Hi Rebecca,
My thoughts are with your guitars during these difficult times, I am sure they will get through this time with the strength and spirits of the universe 
Happy holidays 
Greetings
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Hi Rebecca @LunaRocket
The John Denver recording is capo on 2nd fret. Just move the capo up, trial and error, until the song gets into your range, the chord shapes stay the same wherever you put the capo. Obviously, you canāt play along with the recording at this point!
If you canāt take your guitars on the cruise it might be a good time to start on that theory course (there are downloadable booklets, if you already have the course, in case you donāt have internet). You donāt need your instrument, just a pen and paper.
Or you could use the JG Note Trainer app (itās about $3 I think) on your phone as long as you have cell phone signal.
Enjoy your break 
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Hi Rebecca,
aaaw, a cruise to Alaska, that sounds sooo awesome! 
Have a fabulous time (as good as it gets without guitars) and enjoy it as much as possible.
Regards Capo and chord shapes, Stuart explained it already very well. Iād just like to add: If capo at fret two is still to low, you can go higher fret by fret until you find the sweet spot for your voice. With each fret higher, you will raise the pitch by one semitone.
You could think of the capo as the ānew nutā, so for example: You hit the open A-String without capo: the note A will ring out. Placing the Capo on fret 2 and hitting open A-string, the note B will ring out, as the pitch is raised by 2 semitones/one tone.
Basically the same happens to chords: Playing an open C-shape chord without a capo: C will be heard. Putting the capo on fret to and playing the same C-shape will result in a D chord sound as the pitch is raised by two semitones/one tone. Capo at fret 4, the same C-shape will result in E chord that is ringing out. 
The good and bad thing about learning: Once we learn something new, we almost always learn what we still have to learn at the same time, a never ending learning. 
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No, no, no. enjoy your holiday! Your guitars and theory will be waiting for you when you get back home. There is more to life than worrying about all this. Unless of course you plan on becoming a professional musician. 
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Thatās what I am often thinking as well, because it is exactly as @Lisa_S says hereā¦
Have lots of fun on your Alaska cruise 
I agree with @sairfingers btwā¦ vacation is vacation 
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Hi Rebecca, Iām catching up with your learning log. It was a very interesting read. Youāve progressed well in your guitar learning, and have received plenty of good advice and encouragement already, but Iād like to comment on this you wrote:
I think that all the effort of the practice is to develop the ability to control the sound coming from the instrument to play it with a specific musical intent and be able to make music. Good youāre already getting a taste of that. I saw that first hand with my brother when he passed from playing notes in a keyboard to playing piano music with a musical intent.
For me part of the frustration with the learning process comes from the numerous skills needed to learn before being in capacity of playing at least at a basic level an enough diversity of music styles to cover a good number of the popular songs most people would like to play on the guitar and maybe some ones just a few know about.
That said I think that enjoying the process is very important and necessary; because unless the guitar player sets for playing only the songs or pieces that he or she can play with what he or she already knows (and the list could be endless anyway) he or she very likely will spent a good portion of his or her current and future guitar time just developing his or her guitar skills.
I see a positive in feeling somewhat frustrated with not enough time (or energy or both) for practice and thatās that thereās still plenty motivation to keep going. My advice is just to enjoy whatever time you have for the guitar and as you wrote:
My start with Guitar Pro was a little rough and Iām still just using a limited set of the capabilities of the software. The software has a pretty decent manual and there are plenty of YT videos explaining how to use it (I knowā¦ more things to watch and learn, but itās absolutely worthy). As an exercise you can enter one of the riffs that you already know how to play. Knowing some musical notation and theory helps but itās not a requirement. Iāve found very useful the ability to loop a few notes and repeat them again and again at reduced speed or with automated small increases, Using it with the actual record of the song as an underlay has been more challenging, but I think that just the exercise of trying it has been very good for developing my understanding of the song A Horse With No Name and consequently my musicality. I may ask some help from my brother for this one.
