Claudio Learning Logs

[dredmix]

On my third week of learning.

The first week was mainly seeing lots of videos and going through Justin’s Course intro and first two chords.

The next two weeks were practice a good 30 minutes a day 4-5 days a week, depending on how much my fingers were sore.

Week 1

Video overload and down the Youtube rabbit hole we go. As you do when you first get a guitar I spent a ridiculous amount of time watching videos on Youtube, everything from Pentatonic scales to gear to ‘What are the best riffs for a beginner’ kinda thing.

Only to realise that I was way over my head with some of the concepts when it comes to guitar.

Also took the time to slowly go through Module 0 and 1 of Justin’s course.

Week 2

It’s pain time - does my middle finger hurt…

Main takeaway from the first week - don’t press so hard on the strings. I did struggle a bit with the A and D chords, mainly the muting of the first string. I couldn’t get it to ring properly, but I guess that’s part of the learning.

Week 3

Fingers hurt less - but there’s skin coming out of them

I think I’m starting to get the hang of it, I don’t struggle as much with the chord changes and I can play them more clearly overall. Stopping to look at my hand position and how I’m placing my finger in the strings helped a bit. Still have the habit of pressing a bit too hard on the strings, but now that I’m comfortable with everything else and my fingers don’t hurt as much, just need to learn to relax my fret hand a bit.

Manage to surpase the 30 changes in a minute

I’m confident now that I can move to Module 2 of the course.

So far…

I think I’m making decent progress or would like to believe so. When I started this journey, my main objective was to learn how to play a few songs and mainly have fun and take my time with this.

I’m trying to stick as much as I can to the 4-5 days practice routine and so far so good. There are days when I’m a bit more tired and not as motivated, but still powered through those and got my 30 mins in. And there were days when I was really into it and practice for a good hour.

Now that I’m a bit more confident, I also started to properly look at songs that I would like to start to play. Music that I like.

I choose this one - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62ezXENOuIA
And got the chords from UG - Ultimate Guitar Tabs - A long fall

And although the thought of learning a song I like made me excited, also made me realise that there’s a lot of stuff I have to learn before even attempting to play it. Including learning how to read tabs and some music notation.

One step at the time I guess, got start somewhere.

Here’s a video of me attempting to play Boys Round Here by Blake

Boys roung Here - Blake Shelton

Month 4?

Just wanted to give a quick update to this Journal, since I haven’t done so in a while.

I finished module 4, went on holiday in September and haven’t touched the guitar since.

I did buy a cheap Epiphone LP, second hand to take with me for the month I was out and get some practice, but ended up getting so busy that it just sat on a corner. I’m back home, but between having to sort out things in the house and taking care of our little one. Still struggling to get some time to focus on the guitar.

Fortunately, things seem to getting in order and I should be able to get back to a somewhat routine where I can sit for 30 or 40 minutes and focus on my guitar lessons without having to worry about the other hundred things I have to do.

On some better news, maybe…

Apparently, there is this weird bug that goes around, that when you get a guitar you feel the urge to get a second one, and a 3rd or a 4th.

Also got some new gear - All won at Guitar Gear Giveaway.

[dobleA]

Hi Claudio. Good you started your learning log. As far as you keep working on the basics giving an early try to songs can help to identify what need more work with the proposed exercises. Take them as a work in progress. Some people get an early success with some songs while for others is harder. Some songs are friendly for beginners and those are good for consolidating skills while others requires more work and proficiency with certain skills introduced later in the courses and can be a longer term project.

[LunaRocket]

Good start on your log. Love that you already have done a video (took me longer!) Your strumming seems pretty consistent, and your chords were sounding good. Just keep on practicing!

[prbushe]

Well done on your first video posting Claudio. You’re doing great. Good start to your learning log.

[dredmix]

I been making a videos at the end of every week.
It’s helps a bit to see where and how you’re doing with progress. I can easily see any mistakes that I bee making from outside.

Plus it’s kinda of nice momento to keep, so who can see how far you came when you become a guitar hero

[NicoleKKB]

Hi Claudio, really good start. I also practiced my D to A changes with this song.
Your strumming and chords sound good. And it will become easier when the finger pain is going to become less of an issue.

I wish you lots of fun along your guitar journey and look forward to hearing more from you .

[DavidP]

Welcome to the Community, Claudio.

Nothing I can really say, you are doing just great. You are on track, doing the right things the right way and sharing great insights in the log.

One thing that may help you is to work on the strumming action as being a smooth up and down like a pendulum movement, rather than a down strum and then bringing the hand up to the position to down strum again. Hope that makes some sense.

Keep on keeping on!

[dredmix]

I did notice that on the video, my strumming hand is not that smooth.

Need to add that to my practice routine of things to watch for.

Thanks for the advice.

[dredmix]

Log above - updated.