Thanks for the feedback! I will try adjusting the finger picking hand. I’m not using any pressure from my fourth finger on C and D but can definitely see why it looks that way on the video! I hate how it looks because it just looks so tense. I’m going to focus on relaxing that hand and probably continue videoing myself so I can see if the position changes. Thanks again for taking the time to give me feedback.
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3.5 months??? Whaaaa?i have to ask…how often do u practice because that was i pressive!
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On average an hour a day. Not usually all at one time but sometimes!
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@michielvv re: Sound Of Silence
Bravo and Kudos on your first share and on doing a challenging song with fingerstyle, strumming, bars of varying length and Paul Simon’s inimitable vocal phrasing on his poetic lyrics.
My little suggestions would be …
When playing fingerstyle you will benefit from having some kind of an anchor rather than allowing your hand to float in the air. Either anchor your little finger on the guitar body of anchor the hell / back part of your hand just behind the bridge saddles.
For the singing and playing together you need to have the rhythm and the vocal phrasing in sync. Learn both separately. Play guitar along with the original - you will need a capo at fret 6 though. Sing along to the original… Get both solid before you bring them together yourself. This will help you eliminate the timing issues and the strumming issues you created for yourself by coming in a bit too early or a bit too late with the singing.
I hope that helps.
Cheers 
| Richard_close2u | JustinGuitar Official Guide, Approved Teacher & Moderator
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A couple of solid recordings there Drake and kudos for singing and playing at an early stage.
Much advice offered so far, so I will just say well done !
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Well done Gordon, steady away on both tracks. Good to see a Pink cover but don’t know the second artist (old rocker !) but your singing was fine and it is a great accomplishment to both singing and play. Its not easy !! Just keep practising and it will become more natural.
If you did not back track in the thread I’ll post this again as it has some useful guidance.
https://www.justinguitar.com/guitar-lessons/singing-playing-at-the-same-time-bg-2003
Well done !
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Way to go Meghann !
That’s pretty good for what, 14 weeks ? !! You should be proud of this performance. So much good advice offered so far, so I will not muddy the waters but take your time consolidating and get yourself ready to move onwards !
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@drake_equation
RE: Heart Of Gold and Country Roads
A couple of strong uploads highlighting your increasing comfort and confidence in the strumming and rhythm alongside the singing. Not all parts were tip-top watertight in terms of timing etc. and you know most of that already so keep it on your practice log and keep doing what you’re doing.
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Thanks for your suggestions. I think I mostly created my timing issues by still needing to look at the tab for the lyrics.
And lucky for me there are actual versions to play along with with capo 3rd fret. ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-TbsA4Icac and the one from The Paul Simon Songbook. edit: songbook one seems to be capo 2nd…) but all the ornaments do make it harder to follow along.
Also thanks to everyone else’s nice words. It actually encouraged me to share with family as well, which might even be more scary than sharing to strangers online.
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@GordonF re: Who Knew
You have a good, consistent rhythm going on, mostly Old Faithful serving you well there. You have the changes well under your belt and were making them without looking in large part. That consolidation is reaping rewards. Well done.
@GordonF re: Driver’s Licence
Another good demo of your skills and what you have learned to date. Kudos for playing and singing too.
I note you are using a G chord with fingers 2 and 3 only. I would recommend you learn and practice the other G chord formations which will serve you better in the long term … Stuck 3&4 G, weak finger G.
@meghory re: House of the Rising Sun
You’re just a few months in and have worked through Grade 2 already? (I presume you mean grade not module).
Wow. Devoting one hour per day is definitely going to help you make good progress - and you have / are.
I would add a little caveat here, a note of caution. That is super quick in terms of rattling through the lessons, the exercises, the techniques. You mention that you are going back through it to consolidate. That is exactly what I would encourage you to do - keep on getting the basics solid and comfortable and right. Consolidate for as long as needed and stay with it before moving on to another grade. The best way, imho, to do this? Learn songs, learn songs, learn songs. Loads and loads of them. Play along to drum beats and backing tracks and the actual recordings of songs.
Critique and feedback …
@adi_mrok has already mentioned your hand position when picking. I will comment on this and suggest you hold your guitar in a more vertical manner rather than leaning back with it too much.
You do need to push your thumb further along the strings, in the direction of the neck, away from the fingers. The thumb and fingers need to have their own separate planes in which to operate without bumping into each other.
Here is your thumb after playing a note:
Do you see how it is crashing into your fingers and inhibiting their freedom of movement?
This ‘claw-like’ picking is likely to cause you issues further down the line. See if you can relearn a thumb position that opens things up and allows it and the fingers to operate in their own space. Check Justin’s posture and picking hand in this picture:
See how upright he is and how his picking hand is slightly angled with the thumb protruding a little from the fingers so they all have their own space to move within. Photo taken from this lesson.
On the mini-F barre you first finger is a little late to join the others though it doesn’t notice sound-wise as it holds the strings that are played last. Still - try to work on fingers arriving at once. To improve the mini F and big F chord formation, try this:
- Hold your fingers near to but not touching the strings.
- Touch the fingers where the chord is but do not press.
- Once you have all touching at the correct place then press them down.
- Do not strum - this is a fretting hand exercise only.
- Release the pressure after a second or so but keep touching the strings.
- Then move your hand away from the strings by a small amount. All fingers away.
- Repeat the process.
Then, to improve changes to and from the F major chord and other commonly grouped chords, repeat the above process with one alteration. After the final step of lifting all fingers away, the next cycle would be over the chord that you are changing to. Once that chord has been done and fingers are lifted away, go back to the first chord of the pair.
