Beach Strumming Lesson Log & Beginner Adventures 🌺

[BeachStrumming]

Since I’m new around here - Hi y’all!

I’m only beginning on my musical journey and after poking around on the forums decided that I would begin to contribute and document my progress early on. I think it’s awesome how supportive, encouraging, and inspiring the JG community is - & feel comfortable sharing my experiences, successes, and frustrations.

I picked up my guitar for the first time a little over a month ago. My awesome hubs knew how much I yearned to play the guitar and it was a surprise Christmas present. I spent most of Christmas Day strumming with zero understanding. I also received lesson and tab books, a capo, and the accompanying lessons. F2F lessons just aren’t feasible for me right now.

For that first week or so, I practiced my little heart out and remained completely confused - it was pretty discouraging. No matter how hard I tried, the C and D chords I worked on would not ring. I couldn’t even tune the guitar without assistance. I was devastated. I’m a true beginner, and I needed the lessons to be broken down better. I needed to understand some of the why. I was determined to do this for me, and despite having a ton of support - I needed to find lessons that worked for me. I decided to turn to the internet and discovered recommendations for JG.

I downloaded the app and took the intro & tuning lesson. I had so much fun and joy with the intro session - that was it, I started Grade 1 the following day. I am realizing that this isn’t going to be easy. I’m going to struggle as I progress through each module. I took JG’s advice and moved on from A & D after 2 weeks when I could do 30+ chord changes in one minute, even though it seemed I wasn’t 100% ready and was getting kind of bored with Dance the Night Away . I had a lot of trouble with the E chord at first. I was convinced for a day or two guitar was too difficult for me. Then I had convinced myself that I was holding the guitar incorrectly and that was the problem instead of my finger position (which quite possibly may be an issue in addition to my inexperience - so I purchased a strap and just strapped the guitar to my body to prevent it from slipping). I recognize now that every lesson and each new chord will be a new challenge. It wasn’t until I got into the E chord lesson for several days that the A & D chords fell more into place - only then did E click for me a few days later. I have most of my problems with D chord, go figure.

As I increase with speed, I seem to get a tad flustered and my fingers seem to want to do their own slightly panicked thing (especially during songs at full speed). I’m working my one minute chord changes and anchor fingers. I have to do a lot of it by touch and sound instead of sight, so it’s taking me a bit longer to go through the modules. I have to heavily rely on tapping my foot, so I was very happy for this part of the lesson early on. I hope with the extra anchor finger and one minute chord change practice that I will start putting my fingers down on the D chord all at once instead of counting my fingers out. During all of this practice, I’m being immersed in basic music theory lessons at home - some of it is going way over my head for the time being, but I’m learning a ton and part of the benefit of being part of a super musical and supportive family.

This week I started on Grade 1 Module 3 (Am & Em and upstrumming). Now that there are multiple chords it is getting more difficult. I’m loving the app, but I feel that I may have inadvertently made my homework practice sessions harder on myself? The practice I’ve set up on the practice assistant is more than what is on the app. I find myself switching back and forth during sessions and it is taking longer than 20-30 minutes per session. I’m having the most difficulty with changing from A - Em and A - Am. I’m working on these changes right now more than the others because they don’t seem to click.

I’ve decided to choose a few songs to practice and learn to play proficiently along with a just out of reach song:

Neon Moon:
I enjoy playing guitaroke with this song to practice A D and E on the app. I have been incorporating it into my practice. I’m sure that eventually I can find ways to expand on the song to make it more than just my chord practice, but for now it’s my practice song for my first 3 chords.

Three Little Birds:
My dream is to play on the beach in the sunset - this is a good song for me to memorize and was super excited it’s a beginner song. I practice this song the most. Yesterday I found an intro to the song and spent a good 15 minutes figuring out how to play it. I struggled through it and although it’s disjointed and slow - I did it! Yay!! My goal for this week is to memorize and incorporate this intro into the song. I would also like to incorporate a strumming pattern to make this sound more laid back and reggae, but I’m finding strumming patterns incredibly difficult. I’m still just learning, so I imagine practice is key here.

Louie Louie:
My fam has a lot of fun with this song, so I was excited to see it as a recommended song for the module. Not that I’ll be soloing anything any time soon lol. I just started practicing this song this week. I had a go at it, and it’s going to take some time for me to get the chord changes down.

Jack and Diane:
I’ve been trying to play it guitaroke and it’s just out of my reach and my fingers just flail unless I slow it down tremendously. It’s my current reach song and looking forward to playing it along with the track.

Looking forward to:
House of the Rising Sun

I have about a bazillion questions running through my mind at any given moment. Haha. I decided to go ahead and document my beginner progress at this point - and it will be interesting to look back as I continue through my journey - when I’m sure I’ll have a whole new set of victories, difficulties and things I’m striving to achieve.

[Mustela]

Welcome to JG! A lot of your challenges sound similar to challenges I’ve had in my own learning. I’m a bit over a year into my most recent go at learning guitar and I’ve finally broken through the early barrier that kept kicking my butt.

And you put it to words nicely, that your “fingers seem to want to do their own panicked thing”. That’s still one of the biggest challenges for me, but the breakthrough that helped was finding a way to work through it and to be able to see that path while I’m struggling. Justin’s lessons and other online lessons have helped me to find that.

