I think that if you can play 5 songs at the reasonable tempo from chord/lyric sheet then you can move on to grade 2. You will still be learning and singing grade 1 songs while you are in grade 2. I think that Justin recommends using grade 1 songs as warmup songs. Anyway, I didn’t memorize and play 5 grade 1 songs from memory until I was in grade 3. My memory is not so good so I picked the songs with the simplest lyrics and practiced the lyrics for weeks between practices when I was walking around. Good luck in grade 2. There are a lot of great lessons and things to learn.
Deborah, I’ve had shoulder surgery and had slipped disk/sciatic nerve injury in the past, as well as 2 knee surgeries, so I understand how pain can limit your practice. I wonder if playing just 10 to 15 minutes with stopping to do some physical therapy exercises would help with the pain?
I have found it beneficial to do some simple tai chi quan exercises, but that might be too hard to you depending on your physical limits. I do think that some simple stretching exercises might be beneficial. I like the warmup stretching exercises from the Tai Chi for Arthritis lessons. Here is a link from YouTube:
Starting at the 18:00 point in the video and going 6 minutes to the 24:00 point. Those are the upper body stretching warm ups and can be done sitting down. Of course, you would need to ask your physical therapist if those are OK for you. I found them to be helpful, so I just wanted to pass along. I personally think every guitarist would benefit from some stretching exercises like these to loosen up the neck, shoulders and back. I hope you are able to find something to help with your shoulder pain and make your guitar playing more enjoyable.
thanks for the tip
I know that i should do stretching warm ups but i just can t find the time … maybe in a few days … maybe …
I gave up learning songs by heart for the moment
I just want to learn and play correctly the songs Im training on
so far It will be : set fire to the rain / losing my religion / Hurt
the last i still butcher it …
All the rest I play is for training
but just to reassure you , the pain in the shoulder when i was playing disappeared when I started to stand up , i dont sit to play anymore
the position while sitting was not good for my shoulders , but there are no problems if i stand up
It makes a huge difference
Day 91 :
Played on Yousician for 51 minutes
Trained on finger stretches and crawling as a warm up
Trained on changing chords C G Am F major 7 standing up ( 28 in 45 secs )
Trained on changing chords Em Am Dm ( 31 in 45 secs )
Standing up :
New challenge of the week : a melody called Pavilion farewell level 4 ( training for for picking control )
Played Hold back the river by James Bay Basic melody level 4 / ( training for for picking control )
Played Losing my religion ( training for strumming on F major 7 with a C bass ) twice
Played Hurt level 4 cow boy chords ( training for strumming on F major 7 with a C bass ) twice
Played blaze of Glory ( training for strumming on F major 7 with a C bass ) three times
Tried playing Dreams by Fleetwood mac ( F G )
Played set fire to the rain by Adele just for the fun of it , not caring about the app results cause its not working
grade 2 in JG :
Practiced Open E Minor Pentatonic Scale
Practiced on the strumming machine for All Down 8th Note Strumming for 5 minutes at 70 bpm
( Em E D A G C )
I was one of those days where i wasn t playing well and wasn t pleased with the results at all then I realised i had a massive headache so it might be why I wasn t playing well
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Day 92 :
Played on Yousician for 47 minutes
Trained on finger stretches and crawling as a warm up
Trained on changing chords C G Am F major 7 standing up ( 26 in 45 secs )
Trained on changing chords ( all cow boy chords ) ( 25 in 45 secs )
Standing up :
Challenge of the week : Pavilion farewell level 4 ( training for for picking control ) 3 times
Played Hold back the river by James Bay Basic melody level 4 / ( training for for picking control ) twice
Played Losing my religion ( training for strumming on F major 7 with a C bass )
Played Hurt level 4 cow boy chords ( training for strumming on F major 7 with a C bass )
Played blaze of Glory ( training for strumming on F major 7 with a C bass )
Tried playing Dreams by Fleetwood mac ( F G )
Played set fire to the rain by Adele just for the fun of it again
grade 2 in JG :
I watched 2 videos on module 8 :
-Pick Manipulation
-Songs For Module 8 ( I hate them all … so I ll skip them, no fun to work on songs i really dont like )
Practiced on the strumming machine for All Down 8th Note Strumming for 5 minutes at 70 bpm
( Em E D Am A G C )
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Day 93 :
Played on Yousician for 54 minutes
I had a nice and pleasing training session tonight !
thats one of these days 
Trained on finger stretches and crawling as a warm up
Trained on changing chords ( all cow boy chords ) ( 28 in 45 secs )
Standing up :
Challenge of the week : Pavilion farewell level 4 ( training for for picking control ) 3 times
I played it without any mistake !!!
challenge done !
