Heckler's Learning Log

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Claudio Heckler here, hailing from Brazil …

Been a member of this great community for a little over two years now, but haven’t started a learning log, but wishing I did; will give it a try now, and see if I manage the discipline keep it more or less up to date.

So, by way of recounting how I got here: I’ve had my first guitar since my teens, a nylon classical, but never studied and hence never learned much beyond a few simple open chords and some simple riffs. Life brought many distractions and the guitar stayed quiet for many years.

Fast-forward to the end of 2021, my kids are older (but not yet out of the house) and I’ve got more time, so decide to try and finally learn it.

Equipment selection and prep work

I decided that I wanted to learn on an electric guitar, as it fitted better the type of music and playing I’m interested in; ended-up acquiring a cheap strat used, figuring that for the first few years my fingers would not be capable of telling it from more expensive equipment. Had it properly setup on a luthier who fixed intonation, string relief, etc.

I did not get an amp initially, as I live in an apartment and practice at night. I’ve opted for a multi-effects box, which can be used with headphones, and doubles as an audio interface for recording.

So, all set equipment-wise, I started some research on reputable learning resources: Justin came highly recommended, and that’s where I headed next.

Going through Grade 1 (Sep’21 → May’22)

I started Grade 1 around September 2021; it starts off with the A and D chords and some simple strumming, but Justin wastes no time in already giving you some suggestions for songs you can play along to with just those two chords. I vividly remember the sensation of joy when I put up “Dance The Night Away” and was able to play along; that early success cemented my decision to stick with the program.

So going through grade 1 was a very systematic process of going through the videos for each module, setting up a practice routine in the website, and complementing it with the JustinGuitar app for song playback (never used the app for lessons, I still prefer the website for that.)

Around March 2022 I was already at the end of Grade 1, at least content wise, and going back to review some of the material; at that point I had only recorded material for my own evaluation and progress tracking, but no AVOYP – to be perfectly honest, I was dreading the moment of putting it “out there” for others to listen to. So, as my “grade 1 passing criteria”, one of the goals I set to myself was to post an AVOYP, which I did here: Grade 1 Exam: two songs - Chocolate Jesus and Mad World

With that I “finished” Grade 1 around May 2022, translating to about 8 months total.

Grade 2 (Jun’22 → ongoing)

Second grade starts of immediately with more “advanced” techniques, and some of the stuff from each of the modules took me longer to get passably good at. As a result, I spent more time on each module before moving along.

Some of the hardest things for me where the full F barre chord, 16th note strumming (especially the more “sparse” patterns used in some songs, where there are more than a few silent ups and downs) and the scale improvisation exercises (not because the scales themselves where hard, mostly the challenge of getting “creative” over a backing track).

Also on Grade 2, the “songwriting module” (module 11) was just not for me, not at this point at least; but that’s ok that it is not, I may give it another try in the future.

So far on this part of the course, the most fun I had was on Module 12, Power Chords: there is just so much rock/punk/metal songs I like that this part of the course was a treat, and I’ve spent quite some time just exploring the repertoire - and incidentally, my last AOVYP was on power chords.

Where am I now (Oct’24)

I’m currently in module 13, which is an intro to blues concepts – open 7th chords, blues shuffle and progressions, improv, etc. This one has not fully “clicked” for me yet, as while I can manage the exercises, I found the songs suggested a bit hard to jump into, I may have to look at starting with simpler material first and move my way up.

Also, after two years of JG, I’ve decided to complement it with mentoring from a local (in person) teacher, to help me progress faster and correct any mistakes accrued. That is yet to start (next week, although I already had a “get to know each other” session and liked it). Starting with these lessons was one catalyst to starting this learning log to force myself to track it.

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Well done, Heckler! That’s as good a synopsis as anyone could hope for. It sounds like you’re going in the right direction and have a good bead on your targets. Just don’t make the mistake I make from time to time… Remember to have fun! Guitar shouldn’t be a grind; it’s a fun activity!
Cheers, and Kudos!
~C

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Welcome to the world of Learning Logs, Claudio :slightly_smiling_face:

I have now had seven in person lessons in addition to JG. My LL has proved to be a really useful tool for reflecting what I might have learned, where I am and what I want and need to work on.

Oh… I’m also hoping you’d publish a few more of your power chord songs in your LL :slightly_smiling_face:

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Now that I have a couple weeks of mentoring behind me, here’s a little update about where I am:

Module 13 (Blues Intro) is currently “on pause”: I still practice the beginner blues solo, by itself and with a backing track, as well as the blues shuffle patterns, but I have not yet “cracked” a proper blues song or two to play, and I’m not going to move on before I do.

