Following Grade 3? I would love to hear your feedback about it. What’s been great about these lessons, and what could be better?
Hi,
I can only say that I think the course is fantastic,…I don’t know what I’m missing,and since I also went through the grades after it and have to repeat some of grade 3 and of course do the new and renewed lessens, all of this together will make me an advanced guitarist in the end,… and grade 3 lays/stamps a solid base under everything,
Greetings,Rogier
1 Like
Overall I think Grade 3 is good, and feels like a launch pad into self directed learning. I like that.
Here’s some feedback, from someone that’s going through it having come through grades 1 and 2.
The good:
- The skills based stuff that would be hard to discover solo, e.g. rolling chords, fingerstyle techniques
- The set pieces. Greensleeves, Lick n Riff. These have been a challenge and quite fun.
- The techniques - finger gym, legato pentatonics
- Transcribing (but see improvements)
What could be improved:
- Difficulty is out of order in places and there are huge differences. E.g. transcribing. The easy riffs and power chords and straightforward as far as it goes. Figuring out vocal melodies on guitar is still really hard, I don’t know why that’s in module 16.
- Same as greensleeves vs the 4:4 fingerstyle - greensleeves (which I loved) is so much harder than the fingerstyle patterns, which are in a later module.
- There’s a few spots that exercises are introduced but the techniques in them aren’t explained. E.g. string bends in lick n riff, flick offs in legato pentatonics. I’m doing it but I’m not sure if the technique is good.
- Figuring out how “good” we need to be at each thing in grade 3. E.g. how fast in legato pentatonics. I will note that the 4:4 fingerstyle does have this info, which is great.
The missing:
- We’re not learning any new scales? Maybe its coming. I just finished module 19, which AFAICT is the latest “complete” module. Maybe expectation is this is in music theory.
Overall I’m pretty happy and hungry for more.
3 Likes
Hello there!
First, thanks heaps for all your hard work and lots of material on this site!
I’ve just opened the grade 3 module’s page and couldn’t see the module 22. Is it just no 23 was numbered incorrectly or is it the link to the no 22 is missing?
Cheers,
Alex
I could write pages and pages about how the Grade 3 Lessons have been what I actually needed to progress, telling you things that you already know (isn’t it amazing that now I know and can understand them too?)
For once I’ll be short: thanks to these lessons I’m now able to find a connection with my guitar, I had no clue where to look for it before and with much frustration. I can hear you Teacher: “Such a big deal!” Thank you so much! 
How to improve? I practice things when I can understand the why I should practice them. Just keep on explaining the whys, also of things that might be given for granted.
I’ll echo the comments that JK made but my main observation is, boy I wish these were around back in 2015/16 when I moved from the old BC to the IM. So much stuff I need to spice up my stagnant playing. And although I feel I am taking a step backwards, its a much need step to up my game and playing skills. I also feel I need to get through all the Grade 3 stuff in order to reassess where I am going, as the path is not so clear any more.
Cheers
Toby
1 Like
I was actually part way in to Grade 4 when the revised Grade 3 came out, and I popped back to see what was there, and I’m really glad that I did!
My only complaint about Grade 3 is that I don’t feel I have enough time to devote to going through and practising everything to make progress as fast as I would like to! I’m really enjoying what I can do though, it’s challenging and not too far of a stretch. I kind-of agree with JK’s comments about the order of a few things, however, I’m happy that it could be that I (and we all) get some stuff more easily than other things?
Good point, @Richard_close2u / @DavidP / @LievenDV is level 22 in production and not published yet or AWOL in some way?
mmm that doesn’t seem right;
I’ll check!
1 Like
Hey guys!
It’s a little confusing, but it’s correct!
Sometimes, Justin releases lessons by skill and not module so the Transcribing and Chord lessons are already available for Modules 21 and 23.
However, we still don’t have any lessons available for Module 22 - so the module doesn’t display. There is no way of fixing this without involving a “fake lesson” or some dev hours, which we don’t have available!
But it’s a temporary confusion as Justin is just back from the Workshops, and he’s working on Grade 3 right now. I just saw him typing on our planning board. 
So We hope to complete all this course very soon, and this issue will vanish! 
Thank you for the opportunity of clarifying this.
Cheers!
4 Likes