s still plenty for me to learn from even after I hit that point. Not to mention Justin’s intermediate grade stuff that I could get into.
Anyway, I’ve rambled on long enough. Until next time…
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Good update Alex, your playing keeps getting better. Your focus on songs seems to be working pretty well I’d say.
I’ve found grade 3 a LOT slower than grade 2, it’s taken more time to embed each of the techniques and set pieces. So I’d be curious to hear what you think as you go through it.
Do that OM, do it… 
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Yeah I also think it’s going to take me much longer to get through this than the previous 2 grades as well. Justin doesn’t have specific songs to work on for each module so it does give me room to work on all the songs I’ve been working on.
I want to for sure! I get that red light fever bad when I’m recording my self and I can’t imagine how it’ll be in front of people lol. Still I suspect I’ll try to get to it by my year 1 guitarversery.
Great update, Alexis. I wouldn’t worry so much about your song practice impacting on your progression through Grade 3 modules as the songs you are learning and the way you break them down into specific practice items is really developing and extending your skills and techniques. Just keep doing what you are doing as its working for you.
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Thanks for the update, Alexis. You are an inspiring student, rocking ahead. Enjoy the mini-break.
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Your LL was a fascinating read Alexis. I once asked my nephew who’s a fantastic guitarist how long it took to become good at guitar and he said it depends on how badly you want it and how much effort you’re willing to put into it - I think it can be said that you prove that statement to be true, it’s impressive how far you’ve come in such a short space of time.
December 22nd, 2022
How it’s been going:
It’s been a whole 2 months since my last update wow! I’ve been extremely busy workwise for the last 2 months and just haven’t had much time to practice let alone post an update here (I work at a university so Fall semester is always extremely busy). I still have picked up the guitar most days but just noodling and less focused practice (I also had the flu and a vacation that prevented me from playing for 2 whole weeks!). Things are dying down though, so I hope to get right back to where I left off.
What I’ve been Playing:
- On the Prowl - Song 5 in Troy Stetina’s Metal Rhythm guitar volume 1. I love this song and plan this to probably be my next AVoYP which should also coincide with my 1-year anniversary of starting the guitar!
- Self Esteem - This Offspring song is the next song in Justin’s Rock songbook. I pretty much have this one down but I’m trying to focus on getting On the Prowl as good as I can for my next AVoYP so I’ll wait until after that to refine and post it.
The Plan:
I plan on really starting to get back into focused practice this week and this learning log is step 1 for me to do that. I’m learning On the Prowl from Metal Rhythm Guitar Vol. 1 which is actually a perfect yearlong anniversary song to play. It has a ton of guitar techniques and specifically rock techniques that I’ve learned the entire year including Chords - open, open power and power chords, Vibrato, string bending, Staccato, off beat accents, and hammer on/pull offs. It’s a really ambitious song for me but I think I can do it. I’ll probably list out all of the techniques and point out where they are in the song in the post since it’s my 1-year progress post.
So that’s out there in the universe! I will post this song sometime in January (I started playing back on January 6th of this year, wow) if all goes well.
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Sounds like a fun song to play. I bought Metal Rhythm guitar vol. 1 as well, thanks again for the advice a while back! Currently at Whips and Chains, fortunately not too difficult once sliding power chords starts feeling more comfortable.
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Oh yeah, I love the first song too. It’s really easy to play but also sounds great with the provided backing track.
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Nice update 
Offspring! What a great 90’s band. I can’t help but to always sing and bop my head
Happy new year and “Guitariversary”.
January 16th, 2023
How it’s been going:
First learning log post of 2023! It’s been going great! Last semester at my job (I work at a University) was super busy so I didn’t get to post much for the last couple of months of the year. Now that it’s slowed down though I’ve been playing a ton of guitar. I posted 2 AVOYP this month and hit my 1 year guitar playing anniversary. Crazy how much time has passed and how much progress I’ve made. I’m glad I made a learning log really early in the journey so that I have a record of all this and really appreciated it.
What I’ve been Playing:
- On the Prowl - Song 5 in Troy Stetina’s Metal Rhythm guitar volume 1. This one is a really tough song. Honestly felt like I could have done better in the performance but I think it was that I hadn’t recorded my self for a while before doing it. AVOYP here.
- Self Esteem - 8th song in my Rock study and my goal of recording my self playing all 50 songs in Justin’s rock song book. This puts me over half way finished the “Beginner” section of the book. AVOYP Here.
- As Darkness Gathers- Song 6 and the final song in Troy Stetina’s Metal Rhythm guitar volume 1. This is a metallica style song that’s clearly inspired by “Enter Sandman”. The main riff sounds very similar. There’s also some really cool riffs in the Blues scale. Can’t wait to record this one.
The Plan:
Well tomorrow I’m going to start learning song 9 of Justin’s Rock songbook, Sunshine of your love by Cream. I really like the song it sounds like a pretty big challenge for me since I have to try and pick specific strings for it as appose to plain old strumming.
I’m still practicing the final song of Metal Rhythm Guitar Vol. 1 but I’m surprised at how fast I’m picking up the riffs. This song is a really great rhythm study since the rhythm is pushed, there’s a lot of accented upbeats, and the single note parts of the riff are really tight into the rhythm. I’ll probably be posting this song next. Most likely some time in the beginning of Feb.
After Metal Rhythm guitar Vol. 1 I plan on starting Vol 2 as well as Troy’s first Metal Lead Guitar book. He calls that book his primer since it’s meant to be gone through before his metal lead 1 & 2 books. Lots of content for me to get through ahead.
New Gear/Purchases:
I’m starting this year feeling lucky that I found such awesome content in both Justin’s website and Troy’s books so I wanted to make sure that I continue to support both as best I can by buying content that they produce. I bought a years worth of Justin’s TAB subscription and a years worth of Troy’s patreon page. Both I’ll be using extensively since after I finished the first 15 beginner songs in Justin’s book I’m going to take a break from it to go through the intermediate course and to learn other songs I’m interested in (Justin’s TAB sub will be useful here). In Troy’s case he has video lessons on all of the songs in his books on his patreon plus other useful video content. Both are supplemental but I felt I needed to support them cause the content they produce is, in my opinion, worth much more than it costs. In Justin’s case way more since most of his stuff is free!
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This is awesome alexis, inspirational.
R
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You’ve had a big year Alex. Well done.
Based on what you’ve already played, I think Sunshine of Your Love will be easy for you.
Good on you for doing the tabs subscription. I find it pretty useful.
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Amazing progress you’ve made, Alexis! Really impressive and can’t wait to see what you bring next! 
I work at a uni too, loving the January down time whilst most of the academics are away! All just guitar guitar guitar! 
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I’m excited to start playing today when I practice. Always feel good when I start a new song. The tabs subscription is awesome too. Technically I could use that instead of the book to learn the songs from the rock songbook but I find myself looking at the book, then the video lessons, then the tab. Maybe out of habit lol.
Yup, I love how cyclical the work is. Really busy times suck but when busy seasons pass it is so very chill. 
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