@CATMAN62 Hiya Tod! Lame or not, your excitement is infectious and always highly appreciated my friend. Thank you for all your positive energy, continuous encouragement and compliments. I’m in the hospital all day today with my brother for his chemotherapy treatment, and your positive vibes make a long and difficult day that much more bearable. Thank you ![:pray:t4: :pray:t4:](https://community.justinguitar.com/images/emoji/twitter/pray/4.png?v=12)
![:blush: :blush:](https://community.justinguitar.com/images/emoji/twitter/blush.png?v=12)
Thanks for pointing out the timing issues. I listened to the recording a few more times and noticed how I speed up and slow down repeatedly more noticeably in the beginning. While playing with the backing track is helpful for context but it means I have to be more spot on with the rhythm timing since it’s not there like when I’m playing along with the full song. I’ll have to add practicing with backing tracks specifically to my daily practice routine after I’m comfortable with the song structure to hone in on the rhythm timing.
Another good suggestion with the hand movement, thank you. I still notice myself stopping that especially with other songs I’m practicing that have stops and starts. I’m working on being more conscious of those and have to intentially keeping the strumming hand moving.
Funny thing with this video recording, it felt like it was the first time I recorded a video. Cold sweats, fingers and body stiff. Maybe a little longer warm up before recording in the future would be helpful and more regular recordings even if just for myself to reflect on and notice areas of improvement achieved or needed.
@jkahn thanks for the kind words JK
Thank you for pointing out the area where I’m stumbling with. I always felt like I’m scrambling to get back on rhythm after that part but wasn’t consciously aware of it. I’ll explore that some more and see how I can both flesh it out and smooth it out. Plus I love learning a new riff and this song has a lot to continue building up to. Definitely a keeper and developer song for me to help me solidify my rhythm playing and hopefully start exploring some lead playing when I reach those upcoming modules.
@SgtColon thank you Stefan
Yes both playing standing up and playing with a backing track have added new layers to work on and develop with my playing and has the added benefit of less back and shoulder pain from hunching over. It’s amazing how such seemingly small changes can open up new areas of development ![:grin: :grin:](https://community.justinguitar.com/images/emoji/twitter/grin.png?v=12)
@Gunhild thank you so much
I thought after buying it the initial dazzle would wear off, but I’m loving my guitar more and more every day. Any doubts about whether I should have bought this guitar have evaporated ![:heart_eyes: :heart_eyes:](https://community.justinguitar.com/images/emoji/twitter/heart_eyes.png?v=12)
Yes a few people had suggested that playing standing up will help with not looking at the fretboard as much, and it does seem to be working gradually so will definitely keep practicing playing both standing and sitting.
As for the strap locks, yeah I’ve made them standard issue for all my guitars. We have limited options back home for guitar repairs so can’t risk that ![:grin: :grin:](https://community.justinguitar.com/images/emoji/twitter/grin.png?v=12)
@Lisa_S Thank you so much
Yes I’ve heard from many that it helps to start practicing standing up early (if possible) so I’m learning from everyone’s experience in hind sight which I highly appreciate.
Thank you all for all the continus support and tremendously enlightening and helpful feedback as always!
This is song is deceptively simple with a fixed chord progression throughout, but it’s a great example of how critical good timing, rhythm, and groove is. I’ve played it on all 3 of my guitars, and while it’s interesting to see the different tones each of them has (and that I’m capable of creating with them), it’s also interesting to see where I’ve improved and what new areas of improvement and exploration are needed. Did I mention how much I love learning to play the guitar? It’s a never ending cycle of learning and development. And to think I’ve spent so many hours in my previous years getting that sense of challenge and achievement from video games when I could’ve been learning to play the guitar ![:rofl: :rofl:](https://community.justinguitar.com/images/emoji/twitter/rofl.png?v=12)
Oh well, like I always remind friends and the occasional coaching client “Better late than never!” ![:blush: :blush:](https://community.justinguitar.com/images/emoji/twitter/blush.png?v=12)