It’s been really helpful in lieu of a mirror, and made me comfortable seeing my own face moving around while practicing. I think it definitely helped me feel no stress actually making a video when I got around to it. Probably helps that I talk to myself a lot, so it didn’t feel awkward talking to an imaginary third person through the lens.
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When doing a recording or an avoyp , its always very stressfull trying to play the best one could to show the efforts and progress
Doing WIP recording release that pressure
you’re idea is perfect 
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Lovely update, Constance. Hope the shoulder recovers quickly, such a pain (excuse the pun).
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Hi Constance,
Great those where am I now with this song posts 
… I sometimes start with it full of good intentions but forget to come back to it… I believe I still have some in progress 
… who knows, you (and Silvia and a few more that I’m forgetting…busy busy busy) give great examples,
Thanks and Greetings
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Well done on your progress and sharing another video.
Since you mentioned this song I’ve been giving it a go for the past couple of weeks, although as mentioned, I’ve been learning the Sheryl Crow version, which is all based around the open D, A and G chords. There’s a little riff and some single note picking but not as complicated as having to move up and down the neck. I have no intention of ever singing along to it, Sheryl sounds so much better than i do!!!
Looking forward to see how this progresses for you
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Cracked on with Grade 2 today. Kept reading about the pinkie gym in Deborah’s posts and my wibbly little finger has been taunting me since the Dm chord. Found the exercise surprisingly easy? But of course the pinkie is off at an angle, which may never change even if I live to a hundred. Nevertheless, on on.
F mini barre chord is an absolute beast, and those stuck 3&4 chords really test the elasticity between the 2nd and 3rd fingers. Got a bit of a hand ache and a wrist ache while doing those progressions but nothing unhealthy. Interestingly, my wrists can both get a bit hurty due to how they’re built and me daring to use them, but I’ve found that quite often my left wrist starts feeling a bit sore if I haven’t played guitar for a few days. And playing sorts it out. I do regular stretches, but I guess the muscles want to be used now that I’ve started.
Getting a little frustrated with First Cut so probably gonna let it be for the next couple of practices. That sliding up to a note is really difficult to nail for me. It’s been a windy day and I look and feel like a harried cat, ears back and all. Absolutely did not help ease the frustration lol.
I altered my guitar strap, making it looser, and my shoulder pain significantly lessened after doing so. I’ve also altered my sitting position again, this time I’m sliding half of my right side off the chair so I can lean my leg down, giving more clearance for the guitar body to hang lower, lowering my shoulder and making the elbow angle less severe also. My body size and shape is slowly changing, (sloooowly changing) as I’ve been exercising regularly, and since I store most of my weight in my lower half, that part of me has not stayed consistent for positioning of the instrument. That, plus my torso is short, but I am not getting a non-standard chair to add to things cluttering the house. It has helped me keep my back straighter as I can’t lean, and I think it will help overall, even for standing playing (although I have no need to do so yet).
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ah ah , true i do it everyday cause the pinky is often used in songs and needs to be stronger
mine too 
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Hi Constance @ConstanceClaire . I often find that leaving something for a few days and then coming back to it helps, probably by getting over a ‘mental block’ and I usually find it easier when I come back. I think I read somewhere that having a pause lets the brain figure things out so you’re “de-cluttered” when you try again.
For your posture issues do you use a footstool? I too sit down a lot to play, not always but most times, and have found a footstool a great help. It gets your knee high enough so your guitar doesn’t slide off your lap and you can happily just let it sit there so it doesn’t require muscle tension just to hold the thing in place. They’re relatively cheap but you can try it with anything that gets your foot off the floor by about 20cm. The one I use is here if you’re interested
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Thanks for the idea, Stuart! I was using my guitar case to raise my right leg when I first began playing, I didn’t have a strap at the time so that was a real issue. As I’ve progressed in skill and in my exercise, and bought a strap, my positioning has changed. Now I’m trying to get my leg out of the way of the guitar so I can drop it lower, thus lowering my strumming shoulder / elbow. If I were on a hard floor I’d just use an office chair and set it higher. But sitting forward in the chair so I can drop my thigh lower is working so far. I have some non-slip material I put on my thigh so the guitar doesn’t slide around so much, which works pretty well to keep it stable without me having to wrangle it.
