Well, I finally decided to make my own log after lurking and reading tips for several weeks. I do have questions but so many have been answered previously in the Community. So I often find my answers with a quick search.
Still, here’s where I’m at:
I’m on the final module of beginner grade 1 and working on consolidation and song learning as Justin recommends before moving on.
I’m proud of my chord changes and honestly feel I’m ahead of the game on some of them.
Best Chords: G C D Em
2nd best: E A Am
Worst chord is Dm
I feel I’m behind on song learning. After reading some post about this on the community and also watching several YouTube videos about it. I have made a short list and working on the simplified versions of several.
Currently my biggest struggle is strumming and staying in time. So that’s a larger focus of my practice routine (which I use the websites practice routine and tracker etc. extremely handy!) I also use the Justin guitar app to practice.
Current practice routine:
5min spiderwalk
6min of OMC of problem pairs
15 min strumming and rhythm practice
5 min of practice making an F chord shape up and down the neck
(Total of 31min)
Also I made a simple practice routine for each song I’m learning. Totalling between 20-30min (would love to hear what others do)
If I have lots of time I will do my regular practice routine and then the song practice afterwards. I realized I was getting way too much time on techniques over learning actual songs so I modified things. If I have less time I alternate between the practice routine one day and practice the song the next. So don’t miss out on song practice now.
So generally I will get in at least a 30min practice. If I have more time it’s 60min per day.
Sadly I can’t practice EVERY day but I try to and if I have to miss it, I don’t beat myself up, I just keep in mind that daily practice is a habit I’m building. When my schedule allows I really enjoy it!
(Any input on refining this or any of the above would be greatly appreciated!)
Yes! I have been gradually working through this with my strumming practice! It is helping.
I mostly find that when I strum along with the metronome or the strumming practice in the app I stay in time for almost a minute and then find I’m slightly ahead or behind especially with the old faithful. I end up off time with the upstrums somehow
Hi James, thats a great start creating a routine, since joining JG in Sep 2034 I have found this aspect of Justin’s advice and approach very valuable. I have had over 50 years of trying to learn guitar with several large gaps of not playing for various reasons. Something I did not do in the past was to note down each element I was working on and for how long, the result was my practice was at times unfocused, inconsistent and at worst random,
I am currently on BLIM 3(Blues Immersion) which is great, and have set up a diary to record what I am currently working on and note where I am struggling, as we have moved through each unit of BLIM, I have added to, modified each element from previous Units(one a month), some I keep like licks/riffs so I constantly replay and keep those fresh and hopefully improve my playing of them as we progress learning new aspects of the blues, effectively it allows me to set personal goals and adjust accordingly,
I am lucky as am retired and can devote several hours a day to practice. But some things like spider exercises, playing a scale rigidly to a metronome, trying to play arpeggios I have just done each for 5 minutes or so a day, initially badly but after a few weeks dexterity and clarity has improved.
I think even if you can only practice 2 or 3 times a week for 40-60 minutes say, much as you have started doing you will see gradual improvements and as time passes you can move to new challenges on guitar and amend the routine to suit you.
Remember that if you get stuck or are struggling understanding something there are lots of friendly people on JG who are more than happy to try and help.
One other thing I have found very valuable is to video myself and review my playing of whatever it is I am working on. It’s very hard to critic your playing when you are actually playing and mistakes get forgotten, but by watching yourself playing you can then focus on aspects that are wrong or don’t sound great. When you get brave enough posting videos on JG of songs Is a great way to get feedback and encouragement from others and will help build confidence. It’s a step too far for some but well worth considering.
I think that’s great, I’ll be a regular follower and I’ll keep my fingers crossed that you continue to make good progress and report back here.
As a beginner myself, I can’t give you much advice. With Grade 1, you have a good level of knowledge that will allow you to play many songs. Take your time and enjoy it; there’s no need to rush things. Playing songs that you really like is the most important thing, both as practice and as a reward. I wish you lots of fun and success.
Cheers Withold
5min spiderwalk
6min of OMC of problem pairs
15 min strumming and rhythm practice
5 min of practice making an F chord shape up and down the neck
Then I did 10 minutes of the song “Last Kiss”
This might be my most best song currently. I’m learning the song using just the old faithful strumming pattern for now until I can play it all the way through from memory.
So total practice yesterday was 41min
Today I did my same regular routine and within the strumming portion watched a video from Justins strumming sos course.
After my regular routine I practiced the song “for what it’s worth” possibly my second best song.
I had two great hour long practice sessions both yesterday and today!
Really starting to enjoy my song practice! I made a song list that I’m learning with G, Em C D and I practice those songs in the same session for about 10 min each.
So todays practice was:
Regular routine:
5min spiderwalk
6min of OMC of problem pairs
15 min strumming and rhythm practice
5 min of practice making an F chord shape up and down the neck
Then my song practice list: with G Em C D
Wagon wheel
Perfect
Last Kiss
Zombie
Total time today was about 1hr 20min.