Meanwhile, the teacher I’m working with pointed out a couple of gaps for me to work on: firstly, my strumming on open chords was perhaps a tad too aggressive, so I’ve been working on having better pick control and being able to strum more lightly. And secondly, I never really “learnt” the fretboard yet, so if you ask me a note at random most of the time I have to count to find it; I’ve since incorporated this to my routine, slowly trying to learn the notes at least on the first 10 or 12 frets.

Song-wise, I’ve practiced a lot of Have You Ever Seen The Rain by Creedence Clearwater Revival, and I can play the base fairly decently, and also an interpretation the melody lines (vocal) with single notes. I’m yet to practice the bass lines and then I plan to get an AVOYP out of it (it will be my first with multi-track, curious to see the result).

And I started this week to practice Four Strong Winds (Neil Young version), thinking it would be a pretty simple one to pick-up, but it added two challenges: one, that I normally play my G chord with the fingering that Justin calls “Rock G” (pinky on the 3rd fret of the 1st string, 3rd finger on the 3rd fret of the 2nd string), but for this song I need to have my index finger free to play the embellishments, so the fingering have to change to use fingers 2, 3 and 4. That was awkward at first, but after some “perfect fast changes” I’m managing it at full tempo. Next up is the embellishments that Neil plays on all the sections with two bars of G. That is proving to be quite the challenge: I generally lose the timing if I try to do it, so I’m likely to stay focused on just strumming for another week or so before trying to add the extras.

Current mood: having fun and enjoying it :slight_smile:

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Claudio, based on your AVOYPs, you have made a lot of progress since starting, especially with rock guitar. I think that learning all of the notes in the first 10 to 12 frets is very ambitious for end of grade 2. I am finishing grade 3 and I still don’t know all the notes on the fretboard. Based on Justin’s lessons a good goal for end of grade 2 is to know all the notes in the first four frets, naming all the notes in the C major scale and the Em pentatonic scale and the notes in all the open chords. You should also learn the notes in the 6th and 5th strings to the 12th frets, especially the G, A , B and C notes on the 6th string and the corresponding C, D, E and F notes on the 5th. With your focus on power chords you probably already know those notes, but I still have to review.

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Steve, thanks for the comments and suggestions!

You’re right, and I think I phrased it wrong above: it is not so much trying to learn all the notes, as it is “given a note at random, being able to quickly find one or two positions for that note”; some come more easily, like if I’ve been practicing a scale I tend to at least know where the roots are. That said, I really like your suggestion of focusing on the notes on the 5th and 6th strings, as these are key to power chords.

Actually, no, unfortunately for the two power chord songs I studied well and recorded (Iron Man and Pretty Fly), I learnt the fret positions by muscle memory, but without consideration to what chord was being played. So yeah, I have some things to correct here :wink:

Additionally, I’d like to say that I’ve been through your learning log (or parts of it, because it’s HUGE) and found it very interesting! I like how you structure your learning, they way you allocate time every month for classical guitar - I could probably use that same method to have some set time for some parallel courses, like “practical music theory” for example. Oh, and I really dig your AVOYPs, and how you manage to play and sing at the same time (that’s a skill I have not yet developed); specially enjoyed Morning Has Broken (long time Cat Stevens fan here)

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Claudio, thanks for looking at my Learning Log and listening to some of my AVOYPs. I have been singing while playing simple chords and strumming for almost 50 years, so that is something that I have had a lot of practice. I also learned a little classical guitar over 45 years ago. I don’t have a much practice on the electric guitar so I struggle a little with that. As far as notes on the guitar neck, I wanted to add that once you know the notes in the 6th and 5th strings, you also know the notes on the 1st string (same as the 6th string.). You can also later learn to use octave patterns to find the same notes on other strings. I haven’t learned that yet since it is an intermediate level skill, but it is explained in this video by Justin (which can be found in the hidden classic intermediate lessons in the JG website by searching for “Intermediate Foundation”:

Finding notes using Octaves

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[Nov/2024] Quick update on learning the notes on the fretboard: while browsing the forums for some posts on how other people approached this (and seeing many creative strategies and mnemonics), yesterday I came across Justin’s Guitar Fretboard Note Trainer app.

This is AMAZING! After dedicating a few 5min “coffee break” moments to playing with the app I’m already noticing a big improvement in my memorization of the fretboard.

My only wish was that there was a “find the note” mode where it used the microphone and you played the note instead of taping the screen.