Beginner's safe space

Nicole,

Not sure how I missed these two tracks! They were great, steady strumming and clean changes. Singing as well, marvellous.

I know you probably have but time to move on to grade 2 now as you well and truly have grade 1 under your belt.

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Congratulations on your first AVOYP posting RJ, that was niiiiiiice. Good strumming and chord changes, I enjoyed the vocals as well. Tasty little treat at the end as well.

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A great way to make an entrance Alessandro. That was a sweet bit of fingerstyle and at quite a tempo too.

I’m looking forward to what you share next.

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@SgtColon Hello Stefan, thanks a lot for taking the time to listen to my two songs and for your positive feedback :hugs:. I’m so happy you like them :smiley:.
Yes, I’ve already moved on to grade 2 and am working on the next songs to share (but will take some time before I’m ready to post them :blush:).
I wish you a wonderful day :sun_with_face: :guitar::grinning:.

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Thanks for the feedback Stefan. It really helps to keep the motivation.

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Here it is! My very first performance of a song. :grimacing: “Three Little Birds” by Bob Marley.

It’s pretty rough! The vocals are not really where they are supposed to be in time, and I definitely mess up a few chord changes. Just strumming through the song by itself is actually pretty easy for me at this point, but, adding in singing is a whole different matter!

I look forward to your feedback!

-Todd

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@SocratesDiedTrolling I enjoyed your performance Todd! Your enthusiasm is infectious and it’s obvious that you are enjoying yourself and having a good time.

You are making great progress for 6 weeks playing. Your strumming is nice and consistent. It’s also great that you are working on singing while playing! People tend to underestimate how hard it is to do (I know I did!) and you are well on your way. Keep with the course and you will be able to look back after a while and realize how much you’ve learned. Looking forward to hearing more from you!

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Thank you! Very kind words. :slight_smile:

And, you’re totally right. I can play things a bit more technical than this (faster, different strumming patterns, etc.) with no problem at this point, but, it feels like singing at the same time makes it exponentially harder! It’s a fun challenge though, and learning new skills is so gratifying. So, I look forward to it!

Oh, and you’re right about the drawbacks. I was actually a bit down the other day because the Dmin chord feels a lot more difficult than my earlier chords. But, now I’ve been doing practice sessions with it a few times and, guess what… it’s still my slowest chord change, but it’s getting faster!

Thanks again! :slight_smile:

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Hi Todd,
I could type a lot (and probably will do that), but only a lot of good things,…6 weeks and bring this like this, well done, :sunglasses: :clap: :bouquet:…you talk super easy and fun to listen to and how wonderful to see that when you start playing you take on such a different “appearance”(?) form… very modest and almost shy/vulnerable… logical we know and recognize that almost all the first (10??) time :see_no_evil:,…but I can already hear quite well that sooner or a little later you will singing quite nicely :sunglasses:, and playing the guitar comes naturally as long as you keep practicing properly, :smiley:… …looking forward to more from you and hope to be able to follow you for a long time…Above all,…Have fun :sunglasses:
Greetings,Rogier

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Hi Todd. That first recording is one huge step to take particularly when singing as well. Your practice time is showing results, steady strumming and good chord changes. Well done.

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Well done Todd and an excellent first video! Many say it’s difficult to “hear” the songs when you are just doing the simple strumming…adding the vocal for me made me realise “yes I am playing the song…all be it simply”. Should be a big boost for you and let you know you’re on the right track. A little more practice on this one and you’ll be flying through it.

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@SocratesDiedTrolling
Hey Todd, congratulations on posting your first singing and playing recording. You should be very proud of yourself. For six weeks learning you are doing fantastic. It’s not easy to sing and play at the same time, so well done on taking that huge step so early in the learning process. That’s a great idea to revisit songs you have learned as your skills develop and you learn new techniques. Keep up the good work.

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Great job Todd and well done for posting up your first video. Loved your intro and context setting, you mention about keeping this as a record to look back on in a year or so’s time, do make sure you do that, you will be amazed at what more you will have achieved!

For 6 weeks in that was a really nice job, big stand out for me was that the strumming was really nice and consistent in rhythm and for the most part your changes were clean, perhaps some more work on the timing of the changes but that will all come along with more practice. As you comment, the singing adds a whole other layer of complexity and is far harder than you think but stick with it, there’s huge potential there.

Only 2 previous recordings to that, that’s great, I think my first video was at least the 15th iteration!! :rofl:

Bravo :clap: :+1:

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Hi Todd, congratulations to your first AVOYP :clap::+1::smiley:. Wow, just 6 weeks in and already able to play through a whole song and sing along as well - that’s fantastic :star_struck:.
Three Little Birds was also my first song I shared with the community, and the first line - ‘Don’t worry about a thing’ - was like a mantra to me while recording :sweat_smile:.

One little thing I recognized when watching your video is the position of your thumb of your fretting hand. Justin says, for beginners it’s better to place it on the back of the neck to make the muscle between thumb and indicator stronger. You’ll need this ‘muscle power’ further down the road :wink:. Maybe you want to put an eye on this aspect :blush:.

I wish you lots of fun along your guitar journey and look forward to hearing more from you :grinning:.

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@SocratesDiedTrolling

Congratulations on your first AVOYP posting Todd. Others have said it but I’ll also add to it, for 6 weeks in that was a great job. Strumming, chord changing and singing isn’t easy and you did a pretty sweet job of it.

Practice makes permanent, as Justin say’s so just keep doing what you’re doing.

Also a good spot there by @NicoleKKB on the thumb placement. Behind the neck and build that muscle, you’ll need it for when you get to the barre chord section.

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Hi Todd 6 weeks in and already posted a recording, wow! You did really well congrats to your courage and to how much you’ve learnt in such a short period of time! I can only offer further encouragement and Practice Practice Practice mantra to get it more flowing and to synchronize your singing more with the song, but that comes with time and 6 weeks is not a lot of time :smiley: all the best Todd and keep up the good work!

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Well done, Todd, bravo! You are doing really well.

The chord shapes and changes plus the strums are sounding good.

Your chat was all on the money, especially playing and singing being exponentially more difficult than just playing.

I also happen to think that Three Little Birds is quite tricky to play and sing.

Nothing of great note to share to help you progress, other than to suggest you sit a little further back from the camera so we can see the whole of the guitar. Then we may pick up on things to share on your left hand work.

Keep doing what you are doing.

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Really well done Todd and big thumbs up :+1: from me. That’s great progress after 6 weeks of playing! I wasn’t even close to your level when I was at 6 weeks, and definitely not in a place where I could sing and play at the same time.
Take a bow :bowing_woman: !

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Thanks, everyone, for your kind responses. It’s nice to have a community here to share things like this with.

As far as the thumb position, I’ll definitely have to be more conscious of it in the future. I remember that lesson, I suppose it’s just not something I think about a whole lot, and my thumb just ends up wherever feels comfortable at the time.

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Far out, Todd! You’ve cleared a hurdle that I haven’t achieved yet, so well done to you!!

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