And your sanity !
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dont know if i still have it 
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Day 120 :
I couldnt play yesterday cause I worked too late 
Trained on finger stretches and crawling as a warm up
Played on Yousician for 57 minutes
I play standing up and each songs are played once with the metronome , once with the backing > track :
There was a new song on the app : Riders in the sky by johnny cash simplified rythm / cow boy chords level 4
I had to try it and already gold itChallenge of the week : A backstreet boys song : As long as you love me / basic melody ( level 4 )
Played tears in heaven ( training for power chord and strumming )
Played Everybody hurt by REM level 4 ( training for muting )
Played Losing my religion level 4 ( training for strumming on F major 7 with a C bass )
Trained on changing between C and Dm for 5 minutes
grade 2 in JG :
Trained on wish you were here Riff
I forgot to practice the F barre chord on the chords trainer …
Practiced The C major scale for 2 minutes
I practiced " One " By U2 on the JG website for half an hour
learned the strumming pattern and the chords
this song makes me practice Fm7
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Day 121 :
Trained on finger stretches and crawling as a warm up
Played on Yousician for 56 minutes
23 weeks streak
I play standing up and each songs are played once with the metronome , once with the backing track :
Challenge of the week : A backstreet boys song : As long as you love me / basic melody ( level 4 )
Played tears in heaven ( training for power chord and strumming )
Played a exercise song for hammers on and pull offs : El condor passa
Gold the 2 first partsPlayed Losing my religion level 4 ( training for strumming on F major 7 with a C bass )
Trained on changing between C and Dm for 5 minutes
grade 2 in JG :
Trained on wish you were here Riff
Practice the F barre chord on the chords trainer (23 in 45 secs )
I tried to introduce the F barre chord in songs so I played Blaze of glory and Riders of the sky with the F barre chord
Its not easy and will need lots of practicePracticed The C major scale for 2 minutes
I practiced " One " By U2 on the JG website for half an hour
Now I need the tabs to work more on this song
I cant wait to change my guitar whose name is now Plonk Plonk
It sounds bad and its hard to tell if its me playing poorly or the guitar sounding plonk plonk
I ll bring it to a luthier when I can in a few months to see if it can be arranged
The guy at the guitar store couldnt help me make it sound better
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Day 122 :
Trained on finger stretches and crawling as a warm up and a power chords exercise
Played on Yousician for 68 minutes
I play standing up and each songs are played once with the metronome , once with the backing track :
Challenge of the week : A backstreet boys song : As long as you love me / basic melody ( level 4 )
Still struggling to play it without making 3 to 4 mistakesPlayed tears in heaven ( training for power chord and strumming )
Played an exercise song for hammers on and pull offs : El condor passa
Gold it and played it without mistake !!!Played Eveybody Hurt level 4 ( training for muting )
Trained on changing between C and Dm for 5 minutes
grade 2 in JG :
Trained on wish you were here Riff
Practice the F barre chord on the chords trainer (29 in 45 secs )
Practiced the F barre chord in songs : Blaze of glory and Riders of the skyPracticed The C major scale for 2 minutes
I practiced " One " By U2 on the JG website for half an hour
Got the tabs now
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Hi Deborah
I see that you use Yousician a lot. I have the JG songs app that I use for playalongs but find that it doesn’t help me with memorising the song (rely too much on following the app). Have you had similar issues with Yousician and if so, how have you changed your use of the app?
My thoughts are to use the app to get rhythm and chord changes in time, then to switch to tab or chord/lyric sheets and hope to eventually be able to play the song from memory. Would be interested to hear what you think. We’re both in Grade 2 so I guess we should be at a similar stage.
Thanks
Hi
I dont feel the need to memorize songs yet
First grade is supposed to last 6 month , Second grade lessons is a year worth of lessons and practice
I’ve been playing since juanuary so only for 5 months , Ive got plenty of time ahead of me to start learning songs from memory
My goal is to get good foundations first and that s where the app comes in handy
Each song is an exercise on a particular point I want to work on … like the F chord for example
For strumming I first learn the pattern with the backing track , and later I play it with only the metronome , I dont try to memorize it , its too early
playing a good rythm with the metronome is already a good goal for 5 months of practice
But I think I have an advantage on yousician cause there are way more songs to practice on YS than on the Musopia’s app , so I can regularly change and not feel bored
For licks its the same , my goal is not to memorize the melodies . I m aiming at playing without looking at the fretboard , it takes a lot of practice
dont switch , do both !
