wow , you ve only been doing blues then didnt you ?
I started improvising around in the minor pentatonic October last year so 3 months into playing. Only really got into blues in January of this year! I mostly played acoustic and enjoy most genres and styles of music though
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impressive !
you re really skilled
So far I ve been following the modules path on the website
I ve never thought about going into technical stuff like blues ( slides etc ) before reaching grade 3
It’s good to have a structure. I followed upto grade 3 also but was learning barre chords at the same time and also practicing improvising.
I’ve played several hours a day on average so plenty of time to practice different areas.
You should experiment, you don’t have to be at any set level to try things. Just play around. You only get better at things by doing them!
Im working on the barre chords F is getting good and Bm is getting along
Improvising … never really tried so far
thats not as easy as it looks
how many a day ?
So far Im doing 3h , sometimes 3 and a half hours each day
Good advice
I ll think Ill work on technical stuff with my guitar teacher next year , getting away from just strumming open chords
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It depends as I work shifts, but on some days off I can play all day, 8+ hours. When doing a 12 hour nightshift maybe an hour or so. I’d imagine 3 hours per day avg over the year.
I always moved on before I’d really mastered anything, which may be good or bad I guess. I was always learning the next thing rather than just perfecting what I’d learned.
Ive got quite a bit of video footage, I’ll need to get a wee progress video put together at some point
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Day 258 / 51 weeks streak :
Played the Am pentatonic scale and the C major scale as a warm up + 1 of the pinky exercice
Learning the Pattern 1 of the G Major Scale
Trying to name out loud the notes on the neck while playing the Am pentatonic scale
Yousician
Practiced a song called Careless whisper by George Michael / level 5 / cow boy chords
Broken chords ==>
Broken chords : practiced a song called Playing in the park
Worked on Knowledge : roots and groove : Scale MajorWorking on Losing my religion level5 / cow boy chords
Practiced power chords on the chord trainer
Practiced drills for fingerstyle forward ( Am / C and G / EM ) and backward ( C / Am )
Practiced Halleluya by Leornard Cohen / level 4 ==> DONE
grade 2 in JG :
module 11
Practiced fingerstyle : happy Birthday riff with 2 fingers
The F barre chord : a ladder to the sky / level 4 / cow boy chords and Sailing by Rod Steward
The Bm Barre chord : Practiced what’s up by the four non blondes / full speed
Practice Folk fingerstyle patterns part 1 ( on the JG website )
Songs on the Musopia app :
Played Halleluya by Leonard Cohen fingerstyle at 80 bpm then tried at 91 bpm
Practiced on Last christmas by Wham at full speed ( practice for 3 fingers Bm )
Guitar teacher :
Practiced power chords
Practice E major arpeggios
forward / backward and alternate fingering ( up and down )Practiced fingerstyle exercices + ragtime
Went to my guitar lesson this morning
My teacher proposed to work on a lady gaga song but I dont like her music so in the end he taught me wish you were here by Pink Floyd
I really liked that lesson
It was my first time trying slides !
Problem is : tonight I can t remember anything … ( I have memory issues )
I wanted to work on it 
He did a video Ill have to wait for him to send it …
I think Im ready to start module 12 after Christmas 
this module is all about Power chords … I hate power chords !!!
Im tempted to skip this module … or to do it very quickly …
On the other hand Im afraid that I ll need that technique one day …
Im not interested in playing metal at all but it might be usefull in some rock songs I think 
Im already practicing power chords on the chord trainer ( with little success ) and played some in a song ( Everybody hurts by REM )
so … I dont know … what should I do ?
Gimme your opinion please !
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I learned the melody lead part for Carless whisper. I’ve got a recording somewhere, could do a duet!
As for power chords, stick with it! Once you can do it, even with just 2 fingers then it opens up like half of all rock songs. So much fun!
What part do you struggle with?
Ps have any of these Xmas songs been done?
Feliz Navidad
Slade - Merry Xmas everyone
Christmas wrapping
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PM me about it
everything ?!
well maybe it will become better after watching Justin’s lessons … so far I ve only tried them on Yousician
I posted a videos some weeks ago : Everybody hurts by REM , thats so far the best I can do with power chords
None have been done yet
Slade , my guitar teacher gave me this song to work on , it was a nightmare 
power chords everywhere !!!
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Definitely watch Justin’s lesson. It’s great! In a few weeks you’ll be wondering why you had trouble!
OK perfect I’ll commit to Slade Merry Xmas everyone. Hopefully get it done tonight or tomorrow!
I’ve been learning Everybody Hurts a little too.
What is about power chords that you find tricky? My thinking is that when you can play one of them, you can play all(?) of them an they give you a lot of options when deciding how you want to play a song
everything 
Well I watched the video this afternoon and now I can identify whats wrong
Yousician does not teach the muting part
so it was 2 fingers power chords trying to hit the right strings …
knowing that , will it be easier now ? I guess not
Muting the strings wont be easy
Did my guitar teacher told me that I needed to mute strings ? NO 
Do you enjoy it ?