Yesterday was similar but practiced different songs,
5min spiderwalk
6min of OMC of problem pairs
15 min strumming and rhythm practice
5 min of practice making an F chord shape up and down the neck
10 min for what its worth
10 min knocking on heavens door
10 min a girl like you
Approximately 1hr
I’m getting slowly more comfortable with strumming. Working my way through Strumming sos course. Keeping in mind that simple on beat muted strumming with a metronome is productive. And I will take the approach of looking at it like a relaxation exercise. Justin really is the best guitar teacher on the internet!
Tonight was my usual:
5min spiderwalk
6min of OMC of problem pairs
15 min strumming and rhythm practice
5 min of practice making an F chord shape up and down the neck
10 min music theory study
I switched to a different guitar for my practice tonight. I’m blessed to have inherited a couple of nice old instruments. Also my brother gave me his guitar to practice with since he doesn’t play it anymore. So there’s 3 in the house total.
Ironically none of which are actually mine.
I decided to cycle the guitars for practice and tonight I experimented with the smaller guitar, it’s a Yamaha F150 red label. A smaller scale guitar with really low action.
I found tonight just about everything was easier on that guitar. Spiderwalk, chord changes, and the F barre chord especially.
Noticeable improvement this week with the minor chord changes and getting more comfortable and consistent with the strumming as I work through the strumming sos course.
Yesterday I did 40 min of my regular practice routine and practiced one song for 10min
I’m improving with the strumming and about 2/3rd done the strumming sos course. When I complete it I will reduce my strumming practice time as I think I am more clear on WHAT I need to practice for strumming etc. prop 5-10 min of relaxing into muted strumming exercises
I’m still struggling with the Dm chord so yesterday I worked on a song with the 3 minor chords to help me.
I’m drawing ever closer to the requirements to move on from level 1 to level 2 with the remaining requirement being know 5 songs from memory. Yikes. Tougher than I expected. Memorizing songs is a whole different thing.
I’d say there are 2 that I’m pretty close to being able to play from memory.
I swear I have been practising and just haven’t been logging it! It’s honestly a bit of a different habit to get into.
I had some really good practice sessions this week. Last weekend specifically, I leaned into my song list. Song memorizing is what is keeping me from moving forward to begin grade 2.
Also, I’ve been working through the strumming SOS course, it’s been very helpful! Now I know what to practice and feel my strumming is improving. Specifically timing. The metronome was a little awkward to get used to it first but now I’m right into it.
Another sort of fun approach that I recently discovered is I will listen to some songs with really prominent patterns mute the strings with my fretting hand and just strum along with the original song to sort of find the rhythm. Anyone else ever do this?
This afternoon I did my regular routine:
Five minutes of spider walk
Six minutes of one min chord changes
15 Minutes of strumming practice
Five minutes of barre chord exercises
So yesterday after my regular routine, I played through every song that I have been learning.
I decided to rank my familiarity with the song. So 100% meaning I can play it and remember the lyrics without any thing in front of me.
I’m going to keep this as a rough guide to see how well I’m memorizing the songs as I work towards my “five songs from memory”
Here’s how they all ranked so far:
Zombie 90%
For what it’s worth 80%
Last kiss 70%
Wagon wheel 60%
Knocking on heavens door 40%
How to save a life 40%
Perfect 35%
Wonderful world (Sam Cooke) 30%
A girl like you 25%
Wheat Kings 20%
I was surprised that which ones I knew best and which ones I didn’t know as well as I thought.
I’m going to make some tweaks in my routine for practice and then of course tweak the songs as well. I like to cycle the songs to keep it interesting but maybe there’s a few too many on my list that I should put on the back burner.
I had a busy week and I couldn’t practice much until tonight.
I did my new routine which is slightly modified now
5 min spider walk
6 min One min perfect changes
10 min strumming
5 min practice making barre chords
5 Theory review
I’m finding most of my changes are up close to 60 per minute now so I’m going to change to “Perfect changes” and my aim will be to completely eliminate buzzing if possible.
After my regular exercises I worked on some songs for 10 min each.
Tonight was:
How to save a life
Wagon wheel
Perfect
Last kiss
Zombie
Tomorrow I’ll work on the others.
The song practice is very telling. Still working up the courage to record myself
15 minutes of spiderwalk. I’m getting much better at this. My current approach is go slower at first and get right up tight to the frets and avoid the buzz. I gradually work up in speed and keep it sounding clear.
6 minutes of chords changes. After I found some really good videos on the F barre chord development I decided to start doing my one minute changes with F chord now. I know that I’m jumping ahead by learning barre chords but I see how long it takes people to master them so I just figured no harm in spending a bit of time developing an F Chord.
10 minutes of strumming.
5 min practicing F chord shape up and down the neck.
5 min of theory practicing note locations.
Today I did
5 min of spiderwalking
6 min of chord changes (with the F to Am, F to D, F to C)
10 min of strumming.