My previous attempts with private instructors many years ago were dead ends because I didn’t know enough to be able to describe what I was having a difficult time with, so they kept giving me material that wasn’t really helping. I tried a group class and that went WAY too fast for me. The detailed breakdowns in the online lessons as well as the ability to work at my own pace have been great.

[Ontime]

@BeachStrumming

I am realizing that this isn’t going to be easy.

There is a saying that circulates the extreme sports world since I have been involved with it in the late 80 as a kid. We tell each other:

If it was easy everyone would do it.

It means, everyone can do it, but people choose not to once they find out they must put the time, energy and sacrifice it takes because it is hard. Greatness is never given, it must be earned.

Prolific from a bunch of knuckle dragging guys and gals climbing and jumping off mountains and surfing waves. I am sure it was around longer than that also.

@BeachStrumming

Three Little Birds:
My dream is to play on the beach in the sunset - this is a good song… I did it! Yay!!

Fantastic.

Such a wonderful song with important meanings. I remember this as a small kid. One of the first artists I wanted to learn myself. I am so glad you found success with this song. Used the practice assistant to set up a scheduled practice routin, it will really help when the lessons start getting more complex and you start moving through items. It is invaluable to me being someone with ADHD, stucture is important or I tend to miss things or just blow right past it if not listed out for me.

Great job on your journey so far

[mattswain]

Well done on what you’ve managed so far. Just know getting started with guitar is hard but it does get better! You start with just a few chords and the change between them is typically slow and disjointed, then you realise that you want to be able to it and keep a rhythm… it all seems overwhelming. Just know that if you keep practicing each day it will come.

Some days you’ll be too busy for a full practice session, well see if you can manage a few minutes, just try a few chord changes, keep the habit going and the muscle memory building up

With regards to difficult chord changes, maybe think about which fingers need to go where rather than trying to form the chord shape. When you talk about the A chord it’s tricky because there’s at least 2 alternatives for playing it. You can have 3 fingers in a row, 1 on each string, or, as I do, I have them in a little triangle with one tucked behind the other 2. It’s personal preference. I only mention this because in my case when I think of A to Em, I don’t play A, lift 3 fingers and then try to play Em, actually 1 finger stays in place, 1 finger moves and the other lifts off completely. That’s how I think of chord changes - where are my fingers now? Where do they need to be? What’s the most efficient way of getting there? And the answer to that last part often doesn’t involve moving your hand completely away from the fretboard. Hope that makes sense.

Good luck!

[CATMAN62]

Hello again Angelique!

Good for you to have started a Learning Log to document your progress from so early in the Journey! The road will for sure have rough spots here & there, but it sounds like you’ve taken the right course by starting out with Justin (I’ve been trying to learn guitar for many years - Justin’s method has me learning more in the last 2 years than the 30+ before), committing time & energy to the process & setting some goals! I am a firm believer in WRITTEN goals… if they’re not written down, they’re just dreams, not goals.

@BeachStrumming

My dream is to play on the beach in the sunset - this is a good song for me to memorize and was super excited it’s a beginner song. I practice this song the most. Yesterday I found an intro to the song and spent a good 15 minutes figuring out how to play it. I struggled through it and although it’s disjointed and slow - I did it! Yay!! My goal for this week is to memorize and incorporate this intro into the song.

This is what I’m talking about - setting yourself a goal, breaking the process down into ‘learnable chunks’, & eventually being able to play the song… probably very slowly at first, but playing it. The songs you love can be ‘revisited’ as you get better also, adding a new strumming pattern or being able to ‘embellish’ it so that it sounds better & better!
I already talked about ‘fun’ in your Intro post, the other thing I advise ‘newbies’ is to get yourself a stand or wall hanger so that Betty aka Al is very easy to grab & play - especially when you only have a few minutes… I like to practice chord changes or scales while my coffee’s brewing in the morning… or 5-10 minutes while my wife is busy doing something! It’s surprising how much those few minutes add up & as you probably know, the more you practice, the better Betty will sound!!!
Good luck!!!

Tod

[Jenndye429]

Hi Angelique and welcome!

Great start to your Log! It’s great to have your goals written down so clearly and concisely. I didn’t start my log until I had been playing for about a year or so and I wish I would have had it from the beginning to document my progress.

Your goals are 100% fully achievable with consistent practice. You sound well on your way!

I also came from a musical family. My parents were in a rock band when I was a teenager. My younger sister played piano. It felt like everyone around me was nurturing some kind of musical talent except me I also attempted piano when I was younger, but I hated it and gave up I always had a decent singing voice, but I never really tried doing anything with it since I couldn’t play an instrument. When I got my first guitar, that all changed for me.

Keep at it, follow the lessons and you’ll be strumming Three Little Birds on the beach in no time!

[Sheepfajita]

Hey Angelique,

Love your determination, I’ve been at it now for 4 years - I started at 56. Like others I’ve experienced the same problems and frustrations but over time things have just kept falling in place. I’m always making progress which still gives me a buzz, and I can play most songs that I encounter after a week or so of practice. My advice to anyone is to try not to get too frustrated when you feel stuck, with consistent practice you will always push through. Consistency always beats Intensity.

[domi7]

Hi Angelique,

that was nice to read!

Such a detailed write-up is certainly helpful for anyone at a similar point at learning guitar to see how others also struggle and get on and develop!
And I had met quite a few in here who said that they had problems with their D chord for quite some time, so you’re not alone! You sound like you’ll make your way and one day we’ll see you with someone from your family at the open mic here!