Thanks Jeff for your reply.
I would like just to pick up the guitar and play songs from memory. I can do this with 3 or 4 songs and the others then I need the chord sheets.
Yup same here but this is where you need to push to play stuff you like and learn new songs
1 Like
Hi @R.F.W
I have been playing for 2.5 years and progressed in classes to the end of Grade 3. I’m not very fast getting some elements of play into my head-hand coordination, but I am not getting tired of playing nor feeling lost.
My playing proficiency is not that far in places and further in others because of trying to learn “simple” songs that interest me that wind up needing things not taught yet. This highlighted the strong need to improve my accuracy in picking and fretting before I felt I could hope to take on the new lessons.
- Take a look at anything you know is a weakness that may prevent practicing future lessons and try to get that in place.
I decided to do similar to you and learn songs at the expense of moving ahead in lessons. I am choosing to select songs I feel strongly about playing that have elements I know I need to work on. This is not improving the speed that I am learning to place my fingers in the right spot, but it is keeping my interest while trying to figure out this very basic requirement for playing.
- Select songs that exercise your practice goals
I also have a few songs that I have decent progress with. I can generally play these with only a few mistakes during a complete song. I am working more on finesse with these and can use them when I “just want to play something”.
- Have a few songs that you can play reliably to fall back on when you get annoyed at slow progress of a lesson
You may find that your hands won’t move to the position you need without some effort. I have this in many places and also managed to overcome this in time in a few places. I created exercises, often using the song as a basis for the exercise, that slowly built the movement I needed.
- Expect changes to your hand range of motion to come slowly. Be sure to plan your exercises to grow your capability similarly slowly. Do not hurry this kind of change!
1 Like
Hello Michael, thank you for reply.
Its certainly gives me food for thought and I will come up with a plan for which songs that I need to work on to help me improve my technique.
I guess the more I learn on the guitar, the more I realise that I dont know. However, I really enjoy playing the guitar and I just need to.find a routine that works for me.
oh yeah… I think many things are this way, especially happens with complex things.
sometimes simple stuff can be a useful and enjoyable change. For instance, I may be having trouble with a string bend (well, I am in reality) so I might try a new string diameter out. This costs me about what a pint at the local pub would but gives me hours of enjoyment where the pint is good for an hour or less. I get to grow some strength for that particular bend, and can later go back to the heavier strings if I like. Lots of little things like this are right in front of us when we look. It keeps the waiting to get proficient not seem too difficult.
1 Like
[quote=“sequences, post:15, topic:253999”]
where the pint is good for an hour or less. [/quote]
???
1 Like
A lot of good advice here. I am also on Grade 3 and have had several up and down moments over the last couple of years. When I started I made a rule for myself that I had to pick my guitar up every day and play it, however briefly (and some days it’s been very brief!) and I have stuck to that for just over two years now.
Once I got to Grade 3, where Justin recommends an hour a day of practice, I have made that my aim (although not a hard and fast rule like my pick it up every day rule) and I can now spot the signs of an impending ‘lull’ as practice feels like a chore and I start coming up with excuses to put it off until later in the day or do less than an hour.
What works for me is to recognise the lull and sit down and re-write my practice routine. I do an honest self appraisal of my weak spots and try and add more practice on those and the sense of achievement after a while from seeing visible improvement is motivating. I recently reviewed the whole course from Grade 1 and incorporated some things that I passed over too quickly at the time and have found that my increased experience have made them possible (I’m looking at you, fingerstlyle Happy ****** Birthday, which I can FINALLY play from memory). I am also doing some ear training and theory which I have discovered I really enjoy and feels like this knowledge is going to give me the ‘keys to the castle’ as I can now see a future where I am not restricted to learning by rote.
2 Likes
Hi Kim and thank you for your reply.
Congratulations on learning Happy Birthday
You raise a good point regarding a practice schedule, as today I really dont have one.
Thank you Richard for sharing these tips from LievenDV.
1 Like
I understand how you feel, I’m in the exact same spot. I’ve learned scales, riffs, chords, etc., but I couldn’t play an entire song. After a bit of thought, I decided I should learn how to play some songs well, from start to finish. So last week, that’s what I started to do.
1 Like
Hello Michael, thanks for your reply.
Its good to hear that you have plan and good luck.
I can associate with not being able to play full songs and if anyone asked me play, then my repertoire is small.
