I’ve been attempting to learn guitar now for about 3 years. And to be honest it’s been a struggle.
I’m currently working my way through module 8 of the beginners course (for the second time), and this time I feel that I’m actually making some progress.
What always made things demoralising for me in the past is my inability to do clean chord changes while playing along to a song in the app. Lately however I seem to be getting somewhere.
I’ve also enrolled in the ‘class of 23’ but unfortunately that’s come to nothing as I don’t do Facebook.
Guess I’ll continue my struggle as before, but hopefully this time achieve greatness 
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Hi Mark and welcome. Stick with it and the results will come. Look forward to hearing about your progress.
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Hi @firebee ,
I am not familiar with the modules.
I have been playing guitar for more than 50 years now, and simply love it.
I am far from being close to my guitar idols like Eric Clapton, and James Taylor, etc.
Guitar learning is ongoing for me.
You are on the correct path, and the key is to get over your current hump, which in my opinion, is your ability to change chords cleanly and efficiently.
In my experience, a most helpful method of learning is “singing and playing” your favorite songs.
All you really need is to “sing and play” songs that are “3-chord songs”, which has 3 chords, and are actually defined as I-IV-V chord progressions, which hundreds and hundreds of songs are made of.
Chord sets like D-G-A, A-D-E, to start. And these chords are quite easy to execute.
If you ask me, simple and familiar songs like, Mary Had A Little Lamb, Doe A Deer A Female Deer (Do-Re-Mi), and the simple songs that you might be familiar are great places to start.
“Singing and Playing” might be slow in the beginning, but the singing part will force the playing part to keep up, and be in the right pace. The goal is to sing, at the correct pace, and the guitar accompaniment simply supporting the singing.
As you try to execute these chord changes, the chord changes will become easier and cleaner.
Another very important aspect of guitar playing is the strumming hand, which delivers the soul of the song, the feeling of the melody, and the beat and rhythm which makes the song interesting and fun.
Go, and develop the calluses on your chord fingers, which will make you play the guitar with a bit of easiness, but this painful phase has to be tacked and developed!
Yeahhhhh!!!
With respect,
Rene
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Hi Mark. I’m glad you’re giving your guitar goals another try and that you are making more progress. 
I don’t know anything about the class of '23 lessons, but the regular modules have been very helpful to me. I hope you will post some of your progress here in the community. By the way, I live in the American counterpart or sister to your city. My city is also called Norfolk. 
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Welcome to the forum Mark.
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Hey Mark, welcome to the forum. The one minute chord changes certainly helped me a lot when I was first starting. Hang in there, the reward is so very good.
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Maybe you should familiarize yourself with Justin’s website and style of teaching. This is the main reason people are here. They are taking lessons from Justin
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Welcome Firebee
R.
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Hi Mark,
Welcome,and I wish you a lot of fun 
Greetings Rogier
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Mark @firebee
Hope that helps and welcome to the community 
See below from another topic, I don’t think you have to join Facebook
Michael
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Hello - if you’ve received that Welcome Email, you’re enrolled in the program. That does not mean you need to enter Facebook to claim the Strumming Foundations course - that’s not written anywhere.
To claim Strumming Foundations,
- You need to have enrolled in the program (and received the email you received)
- Have an active subscription to the app.
Entering the Facebook group is optional, and no one is obliged to do. However, we advertised since the beginning that the Support from Justin and the team in this program would be via Facebook.
I hope this clarifies, but please contact hello@justinguitar.com if you need further assistance.
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Thanks Mat1953.
I’ve already applied for it.
Had I seen the word Facebook initially I’d have probably binned the messages and would have missed out on the strumming course.
Although I’m disappointed about the Facebook thing, at least I’ll be able to benefit from the course.
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Welcome to the community from one Mark to another!! 
Best of luck with your learning this time around, definitely focus on those one minute change for the chord changes. Are you making use of the tempo adjustment in the app? That can really help as you build your speed.
Have fun!
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Welcome to the forum Mark 
Your sound will clean up as you practice and develop more so just stick with it. There are so many ‘little things’ that you learn along the way which all add up to that ‘tidy’ sound.
Good luck, have fun!
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Hello Mark and welcome to our community. 
Remember, you can always post videos of your playing to get great advice from others on here, who have no doubt struggled with the same issues you are having. Stick with it though you will get there.
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Hi Mark, I’m 3.5 weeks into module 1 having tried quite a few years ago without a good structure to follow. I too don’t have clean changes but I’m told, from the community, that practice will deliver in time and not to put pressure on myself. So good luck with the journey, you’ll be brilliant, just stick at it.
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Hi Mark,
welcome to the forum! It is a very nice and supportive place to be. I have good memories of Norfolk, having sailed on the Broads once.
I am not too familiar with all the different modules here, but as most of us here I have had to deal with the challenge to get the chord changes right. I found it was important for me to learn not to look at the fretboard at all.
If I mess up chord changes I practice the chord changes in the pitch dark daily, and let my muscle memory take over. I would use the metronome. (Alternatively play standing upright, because then you cant see the fretboard either and your fingers just need to land in their proper place as well.)
I guess the best thing is to practice first on the easy ones that you are comfortable with, and then on the tricky ones in pairs. From then on you could work on entire chord sequences.
I wish you good luck and speedy progress
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Hello Mark - hopefully it will be second time luck for you.
My advice for this time through is to take your time, be steady in your progress, consolidate all of the skills a lot and learn songs, learn songs, learn songs.
Good luck with it all and you can count on a supportive and helpful crowd to help out here in the community if you need it.
Cheers
Richard
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Hi Mark, and welcome! Enjoy your little improvements because they’ll lead you further than you can expect! And my advice is also to share them here, as we are all very supportive and like when the good vibes are shared…even when stuff sounds rough…there are many people here always giving good suggestions and advice…with the right practice we all can improve!
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Hi Mark
Great to see you starting again. Have patience and take your time, its not a race. Some good advice offered already but I’d echo practice chords slowly to get them ringing out clearly and then supporting that with the One Minute Changes and as I see someone may have mentioned, learning songs. Keep it simple keep it slow and you’ll be surprised with the progress. But don’t forget you have plenty of folks here, who have followed Justin’s pathway and able to offer sound and advice and support.
Cheers
Toby
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Mark, welcome to the community. I think Justin made Module 8 and little more challenging on purpose so don’t get discouraged. I thought that some of the later modules in Grade 2 were easier.
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