Just keep on keeping on and having fun.
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Well, hi again. Iām back from my 7-day cruise to Alaska. I had a blast with my sister-in-law even if I came down with covid the last day. (sigh) fortunately it ended up being a mild case. I guess I should have worn a mask in the elevators and not just on the airplane! However, I recovered after a week, managed not to give it to my husband (stayed in the spare bedroom for the first 3 days home), and am slowly getting back into practicing guitar.
I decided to concentrate on just playing my acoustic, and some of the songs, John Denverās Country Roads, just sound so much better on it than my electric, and Iāve found the Capo on the 2nd fret has definitely helped me be able to sing that one, tooā¦ Whereas Neil Youngās Hey, Hey, My My sounds weird on it, so Iām skipping practicing that one for now.
I am finding mastering the F barre chord on this guitar is hard! I simply cannot press the strings hard enough with the tips of my fingers to get the low E, A and D strings to ring out. I am going to continue to persevere however rather than tuning the strings down a semi-tone as @DavidP suggested, simply because Iām stubborn. Plus, itās only been a few days since I restarted practice.
Iām having a weird issue, and maybe itās because the neck is wider on the acoustic, sometimes when changing to the C chord, my index finger drops to the high E string instead of the B string. Very annoying. Otherwise, playing Whatās Up with the 2-bar strumming pattern is going great! I was surprised I could go right back to that without having to think about it.
However, I am going to have to review the 7th chords because some of them have slipped right out of my memory!
Yesterday after looking through the songs in the App, I decided to add Amy Winehouseās Back to Black to my practice routine, itās got that tricky B7 chord (I did remember the shape of that one, Iām just not very good at it!) I love the song, and itās probably the only song from this century in my repertoire (snort, I actually have a repertoire!) 
Okay, and as I know youāre all clamoring for anything about my cruise, a couple of photos, I may post a few more later if there is any interest.
Me in Glacier Bay
Our ship the Norwegian Encore, (the thing is HUGE), docked in Skagway.
(edit, typos)
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Since returning from my trip, I have decided I have been stagnating. Mainly because I am mostly practicing a few songs over and over and really slacking off on learning new things. Bad girl! I canāt use the excuse that I am still having difficulty playing my acoustic guitar with the stiff strings because Iām getting used to it and though I still screw up a bit here and there (e.g. my little finger sometimes hits the B instead of the high E on the G chord because the neck is wider).
So, I have started adding 10-minute chunks of stuff I find difficult or do sloppily before I get to play songs. I only started this a couple days ago (but I did 30 minutes of this so far today!), so no real improvement there yet. Things I do in these chunks are:
Changes to and from the dreaded F barre chord because the songs I am playing seem to have it crop up a lot now.
Changes to and from the B7 (my trickiest 7th chord).
The 12 bar blue progressions, doing okay on the standard, the quick change has that danged B7 chord, and I canāt for the life of me remember how the 3rd one goes other than it has a lot of Iās in it, Iāll have to look it up again.
The Blues Solo; I finally seem to have it memorized, just having trouble getting it to sound good on the acoustic, slow, clumsy fingers!
I really want to get Module 13th done so I can head into 14 but I havenāt even tried any of the Blues songs yet. Like I said, Iām stagnating. Hopefully by the coming weekend that will change, Iād like to be closer to finishing Module 13 by the time we go on vacation on Oct 30th. Not sure if I can fit a guitar into the car this time, bringing both dogs with us this year.
Also, the new strings Iāve ordered for my electric should be here by the end of the week and I can get back to practicing on it, too.
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Well Rebecca, youāve identified the areas you need to attack and thatās half the battle. Get those new strings on and go for it! 
Did you try lighter strings on your acoustic?
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Nope, still plugging along with the 12s it came with. Itās getting easier, except for the blasted F chord, that B string doesnāt want to ring out all the time yet. I shall persevere!
