Well done Brendan. A fine cover of a classic Eagles tune. Clean chords,and a relaxed approach.
I commend your steady, rhythmic playing. Super important.
Locking into that rhythm of the music early on is going to help you out immeasurably as you advance into more complex strumming.
Cheers, Shane.
Nice work Brendan. 
Sounded solid Brendan and the strumming sounded consistent despite the camera angle.
Lots of good words expressed, so nothing extra from me. Good progress.
Really appreciate all the kind words from everyone who responded. I played around with the input volume last night and I think I have that sorted out now, so hopefully my next post will not cause anymore volume blowouts for you all 
In regards to @DavidP and @Notter suggesting I need to put more power into my vocals, that makes sense but I think it will take some time to get there. Right now it still feels embarrassing to crank it up. I also feel like I have more control when singing quietly. Maybe because all my singing practice over the last few years has been trying to get my kids to go to sleep. I will try to get some loud vocal practice in while nobody is around.
Hi Brendan,
Sounds good - nice clean playing and mixes well with the original.
Hats off for singing and playing together.
Digger
This is a new one for me, I’ve been working on it for a few days. I haven’t got much experience playing off a chord sheet with no backing track, and I think I fell off the rhythm a few times there. And not gonna lie, it is more than a little intimidating to take a swing at a song as epic as this one. But anyhow, I’m pretty proud of how this is shaping up.
You have a very good start on a demanding song. Keep practicing and you will get it to where you want it.
In future recordings please turn up your volume. I had to max everything out at my end, and I could just hear the guitar and you.
I notice you keep time with your right foot. That is something I did a lot but I found that I was moving the guitar in a manner that made it more difficult than it needed to be to play. Try keeping time with your left foot and see if it makes a difference for you.
Keep going, you are doing fine.
Hi Robert, thanks for the reply.
When I started out with Justin’s app, I did take heed of his advice to try tapping with the opposite foot, and I did try to make that work. Unfortunately for me I’ve been tapping with my right foot my whole life and trying to switch it over to my left didn’t go well. I found it was taking so much concentration to keep my left foot going, I couldn’t do anything else properly at the same time, and even then I couldn’t hold a steady beat with the left.
I suppose I could push through it and try to get the left foot working, but for now I am finding it heaps more comfortable to use the right, even if it does bounce the guitar around a little.
Hi Brendan
Coming along nicely. You say you felt your rhythm fell off a bit. Your strum technique is very stop start. The trick is to keep your strum arm/wrist moving up and down constantly to the beat of the song. Even if you’re only hitting the strings on beat one, your arm should move up and down DUDUDUDU. Doing that help keep the rhythm steady.
Hi Gordon, yeah I do try to do the continuous strum hand movement, I seem to find it easier to get that going on some songs than on others. Right now it’s very early days on this song and there’s a lot I’m trying to pay attention to. I think the continuous strumming will click into place after some more practice.
I perhaps ought to leave out those little fingerstyle bits at the end of the lines, until I get a more solid rhythm going – but those are so much fun to do, hard to resist
Projects that stretch one are a good thing, Robert. Keep working at. No more suggestions for me to add. So far so good.
Well done on having a crack at a very challenging song Brendan and you did a pretty good job as well.
Great 
Sure you can be proud of how it is going .
And your intonation was really good for the song as well
Building a good foundation for a powerful version by Disturbed. Lots of good advice.
You’ve inspired me to look at their version, that in the Madman’s ball park !
Awesome, I look forward to seeing your take on it Toby 
When I first hit the Californication riff in Justin’s lessons I couldn’t make it work, I was always muting the 4th string with my F grip. I decided to park that one for a while and came back to it again as I was getting to the tail end of Grade 2. With a bit more full barre F practice under my fingers, the riff came easier and I moved on to attempting the whole song. That Bm - D - A - E sequence seemed impossible at first, but after a few nights of One Minute Changes, it came together faster than I thought it would.
No attempt at singing in this one
Great job! I’m struggling with that one right now. You gave me hope.
Coming along nicely there Brendan. I hear you with the bridge section and the chords, I never thought I’d be able to play it at any speed!
The only advice I’d give you is to trust the speed of your changes and not change so quickly after the single strums, it’s making it sound a bit staccato. It looks like your changes are quick enough. Maybe go for a couple of strums or a down up down on each before making the change as a challenge. It’ll force you to linger a little more and let the song flow a little bit better. Rhythm and timing seem bang on. It’s not an easy song to get to grips with at all but you’re well on the way 
Cheers Mark. I think you gave me similar advice about changing too early, on House of the Rising Sun. I think you’re right and it happens when I’m not confident about the chord I’m changing to. While I don’t love the sound of leaving a chord too soon, I much prefer it to the sound of arriving on a chord too late – or even worse, landing on the chord with my fingers all out of position and the strum ends up being a jangly disaster.
The changes I feel myself going early on are anything into full barre F, Dm, F♯m or Bm. I think if I just pour more time into OMC/Perfect Fast Changes on those chords, the timing of the changes will resolve themselves. It worked that way with C, G, etc and now I feel like I can change to those ones at my leisure.
I’m being a bit of a broken record then 
It’s not so much you’re too early, all your strums are on the right beat, I just feel you’re moving the chord earlier than you think you, or actually, need to that’s all.
Sounds like a solid plan with OMC / PFC work, they really helped me out with F when I was learning that to begin with which then translated to barre chords in general. Looking forward to hearing how that goes.
Good stuff mate