Practice on the app and practice on tabs
thats 2 different exercises
As you can see Im starting to use Tabs too
Ill add it to my practice routine , play with tabs for 10 minutes then do another thing like practicing the wish you were here riff , etc etc
U2 is not on the app anymore but you can find a song on the app , play it with the backing track then with the metronome then with the tabs
You can also buy the JG songbook , plenty of stuff to work on
It took browan377 a year to learn to play One by U2 so there s absolutely no rush on memorizing songs , its a very long process and practicing on the app will help you improve your rythm and changing chords
try the metronome its fun
I hope I answered your question 
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Thanks for the suggestions. I’ll include them in my routine over the next few weeks and see which ones ‘stick’ with me. I already have both of JG beginner song books so I’ll also see how to best incorporate these into my routine.
Thanks again for responding in such a full manner. Gives me lots of things to think about. Good luck on your journey 
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@ziggysden Stuart, I am seconding Deborah on this.
When I started, I used both apps and indeed they will improve a lot your rhythm and chord changes. They will not help you to memorize songs, so that’s something you have to work in parallel when you feel ready. However, it’s easier than it appears.
For that, the best option is the JG songbook. The first few songs may be harder to memorize, but eventually you often only have 2 chords sequences to remember. One for the verse and one for the chorus. It’s like building blocks that repeat through the song.
So, after you have done a few songs, you focus more on the structure of the song (the blocks), rather than the memorization of everything.
I’d advise taking a song that is both in the JG app and in the songbook to try it. Just make sure the chords are the same because the JG app sometimes use different chords. Then, try to play the song in the JG app by looking at the songbook.
It’s easier than we initially think because there are a lot of repetitions. And, when you listen to the backing track a few times, you eventually know when it changes from chorus and verse without having to count every chords. You start to feel it.
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thats when you start to add embelishment that it gets harder
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Yeah definitely, it’s better to only add the embellishment once you have memorized the whole song. In the JG song app and beginner songbook, there are no embellishments on most of the songs. But, I know that Yousician adds a lot so, I would not start with memorizing from Yousician.
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@math07 Thanks, I’ll think about how I can restructure the ‘Songs’ portion of my practice routine to include yours and Deborah’s suggestions. Half the number of songs but double the time to play with the app and the book seems to be a good place to start.
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Me neither … its really just a cool tool for specific practice but absolutely not for learning songs
when it comes to songs , the tabs here or the song books are better
thats why I like to use both
When I ll get my disability pension in a few months ill buy the song book
Day 123 :
Trained on finger stretches and crawling as a warm up and a chord trainer exercise C G Am Em (50 in 45 secs )
Played on Yousician for 76 minutes
I play standing up and each songs are played once with the metronome , once with the backing track :
Challenge of the week : A backstreet boys song : As long as you love me / basic melody ( level 4 )
Did it !!! no mistakesPlayed tears in heaven ( training for power chord and strumming )
Played an exercise song for hammers on and pull offs : Yellow by Coldplay
Its really not easy when the tempo is faster , I cant hit the string fast enough one one particular part of the songTrained on changing between C and Dm for 5 minutes
grade 2 in JG :
Trained on wish you were here Riff
Practice the F barre chord on the chords trainer (26 in 45 secs )
Practiced the F barre chord in songs : Blaze of glory and Riders of the skyPracticed The C major scale for 2 minutes
I practiced " One " By U2 on the JG website for 15 minutes
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Day 124 :
Trained on finger stretches and crawling as a warm up
Played on Yousician for 60 minutes
New challenge of the week : a song called Forever and beyond / cow boy chords EM Am C
Training for strumming with up strums
Its perfect since its my next lesson on the JG websitePlayed an exercise song for hammers on and pull offs : Yellow by Coldplay
Gold all parts , now I gotta practice to play all parts together and make it sounds goodTrained on changing between C and Dm for 5 minutes