Wash, rinse, repeat. Make this exercise last about five minutes. Practice daily and within a week you will be smashing it!
1 minute - F alone
1 minute - F & D
1 minute - F and C
1 minute - F and Am
1 minute - F alone
Hope that helps.
Cheers
| Richard_close2u | Community Moderator, Official Guide, JustinGuitar Approved Teacher
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Thanks for that. Yes, i wish i hadn’t learnt the G cheat as it’s making it hard for me to relearn the other versions. I’ll just need to practice a lot more…
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Thanks toby… yes i had a look at that video after i’d done the recording…lol
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Thank you so much for this! Exactly the feedback I was hoping for since I don’t have a teacher sitting with me. Going to take several weeks on working on these suggestions. I only wish I’d found this thread sooner!
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As has been said, 14 weeks, fantastic for such a short time. Is this maybe the second or third time you have attempted learning guitar ?
I am perhaps a bit of a perfectionist myself, took 14 months to get to thinking about going to module 12. The F took some time, as did C before that.
So very impressed this is after 3 1/2months. 
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Congratulations on your first AVOYP posting Meghann. Three and a half months in and that is some pretty sweet playing. Nice fingerpicking and steady strumming. Impressive stuff.
Just one word of advice, when you are changing to your barre chords get into the habit of landing that index/barre finger first. I started learning it by placing fingers 3 and 4 down first and then found out that it should be the index finger first, so had to start all over again. It is done this way because when you are going to hit the strings with your strum again you will be hitting the string first that you index finger lands on and therefore that will be the first note to ring out. As you get in to that habit as well, you see that your change can actually be faster than when you do it by landing fingers 3 and 4 first.
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I have struggled with my acoustic for as long as I’ve had it and thought that was just the way it was until I took it to a music shop and they did a pro tune. Basically, lowered the action and set it up with new strings and when I picked it up it was a WOW moment. Couldn’t believe the difference, it’s just so much easier to play:flushed:
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Wrapping up Grade 1 with song practice has been tough. I did well with chord perfect and 1 minute changes, but I really struggle with hitting my chords correctly while trying to keep rhythm. This is my best take so far, but I still feel it is a bit sloppy. Based solely on Nitsuj Module 7 - Practice 10, I believe I’ve passed Grade 1. I’m very open to any critique or advice for improving even it means more practice before moving on to grade 2.
The first part of this clip is just me strumming through the first several bars, followed by me playing along with a backing tracking.
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@Hobart re: Last Kiss
Congratulations on your grade 1 progress and kudos for posting up a video.
Your left hand is doing a whole heap of good work there. Mostly, the chord changes are clean and fingers are landing on the new chord as a unit, together, without too much noticeable lag between them.
I would advise looking at your own overall posture, the way you hold the guitar and the effect it is having on your right arm and hand for strumming. This is where I see issues in terms of smoothness, tension and a need to address technical issues to help you improve.
Take a look.
You wear a strap - that’s great! So many people do not wear a strap when seated. It is a perfectly good choice. The strap is also taut enough to be supportive of the guitar rather then just a floppy piece of loose fabric serving no purpose.
Now, take advantage of the strap and shift, considerably, the position of the guitar. You have it pushed so far to your right and so far behind you that it is causing your right shoulder, arm, elbow, wrist and hand to do all sorts of contortions to be in the right place for strumming. It looks tense, it probably causes tension on your muscles and sinews unnecessarily and must be making it feel uncomfortable to swing freely to strum. It is also forcing you to rotate your torso clockwise a little. Your pick is striking the strings almost over the neck. You should be strumming the strings over or between the pickups. You need to be able to pull your strumming back even further when you develop and move on to a technique of palm muting when your right hand needs to be over the bridge.
THe position you adopt does have some seeming advantages - the neck is raised at an angle and your head is able to face your fretting hand and keep an eye on your chord changes very easily. But, look at the photo again. What if you needed to focus your attention on your right hand and wanted to look at it and see what it was doing? Let’s say in terms of ensuring you were striking 6 strings on a G chord and only 4 on a D chord. You would need to twist your neck and rotate your head and be looking behind you. Not comfortable and not good posture wise.
The solution … bring the guitar around from behind you and settle it much more in front of your body. You can tighten the strap up a tiny bit more to raise its height if you wish. And ensure the angle of the neck is still upwards, not horizontal. This will allow your torso to straighten out, your left shoulder to ease forward to a natural position, your forearm and wrist to be working in the same plane as they swing in their strumming arc and everything to feel smooth and easy.
One more critique I hope is encouraging and good feedback. You are using old faithful - D D U U D.
Noticeably, you are pausing in your rhythm and your arm and hand stop swinging. You need to have your Downs and Ups moving in constant motion with no pauses or stopping. If you watch yourself with a keen eye in the opening bars, you should see and hear this - especially when changing from one chord to the next. That is where your hand clearly loses its momentum and hovers in anticipation of the next strum rather than keeping itself in a free flowing arc.
Think what old faithful represents in terms of counting and direction:
Strumming all eighths:
Strumming old faithful:
For old faithful, your arm is moving in eighths and you strike the strings five out of eight movements. In the diagram below, your arm needs to keep the same arc of movement, the same swinging pattern for all whether you are striking or missing the strings. Each Down and Up is the same. The yellow arrows require you to have the same motion but miss the strings.
I hope that helps.
Cheers
| Richard_close2u | JustinGuitar Official Guide, Approved Teacher & Moderator
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