While I get my act together on keeping a log of my progress with some recording as well. I figure I may as well TRY keep some sorta diary-ish here.
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FOR FULL TRANSPARENCY… I HAVE NOT PASSED GRADE 1 PROPERLY and HAVE NOT LEARNT THE STUCK CHORDS YET EITHER… I’m jumping around the material a little but hopefully not too much.
So post no1 - catching up on 5 weeks of updates:
Week 1 - 6th April 2025 - 12 April2025
1st April - 5th April - watched through beginner grade 1 on JustinGuitar without a guitar.
6th April 2025 - Bought and picked up my first guitar (electric) and started learning:
Chords A, Am, E, Em and D. D was the hardest one for me sticking out my ring finger.
I had to rewatch the clip and demonstrations from Justin a few times to follow.
Week 1 spent just doing the transitions
Also felt very awkward holding the guitar, slipped and slide all over the place. Felt like i had to hold my strumming arm up all the time or drape my arm too far over the guitar.
Also worth noting against advice, I started with a “medium” plectrum from the shop and spent some of my practise time muted string strumming (this part was the easy part for me I felt)
Week 2 - 13th - 19th April 2025
watched most things in the beginner grade 1 and looked at the material to build a set of things to practise.
Started to learn old ye faithful strumming pattern
Learning the string names and eddie ate dynamite good by eddie.
Still working on first riff, knowing the chords without reviewing which fingers and which strings. Struggled a little at the start knowing which strings were and were not played initially and purely just focusing on chord changes.
Generally speaking, I couldn’t really do any of the above in week 2 properly. I couldn’t strum without concentrating and would accidently hit strings when I didn’t want to and vice versa.
The chords that far exceeded a few seconds of prep time to play was Dm, C and G.
I also skipped the second riff if I’m honest and picked a very difficult song and just memorised maybe a few bars to just have a bit of fun.
I watched how to pass grade 1 at the end of week 2 to see what I had to focus on.
Week3 - 20th - 26th April 2025
Struggle town on switching to the G or C chord from any other open chord I’d learnt. While On some chord changes I could get to 2 sec per change. It wasn’t sufficient for some of the play along songs I was testing.
I focused purely on:
G and C for the whole week
Still mucking around on the hard song and my Jusin taught riff.
Worked on Old ye faithful strumming pattern.
Started memorising Low E string notes (5min every so often during the week)
Week 4 - 27th April - 3rd May 2025
Started learning the F chord. Index finger really hurt. and the middle finger felt really odd trying to place it on the string for the chord.
At this point, all I’ve been doing is cycling all chords in two parts. Slow when I make a lot of mistakes and then some time going as fast as I can while strumming old ye faithful.
Honestly I cannot consistently last a whole minute on chord changes once a sec. And I’ve decided to keep it in my practise routine till i feel i can change chords confidently.
Difficult most awkward changes for me are:
A → G
C → G
Dm → D
I had to break a habit of placing one finger at a time as well and really slow right down to move my fingers in slow motion to simulate the air change.
At this point I also started learning the E minor pentatonic and Open C major scale.
It’s worth noting I skipped song memorisation of 5 songs!!! I do NOT recommend that
… I’m currently on Week 6, I’ll type out week 5 and 6 together after week 6 is finished…
If I can offer one piece of suggestion, it is “take it slowly”. I got the impression from your post that you’re tackling Grade 1 as a whole, beginning to end. My suggestion is to go one module at a time, and only progress to the next one once those concepts and techniques are well mastered.
My own pace when I was going through Grade 1 was about 2-3 weeks on each module, then moving on to the next. I just had a look in my own learning log (handy thing to have!) and it seems it took me 8 months to complete Grade 1 and move on. I started Grade 2 on Jun 22 and if I’m completely honest, I have not “closed it” just yet, as there are many things I don’t feel are up to standard yet and I don’t want to rush into G3.
Such a tortoise pace as mine may not be suitable to to you or most people, but somewhere in between may be a good way to consolidate the material without moving forward at to haste a pace.
Have fun and enjoy the journey - that is more important than the destination
I originally had that intent and then quickly got to a point where I wanted a few things to practise because I ran out of things to practise since it takes time for it to sink in and learn.