5 minutes of F chord shape up and down the neck
5 minutes of theory (note locations and names practice with Justin’s new theory app)
Then I did song practice.
10 min of How to save a life
10 min of wonderful world by Sam Cooke
10 min of Wagon wheel
Still trying to establish a structured way to practice and develop songs. I’ll make a post about this later.
Perhaps this could work:
Take the five songs you remember best (and enjoy playing most).
Start with the first one, make it your “song of the day”. Let’s say it’s Zombie. Play it to enjoy the playing, but listen with the objective to identify bits and pieces, which don’t quite sound as you would like them to sound. Write these issues down and add a short note on what and how you want to work on in a specific song. Do some items of your technical practice. Then, go back to your “song of the day” and work for 5 minutes or so specifically on the issue(s) you identified. Then, do something to distract you from this. Say five minutes of remembering notes on the neck. Then, to end your practice session, play your “song of the day” again - all the way through. Ever so slightly, it should sound better now. In your next practice session (e.g. on the next day), pick the second song on your list etc.
I remember, when finishing Grade 1, I was stuck at exactly the same point. The five songs. I wanted to play them by heart and sing (badly). The process depicted above helped me to make my song practice more structured. Also remember that - strictly - there are no requirements for being able to play five songs by heart … the requirements just call for being able to play them.
On a very different note: Do you have snow in Ontario at least? Here (Southern Finland) it’s a nightmare of rain and darkness currently…
I like it! I had thought of this way of integrating song into the practice a bit more. Since last night I did notice some things during playing the songs specifically that were difficult and I was messing up. I’ve had a similar approach to this, but I would play through songs and make a note of the things that I was still struggling with and then make my practice routine around those things. So we’re definitely on the same page with that idea. But you were suggesting taking one song and integrating it into the practice?
I will try this. Maybe playing the song itself after the spiderwalk warm up and then making note of the things that are difficult or don’t sound right as you suggested. Then make that the focus of the practice.
Also, I really did think the requirement was 5 songs from memory. Isn’t it?
There are several I can definitely play all the way through with the written song in front of me. Being “stuck” at the stage has not been all bad. I’ve had a lot of great things develop in me. My strumming and timing is really improving and my cord changes are getting smoother. Just my overall comfort with the instrument is really developing.
Still, the goal is to be able to accompany myself while singing and that’s seems a good way down the road for me.
Yes lots of snow and it’s cold this week. Currently it’s -15 Celsius
Yes. One or two. One, which you have in the pocket (for me that was your Sam Cooke Song, coincidally) - more or less - and one that is more complicated.
Structuring your other practice items around issues you notice on the songs you are practicing sound like a very good idea
No Technically you need to able to play five songs with all downstrums or similar. It’s of course really useful when starting Grade 2. E.g. it will surely be easier to practice those “stuck chords” and sus-chords if you have certain songs in store and can simply modify them.
Yes, absolutely. I can relate since it’s one of my goals as well.
That I can handle easily. +6 C° and rain here. Wanna swap?
I started with playing Last kiss. I also recorded myself for the first time. And made note of a few things.
Then did my spiderwalk 5min
6 min of one minute changes (Am to F and D to F) got them over 22 changes per minute now.
10 min strumming: I did 5 min of the chord progression and strumming pattern from the song. I took special care not to strum the E and A strings when play D chord. Which was one tho g I noted earlier in the song practice.
Then did 5 min of muted old faithful pattern. Instead of metronome tonight I tried walking around strumming and talking with my wife while trying not to break the pattern.
5 minutes of F chord practice (really getting better with this!)
5 minutes of theory practice (note locations)
The. I finished by playing through the same song last kiss 3 times. And filmed it.
I hope to refine this process further but I see purpose of it and the intention to make corrections and improvements etc.
When I played the song, I chose to play along with the app. I found myself getting ahead of the time of the music on it quite a bit so that is something I will work on as well. Not sure if using the app is the way to go or what.
Main takeaways from the song are:
Improve the strumming accuracy and don’t hit the wrong strings (any tips from anyone would be appreciated!)
And work on keeping time (probably more practice with the metronome)
Always hitting the right strings will come with time and practice (and of course with more string muting experience). My former 1:1 teacher once told me to include short exercises in my practicing, which call for really concentrating on where to place the fingers and really being aware of which strings to hit. Sounds silly… Still, there seems to be some value in this exercise.
Another, a bit weird thing, that worked for me at least two times, when learning things that were really difficult for me, was involving my husband. “Listen, it’s so difficult.” Bam. What?!? It works now?!? How? No idea why really, but I suppose that when consciously trying to demonstrate mistakes, thus concentrating on how they come to exist, the brain becomes more aware of mistakes and that being so helps how to do it - if not right - then at least better.
Here (Southern Finland) it’s a nightmare of rain and darkness currently…
Technically you need to able to play five songs with all downstrums or similar. It’s of course really useful when starting Grade 2. E.g. it will surely be easier to practice those “stuck chords” and sus-chords if you have certain songs in store and can simply modify them.