Thanks, I completely agree with you. It’s like my brain is telling my arm to do one thing but it does something else, very confusing and frustrating. I will revisit the lessons you post and consider doing Justin’s Strumming SOS course.
Happy Riffing. Adrian
Weirdly you seem a bit more comfortable with the ‘solo’/lead parts than the chords. i’d be very much the other way
What were you following for the tab of the solo part? Do you have a link
lovely guitar too
If you were replying to me and not Ayush, then yes I am still having strumming issues, as well as following Justin’s course I have been using the Gibson app which has some good tutorials that you can play along with.
I am going back to focus on rhythm lessons yet again and practice more songs playing just chords. I tried Sultans of Swing today and found that tricky and need more practice. I think I need to do some basic rhythm practice with Justin’s app and a metronome, and improve some chord changes.
I have neglected the safe space topic for too long a time.
Here goes with a long overdue, retrospective catch-up of all the fun I missed in 2024.
@BVNC Congratulations on a lot of progress from August 2023 to January 2024 and you are playing fast rhythm parts mixed in with arpeggiated chords. Wow. That’s really impressive progress. And because this is retrospective, I also know you took the step of jumping into Blues Immersion in June to continue expanding your learning and challenging yourself. Kudos and good vibes. Keep it up and enjoy that new guitar too!
@6stringrazor Bravo William. A fine performance, both playing and singing. I’m a year too late to the party so I hope in that time you have been to many open mics and sung & played your heart out. And been following the beginner course and making great strides in your playing. You have a relaxed look and sound, from your fingertips all the way up and you maintain a good rhythm and tempo. One observation. Your strumming arm is coming down to the strings from above, not exactly but approaching a vertical drop. That necessitates that your pick is striking the strings left-to-right rather than up and down. You want the movement of your forearm, wrist and fingers to follow a shallow arc across the strings something like this.
For general strumming you are doing fine. I foresee difficulties arising when you want / need to strum and pick, or play arpeggiated chords, play single strings or try to add palm muting techniques etc. Have you tried different body-size guitars such as an 00 or a Parlor.
I hope that helps.
Cheers 
What an enjoyable performance Michael. You mention that you are aware of a need to bring a greater range of dynamics to your playing. I do not disagree with you - changing dynamics through a song is a fantastic way of polishing and finessing it. That said, your playing was compelling as presented. You played with such conviction and energy that you were able to carry the song through from start to finish. Kudos also for playing with good rhythm, clean chords and selecting the grip you used for the G major chord depending on the chords around it.
The area I think you need most work on is with your non-fretting fingers. This is especially noticeable on the weak finger G and Em chord, but present throughout. You have a habit that I urge you to correct as soon as you can. Your non-fretting fingers pull out away from the fretboard. At the most extreme, they are so far out and straightened that they point in the opposite direction to the strings. You need non-fretting fingers to remain close to their fellow fingers, stay as part of the ‘fretting team’ even when on the substitutes bench. They need to be close to the fretboard, curled over, poised and ready for when they are called into action. Weak finger G gives opportunities to play embellishment notes with 1st and 2nd fingers. You will soon be learning those skills. And for that you will need your fingers to be close in, not far away.
I hope that helps. Richard
Well done João. Your have made a good entry with your first AVOYP. It is clear that you have been working on rhythm, strumming patterns and chord changes. You play with a relaxed strumming hand and a good sense of timing. The fact that you lost track of the song in a few places - causing interuptions to the flow - does not mean you do not have the sense of rhythm. It is more an indicator that [a] you were perhaps putting yoursefl under pressure to perform in front of the camera and / or [b] you had not yet learned the song sufficiently well to know all the chord changes and structure without stopping, looking and correcting yourself. In time, and with more familiarity of the songs you intend performing, you will not make those errors or you will learn to keep strumming even if you are temporarily holding the wrong chord. Maintaining rhythm without a break is more important than fumbling a chord change.
Bravo.
RE:
Keine ruhige Minute
I would like to direct you to the comments I have made to @6stringrazor. You are also dangling your strumming arm down in a near vertical with the strumming motion compromised as a result. Read the advice and suggestions and see if you can adapt and apply them to your playing.
@sevi
RE: Schlaflied für Anne
Concentrate on your right-hand. You are aiming to ensure your thumb points along the strings, almost parallel, and is in front of your fingers. Your fingers should be able to move freely upwards at an angle of about 45o to the strings. You may wish to try stretching your 4th finger out and placing it on the guitar body as an anchor. If this works for you then all good. It is a personal choice and not compulsory. But Some kind of picking hand anchor is recommended. So if that doesn’t work for you then try resting the fleshy outer edge of your palm just behind the bridge. When your hand is ‘floating in space’ picking the correct strings can become a guessing game as you have no fixed point of reference apart from your elbow on the edge of the guitar body.
@bsizzle424 Hey Bethany. That was quite something as your introductory recording. Playing and singing is definitely a challenge and you are getting it on. You have had a really positive response to your recording - rightly so, there’s lots of good to be happy with and build upon.