Played Hold back the river by James Bay Basic melody level 4 / ( training for for picking control )
Still struggling on this one , i keep messing when the bridge comes so i trained several times starting from the bridge
Played Losing my religion ( training for strumming on F major 7 with a C bass )
Played Hurt level 4 cow boy chords ( training for strumming on F major 7 with a C bass )
im starting to get better on this one
My fingers start to move on their own to form a F major 7 so its a nice progress
Played blaze of Glory ( training for strumming on F major 7 with a C bass )
Played Dreams by Fleetwood mac ( F G )
I make mistakes because my fingers get tired before the end
Played set fire to the rain by Adele
grade 2 in JG :
Practiced Open E Minor Pentatonic Scale
I forgot to practice on the strumming machine … I will do it tomorrow
2 Likes
Day 94 :
grade 2 in JG :
I watched the video "Wish You Were Here riff for beginners "
trained on it for around an hour
I only did that today
First part of the riff is okay but my mind struggle to understand the second part so I watched the video several times
Its the same as Hold back the river by James Bay … I know what i have to do but my brain struggle to remember the pattern correctly
3 Likes
I’ve found that I seem to need to teach my fingers the pattern when I get something that’s a bit tricky or new.
I’m currently learning the solo for In Bloom by Nirvana which requires an electric guitar with distortion but I’m mostly practicing it on my acoustic guitar just to learn the pattern without the distraction of the actual song. Once my fingers are playing the right notes in the right order I’ll start to fit it to the song. This seems to be what works for me
I do the same
I spend days training my fingers to learn the pattern but first i need my brain to comprehend the pattern
In this video my brain does not connect riff part one with riff part two
I ll re watch the video tomorrow , i m not used to learn a pattern via a video
I did like you and changed my guitar for practice
I used my epiphone to train this time
Day 95 :
I did an early training session today because I gotta go out later and I don t know if my headaches will let me play
Played on Yousician for 42 minutes
Trained on finger stretches and crawling as a warm up
Standing up :
Challenge of the week : Pavilion farewell level 4 ( training for for picking control ) 3 times
I played it without any mistake again
Played Hold back the river by James Bay Basic melody level 4 / ( training for for picking control )
trained on the parts i mess
Played Losing my religion ( training for strumming on F major 7 with a C bass )
Played Hurt level 4 cow boy chords ( training for strumming on F major 7 with a C bass )
Played blaze of Glory ( training for strumming on F major 7 with a C bass )
Played Dreams by Fleetwood mac ( F G )
Played set fire to the rain by Adele
I can remove Pavillion farewell / dreams / Blaze of glory from my practice list
grade 2 in JG :
Practiced Open E Minor Pentatonic Scale
Trained on wish you were here Riff
Yesterday I grabbed my guitar before going to bed and couldnt resist training a bit again on this riff …
My yousician activity for last week
Did another practice session in the evening
grade 2 in JG :
Practiced wish you were here Riff using this tab ( it was given in the lesson ) , it helped me understand the riff better than the video
I practiced for more than half an hour
Then I practiced on the strumming machine for All Down 8th Note Strumming at 70 bpm
( Em E D Am A G C ) for 5 minutes
2 Likes
Day 96 :
Played on Yousician for 67 minutes
Trained on finger stretches and crawling as a warm up
Trained on changing chords ( all cow boy chords ) ( 26 in 45 secs )
Trained on movable power chords … need a lot of practice there XD
Standing up :
Started learning Sailing by Rod Steward ( training for strumming on F major 7 with a C bass )
Played Hold back the river by James Bay Basic melody level 4 / ( training for picking control )
Played Losing my religion ( training for strumming on F major 7 with a C bass )
Played Hurt level 4 cow boy chords ( training for strumming on F major 7 with a C bass )
Played set fire to the rain by Adele
grade 2 in JG :
Practiced Open E Minor Pentatonic Scale
Trained on wish you were here Riff
Practiced on the strumming machine for All Down 8th Note Strumming at 70 bpm
( Em E D Dm Am A G C ) for 5 minutes
Day 97 :
Played on Yousician for 45 minutes
Trained on finger stretches and crawling as a warm up
Trained on changing chords ( all cow boy chords ) ( 26 in 45 secs )
Trained on movable power chords … ( 16 in 45 secs )
Standing up :
Played Sailing by Rod Steward ( training for strumming on F major 7 with a C bass ) several times
Played Hold back the river by James Bay Basic melody level 4 / ( training for picking control )
Made mistakes only on the bridge
Played Losing my religion ( training for strumming on F major 7 with a C bass )
