Hi all,
Is there any bad habits I should watch out for at grade one? Am working on consolidating what I’ve learnt so far and am worried about picking up bad habits, as I want to build a strong foundation.
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If you pay attention to Justin’s tuition then I don’t think there is too much risk of bad habits. Bad habits are usually formed when people do things wrong from the start, either from poor tuition or trying to work technique out for themselves without instruction. Or perhaps when they come up with a “quick and easy” method to do something which is naturally difficult, causing problems for themselves when their custom method doesn’t work so well later on in the courses.
Justin tends to teach things in a way which takes into account potential beginner mistakes and avoids them, so yeah… just pay attention and you should be fine. And of course, if in doubt about something, just ask. Plenty of knowledgeable people here who can point you in the right direction.
You could maybe record a video of your playing or a practice session and control things like posture, wrist angle, finger placement, etc. So you can see yourself from a different perspective.
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Great question!
Agree with @Helen0609!
There are lots of habits that can be picked up, and you are right about being careful and really be strong in the foundation.
Always tune your guitar.
Posture and wrist / hand positions, and even finger positions.
Clear and full sound from the guitar, and does not mean press harder, either.
Timing, and strumming techniques.
Finger plucking, and correct finger-to- string plucking.
Hand, wrist, finger stretching.
Guitar set-up.
I just finished setting up my niece’s guitar, as I found it was very hard to play her guitar because the strings are quite far from the fretboard, and so I adjusted the neck, and I also lowered the bridge (sanding it down) to make the guitar easier to play.
This must be the reason why she stopped her playing, because the guitar she was using was very hard to play.
Pay attention to your habits, which you are quite attentive to, great work!!!
Rene
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Thanks for the advice. I’ve been that focused on playing chords cleanly and strumming that I’ve totally neglected posture and wrist position. Think I’ll start to record myself 
excellent idea! Much appreciated guys.
still trying to figure out how to hold my fretting hand. palm thumb fingers. seems i do it different every time