I’ve moved on to build a set of things to do because it keeps me engaged that way. I’ve been practising about 2-3 hours a day.
Having said that though, I’ve stopped midway grade 2 because my practise routine is now filling up my time that I allocate for it which is nice. Keeps me engaged when I get bored of one thing because I can switch to other things to practise.
I’ve also been reading a bit of theory on the side as well.
Honestly it’s been pretty fun so far - very happy I stumbled across JustinGuitar.
Ok I was hoping to have a link to a clip of my progress, but it’s fallen to the bottom of my to do list because to my suprise, the sound picked up by the mic I use isn’t the clearest, so will have to fiddle with it.
Anyway I’ve completed week 6 as of the Sunday that just passed, so the break down for each week is as follows:
Week 5 (4th -10th May 2025)
I actually developed some elbow pain on the fretting hand at the start of the week so had to break up my practise time and take breaks. Also had to fiddle around with trying to relax the arm more and found it was rotating the fretting hand (left) anti clockwise too much that caused the pain.
Anyway. No progress on any more of the lessons and just practised the following:
Chord changes. Focusing still on G and C but also started building the muscle memory for F chord.
I’ve been practising the C major scale open position and I think position one?
The two songs I’ve been slowly learning is Canon in D JerryC version and Blue bird by Ikimonogakari.
I’m still playing the string note memory game for the 4th 5th and 6th string for about 5min at a time.
Week 6 (11th - 17th May 2025)
The practise was pretty much the same but with a sprinkling of some ear training and the first 3 positions of the C major scale.
Also, chords are being still focused on G, C, D transitions and F, C, G transitions
All in all, it’s been very fun but my practise routine is growing!! I haven’t found practise to be a chore and time flies by when i practise which is a good sign!
Biggest weak points.
Need to start using the metronome more
need to relax more
I also find my guitar keeps sliding out a bit and I have to keep correcting it so the strings don’t face the ceiling.
lessen the movements to press the strings on the fretting hand and the pinky feels weak
Another week. (I’ll probably stop doing weekly updates since things are taking longer and longer to practise) but will show updates when there are some changes or struggles along the way.
As promised, this is a link to a recording I made today. One take flaws and all:
I’ve barely memorised 1/4 of the song so far…
I’ll be continuing to post updates. But this one is just one of the songs I mentioned I started learning from day 1. I’ll post another update with the core material from Justinguitar lessons next week on my chord changes, scales etc.
I’ll have to find time to combine some of the original recordings I did in the first 6 weeks just to show the struggles / fun as well later on.
Apologies if I’ve broken any forum rules, hopefully the link is ok in my learning log!!
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forgot to add, the sound isn’t great because I don’t have an audio interface and I’m just letting my desk mic pick up the sound in the room!!! One day I’ll fix it…
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Ok just another update on chord changes. I’ve only recorded my current progress on my A chord changes recommended in the beginner grade 1 consolidation section.
I’m still practising everything else and will look to do a recording of my other ones as I progress.
Hope everyone’s enjoying their guitar journey!!!
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just realised I’m wearing the same top now that I saw the videos side by side!!! that’s just pure coincidence haha
hey guys, not an update per se, but wondering if anyone can provide some advice / guidance.
I have a question when the fretting hand moves say to the 12th fret and beyond (e.g. closer to the body of the guitar and jams up in terms of space close to the body…
Normally the thumb “pad” rests at the mid back section of the neck pointing to the ceiling… when I get to the higher frets… it gets awkward and my hand doesn’t feel flexible enough to keep the thumb in that position… it’s either the thumb print / pad points towards the base of the guitar… e.g rotates clock wise if i’m looking down at my thumb… OR if i want to keep the thumb print on the neck of the guitar i end up pointing the thumb towards the end of the neck…
What am I “MEANT” to do to have correct hand form?
This especially becomes a problem if I’m trying to play the low E string with my pinky on the higher frets… not so much of an issue on the lower frets…
Thumb vertical at the back ofthe neck is a default position.
In reality, your thumb, handposition etc is going to be changing often , depending on what you’re doing, and where you are on the neck.
Find what works for you, and post it here for comment. You’ll get lots of opinions
@sclay - Sorry for the slow reply. I was hoping to record what I mean, but instead have been trying as you put it “what works for me” and experimenting.
