Very well done Meghann! You’re coming along extremely well for 3 1/2 months in. Something to be very proud of. 
Your F chord is actually not too bad - won’t be long before you won’t even be thinking about it anymore.
Try to take it easy on the ‘perfectionist’ mindset. Guitar is not easy.
Looking forward to your continued progress. Exciting times ahead. 
Cheers, Shane
Hi Meghan you are doing great for only 3.5 months well done to you! I was especially impressed with your steady rhythm in second part of the video, clearly you got into groove and followed on, awesome!
Feedback bit now - I don’t think I am a fan of how you put your third finger on chords C and D. To me it looks like you are compensating lack of strenghth in the finger with wrapping your 4th one around it and putting some pressure on it. It’s actually quite clever how you came up with it but it has certain limitations that you will encounter in the future, like try playing your small finger on 3rd fret high e string while having C chord on. Same with D sus 4, your third finger needs strength and independency, so focus on perfect chord changes and follow on with one minute changes between C and D or Am and C. You can train changes with any chord changes from that song really.
In your fingerpicking your thumb placement could be more perpendicular to low E string and other fingers slightly curled up. This might be tricky at the start but will let you avoid clashing fingers with each other and play more clean sounds 
pic below for detail.
Overall don’t give up and try not to do everything to a perfect level. I suffer it myself and is really annoying, I think you posting a video is a great first step to get out of the comfort zone and give yourself a break from trying to be perfect keep up the good work and hopefully talk to you soon 
@GordonF
Congrats on posting up your first recordings, Gordon. You are doing well and are progressing nicely with chord shapes, changes, and smooth strumming. With time you can also get more into the singing, as that sounded pleasant enough in the second video. Keep on keeping on!
@meghory
Bravo, Meghann, posting that first video is a big step and a good one as you’ll receive encouragement and feedback. I enjoyed the way you moved through picking, simple strumming and then a more complex rhythm, generally keeping chord shapes, clean and making smooth changes.
I’d suggest invest some time playing the song at a slower tempo to give yourself time to make the change from D to F without hesitating. Justin emphasises how important it is to continually work on smooth strumming without a pause for a chord change.
Well done, keep doing what you are doing cause you are doing well.
This is great advice. Thanks! I’m going to start being much more diligent with using a metronome and perfect slowly first then gradually speed up.
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.
3.5 months??? Whaaaa?i have to ask…how often do u practice because that was i pressive!
On average an hour a day. Not usually all at one time but sometimes!
@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
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 !
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 !
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 !
@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.
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. ( The Sound of Silence live by Paul Simon SOLO, Paris 1965 - YouTube 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.
@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:
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
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…
Thanks toby… yes i had a look at that video after i’d done the recording…lol
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!