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Noodling!
Started on the next module of music theory without having memorised all the sharps / flats per major scale, apparently that’s normal lol. Started writing down triads, then started analysing the notes in the basic chords to see if they matched and how I would modify them, hit some strings by chance picking the guitar up, made me think of a song and so started trying to recreate the opening bassline / riff(?) of Animal Life by Shearwater. I was sort of using intervals and sort of guessing (which I guess was that trusting your gut part of knowing intervals because I usually fell on the right note mostly) and then the beginning of the melody the same way.
Picking the opening is straight forward, it’s just a few note changes on the E string and open B string an eighth behind it the whole way. The melody I was sussing out was the singing, I don’t know if the two could be played simultaneously, I suspect you’d need more people.
When I was counting I would’ve said it was 4/4, but if you go by how it wraps around and starts over with the beginning of the melody coming in, it ends halfway through a bar and starts the same progression, so maybe it’s some other time signature. Don’t know enough but at least I can say it’s couplets, I suppose.
Wrote down the notes and tried to identify what key the song is in by that… not far enough in the theory (OR I’ve just forgotten that I’ve been taught this, which happens a lot) to know if the key of a song is determined by the melody or the bassline or if they all have their own keys or what, but since they both use the same notes I’m gonna say it’s in the key of B.
The E string progression, all the second octave, so below fret 8, on every beat (followed by bar count): B(2) F#(2) G#(1 1/2) E(1/2) F#(1) E (1/2). (Plus play the open B string after every quarter note.)
I’ve tried writing a tab too… not great lol, and as it’s being sung, it’s not really directly on quarter notes and eighth notes to begin with, it’s a bit syncopated… I just get so turned about by it all 
, I suspect this would be a lot better written as musical notation, but I just do not have the skills.
I used a tilde ~ to show that a note kept ringing out / carried over, into the next note, so if it’s the same note it gets played again, if it’s no note then it’s still just ringing out. I started writing E for eighth notes but gave up I guess, but I basically meant they were not on the down beat but on the up. The little dashes between are going from on the beat to the eighth note, hence more than 4 notes per bar.
You could also play it mostly in the first four frets using the bottom three strings, but you still need to move further up for the A#, I just found it easier doing it further up the fretboard.
If any of the music theory folks stumble upon this maybe they can judge how well/terribly I’ve done. I’ve been enjoying it but it’s taken me a long time. I guess when you learn more and get used to using that knowledge, it must get a bit faster to do. Hopefully.
ANYWAY, the melody uses the same note progression as Beethoven’s Joyful Joyful for a bit of it, and the same group of notes, just a different order / rhythm. In which case, that too is in the key of B? For that famous part anyway? That’s if I got it right. I mean I had a reference but who knows if I can read after all these hours of following tangents.
All-in-all, I’ve been musically inclined all afternoon and well into the evening and yet I’ve done almost zero hands-on guitar and barely any theory, actually!
Omg no you don’t, where did my brain go… 
I have had a busy couple of weeks, and five terrible practice sessions in a row during, and if I have another one I think I am going to lose my mind. 
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Have a day off from practice and just play fun stuff. Go back to formal practice in a day or two. Sometimes we need a break 
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need a break ? have a kit kat !
I should really stop watching commercials 
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Hurt my shoulder recently (pulled something trying to stretch a bit too vigorously to fend off the pain), so took a few days off practicing. Picked up the guitar today to do a short practice session, as I didn’t want to overstress it. Did it without pain but it’s a little iffy afterwards. I had intended to just do some chord changes, but it’s been such a drudge recently and I just couldn’t do it. So I just followed whim. Tried out a few chords from the chord library, followed my ear noticing bits from songs I recognised and seeing what I could to do make more of the song with my limited knowledge.
