Hi all. I’m a guitar beginner from near Melbourne, Australia. Picked up a guitar for the first time in my life at the age of 49. It’s inspiring to see others on here doing the same later in life. I am taking my time and have spent almost six months on Justin’s Beginner Grade 1 module. I have fond memories of my childhood listening to the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Neil Young and others on my Dad’s record player and would love to be able to play some of these songs. I’m a long way from that point, but one step at a time… 
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Hey David welcome!
Heaps of us in a similar boat as you heve seen, plenty from OP and NZ!
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Hello David,
Welcome to the Community, from a fellow Aussie.
Quality environment here mate, with a great ethos, and friendly people.
Stick close to Justin’s lessons, and reach our here anytime.
All the best.
Cheers, Shane
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Welcome to the forum David
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Welcome David! Don’t know if you’ve seen Justin’s lesson for Helpless, but it’s a wonderful Neil song at Grade 1 level to start with! You can get fancier as you progress.
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Hi David,
Welcome here and I wish you a lot of fun 
And you are closer to playing a song by one of those bands than you can imagine right now, especially playing along with the CD and giving you the feeling that you can really play the guitar is a matter of weeks for a few songs 
Greetings,Rogier
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Hi David. Just recently took this very rewarding step myself. Welcome and best of luck✨
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Hi David
from another Aussie
You’re in the right place with Justin’s lessons and this is a great community too 
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Hello David & Welcome from someone NOT from OZ!!! 
For Grade 1, Justin has several Beatles songs & at least 1 Neil Young song. I think there are several Stones songs in Grade 2… depending on how you’re doing, some of the Grade 2 songs aren’t toooooo difficult!
One thing that may be helpful for you at 6 months in is to:
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Write down the chords for a song you wish to learn. For example, a simple version of the Beatles’ “Love Me Do” is 4 Major chords - G, C, G7 & D. The Intro is G C G C G C G. First Verse G C G C G C C G7.
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Incorporate this chord progression in your One Minute Changes practice. In my Practice Routine, I call this “OMC - Target - Love Me Do” & spend 3-5 minutes practicing these particular changes IN ORDER to facilitate muscle memory when I attempt to play the song… I find this really helps with changing chords in time.
Next song - wash, rinse, repeat!
First thing you know, you’ll be jamming along with your childhood memories!!!
Good luck & remember to keep it FUN!!!
Tod from New Mexico USA
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Hey David,
Like Tod I am about as far away from Australia as you can get. I’m also an older learner who decided to be Eddie Van Halen at age 49. I’ve been with Justin guitar about 3 years now and still loving it. The best advice is to be fair with yourself and set achievable goals step by step. Also record your progress and credit yourself as you improve. It will take some time to get where you hope to be but you can do it with a little patience and hard work. Best of luck. (So I am still not Eddie or even Wolfgang Van Halen but who is checking lmao)
Jeff from California.
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Hey Dave, that’s awesome, great to hear from another Aussie here. I started when I was 53 and now 13 years later am so glad I found Justin and stuck with those initial challenging times when it seemed my fingers just didn’t want to form a chord. The acoustic centre in Melbourne is a great shop and I also did the Cole Clark factory tour, a most enjoyable experience. Look forward to hearing more from you.
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Thanks all for the warm welcome and helpful suggestions. What an amazing community this is!!
I’m still consolidating my learning from Beginner Grade 1 and am determined not to move on, however long it takes, until I can play some songs more fluently. Have mostly been using the song ap so far just strumming once per chord/bar, but even that is a real struggle for me on songs like This Year’s Love. Back to practice on those C chord changes…
tbh grade 1 and 2 are worth working through together, you’ll be practicing all of grade 1 whilst doing grade 2 anyhow and the chord changes/fluidity etc come with time
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Thanks Tod. I love the suggestion on incorporating chord progressions into my One Minute Changes practice. I might even try that with a metronome too. I am at 40-60 on all the major chord changes in the OMC exercise but am finding that this doesn’t translate into “real life” when I try to play a song. Probably because my brain is trying to focus on too many other things like the chord progression. So I end up with a lot of sloppy chord changes and muted strings.
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Hi David,
Welcome to the community forum. 
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Hi David, welcome to the community forum. As others have said, you are not too far from playing some of the songs that you listed. In addition to the JG app, I recommend going to the website and select the Song menu. You can filter by grade or artist and find some grade 1 Beatles songs. Also you can go to the bottom of the page and select the picture of the Beatles and choose the grade 1 songs. The song lessons on the website give additional tutorials on playing the songs. Have fun.
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Hi again David.
I just commented in your other thread but after reviewing what we discussed here, I think you would be able to do better with chord changes if you try to relax & don’t force it. When doing OMCs, there isn’t the same level of “gotta get this change NOW” as when playing along to a song. In the early stages, us guitar players tend to want to rush things… take your time, relax and enjoy the process of making music! It will happen, just not in the time frame you would like!!!
Believe me, I know this from experience!!!
Keep it fun!!!
Tod
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Thanks Tod! I just responded in the other thread. Great advice here about not rushing things and relaxing. I am probably unconsciously tensing up a bit when playing songs as my hand and fingers get tired really easily. But yes, this is supposed to be an enjoyable process!! Thanks again.
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Hi David, welcome to the community! You’ve found a great place to learn.
I’ve read a few of your posts in different topics concerning your progress. It’s perfectly fine to take the time you need to go through the courses.
Over time, you’ll get a feeling for when to move on. I took my time too and although I sometimes have the impression to progress through the course like a snail, it’s paying off.
Your chord changes (mentioned in your other post) will get more fluent with time, I remember I also could do much more than 60 decent changes per minute, but had troubles in songs to do them smoothly. Slow the songs down to a point where you can keep up and increase the tempo step by step, when you are doing fine. Even if it’s going painfully slow.
One other thing: sometimes, we hit a wall, that hinders us from moving ahead… my impression is, taking a rest from the subject for a few days or even weeks, working on something different or moving on, can be a real boost when you come back to the subject.
I like your username! I love Neil Young’s songs even more since I play guitar and I’m currently working on songs of Rust never sleeps 
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If you are into Neil Young stuff, Heart of Gold is a wonderful song to try in a basic version as a beginner.
There is a nice version on the App too!
Wish you a lot of fun on your way!
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Thanks Helen! It’s good to hear that the frustrations I have been feeling are pretty common to everyone in the early stages of the journey. I often feel like a hero one day and back to zero the next. Taking a break from time to time seems like a good idea.
As for the user name, I was shocked nobody else had already taken it I love that album, especially the contrast between the acoustic and heavy electric side of it.
I will check out Heart of Gold. I noticed that Justin has lessons on several Neil Young songs so that’s something I look forward to as I get better at this!
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