Thank you, David. I’ve recently realized how helpful recording is, and your comment validates that, too. Listening to your recording is a bit like reading your own writing in a way.
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I appreciate it!! It’s starting to dawn on me that even energy really matters, along with everything technical. I will keep working on it and get that confidence.
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@southpaw6,@tomc12 nice job to both of you on your first recording post.
What are the odds of three left-handers in a row posting videos?
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Hah I didn’t notice that until you pointed it out. What are the chances!?
@myall_blues RE: Knocking On Heaven’s Door.
Murray … the good and the critique! 
You are changing chords to land on the count of 1 consistently and playing with a constant down up down up motion.
Occasionally your 3rd finger lags behind the other two on the Am and C chords. Try to train it for simultaneous landing.
You are playing and singing - hurrah. Big kudos as it is not easily done, even on a simple open chord strummer.
Your guitar position and strumming arm position give me concerns. You drape your forearm over the top of the guitar and the guitar is pulled far out to the side of your body rather than being in front. If you watch the movement of your forearm and wrist and hand and fingers when strumming, they are not all acting together and moving in unison. Your elbow is a natural pivot point from which the entire motion of Down and Up and Down and Up should be driven. As I watch your elbow and forearm, it is pushing almost vertically up and down rather than swinging in a curved arc that then imparts up and down motion to your hand. The consequence is that your lower part of your forearm to your wrist are having to rotate significantly to move the hand and fingers in the correct strumming path across the strings. Your are creating a big gap between your wrist and the body of the guitar and your wrist is having to cock severely to aim your fingers towards the strings. This is going to cause tension in many of your muscles and prevent you from playing comfortably over longer periods. See the tension in your hand and the fingers are clenched up? Push the guitar more in front of you, hook your elbow more around the rear of the guitar - still on the upper bout but towards the back end of it.
Look at this pic of Nitsuj to see what I am suggesting you try to achieve:
The guitar sits more in front of him, his elbow is hooked around near the back, his forearm hugs the surface of the body, his forearm and wrist are aligned in one plane so the pendulum movement from the elbow automatically transmits to the wrist and no extra wrist rotation is required to strum beyond arm movement. His three fingers are relaxed and opened from the clench.
Two more critiques - sorry, I seem to be laying it on quite thick don’t I?
You are always hitting open strings on the way up on the & after 4. This is ensuring you arrive on the chord in time for the 1. However, you are hitting the up strum a bit heavy and making too many strings ring out too loud, Be gentler with that up strum or miss the strings completely so as not to make the open strings ring every time. It muddies the sound.
Finally, speaking of muddying the sound, you are hitting all six strings on your down strums even on the D and Am and C chords and the open E ringing out is not desirable at these moments. Take some time to train your hand (watch your strumming hand as part of this) to hit only the required strings. This will be much easier after you adjust your strumming arm position also.
I hope that is helpful and not too much on the feedback / critique side.
Cheers
Richard
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@southpaw6 RE: Peaceful Easy Feeling
Congrats on your first AVOYP Hilary. You did it and the red button nerves is something everybody suffers from for sure.
Your strumming motion is good, down up down all the way. A few minor wobbly timing issues as you already know.
Not looking can be a great aim and you look away plenty. However, in your case I would suggest remaining more connected visually and with your ears. You would maybe see that you are strumming too many strings on the 5 or 4 string chords and muddying the sound with the unwanted open E string.
Relax the fingers in your strumming hand and allow them to uncurl and flex out.
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@Tomc12 RE: Feelin’ Alright
Thomas, going alright and obviously feeling alright.
Congratulations on your first recording. It is one big step and you’ve made it.
Playing and singing together is a developed skill and you’re moving in that direction so kudos for that. Your vocal phrasing and timing seems to be this issue that is throwing your rhythm off kilter. You basically have a pattern that goes:
1 2 & 3 4
You hold it steady for most of the song but lose it sometimes when your singing doesn’t come in at the right moment.
