Andre’s Learning Log

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Hi!

My name is Andre, I’m 38. Currently living and working at Buffalo (NY, USA) but I’m from Brazil. I started my new effort on learning guitar only about 45 days ago when I got a electric guitar and heard about Justin Guitar in a Facebook Epiphone users group.
I’ve been using mostly the Lessons and Songs App so far but recently started digging into the website as well and found this great forum. Time to introduce myself and create a learning log I think.

This is my third attempt to learn guitar. First was when I was a teenager and got an acoustic guitar from my parents but at that time it just didn’t fit into my other interests, so I had almost no progress. Second try was about 14 years ago (time flies!) when I purchased an electric guitar and did some one-to-one classes in Brazil, but I unfortunately I ended up being frustrated after few months and left the hobby. At that time I just couldn’t see any progress and my teacher also used to give me songs to learn that I didn’t like. Ended up selling the guitar (deeply regret doing that looking in perspective).

Them we have now (2023): early this year I was thinking about trying to give another chance on learning to play guitar. My wife gifted me with an Epiphone Les Paul Standard 60s which I loved! It’s just a beautiful guitar and I feel good by only playing around with it after a stressful day on my job. I barely know how to play a song but I’m sure you know what I mean!

Well, I guess it’s time to share my progress in the last 45 days or so, here it go. Using mainly the App:

  • Completed Modules 1 and 2
  • Currently working on Module 3
  • Songs that I tried to play: Born in the USA, Give Peace a Chance, Love Me Do and Three Little Birds

What has been the biggest challenges to me during this short experience:

  • Avoiding muting the D cord
  • Changes from E to D are not fast enough, they are higher than 20/min but still not the best to follow the strumming without pauses as I get distracted
  • Eventually muting a string on E cord
  • I’m still improving my one minute changes from Am to Em. I started module 3 just few days ago. Guess I’m putting much pressure on myself and I should avoid that to avoid another frustration.
  • This one is a biggest challenge: keeping a good posture with the guitar. I still don’t feel relaxed, I still have issues holding the guitar as Justin recommends. Still getting used with guitar weight, this model is pretty heavy but that’s my guitar and I love it. I may need to buy a specific guitar seat/stool or something to support my right leg. I’m currently practicing on a regular chair. I play only seated and always using a strap.

About the songs: Born in the USA had a fast progress but still not perfect of course. Three little birds has been improving but still not there, specially in the verse. Needs more practice to follow the strumming (sometimes I got lost when moving from E to D). All the other songs I do try once and a while but I’m trying to stick with few songs to keep the focus.

I’m looking forward to learn the G cord because I want to play “Songbird” from Oasis (by the way, Oasis has ever been my favorite band but unfortunately most of their songs use cords that I still didn’t learn).

I have been training every single day at night for about 1 hour. Wish I had more time but my job is quite stressful and time consuming. Playing guitar is helping me to disconnect and I feel good having a time for practicing.

Forgot to say, I’m having so much fun with Seven Nation Army from Module 3 as well!

Sorry for the long text, I think I covered most of my challenges and current learning status, looking forward to hear back from you. Please feel free to comment and wish me luck in this return.

Have a great weekend! :grinning:
Andre

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Hi Andre and welcome. Great to see another Epi Les Paul player. Sure it’s a heavy guitar but it’s worth it for the tone. My Gibson LP Studio is chambered so lighter and easier to live with. I’m also currently starting Grade 3 but as a refresher really. One of the big takeouts at this stage is really listening hard to the songs you are learning. Good luck with your progress.

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Hi Andre, a very warm welcome to the community. Nice to read your log. Reminds me of my early days of playing…

A lot of fellow students had or have the same issue and you can find several threads concerning posture and ways to hold the guitar, e.g.
How To Hold Your Guitar
Maybe worth a look, to find some helpful ideas. It takes some time to find the right position for oneself, as everyone is different and every type of guitar is different. Time will tell. And you can always ask, when your problems persists.
Wish you a lot of fun with your guitar playing!

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Welcome to the Community, Andre. What a wonderful entrance, detainling guitar history and current progress.

I can only say keep doing what you are doing. And if you browse #community-recordings:audio-video-of-you-playing you’ll find many members’ recordings of Oasis songs. They are one of the more popular bands in the Community.

And I think fair to say they were all just like you at the start and through patient, deliberate learning and practice, can now play Oasis songs. So to will you, in your own time.

Beautiful LP

Enjoy the adventure!

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NIce Learning Log, Andre, and a beautiful guitar. Do a bit of practice every day and you will be well on your way to playing the songs you enjoy.

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Hey Andre,

Welcome to the community mate.
Sounds like you’ve made a good start. Just keep at it, stay close to Justins lessons, and be kind to yourself. Learning guitar is not easy, especially early on. If it were, everyone would be playin, cos it so cool. :love_you_gesture:
Reach out here anytime for help, or just to chat.
Love the LP. Cant go wrong with one of those beauties.
All the best.