I love playing that song
It should be a good fingerstyle song to learn too
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RIghtly or wrongly I play 2 fingered power chords, 1st finger on the root and 3rd finger barring 2 strings. I use the tip of my 1st finger to mute the thick string if it’s 5th string power chord. I suspect I am supposed to use my 1st, 3rd and little finger to play them, maybe one day I’ll get to that.
Fingerstyle is one of those techniques that I admire but it’s just in a great pile of things I want to learn. It’s going to have to stay on the pile marked “eventually” for now!
I think I will enjoy Everybody Hurts but at the moment it’s an exercise in repeatedly counting to 6! I’m playing along to the recording but it’s not yet automatic in my fingers so if I’m not saying 1,2,3,4,5,6 continually under my breath then I lose my way with it
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Ill try 3 fingers power chords , cant be any worse than my 2 fingers
maybe easier since its closer to the barre chord shape
Oh so you ve not tried fingerstyle yet ?
aint easy but quite nice
you re a metal music fan so maybe you dont need it much in your journey
I like folk music and country music , so fingerstyle is necessary f I want to try these styles someday
( but blues first !!! )
Oh you re counting the time ?!
maybe its because Im using the app but so far I ve never counted …
its hard to do maths with a blank brain
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Mr. Laziness/Sloppy Joe speaking here:
I bypassed the whole power chord section, thinking if I can play E & A shaped barre chords, if I want a ‘power chord’ sound, I could just play the lower 2 or three strings using the same chord grip. As long as you don’t strum all the way down to the third string, you should be fine? 
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I did start learning House of the Rising Sun fingerstyle quite a while ago but I parked it. I could play it but much slower than the recording. I’d like to think that if I tried again I’ll have likely improved as my left hand has got better at the chord shapes over time… but so many things on my list to learn!
I think when it comes to metal I just want to learn a few basics so I can just play around a bit and sound somewhat metal. I’m not that bothered about learning a load of songs - most are way beyond my ability right now - more stuff for the stuff for the future. There’s plenty of other music that I enjoy so I don’t feel like I’m missing out.
And yeah counting, Everybody Hurts or the 1,2,3,4,5,6 song as it currently is when I play it I find it works because if I miss a string I don’t lose my place in the song, it allows me to play through the mistake. At some stage it will become more embedded in my brain and fingers and I’ll be able to stop counting, but not yet
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Day 259 / 51 weeks streak :
Did the spider as a warm up + 1 of the pinky exercice
Yousician
New challenge of the week :
God rest ye merry gentlemen / level 3 / basic melody
carol of the balls / Level 4 / cowboy chordsBroken chords ==>
Practiced a song called Playing in the park ( the last part is bloody hard to play )
Worked on Knowledge : roots and groove : Scale MinorPracticed Careless whisper by George Michael / level 5 / cow boy chords
Practiced on Last christmas by Wham
Working on Losing my religion / level5 / cow boy chords
grade 2 in JG :
module 11
The F barre chord : a ladder to the sky / level 4 / cow boy chords and Sailing by Rod Steward
The Bm Barre chord : Practiced what’s up by the four non blondes / full speed
module 12
Watched the video : Power chords
Practiced power chords
Songs on the Musopia app :
Played Halleluya by Leonard Cohen
once with only beats 1 and 4 and once with 6 beats with a stronger 1 and 4 beat / Full speedPracticed on Last christmas by Wham at full speed ( practice for 3 fingers Bm )
Guitar teacher :
Practice E major arpeggios forward and backward
Practiced Wish you were here by Pink Floyd
After all this talk about power chords today , I couldnt wait until after christmas so I started module 12
I practiced it a bit and it now sounded like power chords !!!
not the best sound of course but better than before … I wasnt muting that was my problem !
I will need lots of practice to place the muting finger automatically
Its a bit like the barre chords , you gotta learn the shape and the placement and play it over and over again until the body knows what it has to do
And there is nothing that you can t find on the JG website !
I found the lesson about what I learned with my guitar teacher 
thats the first 3 minutes of this video
Now I ll be able to practice it
I sincerely cant answer sorry
its one of the hardest choice to start on fingerstyle
this song is fast even for cowboy chords
you should try to have a go again at fingerstyle on something slower like Everybody hurts !
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I think that’s one of those things you don’t appreciate until you start playing and also have learned some other songs as a point of reference. Now I 100% agree with you, back when I was first trying it I don’t think I understood enough to realise it was actually pretty hard. I should see if I can now play it up to speed with cowboy chords. I’ll try and remember to give it a go over the weekend when I have some time
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I’ve loved coming back to something I shelved in frustration to find that the other stuff I’ve been working on has made me progress in the shelved thing without touching it. We can’t ever feel bad about abandoning anything because we can never truly stop working on it!
Not up to power chords yet, been focussed on a couple of songs, but I did try a Mitski tune in drop D that used power chords, and I thought they were easy enough but harder to play in the higher frets, for some reason. It was a one finger, one fret, three strings situation, though, and all sixth string root note.
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So true !
When I first started working on Sailing , landing on Dm was hard
Now that Im working on it again to introduce the F barre chord , landing on Dm is easy
working on Scarborough fair really helped me get a better Dm
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