I play standing up and each songs are played once with the metronome , once with the backing track :
Played tears in heaven ( training for power chord and strumming )
grade 2 in JG :
Trained on wish you were here Riff
I tried to play along the video to see what parts i need to improvePractice the F barre chord on the chords trainer (29 in 45 secs )
Practiced the F barre chord in songs : Blaze of glory and Riders of the skyPracticed The C major scale for 2 minutes
I practiced " One " By U2 on the JG website for 10 minutes
I play along the video to get the rythm right and get my fingers used to the pattern
My yousician activity for last week :
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Day 125 :
Trained on finger stretches and crawling as a warm up and a chords trainer C A G E D (31 in 45 secs )
Played on Yousician for 52 minutes
Challenge of the week : a song called Forever and beyond / cow boy chords EM Am C
( Training for strumming with up strums )
I still get lost a bit while playing between the ups and downs but its funPlayed an exercise song for hammers on and pull offs : Yellow by Coldplay
Trained on changing between C and Dm for 5 minutes
I play standing up and each songs are played once with the metronome , once with the backing track :
Played tears in heaven ( training for power chord and strumming )
grade 2 in JG :
Practice the F barre chord on the chords trainer (23 in 45 secs )
Practiced the F barre chord in songs : Blaze of glory and Riders of the skyPracticed The C major scale for 2 minutes
I tried to play it with the metronome : 80 bpm ok 90 bpm ok 100 bpm okI practiced " One " By U2 on the JG website for 10 minutes
I play along the video to get the rythm right and get my fingers used to the patternI bought the note trainer app and trained with it for half an hour
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Day 126 :
Trained on finger stretches and crawling as a warm up and a chords trainer G C D Em (37 in 45 secs )
Played on Yousician for 69 minutes
Challenge of the week : a song called Forever and beyond / cow boy chords EM Am C
( Training for strumming with up strums )Played an exercise song for hammers on and pull offs : Yellow by Coldplay
I tried to work on Kiss from a rose by Seal again ( level 4 ) cow boy chords C G F A D AM
It s a good practice for upstrums but the tempo is too fast for me
So I reduced the tempo at 60% , If its faster I can t make the Fm/7 chord
I play standing up and each songs are played once with the metronome , once with the backing track :
Played tears in heaven ( training for power chord and strumming )
grade 2 in JG :
Trained on wish you were here Riff
Practiced The C major scale for 2 minutes
I tried to play it with the metronome : 100 bpm ok 110 bpm okI practiced " One " By U2 on the JG website for 10 minutes
I play along the video to get the rythm right and get my fingers used to the patternI watched 2 videos :
Ups To The All Down (16ths)
Pinky Workout
I Played the rythm along the video and did the pinky exercise twice
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Day 127 :
Trained on finger stretches and crawling as a warm up , a power chords trainer , and did the pinky exercise twice
Played on Yousician for 60 minutes
24 weeks streak
Challenge of the week : a song called Forever and beyond / cow boy chords EM Am C
( Training for strumming with up strums )Played an exercise song for hammers on and pull offs : Yellow by Coldplay
I tried to work on Kiss from a rose by Seal again ( level 4 ) cow boy chords C G F A D AM
this one is gonna take me months to get it right
I play standing up and each songs are played once with the metronome , once with the backing track :
Played tears in heaven ( training for power chord and strumming )
grade 2 in JG :
Trained on wish you were here Riff
Practiced Open E Minor Pentatonic Scale
Practiced The C major scale for 2 minutes
I tried to play it with the metronome : 100 bpm ok 110 bpm okPractice the F barre chord on the chords trainer (32 in 45 secs )
Practiced the F barre chord in songs : Blaze of glory and Riders of the sky
then I started to introduce the F barre chord in losing my religion by REM ( just the intro )I practiced " One " By U2 on the JG website for 10 minutes
I play along the video to get the rythm right and get my fingers used to the patternI Played the rythm along the video for the Ups To The All Down (16ths)
Question : How often do you change your guitar strings ?
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Varies given the size of my stable and how much each gets played. When I only had a handful and they got consistently abused it would be every 6 or 7 weeks. But I have moved towards Elixir Nanowebs than can last 3 or 4 months. Cost more but less in the long run.
I just realised that i changed mine in march … should probably go to the store and buy some