Congrats for your new guitar 
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What an exciting and productive day! No amp until tomorrow unfortunately but that doesn’t hinder me from doing the usual practice routine.
I did a second round of the day using Practice Assistant on the website but then downloaded the ‘Justin Guitar’ app on my Chromebook and it’s really looking quite promising. The interface feels a lot more polished than the website (and to be fair that’s nice and clean itself, so the App is really good).
I hadn’t really been sure what the App provided. I thought the main benefit was “just” the Songs but actually the interface makes the lessons feel like a properly embedded part of an app, rather than a series of links in a website. I know it’s just a UI thing but it works. The Songs are great too. I played a couple that I hadn’t seen (or looked for to be fair) on the site and the usability there is really good too.
Another perk is the inbuilt 10 Minute Practice Sessions which saves me the faff of having to construct one in the Practice Assistant. It’s the same sort of exercises but they’re pre-made for you and accompanied where appropriate by chord diagrams etc.
There’s a lot to it and I don’t even appear to have started the 7 day free trial. I’m just in a version locked down to the first 2 modules of the Beginner Course. I’ll probably plough through that before activating the trial and use that to see what I think. If it opens up all the lessons on the website then I think it’s a real no-brainer because the polish of it is really at a good level.
Practice today has been great. About an hour put in and my OMCs were ~60 each time. I’ve also started to improve my posture with the guitar and that seems to be aiding my finger placement. Previously I couldn’t help having the guitar angled a little toward me so I could see what was going on, but I’m able to more or less have the guitar totally vertical now which really alters your hand shape and wrist position in a beneficial way.
The electric is also clearly easier for me to play; it really is night and day. It’s some or all of: lower action, lower gauge strings, larger scale combining to make it much less heavy on the fingertips. Hopefully when I get my acoustic back the action is a touch lower so I can comfortably flip between guitars.
Cracking day though. I’m really pleased and am looking forward to another practice day tomorrow combined with some new amp and guitar tinkering. Then I think I’ll draw a line under Module 1 as I am confident that I’m ready to move on.
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Guitar looks fabulous, Charlie, wish you much joy.
A minor technicality, scale length (that’s what I assume you mean by ‘larger scale’) does have an impact on playing experience. The longer the scale length the greater the tension on the strings to be in tune. So typically an LP style guitar is usually shorter scale length than a Strat style so less tension and ‘easier’ on the fingers to fret and bend. I put that in quotes as I have no idea on how noticeable that might be.
But maybe you meant something else altogether and I am down a rabbit hole rambling off on something irrelevant.
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Probably just me butchering terminology 
All I meant is that seems to be more space in the frets - they seem longer, not wider, than on the acoustic.
With the A chord as an example it’s a pretty clustered little get-together in the second fret but there’s noticeably more space on the electric. I’ll have to measure things when the acoustic comes back to see if it’s my mind playing tricks on me!
Not at all, just me running down a different line of thinking. I think you’d be right that the spaces between frets would be bigger on a longer scale length. I can’t say that with absolute certainty but seems logical to me.
Looking really good Charlie. Congrats !
(Latest) final piece of the puzzle has arrived; look at this little chap! Computer mouse beside it for context. It’s small but absolutely perfect for my practice needs.
Buying one with a spectacular colour scheme saved me a tenner.
Practice-wise it has been a double session today and I’m going to call it a day with Beginner Grade 1 Module 1. My OMC’s are regularly ~60+ and sounding good. Even for me memorising two chords wasn’t too hard and the Song App has treated me to Feelin’ Alright, Blowin’ Smoke and You Never Can Tell to freshen things up.
I already know the chords for the next two modules so hopefully that’ll be a handy headstart and will allow me to focus on the extra lessons in those modules. Loving this so far one week in. Will probably make a start on Module 2 tonight, in addition to fiddling about with my new toys.
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It looks like those professionally made birthday cakes, love the colour! Interesting that it saved you a tenner, I would expect it would cost extra actually! :o
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Fellow Fender cable user The amp looks pretty good, kind of psychedelic with these colours.
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Looks pretty cool, Charlie.
How does it sound?
It’s surprisingly versatile and sounds great. Obviously has a fairly limited range of options at this price point and size but there are “Clean” and “Overdrive” channels with very, very different characters. There’s an EQ of sorts which lets you switch between a neutral balance, a “British” (warm) and “American” (brighter) sound.
There’s a digital delay which is pretty good and you can crank the gain if you’re that way inclined. I’ve been really happy testing out all of these settings alongside the five different pickup selections on the guitar. I much prefer a really clean sound but the range of different options is really pretty cool.
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You’ve got some nice gear there Charlie, enjoy and have fun with it!
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That’s a great wee practice amp you’ve got there Charlie. I got the blackstar acoustic amp for my Christmas. I’m sure you’re going to be having lots of fun with the electric. Good luck with Module 2, keep up the good work and rock on.
