Hi Nicole and Nicole:
I perform at barbecues like that it’s a lot of fun. I inspired a friend and his 8 year old son to start learning guitar too at one cookout. Maybe you’ll do the same. Everyone loves live music😎
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Hi Jeff,
that sounds great. To be honest, that’s also the reason, why I finally started out on this journey. As a child and young teen, I joined many camp fires, and always enjoyed the guitar playing and singing. For me, it was an essential part of the whole event.
Nowadays, we have camp fires with friends and family, but nobody of them is able to play the guitar 
. So, finally I decided that I had to be the one who takes over this part.
Although the seed had already been planted decades ago, it finally germinated 
.
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Hi Nicole,
I don’t think, you have to use the new A chord shape. As far as I understood it, it is normally easier for absolute beginners to start out with this fingering, as it makes using an anchor finger possible when changing to D or E. But when you feel confident with the standard A grip and changes, I don’t see any reason why you should unlearn it now 
.
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Hi Nicole.
That’s really awesome that you’re doing that for the group. One of my friends invited us to a cookout tomorrow. They gave me a special request to also bring my electric guitar to play and demonstrate my skills. They’re are originally from Mexico so I assume they want something in Spanish too lol. I’m not fluent but know a couple songs in Spanish. They also like my English rock music and subscribe to my you tube channel.
I plan on going back to try something else in German too. Maybe I’m not up to Toten Hosen skill yet lol, but I was thinking of “wo Sind all die Indianer Hin”. I used to love that one and it seems easier.
Tschuss Jeff
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That sounds great, Jeff. I wish you lots of fun tomorrow .
@SDKissFan and @NicoleKKB
Since my Learning Log seems to be evolving into a virtual meeting place.
I just made coffee, can I offer you some? Black, flat white, sugar? 
Bread rolls? Pancakes? Or waffles perhaps? 
Nicole, I am not yet at a place where I want to give up on the A. Maybe one more week or so, if it’s then a no-go, then it is
Jeff, have fun at your cook+out
Ja Ich mochte gern kaffee trinken aber zwar es fast mtnacht hier lol. Coffee sounds good though. Love how it spell checks my German and changed it to weird English
Sieht niedlich aus, stimmt I remember, when I was a teenager I had a music teacher in school who claimed that drinking coffee made him tired. Never really believed that, but that was the story he told…
Have a good night 
Where do I go from here? I completed all the modules from Beginner Grade 1. I went through the whole Strumming Foundation course for the second time.
I did know the basic eight chords from before, did know some basic strumming patterns - though I probably never played them correctly but improvised and added strums.
So where do I go from here? One week of luxurious vacation time with investing many hours per day in playing guitar and rewatching Beginner Grade 1 videos is over. I learned that I can learn to play riffs and that I love doing so. Of course I am aware that it will need lots of work in the future.
But where do I go from here? The old me would be happy with the state of things, saying “Hey, you cannot do it better anyhow. You are not talented, so why invest any more time in the basics? Move on and show yourself that you will fail anyhow.”
And how I would love to move on. I can play the “big G” as well as the stuck C. So that’s reason enough to move on. Isn’t it?
Not this time though. This time I will give myself a chance. This time I will not set myself up to fail.
There is no instrument store here in Porvoo. The nearest one is probably located in Vantaa (not far away, but travelling involved nonetheless). Thus I have ordered 0.46 picks in addition to the 0.6 ones I have. These picks should arrive at the beginning of next week.
And then?
Then I will again go back to the beginning. Then I will start to learn songs by heart. Automatize more strumming patterns. Play songs utilizing different strumming patterns. Sing.
This time, I will be kind and not set myself up for failure.
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It’s Monday, the beginning of my second vacation week and I had meant to clean. Then I thought, well, what if I grab the guitar for just half an hour…
Hours and hours later, I have decided that Tuesdays are much better cleaning days anyway. I found Justin’s video for “Hold on” and found the idea with the eights and constant thumb strumming interesting, even when the eights strumming gives the song a somewhat hurried feeling. I would like"my" version of it to be more quiet. To sound withdrawn somehow. But it will take weeks to get to the version I have in mind.
