BLIM Students - Question About Skill

Discuss the Website, Courses, Products & Community Discuss Blues Immersion (BLIM)
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Dear BLIM students,

as I am sitting in Grade 2 doing the La Bamba riff… I still dream about far future.

I keep in mind a long time BLIM do exists. I am pretty sure will jump in when I am ready and I means finishing the Grade 3.
Then I would like to get back more to fingerstyle and grow my blues fingerstyle library over Acoustic and Tele.

Is the first song here something that is achieveable through the course or not? Maybe I would like to see more of your progress video and what you are the most proud of.

I wonder if it will unclock the fretboard for you or you are more likely to copy original song to song and not putting anything yours into that?

Thanks for answer and possible good bait for someone dreamin’

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I guess Blim students do not post their WIP videos to not spoil the discovery of what it is for the others
in fact Im not even sure its allowed since there is a private forum for this purpose :sweat_smile:

as for the songs its it :

Sweet home Chicago

https://www.justinguitar.com/songs/robert-johnson-sweet-home-chicago-chords-tabs-guitar-lesson-sg-228

and

Crossroads

https://www.justinguitar.com/songs/eric-clapton-crossroads-legacy-lesson-2008-chords-tabs-guitar-lesson-st-304

I hope Im not breaking a rule here since the songs are on the website

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@GrumpyMac Thank you very much. I did not think about it like that. In the end I would think having in pocket 4-5 students before after videos to promo the course would be a thing. Gonna check those playings. :slight_smile:

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There’s a category for this. Here’s the “about” page. I couldn’t find a way to get the url to the top level.

You could watch some of the before and after and read the Learning Logs etc.

Feel free to ask me any questions you have, here or via direct message. Good luck!

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Hi Michal,

I’d say it could do all this…
the first song sounds like a rather easy song, of course very well played, To develop the feeling takes probably some time. Sounds nice by the way!

But Blim contains so much content, it could take you really far. It’s just on you to invest the time and be motivated. And certainly, when you start after level 3, come back and revisit the stuff even after 6 months.
Last december I felt the urge to engage in Blim again. I could have worked at it by myself, but along the live sessions, time frame, challenges and with lots of other motivated Blimmers, I thought it’d motivate me quite some bit more. There I am again. We’ll see in summer how well it will have went.

It doesn’t unlock the fretboard automatically, you have to put the work in yourself, but I clearly felt much more at ease in more regions after Blim.

Did you look at the rather new solo blues course?
When it was announced I had to think of you, I just felt the songs could please you too.
You know me, I’m originally an acoustic player too, but lately I’ve come to love the electric more too and Blim certainly played a role in it.

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Hi Michal

I listened to extracts of most of the songs in the playlist you posted. Firstly I would say from what I listened some of the songs are likely not to hard to play but others have some quite difficult technical aspects. One thing they all have is the guitarist(s) are playing with expression, control and accuracy, in other words a high level of playing.

To answer your question about whether BLIM would enable you to do that, in 6 months from grade 3 the honest answer is no. But the real answer is it will develop your playing and understanding of the blues, give you a practice ethic(if you follow Justin’s practice guidance) and road map to developing your playing and guitar skills to a higher level. The key to that IMHO and experience is dedication and daily practice.

I have rejoined BLIM4 after 3, as due to other issues was unable to keep up in the later months of the course, so am trying to consolidate and do what I missed, songs in particular.

The songs mentioned are a good examples IMO of what can be challenging in BLIM, ‘Sweet Home Chicago’ may sound uncomplicated and an easy to play example, but it depends how you approach it, if you simply do a blues shuffle in E damping the strings, and a simplified intro and outro the then not a big challenge, depending on your skills at the start, But if you try to do it justice and play the Robert Johnson original with all the variations and fills it’s a different ball game IMO, especially if you not only want to play it accurately but also with style.

‘Crossroads as presented by Justin in the Clapton form is another where it sounds straight forward but actually is quite difficult to play consistently accurately, due to its speed and various techniques needed, especially if you look at the original version. And if you tackle the solos an even bigger challenge.

I think it would be far for me to say the quite a few in BLIM3 found both challenging, from what the videos posted most achieved reasonable versions of one or the other, and a few were very good. I did ‘Crossroads’ in the time I had, it had mistakes, and timing was inaccurate in places, and I was not happy with my attempt. A case of a step too far at that point maybe, but I was determined to revisit it and improve.

BLIM will improve a guitarists IMO playing but it does require a reasonable amount of dedication and determination, the more you put into it the more you will get out. Go for it when you’re ready it is a lot of fun and will help you improve.

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@GrumpyMac I checked out the videos you posted and I though I have seen everything… but Justin nailing it with thumbpick? And also it looks like it is Black Mountain one! He is so great and I am happy to see those songs in later stages. I dont really know what is above Grade 2, because I like to keep myself curious, but this lil sneak peak is great.