Might I offer critique to go with the applause and encouragement? Ideally, I would want to see a wider view, including your strumming arm all the way back to the elbow. Nevertheless, it is enough to work with. Your fretting hand is doing good work, making quick and precise chord changes, even when there are two chords per bar. Bravo. My main focus is on your strumming hand / arm and I wonder if you have developed some habits due to playing an unamplified electric. Starting at your fingertips. Your grip is closed around the pick in a fist-like shape. Try relaxing fingers 2, 3 & 4 and allowing them to uncurl so they point a little downwards. Having a relaxed hand is really important and it can start in your fingers. I am a strong advocate of adopting a relaxed wrist too. I encourage my students to develop a little flicky-wrist motion when strumming. That motion needs to move in a shallow arc in a plane across the strings. Your wrist is definitely involved in the strumming motion - you are not using a big, heavy pumping forearm action to pound at the strings which is good. It looks at times like the direction of your wrist rotation is sending your pick away from the strings, especially on some up strums. So I wonder if you are pushing and pulling the wrist away from, and then towards the strings a little too much - as opposed to tickling across them. Another sign of this is that I don’t see or hear you playing the thicker strings on your down strums too often. This is a subtle adjustment I am referring to, and difficult to describe in writing. Does it make sense? I would definitely encourage you to move from practicing mainly on an unamplified electric - they are not really built for that and you can develop some habits that could be difficult to break later on. Do you have any means of amplification and some earbuds / headphones?
@micknew
I like how you have alerted everybody to your guitar face! I think we all have our own contortions and twitches when playing. In fact, isn’t it a universal law of nature?
I am going to turn your gaze away from your face and towards your hands. The camera angle doesn’t give a fantastic shot of your fretting hand - though everything sounds pretty clear and clean so I assume you are making good chord grips and changes. Watch your strumming hand. You have a good, steady pulse in it, you feel the rhythm and bring a good feel of the groove. Slight hits on the bass notes, fuller strums when needed. Doubling the pace when the feel jumps from quarters to eighths. There’s a lot of good work going on that is fairly subtle and you may not be aware of without really analysing yourself. Keep it up. Good luck in grade 2.
@AJSki2fly
Kudos for sharing your post and being open to some suggestions and advice Adrian.
Being aware of your own rhythm issues is the first part. Rhythm is all important in every aspect of playing an instrument. This riff combines single string picking and chord strumming so creates many challenges and exposes many issues people have in either or both.
I suggest you watch it back with the volume set to zero. That will focus your attention immediately on something you can begin to address.
I will mention two. These are things that I dedicate a lot attention to with my students.
1] Your strumming movement is very big, the arc your move your forearm through - compared to the tiny movement required for picking single strings - is much bigger than needed. Control your forearm and try to adopt a strumming motion more from a flexible wrist than a swinging arm. That is good general technique. It definitely helps with transitioning between picking and strumming.
2] You need to develop a steady Down Up motion in your picking / strumming hand. Again, this is not based on a big, swinging, wide pendulum motion, but small, wrist movements that are constantly keeping rhythm
I hope that helps. Richard
Thanks Richard.
It’s always nice to get positive feedback. I think like a lot of people I’m over self critical and miss things that are going quite well.
I must admit it’s taking me a long time to get over my ‘guitar face’ but overall I was pleased how it went
Thank you so much for your kind words and very useful feedback.
I havent done an open mic yet. Not confident enough. I have found a novel way to put it off… I have spent the last year building an acoustic guitar but I have promised myself that when its finished I’ll take it to an open mic to perform
Unfortunately its an OM so Ill have to adjust my strumming technique around that!
Thanks again. I very much appreciate the encouragement and tips.
Kind regards
6String
Thanks, Richard!
Yes, I did jump on the Blues Immersion Class 1, and has been absolutely fantastic! Next month, I will start the course over from module 1 focussing on other keys than A as well as the parts that I only briefly touched in the first run. There is just SO much content in it, it’s really mind-blowing.
Hi Richard
Many thanks for the feedback, its so difficulty to know what good and bad when you are on your own. I agree I am still struggling with my strumming technique after 4 months since picking up a guitar again after nearly 20 years off.
I will focus on getting more freedom in my wrist for better stumming and limit the right hand windmill motion. I think I will use strumming practice seasons and’Wish You Were Here’ to focus on it and improve my technique. Once I think I have made some progress I will post another video.
Thanks for the feedback this is super helpful stuff! I see what you mean about having a rigid wrist while strumming, I can definitely work on that. Could the pick I’m using also contribute? It is very thick. I could also dig out and dust off my old amp and see if there is a headphone attachment.
Edit: I just went back and watched the video on how to hold a pick so I could get a better visual idea and holy moly I’ve been holding it completely wrong! Thanks for giving me something productive to work on 
Thanks for the feedback Richard. It’s almost a year since I posted that video so I’m thinking of revisiting it and will certainly take your feedback on board.