Cheers, Shane

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Hi Andre,
Welcome here and I wish you a long and happy time playing :sunglasses:
Greetings ,Rogier

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Thank you so much!!

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Welcome, Andre!!!

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Welcome to the group and great guitar. :wave:

Rachel

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Terrific start to your log Andre, you describe very familiar experiences and progress notes!!
Lovely looking guitar, really looking forward to your next updates :+1:

Have fun!

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Welcome, Andre. No problem with the length of your post, my first one was twice as long! I totally understand the trouble with posture. I’m still unhappy with mine and I’ve had my guitar since early December last year though only really trying to practice since mid-January. Sometimes I think I should stick a piece of Velcro to the bottom and onto my pants, it just wants to slide forward on my leg and I’m using a guitar strap as well as raising my foot onto the chair leg. I’m sure we’ll both figure it out soon.

And that is a beautiful guitar! Nice wife! :grin:

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I would like to thank you everybody for all the nice words, warm welcome and tips so far. Sorry if I didn’t reply to each of you individually, I’m still learning how this forum works lol
I will certainly keep you posted about my progress and if I can be of any help please feel free to reach me out! :wink:

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Thank you! Same here, my guitar wants to slip in my leg sometimes. I’ve been noticing something similar as you mentioned about the velcro idea, the pants material matters (at least at this learning point). Using jeans is helping me more over others, but I’m still making experiments. We will both figure out for sure!

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Hi Andre, good start to your learning log with a short story of your previous encounter with the six strings instrument and your current learning process status. Just follow the lessons; at the beginning you’ll be limited by the chords you know, but later you’ll be able to play at least a basic version of many songs including the ones you like the best. Some are less friendly than others to be played with just a guitar, and therefore may require more advanced techniques to make them sound good, but don’t worry; you’ll master them all.

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December 2023 update - Should I start all over?

It has been a while since I made this learning log. I think it’s time to give an update and to ask for some advice.

I have been on Grade 1 since February this year. It was the first time in my life that I committed to learn an instrument for so long without giving up. Which obviously does not mean it has been easy. I finished module 7 of Grade 1 on September and since then I have been working on my weak points before moving to Grade 2.

During this polishing period I learned new songs, more aligned with my musical tastes but I still struggle with several points.

  • playing the C chord is still very hard. I can play it perfectly alone but I still need to think to position my fingers when playing a song. Any chord change that involves C chord is much slower. I would say I’m stuck at 30-35 changes a minute.
  • My strumming is not that bad I think, but the right hand does not follow the same pace of the left hand. This is partially because I never reached 60 changes in a minute, overall I’m in between 35-50 changes depending on the chords.
  • I just gave up using a metronome for a while. It confuses me more than help. I think I made more progress by listening to the songs over and over to be used to it.

Songs that I’m carrying from this journey on Module 1: Songbird by Oasis, Perfect by Ed Sheeran, Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd, now I’m also working on Live Forever by Oasis. My plan is to learn Wonderwall by Oasis next.

None of the above songs are straightforward to me. I still struggle here and there. I probably would not be able to record myself playing a whole song without making mistakes.

Recently I had some health issues, I started to slow down the number of times a week I was able to practice. Yesterday I returned to practice after a 2 week period completely away from my guitar. Before that I was hoping to move to Grade 2 but I was surprised how much I went backwards or lost by being away for a while. It’s somewhat frustrating but I’m committed to keep learning, no way I will give up!

My question to you is: what would you suggest, to focus on my weak points and keep trying to improve before moving forward to Grade 2? How good is good enough to give an extra step?

Or maybe should I start all over and rewatch all Justin videos to refresh what I potentially forgot since my very first lesson in February?

Third option, call it a day, have fun and move to Grade 2?

I think there’s no wrong answer here. But I was wondering what you would recommend based on your experience. Any advice will be welcome.

Note:
I’m also on PMT Grade 2, about to change to Grade 3. Music Theory is really helpful and very interesting.

Most of the time I’m playing an electric guitar but I have also been trying to play on an Acoustic once and a while.

Thanks for the help!
Cheers

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Andre, I’d be guided by Justin’s definition of done criteria for the grade. If you are not quite there yet (and it sounds like maybe you are not quite there yet, based on your comments about C chord) and continuing to consolidate and improve is not going to demotivate you to the point of thinking it is all too much effort, not good enough rate of progress to sustain the hobby with sufficient joy, then I’d keep on keeping on in grade 1 consolidation.

I seem to recall from somewhere that Justin has spoken of consolidation for even as much as 6 months being appropriate.

Re-watching some lessons … can’t hurt.

Stretching by working on some more challenging songs … fine, provided it doesn’t become frustrating.

Given the long-term, never-ending nature of learning and playing guitar, time invested in laying super solid foundations is time well spent. I think developing that ‘it’s a journey and enjoy the present while progressing to destinations without being obsessed on any destination’ mindset is enabling, a growth mindset rather than a fixed mindset (referring to the work of Carol Dweck, about which I shared some thoughts in my own Learning Log here).

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