So I would also like to remedy this situation by developing 5 to 10 popular songs that I can play from memory.
In my guitar journey, I always found it helpful to work on songs within my skill set, the issue being finding songs I liked within my skill set. I could play pieces of many tunes, but not the whole song, and still enjoyed that. Justin has suggested songs for each grade level, but we all learn the various skills/techniques somewhat differently, and it’s OK to skip something if you find it frustratingly difficult, and come back to it months later.
If your goal is to perform for others, songs are definitely better than pieces of songs. Without that specific goal, don’t feel you need to “get 5-10 songs that I can play comfortably”. As your dexterity and skills progress, you’ll find a bigger range of songs within your skill set, and you can learn entire songs easier. Liking the song was very important for me as I am more motivated to learn it (no motivation in learning a song I didn’t care for).
It’s fair to say my skills progressed as I found songs I liked and wanted to play, that forced me to learn some new skill. Certainly learning the “E shaped barre chord” and also the A shaped barre cord (let’s just say the F and B chords - the harder barre chords since they’re closer to the nut) will open up the number of songs you can play. As a tip to quickly learn them, learn to use your bicep rather than your hand/thumb muscles. I hurt my thumb once, and learned I could play almost as well without my thumb touching the back of the neck (but touching the neck with your thumb does help you know where your fretting fingers are relative to the strings).
I used to say an instructor or better skilled friend can help you find those songs to motivate you, but Justin has songs for each grade level, so look through those.
I used to avoid singing, as my singing sucked. But I kept working at it (one song at a time and by myself as no point in irritating people around me) and can now sing, and it’s made me a better musician. It’s nice you can practice singing without the guitar, which is how I usually learn to sing a song. My first attempts at singing a song usually are pretty bad, and I have to slow it down to ensure I’m hitting the right notes. I’ve gotten better with practice. But I think we all sang as kids in school, and I recall no problem doing it then. I bring this up because if your goal is to perform for others, being able to sing means you can play easy to play songs in a performance that would otherwise be kind of boring. E.G., I like to sing Last Kiss, which is simply a G Em C D progression all the way through, but without the singing, it’s kind of boring.
I like your goal of arranging songs for fingerstyle, as I do that and love finger picking. In fact, I learned fingerstyle playing House of the Rising Sun (it has the F chord). First I learned to strum the song, then I learned to play it finger style sounding almost exactly like the Animals’ version, though they used a pick and raked the strings. Later I learned to sing it.
Justin did a great job on his lessons and grade levels, but don’t feel you have to follow it entirely in order. Finding songs you like within, or just slightly beyond your skill set (not way beyond your skill set - that just leads to frustration) is the key to keeping motivated and learning IMHO, at least it was for me.
Good Luck and happy playing!
2 Likes
Hello Dan, thank you for sharing your experiences and advice.
If I am honest, I am embrassed about my singing and this prevents me from practicing when people are around. Even though I sang and played on one of the open mics!
That was me until a couple of months ago having seen the light thanks to a few very well meaning members.
Indeed. Like finger picking Happy Birthday!!
2 Likes
I am almost finished with Grade 3 (2 modules left) and this is exactly what I plan to do before diving into Grade 4 stuff. I want to learn as many songs from my DREAMERS list that do not require barre chords, other than the F. As an example, I’m currently working on “Mary Had a Little Lamb” by Stevie Ray Vaughan.
I really like this advice. It was not meant for me here but still digging it. I have a similar challenge and this really gives me food for thought too. Thanks.
FWIW, I suspect most of us would love to be able to play SRV’s songs, like SRV. I can play bits and pieces of a few of them, and enjoy doing it.
When at a jam session at a dive bar I frequented in Texas because the blues jams were so awesome (and beyond my skill set at the time) the uninitiated would think the players had been playing together for years (when in reality it was usually a group of random players of the various instruments the jam leader would pick out playing together for the first or maybe second time), one of the players told me the reason hardly anyone led a SRV song at the jam was because they couldn’t play it nearly as well as SRV, and the audience (lots of musicians) knew it.
And don’t let that stop you from trying. You can likely play pieces of one of his songs, or the entire song (and it’s usually worth the enjoyment) but expect to get frustrated without the skill set he had if you want to sound like SRV.
I can relate to much of your commentary. I still hate playing Happy Birthday though.
2 Likes
I hate the happy birthday song as well. After going through it a few times I dropped it for the chorus of Jingle Bells! 
4 Likes