Grade 1 Exam Song #4 - This Year's Love

Here’s my newest consolidation song with a 6/8 rhythm. Looking forward to your feedback.

I hope you all have a good one. :wink:

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Hi András, I’d say that’s a pass! You showed a nice feel for the song and played it smoothly. You looked confident and finished with a smile. What not to like!

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Hi András you have definitely passed the grade. You did a great job. It may be a camera angle but one question that came to my mind was have you tried experimenting playing over the sound hole? From the camera angle it looks like you’re playing behind the sound hole. As mentioned it may be just the camera angle or you chose to play behind the sound hole on purpose.

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A fine performance, András. Good clean chords, smooth changes, and a steady rhythm. Guitar is sounding good.

My only observation for improvement is to watch your middle finger placement on the G chord and ring finger on the Em. Every now and then looks like you may be placing on the fret wire rather than just behind. Early on you noticed and adjusted the middle finger back a little.

Keep on keeping on, ever onward.

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Mate you’ve definitely passed Grade 1. That was really good playing. Good timekeeping, changes, etc. Well played.

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@Willsie01
Hi John, thanks! :slight_smile: I’m glad that it seemed confident, inside I was freeking out especially towards the end. :smiley:

@Socio
Hi James, thank you for your feedback. It wasn’t just the camera angle, I watched myself during my practice and I noticed that I indeed play behind the hole. It definitely was not a conscious decision, I’ve just been feeling that this is the most comfortable way for me to play.

@DavidP
Thanks again for your constructive feedback, David! Good observation. :slight_smile: Generally I have minor difficulties to place my fingers to the perfect position, especially at changing chords to D, Dm, or A. But I think it’s much better than a couple of weeks before. I can live with that - or at least move on to the next grade, although I hope that with everyday practice it will be better in time. Anyways I have one more song to perform. Coming soon. :slight_smile:

@jkahn
JK, I really appreciate it. This was my first “performance” without a metronome, so your compliment means a lot. Cheers!

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Very nicely done András. I do like me some David Gray. Smooth changes and a nice strum.

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@SgtColon
Thank you, Stefan. :slight_smile: I haven’t heard of him before. One of the unexpected but nice side effects of this journey is getting to know new music. :slight_smile:

Great job. Sure pass the exam for sure.

On little observation. In the C chord I think you aren’t using your third finger to mute the 6th string. If I’m wrong, sorry and just ignore this comment :rofl:

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@Rumil
Thank you, I still want to do one more song before moving on to the next grade.

I cannot ignore your comment, because you’re absolutely right. :slight_smile: I struggled with this move for a while then I let it go. :frowning: Every time when I tried to mute the 6th string I couldn’t press the 5th string strong enough so it gave that buzzing sound. Like my finger pad is too small to reach the E string while staying down on the A string at the same time. Is it a thing? :slight_smile: Or should I push this and keep trying?

Like everything, Martin, it takes practice and persistence. But also in my case I find sometimes I have to let something go and come back later, like a year later. A good example is being able to use the thumb to either mute the E string or fret a note (typically F# for D/F#), for years impossible, now possible. So you could also try muting the E with the thumb, or play with your finger tip placement on the A string. And thankfully while not ideal if you catch the open E string when playing a C chord it is not hideous since E is a note in the C chord, will just mess up the way the bass sounds in the song.

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@DavidP
Thanks for the tip, David. I tried the thumb-method too, but it was too big of a stretch and flattened my other fingers that muted some other notes. Still in the long run I think this will be my solution for the chord C.
There are some other grips for other chords that’s felt impossible, like
G with the ring finger on the 6th string and the pinky on the 1st string,
Em7 with the pinky on the 2nd string.
I’m going to work on these later on, but now my priority is to build a strong foundation with the basic stuff. :slight_smile:

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as @DavidP says, you can come to this later.

Probably what it’s happening to you is that you can’t stretch your fingers enough and didn’t find your perfect hand placement, yet. See how Justin plays the C chord. It’s more about the shape and inclination of your hand than the size of your pad (I have small hands :blush:). It took me a lot too to get it right. I kept practicing this chord for 1 minute for a long time (being in grade 2 already). Because I was learning to play “You Shook Me All Night Long”. It went from my worst chord to one of my bests.

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