I’m at Grade 2 module 10 at the moment and when playing along with songs I sound “clunkey”. Its not that im totally new to guitar, I’ve taken it up again after a near 20 year break. But I feel like I am in a rut. Sure, im hitting the chords, sticking to the timing (mostly!) and doing scales, but I feel like I am going around in circles.
Anyone else been here(I’m sure some may have been in this place already), anyone got tips, clues, rut breakers I can use to get my head in a better place?
Hi Gordon,
Justin has various solutions for this… from buying a guitar to…
Greetings,Rogier
I suggest you start the next lesson to give your brain something new to engage with, while continuing to practice the “clunkey” songs. The best fix for the “clunkies” is lots of repetition, but it can definitely feel like a “job” if you don’t mix in some new challenges or other “fun stuff”.
I turn each “clunkey” song into a 5-minute practice item and mix them about 50/50 with “new skills” practice items. I start each practice session with a 5-minute play of a “non-clunkey” song to warm up and put me in a positive mental space.
YMMV
Oh, I’ve been there, I was on Module 10 last January and a year later I am only in Module 13 and just starting 14. For me, it was just to listen to a bunch of Justin’s lessons over again and use his tailor-made practice sessions to break me out. At least I was learning a few songs but for quite a while there I was just spinning my wheels.
I hadn’t watched a lesson in months. I found re-watching, that his obvious enjoyment in teaching was infectious.
I like how this is the one thing you pulled out of his lesson, Rogier! I decided, myself to save this as a reward for graduating from Grade 2. Later this summer… maybe… 
He Gordon we all get them days in fact sometimes weeks man take a break go try slide guitar or fingerpicking just something different then return it will come back cheers Hec
Yep I remember that. Just like @Fast-Eddie said. I added the clunkly worn out stuff that was at 70% to my practice routine. And I decisively move on and challenged myself with new material. You can spin in circles trying to perfect everything but it just wont happen if you get frustrated. At least in my opinion.
Once you are learning more interesting things and doing your dailys regularly (daily practice routine), suddenly one day you will be like wow, maybe its time to drop the one off. Younwill think wow I rememeber when it gave me such fits.
Thanks everyone! Some great tips and its good to know others have been there and found ways out of it. I will be using all of this to keep me moving.
I personally think buying the reward BEFORE you earn it is better… that way I can use the buyer’s regret/guilt in my favor…
“Gee, I spent all this money, I guess I’d better learn something new to justify it”… 
Plus, then your husband will be asking what you’ve added to your repertoire - you just have to get the new guitar out & show him!!!
New gear is very rut-busting for me!!!
Tod
I’m a newb (just 6 months, ending grade 1)
One of the things that struck me was the first time my strumming didn’t sound clunky.
I attributed that shift to practicing the song, many times, with muted strings—> then playing the song slowed down until it just felt right (I use the JustinGuitar app, but I’ve heard Audacity [freeware] can slow down songs and maintain pitch too).
I’m guessing that my brain was finally able to hear what the musician was doing when it (my brain) wasn’t preoccupied with worrying about chord changes. Foot tapping really helped to get the “feel” too. Talk about feeling, when I’m missing the beat, I feel clunky , like I’m walking around in a slipper on one foot and a winter boot on the other.
I wrote a post some time back about using GarageBand to see if I was actually on beat or not.
Every once in a while I fire up the process (it’s just a few minutes) and there is a pretty good correlation to my feeling clunky and missing the beat (usually late). This feeling disappears when I’m just strumming along with muted strings.
On beat, or not? How do I _know_ - #18 by mundeli
Let me know what helps you and I’ll give it a whirl too.
Cheers
Yup, this is pretty much me. You’ve reminded me of the importance of timing! Im going to use my metronome again, and doing the daily practice with m9re attention.
I’m there today myself. My solution is similar to others. Take a new lesson from Justinguitar. it gets me something new to work on while i go back and work on the clunkies. I also found listening to the musician who played the songs i selected helps loosen me up. Try playing while you listen to the original.
Hi Gordon, when I finished grade 2, I still wasn’t satisfied with my strumming, so I went back and repeated all of grade 1 and focused on strumming and also took the first of the strumming courses. I also did a lot of Justin grade 2 song lessons on the website and tried to copy Justin’s strumming. I did this as I was continuing with new Grade 3 lessons. After a lot of strumming practice the strumming sounded smoother and more in the groove to me. Be patient with yourself and the playing will get better.
Hi Gordon,
I’m sure there are many here that have been through this but for me the key is making sure that I focus equally on enjoying what I’m doing and learning. Finding a new song that I like and is roughly within my ability (perhaps with a newer technique or chord shape to add some challenge) keeps me motivated to pick up the guitar every day. In addition pulling techniques etc out of the learning modules to work on challenges me at the same time.
I guess that’s what gets me through anyway.
Good luck
Thanks Roger, I watched both and got a lot from it , especially “The Captain” being in a similar place. Sometimes you can think these guys are in a diffrent league and don’t struggle with motivation or getting fed up with what they do. Clearly they do get in a rut as well. Its kinda reassuring to know others go through a similar thing
Metronome, super important. Playing with others, super important. Mixing things up, super important.
The most important thing, just understanding that everyone hits a rut at some point and most hit multiple ruts periodically, it is normal. But progress does not happen over night and the more times you push through the rut and get to the other side, the more you will be able to do what you want to do with guitar / music / anything really.
Best of Luck!
♫⋆｡♪ ₊˚♬ ﾟ.
I like Justin’s number 1 tip - buy a new guitar. And number 2 - buy some pedals and play! I’ve actually gone with ‘get in touch with a face to face teacher to have some accountability’ but we all do what we can, right? Next step, look for someone to jam with…
Module 11 and 12 are not easy and packed with stuff to practice
its pretty normal to spend a lot of time on this modules I think
A big hurdle to pass
I agree with most of the stuff above. You might find playing facing a mirror works well for things like strumming and watching how your fretting hand moves. Likewise using a tablet with the camera reversed so that you can see yourself full screen - or go the full hog and video yourself. Or an even fuller hog and post a video of yourself and ask for the feedback.
I recently videoed myself playing bass and singing into a microphone. The mic stand was largely hiding my fretting hand. So the 3 things I could see were: general demeanor (what the audience is seeing); plucking hand technique; mic technique. My self-assessment was:
General demeanour: better than normal. Target: try and get that into my future video recordings and live performances
Plucking hand technique: good. I’m not sure I can really improve it - but let’s see what the coach says. Going forward: keep an eye on future videos and check I’m not picking any bad habits up.
Mic technique: there are at least 2 things I can improve. For one of them I knew something was wrong, but didn’t know what until I saw myself. The other I was completely unaware of. I suspect the bass coach (who is also a singer) will see more than I did - but even if he doesn’t say anything about it, I now know there are things to work on and improve.