I’m ‘cheating’ a little bit on this one because I had already sunk a bunch of time into the Lead track for it on Rocksmith, 6-7 years ago, so the timing feels very familiar to me.
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Clean chord changes and looks like you’ve got a good sense of the rhythm.
Next challenge would be to try a bit of distortion and play the riffs !
Sounds good, Brendan. Noted your thumb strumming, getting a smooth even sound.
For this one maybe BT a little louder would have been cool.
Thanks David. I always strum with my thumb, well on the downs anyway. I never got the hang of using a pick, and since I much prefer the sensation of having the strings under my fingers, I decided to continue learning without one.
Sorry not familiar with “BT”, what’s that mean?
Because I work full time and have got young kids at home, the only opportunities I really get to play are when they are asleep – which means playing/singing loud, or messing with distortion is rarely an option! The only way I get to fiddle with the gain knobs on my amp is if I pipe it out to headphones, but I can’t really record that way, as I don’t (yet) have an audio interface.
Many great players who don’t use a pick. Is it worth persevering, say 5 minutes strumming with a pick every time you play? Likely to get a whole lots of different thoughts on that question. Meanwhile you are doing great, so keep on keeping on.
Apologies BT is Backing Track
Apologies BT is Backing Track
Yeah OK that is really obvious in retrospect, I feel a bit silly 
Not at all … acronyms may appear obvious in hindsight but when presented with one in the moment they can be real head-scratchers.
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Sounding good Brendan. Clean chord changes and smooth strumming.
Probably. Coud always go with the key note from Justin in Grade 1 ‘I tend to do at least 50% of my practice without a pick. I’m pretty comfortable when I have to use one. Set this as your goal’.
Good stuff Brendan. Next thing to do is get out of the habit of constantly watching your fretting fingers and what I’m assuming is a computer screen.
Thanks Gordon, yeah what I’m looking at for most of the video is the JG app on my phone, so I’m watching for the chord prompts and checking in to make sure I’m not drifting off the beat. Looking at my fret hand is a difficult habit to break but I am working on that, and slowly getting better. Had no real idea how much I was doing it, until I started watching back my own recordings!
It’s important to learn to use your ears rather than your eyes. I’ve never used the app so don’t know anything about it. Can you turn off the video and simply listen to the audio and see how you get on?
Sure I could but then I wouldn’t know what chords to play
Memorising songs is something I am having a hard time with, in fact I’ve got a thread open on the Technique channel asking for tips on how to get better on that. At the moment, unless the chord sequence is dead simple, I need either a chord sheet or the app in front of me, or I’m completely lost.
Hard to make a call on this one as not familiar with the song and could not really hear the backing track. All sounded smooth and solid but difficult put into context with the BT so low in the mix. That said it looks and sounds like good progress.
Well that’s my whole point Brendan. Of course you need to read/look at the source material when learning a song but you then need to force yourself to play it without the sheet, book, app or whatever. Like all things guitar it’s a matter of practice.
Get either the lyrics or the chord progression of by heart first. Then concentrate on the other one. If you have to concentrate on both at once it makes things very difficult.
Once the lyric and chord progression are off pat then you can fancy up your strumming pattern, add embellishments etc.
Nice work Brendan. Steady strumming, more precise fretting.
You are coming along nicely Brendan and that was some solid work.
As for remembering songs and the relevant chord changes it’s all about practice, practice, practice on the one song you are wanting to learn off by heart. I think eventually your brain gets into that mode and songs do become easier to remember. The best way to start is to learn a song you know the lyrics to and then you’ve only got the chords to learn and remember, as per @sairfingers great advice.
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Thanks Stefan.
With “R U Mine” in particular, I think I actually could learn the chords with too much trouble. They are very repetitive in this song.
I might be a bit unusual in that I remember lyrics very easily, almost without any deliberate effort, but chord sequences just fall right on out of my brain, a few seconds after I put them in there. I have seen a few folks commenting that learning the lyrics and/or singing along has helped them to remember the chords, but so far that hasn’t been my experience. Could just be an individual difference thing.
I have started to experiment with writing out the chords + lyrics by hand on ye olde parchment, I suspect it might be helping, but will have a better sense of that after a few days.
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A wonderful classic gem of a song. I used to sing this one a lot trying to get my kids to sleep, but only started trying to learn it on guitar a few days ago.
None of the chords are difficult but the speed of the changes in the verses is no joke!
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Lucky kids having a Daddy singing to them in his soothing voice. You did well with the chord changes Brendan.