So I tried to play the song as Justin had mentioned in the video. Doing so, I discovered that I can play the “one finger A” and that it’s actually not that difficult for me to get used to this new version. I can change to and from the “one finger A” to other chords, but its slow still.
One thing, I am very surprised about is that it has been somewhat difficult for me to remember the lyrics of the song. Apparently, it’s getting more difficult when I have to remember the chords as well and when I am trying to stay at a round about consistent tempo.
I think that “Hold on” could sound interesting in fingerstyle. So I practiced a very basic 4/4 pattern and did not really manage to play even the first verse and chorus without mistake. Still, it’s a starting point. Accordingly, I will post the video below.
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Hi Nicole. After completing each grade the advice is to do some consolidation time to review again the material, work on the skills that could benefit from some additional practice, and attempt to play songs that use the skills learnt. That is in addition to meeting the pass requirements suggested by Justin. How long should be that consolidation depends of each person. For me there’s a point where I feel that I won’t get any more for now of practicing something and that I should spend my energy learning something new. Doing that too early don’t allow for getting a skill ingrained, delaying it too much can give space to a sense of being stalled and to lose interest in the guitar.
Memorizing the lyrics of a song can be challenging. I was practicing a Horse With No Name on the guitar yesterday and I cannot remember right now how it starts because I haven’t tried to memorize the lyrics yet. Normally I start by learning how the song begins and after that I go by adding lines progressively till I can sing the full song aloud without any notes.
From what I saw in the song you are practicing, you’re doing well keeping the rhythm and not stopping because a chord change was not as clean as desired. You can work on the chord changes separately and go back at trying to play the song with a steady rhythm, alternating both exercises, until you can hear that your chord changes are cleaner more often than not.
Hi Nicole,
I ended up playing for about 3 hours. I played and sang about 20 songs plus some improv. It was challenging but I had a lot of fun . It was my first time playing electric outs in front of a group . I think I’m ready for an open mic now.
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Thanks I have been wondering how well these passing criteria work in practice. In theory, they sound good, but in the end it perhaps depends mainly on my own willingness to be honest with myself. And honestly speaking, I am not there yet.
I will have to be back at work for a week after this one. Then another vacation week. Back to work and at the beginning of August three more vacation weeks. Trying to be lenient with myself and realist at the same time, I I want to “pass” grade 1 in the middle or at the end of my last vacation week in August. There are so many nice songs out there with those basic chords, and I do manage to sneak in the occasional cheeky mini-F. Meaning, there will be more then enough out there to keep me entertained until then
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Oh wow, you played for 3 hours 
?! 20 songs?! That sounds really challenging. But big kudos that you did it .
My current repertoire is much smaller. But that’s okay for me right now.
I’m looking forward to seeing you at an OM .
Hello Nicole,
Had a bit of a read through your log. Some good stuff in there. You’ve made a great start to your journey, and have the right attitude.
One thing I noticed is you’ve got pretty good rhythm. Super important.
I don’t think I’ve welcomed you to the community, so welcome. 
. Have fun, stick close to Justins lessons, and reach out anytime.
Looking forward to your progress.
Cheers, Shane
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Thank you so much. That’s a most wonderful compliment 
Hyvinkää Rockfest is here today. The weather is less than ideal, but this is Finland in June…
In case I should start freezing too much, I will simply think of @Majik in Indonesia, and try to warm myself up with the thought that too much heat is not nice either
It’s strange, normally I am so happy and excited in the hours before a concert. Today, this feeling has not set in at all. Hopefully, I will be more cheerful once I have actually arrived at the festival area 
Learningwise, experiencing many hours of live music will surely be interesting. I want to take a look at rhythm and rhythm coordination especially.
