Learning and age

@TGFNM14 - Sorry this turned out to be a bit longer than I thought at the start!! Hope it helps.

You’re probably a bit rusty after being out so long. It also looks like you’re trying to do too much and maybe not focusing on a limited amount of material. I had a similar situation where I was away for work for a few months and couldn’t take a guitar with me. When I got back I reviewed the Grade 1 practice routines for my first few sessions. If I could complete the exercise satisfactorily then I moved on to the next thing. By the end I had a few items that needed some work so I made a practice routine out of them, a bit similar to consolidation, and worked on these for a couple of weeks to get back in the groove.

Stick to the online courses and leave the books aside for now. Use the online dashboard and practice assistant. I also have the JG books and DVDs but don’t use them these days, apart from the songbooks that I still reference. The latest lessons are better than the old DVD lessons in any case, more up to date and better recording quality. I find the practice assistant invaluable and it’s easily customisable as you can add your own practice items to any of Justins base routines - or create entirely your own.

Depending on how much time you have each day I would suggest splitting your practice to be 30% revision of Grade 1, 50% for songs, and the other 20% for “Other” stuff. I assign 10 minutes in each session for each song I want to work on but select 2-4 songs only to concentrate on. Don’t move off these until you can get all the way through either with the record or the app if you’re using that. It doesn’t have to be fancy, just passable for now.

Until you’re back up to speed I wouldn’t get into all the other stuff. Try not to do too many different things, it just gets overwhelming and you lose motivation to play. Pick a few things to fill up your available time each day, work on these techniques, get them “good enough”, then replace them with the next things when you’re done.

Songs can be tricky, especially if you’re trying to sing. Simplify the chord progression first until you can get the changes up to tempo (1 strum per bar or chord if necessary), then add strumming (simple first), then try to just speak the vocal rather than sing. To properly sing you need to have the guitar part “automated”. Take it slowly and build it up over time.

I’ve also separated songs from technique so that I can move on to other modules and carry the songs forward as I also seem to take longer to get songs memorised and I get the exercises down well before songs are ready. I I have an intended set list of 10 songs that I aim to get done by Christmas and I usually have 2 or 3 of these that I’m working on at any one time, no more than 3 though. In addition I will add one song from the Module to practice the techniques in a realistic setting, these may or may not become repertoire at some point in the future but I’m not aiming for these to be performance standard.

So thats a max of 4 songs at 10 minutes each in each session, plus 15-20 minutes on Module exercises, plus 20-30 minutes of “Other” where I include Practical Theory and other instructors stuff. My routine schedules out to be 90 minutes but I’m semi-retired so I have the time. As I said above, start with the time you can dedicate to practice each day and then structure your routine to suit. Quick Tip: allow some time for faffing about. I allow about 25% of my time to cover the time between exercises, getting set up etc. I allow 2 hours per day (90 minutes practice + 30 minutes contingency time) usually split to 2 x 60 minute sessions (am/pm).

e.g. If you have an hour per day, don’t have an hours worth of stuff in your routine, plan it for 45 minutes to make sure you get done. If you have 30 minutes or less then you don’t need to do this as the time is short enough already.

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Hey Kurt,

Read my post above, :point_up_2:t2: I “strum” my steering wheel often… I “mentally strum” when I hear a song I like in the grocery store… my boss always has background music on in his office… sometimes I have him repeat what he said because I am analyzing the song :notes:

Also, what @ziggysden Stuart says… narrow your focus a bit & try to stay consistent with your practice till you’re over the hill.

There’s always going to be hilly terrain in this journey… fight your way up & enjoy the view when you’re coasting!!! Always, ENJOY THE RIDE!!!

Tod

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Thought that was just me ! :rofl:

Thank you for such a great response

Thank you, Tod

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