Played Hurt level 4 cow boy chords ( training for strumming on F major 7 with a C bass ) twice
Challenge of the week : a song called Windy shores level 3 ( training for for picking control )
Gold each part
Tonight my hand didn t want to form a good F … really struggled with it
grade 2 in JG :
Practiced Open E Minor Pentatonic Scale
Didn t have time to train more since i finished working late 
Day 98 :
Played on Yousician for 43 minutes
Trained on finger stretches and crawling as a warm up
Trained on changing chords ( all cow boy chords ) ( 29 in 45 secs )
Trained on movable power chords … ( 22 in 45 secs )
Standing up :
Played Sailing by Rod Steward ( training for strumming on F major 7 with a C bass ) several times
Played Hold back the river by James Bay Basic melody level 4 / ( training for picking control )
Only one or two mistakes left but none on the bridge this time , looks like i mastered the bridge part
Played Losing my religion ( training for strumming on F major 7 with a C bass )
Challenge of the week : a song called Windy shores level 3 ( training for for picking control )
grade 2 in JG :
Practiced Open E Minor Pentatonic Scale
Practiced on the strumming machine for All Down 8th Note Strumming at 70 bpm
( Em E D Dm Am A G C ) for 5 minutes
Practiced wish you were here Riff for 20 minutes
starts to sounds nice , my only trouble is to keep the rythm
Day 99 :
Played on Yousician for 52 minutes
Trained on finger stretches and crawling as a warm up
Trained on changing chords ( all cow boy chords ) ( 26 in 45 secs )
Trained on movable power chords … ( 19 in 45 secs )
Standing up :
Played Sailing by Rod Steward ( training for strumming on F major 7 with a C bass ) twice
Played Hold back the river by James Bay Basic melody level 4 / ( training for picking control )
1 mistake only at the end of the song …argh only one
Played Losing my religion ( training for strumming on F major 7 with a C bass )
Challenge of the week : a song called Windy shores level 3 ( training for for picking control )
Played Hurt level 4 cow boy chords ( training for strumming on F major 7 with a C bass ) twice
I played the song once in practice mode without any backing track and i really liked it
Played set fire to the rain by Adele
grade 2 in JG :
Practiced Open E Minor Pentatonic Scale
Practiced on the strumming machine for All Down 8th Note Strumming at 70 bpm
( Em E D Dm Am A G C ) for 5 minutes
Practiced wish you were here Riff for 10 minutes
Good to see you still logging your progress Deborah. Keep it going !!
Trying to make it sounds good
placing the fingers for the F major 7 is not easy , it easily goes plonk plonk
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I thought I was good with tracking/analytics about my playing, but this is next level! 
It is obvious this helps with your motivation, so keep doing it. Do you keep and consolidate timings somewhere, so you could track how much time you spent in each category?
Keeping track of my daily schedule helps me a lot
I dont slack off
Ah no at my level i dont do that
I just try to work everyday on every item im consolidating
at least one song for strumming
one for picking control
one to work on specific chord changing
+
working on each items of Justin lessons ( for the moment its module 8 )
If i feel like playing a song several time i just do it but never more than 3 times
I usually spend the same amount of time everyday ( more or less )
If I add a new item , I drop an old one
I should probably add a new one : Working without a backing track
Isn t it more stressful to time everything ?
I wouldn’t call it stressful. It just takes some planning to understand what you want to practice (categories - i.e. open chords, power chords, repertoire, picking technique…) and then measure time spent in each. After a period of time, you can nicely see how you spent/split your practice time.
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I see , i do kind of the same but i just measure it in " songs" instead of minutes
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Day 100 :
I played for a hundred days !!! 
Played on Yousician for 51 minutes
Trained on finger stretches and crawling as a warm up
Trained on changing chords ( all cow boy chords ) ( 28 in 45 secs )
Trained on movable power chords … ( 23 in 45 secs )
Standing up :
Played Sailing by Rod Steward ( training for strumming on F major 7 with a C bass ) 3 times
Played Hold back the river by James Bay Basic melody level 4 / ( training for picking control )
2 mistakes …
Played Losing my religion ( training for strumming on F major 7 with a C bass )
Challenge of the week : a song called Windy shores level 3 ( training for for picking control )
Played Hurt level 4 cow boy chords ( training for strumming on F major 7 with a C bass )
Played Hurt level 4 cow boy chords ( training for strumming on F major 7 with a C bass ) without backing track
grade 2 in JG :
Practiced Open E Minor Pentatonic Scale
Practiced wish you were here Riff for 10 minutes
4 Likes