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Remember, the acoustic Charlie has started with and sent to the shop is a Taylor BT - so I believe 3/4 sized. So going from the BT to the Pacifica defo means wider frets.
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Fun times, Charlie! Gorgeous new guitar, great practice amp, and best of all, great excitement for you! You are living the dream right now! 
It is great at the moment 
Picked up my acoustic earlier and the action has been lowered “a fair bit” - it is noticeable and that’s fantastic as it obviously has a very different sound compared to the electric and is easier to just pick up and play, so adds to my options.
Started Module 2 today and it’s going well. The E chord isn’t a tricky one and anchoring to/from it from D and A is fine but I’ll still spend a few days practising Chord Perfect , anchoring and OMCs to commit those transitions to memory. Adding E really unlocks a bunch of new tunes so Song Practice will be a prominent part of the next few days too. Now to set up my routines 
EDIT: Scrub that. Just made the call to sign up for the app because the Songs are more accessible there. You can find the odd Play Along on YouTube but on the App there are more and it’s far easier to follow than some of the explanatory sessions on here where quite rightly Justin has smartly excluded the Song App functionality to encourage people to actually give him some cash for all the time, money and energy he’s sunk into this.
I do already have the Beginner Songbooks but they’re relegated to bedtime reading as they aren’t as easy to follow as the App either. Plus now I don’t have to set up Items for Routines in the Practice Assistant as I have preset 10 Minute Practice sessions in the app.
EDIT 2: A couple of 10 minute practice routines done today and a few songs: Three Little Birds, For What It’s Worth and Lay Down Sally. It probably adds up to an easy hour in total again today as I was pootling about on the acoustic a fair bit too.
As posted elsewhere I’m finding Songs a slog at this stage. Moving to a 4 minute song from 2 minute exercises, as little as it sounds, is feeling quite heavy on the concentration and finger fatigue. Gotta keep at it to get my fingers and brain music fit. I’m very happy with the basic exercises still but my quality levels definitely drop in Songs across the board - quality of chord execution and general timing both take a dip and I’m only strumming on one at the moment.
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Day Ten of my second guitar journey already 
A couple of 10 Minute Practice Routines from the app done (I’ll do another one later) and for the first time I attempted and largely succeeded with a 4-beats-in-a-bar strum pattern on a Practice Song (Stir It Up).
In addition I’ve been happily sat just sub-consciously doing a gentle paced hybrid of Perfect Chord / One Minute Changes on the acoustic while watching the news. Feels like an easy way to reinforce some finger placement practice and I’ll throw in the Peter Gunn piece for a bit of variety now and then.
I think E to A is the toughest transition for me at the moment because that finger placement on A still isn’t totally natural, but I have realised that I am no longer defaulting to my old 123 fingering, so that’s progress. My finger tips are developing some nice signs of toughening up too; never thought I’d eagerly look forward to developing callouses, but I am 
I’m probably averaging a good hour on guitar a day now and it’s feeling good. It’s easy to slot in a 15 minute burst at various points in the day and my fingers aren’t feeling fatigued at all. At the current rate I’ll be confident to finish Module 2 in a day or two when I’m more comfortable with my A chord. Adding in Em and Am in Module 3 will be reminding me of familiar chords, but will also be a good point to consolidate and fully absorb what I’ve picked up so far.
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Another really rewarding day. Four (4!) 10 Minute Practice sessions from the App done today plus a song after each, and I’ve just done another couple of songs which I didn’t realise were covered by my A, D and E options. So it’s another hour+ at the strings today and all is going well.
I’m going to stick with yesterday’s feeling and do one more day on this Module before moving on. I’m happy with everything but actually found these “new” songs today and want to practice them tomorrow just to work on some more chord change sequences. I watched the NITSUJ session at the equivalent point in his journey and it’s definitely time to move on, but I’ll just take one more day to tidy up a few things.
I cannot think of the last time I found something this downright addictive, rewarding and enjoyable.
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Hi Charlie, I hope today’s practice went well. That was a very good idea to get another module 2 practice session in before moving on to the next module. It will do you the world of good. Good luck with module 3. Keep up the good work and dedication.
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Good timing @Socio
A bit of an unstructured freestyling day from me today. I started with solid intentions and did an early 10 Minute Practice and a couple of songs using the App. This afternoon and evening I just absentmindedly flitted about with Anchor changes and Chord Perfect, then I went through the Module 1 songs from the Beginner Songbook.
Then curiosity got the better of me and I moved on in the book and started playing the Am, Em and Dm chords. I can remember them all and even the slightly fiddly looking Dm is fine and all the fingering is the same as I learned on Round One of learning the guitar 25+ years ago, so I feel very comfortable moving onto the next Module from tomorrow.
I love being able to just grab a guitar and practice this stuff. It’s so accessible and calming. I’ve done loads of transitioning between the minor chords and A, D and E, so feel like I’ve got a head start on Modules 3 and 4, as Dm doesn’t get introduced until Module 4
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