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It’s ten days ago since the last entry in this Learning Log. Meaning, perhaps it’s time to give a short update to keep track on what happened.
The metal festival in Hyvinkää on 8.6.23 was good. Not great, but surely good. Gotta give it to Rancid, the old punk rockers, they did a great set, and I danced close to front of stage for almost the entire time. When it comes to the temperatures, it was an absolute desaster. Raining at the beginning, cold, maybe tops 15 C at the highest and unbelievably cold at night when the last band (Battle Beast) played. Perhaps 5 C or even less than that. Luckily Battle Beast used a lot of special effects and I every time fire effects were used, I was celebrating internally - at least it became a bit warmer for a few seconds.
I had volunteered to interrupt my vacation for a week of work after the festival week. So I had made the best of the slowly increasing temperatures and went back to my lonely place at the Baltic Sea last Sunday.
This time I took the Gretsch with me, but left the Mini Katana at home which proved to be a bad idea, since even a semi-hollow does not sound like much without amp. So the best I got from that experience is this rather bad picture.
Maybe there was yet another positive realization. At the Baltic Sea, I noticed that I have internalized the chord progressions for “Leaving on a jet plane” and “What’s up” and can play them with Old Faithful without thinking
The work week then was a mess, and I was as busy as expected. I did not get to play guitar much before the weekend, except for Monday, if I remember correctly. That evening, I noticed clearly how beneficial that aimless playing at the shore of the Baltic Sea has been for my more structured practicing.
Meanwhile, summer came to Southern Finland even when it’s not strictly meteorological summer yet. It has been something like 28 C outside for the last few days and even if it’s maybe 24 C only now, it’s at least 26 C inside, since Finnish apartment buildings are that well insolated. Meaning, while I have been playing around with many songs this afternoon, I had to go to wash my hands every now and again and try and cool down somehow🌞
What else happened?
I started the “Practical Music Theory” course yesterday and passed grade 1 and 2 very fast. Right now I am at the beginning of grade 3 and I am absolutely fascinated with the note circle and scales. It’s like learning to understand the grammar of a language. It’s nice to be able to speak a language but things become so much easier when I’m beginning to understand why things work like they do.
I understood that Old Faithful can e.g. be split to DDU DDU when there are two chords in a bar, and I am able to make the change to the new strumming pattern and the change between the chords fast enough even when playing at original speed with the app. Getting back to Old Faithful after that remains a challenge though.
Songs that I am working in at the moment are “Hold on”, “Leaving on a jet plane”, “Talking 'bout a revolution”, “Handle with care” and “What’s up”.
I am at the Beginner Grade 1 consolidation stage, and I do have to remind myself to be patient and keep on telling myself that I have all the time in the world. I will satisfy all curiosity with continuing the theory course and playing around with scales and patterns for scales. Otherwise it’s repetition and songs, songs, songs at the moment
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You seem to be a bit further on than myself but I have also been doing the theory and I am finding it fascinating and it’s a bit like joining the dots. So many “OH that’s how that works” moments
It’s fascinating, isn’t it? I have no idea why many, many years ago in school no teacher even mentioned that note circle, at least I don’t think I ever saw it before JG. While watching the video when it was introduced in the theory course my first thought was: Wait, you can spin the circle. Second thought: Hey, those notes are the same as the string names. Third thought: If that is so,then with help of the note circle I can find all the notes on the fretboard. And true it was
I even memorized the G-major scale pattern 1 and can play it a ridiculously slow speed without any kind of rhythm since my fingers keep flying off the fretboard. Something to work on in the next weeks…
I don’t know if I’m further along than you. Maybe if we count the weeks since I joined this community. There were so many days, when that annoying heat pump at work gave me headache, a stiff neck etc. or when I was generally too stressed from work to practice in any efficient way.
Don’t know, when you want to be finished with Grade 1, if you are there then still, but we can set ourselves challenges and check in on the progress. That way the whole learning experience would become more interactive
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