But then I went onto the app and noticed there were songs for each module, so I added a few to my practice ones and came upon What’s Up by 4 Non Blondes, which is a great song that I always sing along to when I hear it. (Sometimes I do the He-man cover version because that is hilarious and just as catchy.) The app had the strumming pattern set to four down strums but I tried to listen to what was happening in the backing track and do that pattern. It’s a bit variable, and not all the down beats end up being down strums, but it’s a good groove to get into. Interestingly, it follows somewhat close to the lyrics, but not entirely, so when I went to sing along I found myself stuffing up my strumming as my hand started to follow the vocals and lose the pattern. It’s also a bit dynamic, you have to strum softer in some parts, and I found it was a challenge to hear myself sing even when I did manage it, so it’ll take working on singing technique as well. (Not ready to get a mic yet, gotta have something worth recording first I think.)
So this is actually a song I’m gonna have to work on, and I think I’ll put First Cut on the backburner a while because that was starting to really bog me down and I wasn’t making much progress with the slides. I think I need to free up my left hand a bit to make headway on that, and part of that is sorting out my shoulders so I’m not shifting around to stay comfortable the whole time.
So I played through What’s Up a few times, recorded my attempts because why not, and then put away the guitar as I was enjoying it a lot but I could tell my shoulder was starting to fatigue.
Anyway, I had fun for the first time in a while, which was nice. Also had to stop mid-session to go tell off a couple of neighbourhood cats who were looking to get into a scrap. Exciting afternoon in my books!
Non-guitar goal: actually do the vocal exercises I’ve been learning on the regular, and be able to sing Good Luck Babe easily and well on demand, rather than as a fluke. And then maybe learn a guitar version and post a cover because honestly, that song is such a good time to holler along to.
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you never noticed it ?
its perfect to practice what you ve learned and be sure that its at your level
glad you ve found it 
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You can do this (filter by Grade) on the Songs section of the website too as well as a number of other filters such genre, chords used etc.
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I was pretty exclusively using the app for the practice stuff (mostly the timed chord changes). I did go through songs at one point but just to favourite them for looking at in the future. I saw the module squares on the screen but I had just assumed they were the lessons so never investigated further. Only noticed the heading the other day as I was bored and trying to get inspired to practice!
I should probably sit down and go through the app to see everything that’s available on there.
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I realised yesterday that I can practice the push rythm on the app ^^"
there are so many things available on it 
I have a referral to a physio and some scans booked in on my shoulder, which is limiting my playing currently. But in the mean time, some chord changes are getting notably better.
My F barre chord seems to be pretty decent most of the time, although getting into position is still a slog about 70% of the time. I’ve hit about 16 changes per minute, abysmal, but watching back some footage I at least noticed I have an anchor finger with Dm and the two sound nice next to each other so perhaps I can use it in a song and get some more enjoyable practice in.
Been playing What’s Up by 4 Non Blondes, really love that tune and I can’t believe it’s just the three open chords in the same progression the whole way through. It really is amazing how something as simple as a strumming pattern and vocals can make something so simple and repetitive actually really enjoyable. Bit of dynamic range in the volume, even without the bass etc it sounds good.
Am posting a quick video below comparing the sound of two picks for that song. Would love your opinion, and if you have recommendation on a different pick I should try out I’m all ears. The one I like the sound of better is more difficult to make quiet, or at least with my current skills it is.
Have progressed to the triad chords in the music theory lessons and am trying to stick the top string chord shapes into my brain. (I mean, I already know the shapes, that’s easy, it’s just remembering which one is for which root note that I get confused. But I’ve had insomnia so my brain is a bit mushy.)
Haven’t really been playing songs as the strumming is setting off the shoulder and I’ve been quite tired, but I am enjoying the repetitive nature of focussing on changes at the moment, so it’s still scratching an itch and thereby I continue to practice.
Anyway, pick comparison:
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