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Sounds like you have a good plan there. For me ālearning stagnationā keeps turning up. Once you realise it has happened then I find that it is a virtual kick up the backside I need to start learning again. Keep up the good work.
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Yup, I was too complacent. This morning I watched the Slash Chords lesson in Module 14, dang thereās a lot of them! But I can add a few of the easy ones he mentioned into my practice and get a jump start on Module 14.
Then for the heck of it, I watched the 2-minute consolidation video on the App (Iāll watch the web site one later this fall or winter).
Oy vey! There are so many things we were supposed to learn in Grade 2 and I havenāt practiced them in months, I have been at it more than a year though. Three scales? I only remember 2! Did I learn the 3rd or did I just forget it? Iām not great at things like hammer-on and palm muting, stuck 3/4 chords? better break out that Oasis song again, etc. The list is HUGE!
Unless I really, really increase my practice time this winter Iām still gonna still be here next July! Yes, I know itās a marathon not a sprint, Iāll just keep telling myself the longer Iām practicing Grade 2, the better my fundamentals will be. Time to set up an actual specific task practice routine rather than what Iāve been doing which lately has been I think Iāll practice 20-30 minutes of songs which may or may not have one of those new chords or techniques in it.
And in order to increase my practice time, I WILL STOP PLAYING STUPID GAMES ON MY PHONE (theyāre a lot easier than guitar!). Plus, Iāll also have more time once all the interior trim work weāre still doing on the house weāve been building (for 7 freaking years!!) finally runs out, and there is finally an end in sight!
example, baseboards and door trim:
And to keep home building still relevant to guitarā¦
my PRS newly hung on the wall till the new strings I ordered arrive.
Okay time to go start my new practice routines.
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I must confess, I have become more pragmatic on what I ālearnā. I will do every module getting the idea of what it is trying to teach me. I will then move on, knowing that if I find a technique required for a song, I can go back to the lesson and concentrating on learning it properly.
An example is 7th chords, I got an understanding on what they do but have only learnt individual 7th chords as the appear in the songs I am learning.
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Well, I havenāt really created a new practice routine, but I did find that missing scale and added that back in. Added a couple Christmas songs to my practice routine.
Currently I am on vacation in Massachusetts visiting my sisters. Even with a ton of luggage and 2 large, dogs we managed to squeeze my acoustic on top of everything, and I am managing to get at least 20 minutes of practice in per day, 40 yesterday! P!us the weather is unusually warm so Iāve been able to sit outside to play. Thatās rather enjoyable, Iāll need to try that at home.
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Hi Rebecca. You could wow your family with this one! G, Am, C, D7.
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Wow, i havenāt heard that one in decades.
Well, at 20 F degrees outside (-6.67 C) I wonāt be playing outside anytime soon!
Weāve been home from Massachusetts since Nov 15th and my practice has been rather hit or miss. Between doctor appointments for various things, the Thanksgiving holiday and now Christmas coming, more baking and shopping and decorating and cleaning, plus my sister et al coming here next weekend for 3 weeks with their dog, I just am having a hard time fitting it in. I always seem to be tired, distracted, and tonight, Ziggy just barked at the door until I had to get up and drag him to his bed, no amount of yelling (heās rather deaf) helped, so now Iām frazzled. (I finally did get 40 minutes in).
So I figure for now, the lessons will stop, havenāt watched one in a month anyway, and Iāll just practice songs till I get less stressed. Iām finally getting the hang of Jingle Bells.
And for the rest of the night, whiskey and music on the TV.
Happy Holidays. 
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the one on the app or another version ?
The App, although yesterday I finally received my copy of Justinās Christmas Songbook and I think it may be different in there so Iām planning to check it out. The one in the App seems a little simplistic/repetitious so Iām hoping the other one is a little more interesting.
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the one in the app is simple but fast
I think the difficulty is in the speed
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