@Beatup6String Thank you for the topic. Gonna watch that now as I am replying to you all.

@domi7 Thank you, Dom. I like the example you are giving - we are both playing acoustic, but I got new Tele too finding the beauty of electrics.
I saw that course too, but in the fact and according to Justin I am not ready yet, because I did not finish 3 Grades and I am respecting that. I am really getting ready to battle frustration in future and right now I am learning my La Bamba riff. :joy: Glad to hear the course is making you grow.

@AJSki2fly Thank you very much for deep explanation and share about your experience and though. I fully understand the will and needs for learning that - I dont see course as a shortcut, but as a guided ship that has bright goal.
On my journey I see it can be problem to define your goal and the journey and while you are doing that… there are many boulders or fake stream that gives you off your destination.
In this way Paul Davids Acoustic Adventure really worked for me in fingerstyle way and I can play something. I am sure BLIM works same. In the end… Justin teached me from the basics and I am where I am today thanks to him.

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Exactly they right way to see it :+1:

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@Beatup6String I read some topics and watched the comparison videos…

Maybe one more question? I can see this is aiming for 6 months of immerse work, but I can see some topic talking about life happen and you can drop off really simple for week or two.
But there are ongoing challenges and meet ups. Does it mean if the train will go away from you once, you cant catch it and you have to jump over some materials to keep with them? I would think that course difficulty raise through the later stages, so it will be even harder.
I see you got permanent access to materials, but in this way you have to work on that solo or there are groups “after course” that still chat and learn together but without Justin?
On the other hand I am trying to see there why would you go for next BLIM grade, when materials are the same and you can work on them? Is the reason Justin works like steam in the machine keeping you doing the work?
Sorry for maybe too complex question and not English right. :joy::blush:

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Yes, many of us couldn’t be engaged at 100% throughout the six months.
As the difficulty generally increases, you can still practice things from earlier levels (and probably will have to) and take part in the community, also there’s always more general subjects coming up. So it’s not like you loose all the connection if you can’t be engaged for some time.
The few that I talked to about this weren’t so concerned, because you could always come back later.

It’s on you to organize this or talk to others about it. I have the feeling with 4 classes soon finished, there’s quite a lot of people wanting to work on the Blim content again and some will probably be happy to be in some study group with you when you’ll possibly want one.

For me, the community part was more motivating, the time schedule, Justin havíng live events. Maybe a bit like going to university against having all the material and study from home solely. Both can work of course.

PS. A new Tele - great! :slight_smile:

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@domi7 Thank you for all informations, Dom. :slight_smile:
I also saw your loop progress and it is great. And you are doing that fingerstyle! That is same approach I would love to do too. :slight_smile:

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Hi Michal,

Good questions and considerations! Let me echo many of @domi7’s points.

  1. Each unit has a lot of material, some marked optional. If you are an advancing beginner when you start BLIM (like me), it will be impossible to master all the non-optional material in a month, but it is possible to learn and remember them enough to keep working on them in following months. I worked on legato picking, bends and vibrato every month, in fact I still work on them :slight_smile:

  2. The ‘immersion’ part of the course is important and useful - listen to the playlists as often as you can, listen to the medleys, listen to them mindfully - hear the chord changes, keep track of the beat, try to recognize the vocabulary. It compliments the traditional ‘learning’ lessons and some day, all the listening will translate to interesting improvisations. (This takes time, I am not there yet, but I can at least hear what I am not doing :slight_smile: )

  3. The permanent access to the materials helps and in fact, at the end of the course Justin recommends repeating BLIM but 2 months per unit. I did that last year.

  4. When I fell behind, I kept working on the old unit for the first week when I was mostly learning from videos rather than practicing anything new.

  5. In each unit, make sure you spend enough time to learn the unit’s pentatonic pattern, some licks, some new chords - its more important to know a few things well enough to try jamming with them, than to know lots of things that you haven’t tried using over a backing track. I am not suggesting you skip anything - do watch all the videos and try everything a couple of times, learn a basic version of the song or maybe a riff from it… but if life intervenes, these things are the MVP :slight_smile: for the unit.

  6. It is useful to move on to the next unit (is that what you meant by ‘why go for the next grade’? ) with the rest of the class, since the live classes, Justin’s Q&A, and any study group you join, the feedback from the other teachers, etc. will all be about the new material. You can come back to the older stuff when you have time later.

  7. Some BLIM students have continued to chat and learn together!

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Here is another thread you might find helpful Michal:

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@Beatup6String Thank you for sharing this topic. I read that all and it covered all the questions I could have. I love the energy of BLIMs supporting each other. Musicians are really nice people. :slight_smile:

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Thanks for asking this Michal! I had a similar question and I’m in a similar level to you. I learned the basic 12 bar blues this last weekend and I’m really interested in doing BLIM at some point. Module 13 in Grade 2 is a blues module so you’ll get some blues there. I’m just starting it now.

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