Bravo for having the feeling to step it up and go with the flow when you switched the strumming completely. You moved to what is called pumping eighths (all down strum eighths.
It should be:
1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &
D D D D D D D D
Again this was going okay until you brought the vocal in and your timing and count went in its own direction. You sometimes played just three beats in a bar (1 & 2 & 3 &) and even played just two beats a few times (1 & 2 &).
I would suggest you practice these rhythm and strumming patterns in isolation, with a metronome or drum track and that you train yourself to count out loud the pattern you are strumming.
I hope you find that helpful.
Cheers
RIchard
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Yes, I can hear that I’m hitting strings I don’t want to (I actually just asked for pointers on this for tomorrow’s c/o 2023 Q&A) - but I feel like when I focus on that, my rhythm (and posture) goes out the window. I know it all just takes practice, but there are so many things to focus on!!
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Thanks very much Richard - your feedback is appreciated. Don’t worry about the long list of critique - it goes with the territory when you only see your ‘teacher’ once in 12 months!
Regards
Murray
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Make it a dedicated and separate little slot given a few minutes in your practice routine. As with all skills that you concentrate on as stand alone (chord formation, chord changes, strum pattern etc.), over time, they coalesce and become more developed within song context.
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Richard
Just one clarification if I can.
I followed Justin’s lesson for this and there’s always an up on the & after 4 in the (2 bar) pattern. So for the G/D bar it’s 4e&a: DxDU (x for missed)
And for the Am/C bar from 3 it’s 3e&a4e&a: DUxUxUDU and he seems to put accent on the up’s after 3.
Are you saying I should strike less strings on the up, or just do them softer, or something else entirely?
Regards
Murray
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Ideally, an Up that happens after the 4, when you have lifted fingers off to change chord (thus an open string strum) should hit no more than 2 or 3 strings and the softer the better. If you find that a challenge at this stage of your learning, I’m suggesting it is perfectly fine to not strum any strings on the & after 4, to play the 4, to lift away and make your chord change and not hit any strings as you do so. Even if the song actually does have that in its strum pattern you can change it to suit yourself.
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Thank you.
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Congratulations on your first AVOYP posting Hilary. One of the hardest things to do, in my opinion. You did a great job with the song as well. Steady strumming, mixing it up when it came to the chorus. Your chords sounded nice and clean and you were tapping your food in time with the music. Really well done.
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Congrats to you also on your first AVOYP posting Thomas. That was pretty sweet. Clean changes and good strumming. It was great when you started on those 8th, I guess you were really starting to find the songs groove.
I see you have a fan already as well. 
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Thank you for such in depth and constructive feedback. I wish I had had time to reply sooner, but I definitely took it to heart for the next song I’ve been working on. Appreciate it!
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Thank you! It was definitely a learning experience.
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Thank you, Todd, for posting this. You were great. This is also my first song I am currently learning. As I had never heard it before I started with Justin Guitar in January, I literally have to learn it by singing along with it. So oddly, I think my singing with it is okay but so my counting the beat/strumming is suffering. According to the stats I only have 2.5 hours practicing it so I think I want a little more practice before I attempt to record myself. You have given me the courage to give it a try.
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I’ve been learning since September and it’s long overdue that I took a brave pill and uploaded something for comments. I’ve actually put a couple of videos onto YouTube today. In both cases I’m using Justin’s songs app to accompany me.
The first one is Honky Tonk Women. It’s just one that I’ve been playing for a couple of days, chords with Justin’s old faithful strumming pattern. There’s no way I could have managed this even at the start of 2023 so while I’m sure it can be a lot better, I’m thrilled that I’ve picked it up quickly. I’m even managing a 4 finger G chord!!!
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The second one is Johnny Cash’s cover of Hurt (actually just the first half of the song). I’ve been practicing it since the start of the year, it’s been the song that’s been my reason for learning the F chord. I still need to practice F quite a bit more. I can get it if I concentrate. In this video some of the F’s are better than others!
Thanks for watching
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