In the meantime, just a small update on my learning journey.
I mentioned I was learning the C Major scale a while back - but it seems I don’t use the metronome enough (at all) so we are going to fix that!! Here’s a clip of my C Major scale with and without, time to slow things down it seems.
Also, still working on my song in the background!
P.S. I’m still working on the chord changes but focused more on the F bar chord and generally just strumming and having fun playing with the open chords. I think I’ll probably start to use the metronome while strumming too.
Been practising my chord changes still and including some barre chords. Trying to play my scales on the metronome as well. Recording of where I’m at including errors - I think this is the end of my 9th week on my guitar learning journey.
Also about the problem I had with the thumb placement, I talk about where I’m placing it at 5min onwards, please let me know if you think that’s a poor approach. All the recording prior to 5min is the scale playing with a metronome (with errors).
Good to see you using alternate picking early in your journey, this can be tricky for some people to relearn once they get too far down the road using only downpicks. As for your thumb placement, I think it really depends on the person and the situation. I’ve heard people say that it should always be on the back of the neck, but I’ve also seen plenty of players play with it wrapped over the top. Near the end of Grade 2 Justin actually talks about some of the benefits of wrapping it around the top, and he mentions how it might be tricky for some people to learn if they always play with it on the back of the neck. I use it to mute my 6th string on 5 string chords, and play different root notes in slash chords. For Barre / power chords it’s always on the back of the neck providing supporting strength, and then for scales / melodies it’s really situational. I don’t think there’s a really “right and wrong” way to do it, it’s more about finding a way that works for you. If switching between Barre chords and open chords was a problem for me with my thumb moving from the back of the neck to over the top, I would probably try to find another way, but it works good for me and I find the most comfort playing that way.
Alright, that really makes sense. Thanks for the feedback. I took a sneak peak a while back and after I had learned the open chords, I had to completely relearn them because of the muting thing.
It’s the scales / single note picking when I’m on the higher fretts thats the issue and I wasn’t sure. For now I’ll try place it on top but without muting and see how that fairs. Will post another video soon because the song I’m learning for the main melody bit is all the way around fret 14-19 area and the hand felt weak or awkward with thumb at back or to the side.
Hey All,
Hope everyone’s making progress on their guitar journey and having heaps of fun!
So… a proper update on what I’m doing!!
I’m still working on my open chords. I still can’t do all 25 of the important changes recommended in Grade 1 consolidation while strumming, so going to have to pay special attention to Dm and E which seem to be my weakest links at the moment.
I’ve been working in the E shape and A shape chords in my chord practise and moving them around.
I’ve transitioned from the online learning the notes of the frettboard to the guitar now (no sharps or flats at this stage) for all strings. Still really slow but just trying to memorise and internalise - feels like when I was trying to learn to touch type on the keyboard
The C major scales is still happening in all 5 patterns just to get the muscle memory on the pattern and I’ve just been playing around a little with the C scale trying to make some kind of melody for fun.
last by not least, still working on my song of choice.
This is a link to the latest update on the song (I’ll post one on my chord changes or my frettboard learning as the next recording.)
I THINK this is my 10th week so far. I’ve lost count. I should count by months now I think
Man time is going by quick. Trying to keep up practise. So to keep things transparent, I’ve captured how my chord playing REALLY IS. Spoiler alert, it’s rough and definitely could spend more time improving the accuracy.
I have found that even if I can do the one minute changes, strumming on top is then a different ball game again so will keep at it both strumming and just changing chords as accurately as I can for practise. Dm, G and E changes to other notes is definitely trouble for me.
I also said a few weeks back that I had started learning the fretboard notes, so I’ve also recorded my transition to the guitar now to show how it’s progressing. Learning the notes hasn’t been the most exciting, but it hasn’t been too bad once I got to transition to the guitar and not rely on a fretboard diagram constantly.
Either way here’s to recording for the above update for anyone that’s interested.
As always, feel free to leave any constructive feedback and point out what I’m doing wrong - I can’t improve if I don’t know!!
Chord playing through the 25 changes recommended on JustinGuitar and some barre and power chords (sorry it’s a little long)
My update on learning the notes on the fretboard:
Thanks in advance and hope everyone’s doing well in their guitar adventures!
