You said this and I thought this. Master Tobay.
Some great advice in this thread @CarlosAP
In all the years I have been here this is the primary reason for folks skipping things or giving up completely. Sometimes you just have to work it out for yourself. That is the big difference in Grade 3 and was certainly was the case for the old Intermediate Course. Justin want you to start thinking for yourself and the spoon feeding eases up, because you will be learning things that are a lot harder down the line. So you need to figure out how to do that. Even if that is one bar at a time one note at a time.
Trouble too many people want to move on to the next shiny object as quickly as possible, rather than have the patience to grind it out and learn a particular skill or awkward chord shape.
I’ve said it a thousand times and I’ll say it again - no quick wins no short cuts - aim for a wide and deep foundation that covers all skills. When you get past the Intermediate Level lesson, then decide what to keep and what to bin.
Again JMHO
It would be more than silly to skip and rush through any lesson from Grades 1 & 2 as they contain the absolute fundamentals of learning to play i.e. beginners chords, strumming, intro to scales, picking techniques, basic chord progressions etc.
There are also important topics that introduce and prepare the foundations for areas and techniques that you will likely meet to some degree in your own specific journey, no matter what genre you ultimately end up playing e.g. fingerstyle, power chords (as a simple means to learn/apply the notes on the E&A strings as well as being a simple way to make the ‘bridge’ into barre chords), song writing etc. - you at least should be aware of these even if not having a personal interest in them to make you a more ‘rounded’ and appreciative player
Grade 3 is more of a mixed bag IMHO. There is some content that remains essential (chords/keys for example), but to me other areas seem to expand into a little too much depth too early (alternative tunings, fingerstyle patterns, triads, and even singing!) when I feel that becoming more comfortable with barre chords for example is a more practical, naturally progressive, step for me at this stage.
With that in mind I pretty much consider Grades 3 & 4 (+ the A shaped barre chord module from G5) to be a single entity. Although effectively progressing the lessons in sequence, as intended by Justin, I inevitably have looked to spend less time aiming to ‘perfect’ certain content within G3 before taking the decision to move on. What I have skimmed however is not totally forgotten about, just that it is further down my own practice schedule for now and will be revisited from time to time.
The OP started a great thread. Yes to all of it! This is helping me. I tend to be a perfectionist and not to “color outside the lines” so I found myself in the middle of Grade 2 Module 10 for 7 months! ACK! I am now finally trying the Push, La Bamba and the hammers-on and though I’m lousy at all 3, I feel like I’m making progress and I’ll probably head into Module 11 sooner rather than later.
And now if I get stuck on something I realize it’s not a bad thing to just move on and come back to it later. I knew that but I guess, but maybe I really didn’t understand that?
It gets a little overwhelming once you are halfway of the 2nd grade. So many new skills to learn! That’s why I decided to skip (postpone) learning finger style (and I watched the lesson and I tried)
You can also postpone some lessons and revisit them later on. There are of course some basic ones you have to drill.
For example, I skipped the first finger A chord lesson because I didn’t want to spend more time practicing a chord I already knew how to play and it didn’t make sense to add it to the songs I was playing at that time. I recently started playing songs that are played with the first finger A chord and now I’m working on it as well.
I don’t think it’s a bad idea to see what you can learn in other modules later on and choose your own path.
HI Carlos, you have already gotten a lot of good advice from better guitarist than me. I have also found a few techniques that I gave less attention to than I should when I went through Grade 2 lessons over a year ago. Now that I am almost finished with Grade 3, I am slowing down and going back through all the Grade 2 lessons again on alternate weeks and trying to nail down the techniques that I left out of my practice, including the first finger A chord. I am finding the only way to make sure that I have learned something is to record and listen to my playing. Justin says in Grade 3 that there are three levels of songs you should be playing Campfire (easy)/Developer/ Dreamer (challenging). I think it is also OK to be practicing at different levels - looking ahead to more challenging lessons, while you learn techniques and songs at your current level and continue to try to master easier songs and techniques. I know that Justin put the new Grade 3 in between beginner and intermediate to help guitarist like me learn to slow down, plan practices and consolidate beginners skills and songs. Have fun as you discover the best ways for you to learn and grow as a guitarist.
