Hi Donald,
Welcome here and I wish you a lot of fun 
Greetings,Rogier
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Hi Donald, welcome to the community forum. I don’t see your situation as too strange, but then I have played the guitar on and off for almost 40 years and after a few years trying to learn TAB fingerpicking and blues lead found strumming awkward. I started at Grade 1 like you and the basics really helped. I look forward to hearing some of your lead guitar.
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That is the old course, which is very valuable too, but the new one, which you find on the website, has a wider approach to strumming, IMHO.
Took me years but I forgot…wish it’ll happen to you too…
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Thank you so much…I guess my biggest thing for a long time and still is now is keeping time but eh, that’s why we practice. I started playing at 16…only metal, yet another big mistake lol then on and off over the years. Now, it’s time to bridge my basic with my intermediate.
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I will take a look at that course. As I’ve just been working with the CD thank you
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I have a question for whoever has time to answer it for me.
Using the “A” minor pentatonic scale for reference and hand placement.
Should my hand always be in those hand positions based on the fret and where I’m playing? For example Pattern #1 at the 5th fret using first finger. Should I always be in that position when playing any notes or chord in that position?
Tried to upload a video but it didn’t work
Thank you to anyone who takes the time to explain this to me
Secondly, is a chord family just different ways to play the the same chord? For example in C: Cad9, C, C7,Cmaj7, Csus4, C/G and C sus2
Hi Donald, welcome. Good you’ve found ways to bring together your more advanced finger picking with your less advanced strumming. I also try to combine both. I would say my strumming is better than my finger picking, but also I’ve also leaned to practice it more to sing along.
About your question about minor pentatonic fingering, this conversation about minor pentatonic patterns could be interesting for you and of course there’s a link to the actual Justin Guitar lesson about it.
Minor Pentatonic: The 5 Patterns - Discussion
My understanding is that if you move the pattern from fret you’re changing of key, but if you use the connecting patterns on each side you’re extending the scale but not changing the key. My understanding also is that each pattern can be played using the four fretting fingers and that the position of the fretting fingers on the fretboard changes only when moving from pattern to pattern. At the end the right fingering can be what better suits the song, but you can look at how Justin approaches this on his videos.
I cannot help you with the question about the chords. Well beyond my current music theory level.
You strumming could benefit from using this tool if you’re not already doing so.
Have fun.
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Thank you for your helpful tips. Yes, I use all of Justin’s tools lol
Have a nice day,
Don
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