I have but I have gone all the way back to the beginning and am doing everything again.
You called?
Hi Brian ,
I’ll just let you know what people are talking about here…the link below is where these people are talking about…there is something where we can take lessons and learn to play the guitar in a structured way.
And fore the OP question I’ll say…I did all the lessons in order with the exception of a few jazz and funk lessons…and including all the theory lessons…but much, much too quickly so I regularly watched them back … actually I haven’t done that for a long time and I only do the song lessons the last 2(?) years except the last Strumming sos course which I really enjoyed seeing and doing…
Greetings Rogier
Haha, believe it or not, Rogier, I had a bit of a crisis moment last week after Gordon’s thread, thinking of the snails’ pace I’m progressing at and where I could have been with a bit of discipline
(I actually watched a couple of lessons ).
Then I remembered all the fun, fuzzy interactions I’ve had here and downloaded a shiny new internet toy Moises, which cheered me up
Phew!
That’s how to deal with crises
What a good solution to the “problem”
and this revival was therefore short-lived so so pity
But that moises does sound good and certainly something that interests me…
But if all goes well, I will probably spend the next few days, weeks, or better yet months, sorting out Abelton lite that my girl has just downloaded onto the computer… the first attempt was 2 years or so ago when I did it on the computer. blowing up…almost started a few times with Reaper, but thanks to @jkahn , a few times he wrote down positive things about Abelton and decided to give it a twist…
So thank you JK and how great my gratitude will be remains to be seen when I actually start working on it
Greetings and now get you/all back to the lessons
Welcome to the Ableton club For now, at least…
It sort of depends how you define ‘skip’. I have watched every lesson in grades 1-3 with the exception of a couple that relate to how to use an electric guitar’s features as I don’t own one. I have had a go at every new technique and put it into my practice for a while. However, there are some things that have been quite frankly too hard or boring to perfect at the time it first came up (our old friend, Happy Birthday was one of these) but at the end of each grade I have gone back over every lesson and made up a list of weak spots to include in consolidation (and an now play Happy Birthday from memory and using the spacing technique to lock it into my long term memory). Having just reached the end of grade 3, I have just spent several hours over a few days reviewing all grade 1-3 lessons (the text below each lesson - which is almost a transcript of the content - is really helpful here) and being honest with myself about the bits that I haven’t properly nailed so that I can spend the next 6 months getting everything to a decent level. My next job is to find songs to add to my repertoire where I can incorporate the techniques so that they stick long term.
Doesn’t sound like someone skipping lessons Kim, that’s a sound approach and sound practice !
Maybe I missed something??? I’m very frustrated with the “locking”… often I feel really confident about a song being in “permanent storage” up there in the grey matter, only to find after a few weeks that it’s actually a very loose, vague memory. The chords are there but the chord progression & song structure are missing. Strumming pattern is usually good if I’ve played it a lot… but I have to find the tab to get it back…
Reference the OP, I never skip ahead except for the occasional UTube algorithm suggestions that pop up after something I’ve watched & that looks interesting. Even then, I watch Justin’s lesson but don’t typically practice the technique(s) shown… well… maybe once in a while!!!
Tod
Thanks Kim!!!
HaHa!!! This lesson is ahead of my Grade 2 consolidation…
Guess I’ll have to SKIP a few lessons & do this one!!!
I really don’t. I’m not a true beginner, But I’m self-taught. I’m working my way through the courses as a way of making sure I haven’t missed anything along the way. And I have. Loads. Even on topics where I feel fairly confident that I don’t need the lesson, I still pick up little tidbits of information that are helpful to fill in the gaps and make me a better guitarist.
Having said that, I have skipped a few of the exercises along the way because they just aren’t necessary for me. But in terms of the lesson content. I don’t miss any of those. Cheers!