Hi Jason.
I have selected various quotes to give an overview and general comment.
You have rushed and reached the end of Grade 3.
That is something we often see in people who come in frustration due to having rushed, to not having made solid and really embedded the absolute essentials that give the bedrock foundation upon which everything else can be built.
My advice to you would be to go back to the practice / consolidation part of Grade 1, swallow a bit of humble pie, and really work there until you have the basics working well. Then work through Grade 2 again. And learn songs, learn songs, learn songs. You have the app. Play along with tens, dozens, scores of songs.
I have written this in several places to several people in a similar situation to you.
Beginner Grade 1 has 75 lessons plus essential consolidation.
Each lesson requires at least one day of practice time but by the end of Grade 1, in Modules 5, 6 and 7, I would say that to do the learning justice and really get solid in the basics, each lesson should respectfully be given several days or a week or more, each of the seven modules probably starting at one week for module 1 up to several weeks for module 7. I would even go so far as to suggest treating each module number as a guide to the weeks required, including learning and playing songs.
Modules 1 to 7 = 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 = 28 weeks. That is more than six months just there.
Grade 2 has 68 lessons. And as the learning ramps up the technical challenge and skill, each lesson and each module will require extended time to really get to grips with. I would suggest a similar approach.
Modules 8 to 14 = 8 + 9 + 10 + 11 + 12 + 13 + 14 = 77 weeks. That is more than a year. Okay - those cumulative totals are on the very high side. Even if you thought them exaggerated over-estimates and took off 25 weeks, it would still amount to a calendar year. But I would rather encourage taking more time over the opposite of not taking enough time and hitting a brick wall of frustration.
I hope that helps.
Cheers
| Richard | JustinGuitar Approved Teacher, Official Guide & Moderator
The song practice is ramped up so much in this module.
To be fair, I started practicing 4-5 days ago. I got my chord changes up to 40, was able to somewhat keep up with the song practice (website attached video) and so moved to Module 2.
Enter Module 2 Song Practice.
Three little birds - challenging but I didnt get flustered enough to miss an entire bar or more. I could see its the next level.
Common People - Holy f-sh-!!! This is sooo fast. I couldnt keep up with it. Missed 1-2 bars intentionally to get the rhythm back.
Down on the corner - Perhaps, I was already frustrated and my fingers hurt like hell at this point. The A chords are fine. But, going A A E A or A A D A⌠I couldnt do it at all⌠I was never in timeâŚ
I think I should also mention that I didnât know any song from both M1 & M2. However, M1 was not as challenging. Even if we forget the E chord in M2, and just focus on A A D A⌠I currently cant switch a chord in 2 beats.
I know it ll get better with practice & time. I am here to type my frustration and lighten my chest because I was not expecting it to go sooo wrong.
Is there anyway to slow down the song through website? Or is there any free tool on the internet?
Hi @kirincorleone, at the bottom right hand side of the video, youâll see a little cog wheel. Click on it, and you can slow down the video to 75, 50 or 25%. Slow down if necessary, then when comfortable, speed up again.
Itâs normal that things get harder as you move on. Donât worry, weâve all been there, and weâve all come through. Take your time, make sure you have things under your belt before moving on and everything will be fine.
I am committing myself to earning guitar even though I am over 50! I have toyed with it before, but I find your website very helpful in systematically breaking things down into manageable bites. The song choices are nice and varied, but I was wondering if you could include a few Christian praise and worship songs. There is a very large population of people who love to sing to God. Thanks so much!
Welcome to the forum Witherly, Justin teaches how to play guitar to all people and religion and politics are not allowed because it causes problems. There are people on youtube who specialize in teaching religious songs Justin isnât one of the.
That being said he is the best teacher on the internet and once you learn the basics you will be able to teach these songs to yourself.
Gloria, the same happens to me, when I start a new module. I usually binge watch all videos because I want to know which new and exciting things I will be learning
If you are not only talking about watching the videos but also about practicing, then your approach might perhaps not always work fine Try to take your time practicing so that what you learned can sink in. Repetition will help you to internalize new skills. Be careful to take breaks though, so that you wonât hurt your fingers, wrists, elbows and arms.
Maria @furgy
Welcome to the community.
In 4:4 time there is four beats in the bar if chord changes from say A to D at the start of the bar then count 1 is D. As you progress you will find chords can change on counts 2, 3 or even 4, however would not get concerned about this at this stage.
Hope it helps.
Michael
Hi Jeff @caje4, Welcome to the community! If youâre up for it, head over to the Introduce Yourself topic and say hello.
It took me a bit to recognize the practice resources when I started. Typically the last lesson in a module often contains info on the suggested practice schedule. Here it is for this module. When you get to that lesson in any module, youâll see a tab called Practice just below the video. Click there, and you can add the routine to the Practice Assistant. Hereâs the lesson, from Module 1, with guidance for using the Practice Assistant .
Hello, thanks for this course been looking for one thats reasonably priced for a while now. But anyways I was wondering what does it mean by chord changes like the fast ones or actually playing them.
Hi @gingerboy24, I am not sure I understand your question. Are you following Justins course on his website/app?
If not, take a look over there and start at the beginning - it might answer your question. If not, donât hesitate to reach out again and try to explain where youâre stuck so we can help you.
Hi @BossAthlete, what do you mean by rattling? Do you mean one or more strings are buzzing? If so, do they buzz also when youâre not fretting them? If they only buzz when fretting, are you sure you are fretting correctly, i.e. does your finger sit right against the fret wire? If the strings are not buzzing because youâre not fretting correctly, your guitar probably needs a setup, something pretty much every new guitar needs. Easiest thing to do is taking it to a luthier (your guitar store may have one). If itâs an electric and youâre up for a bit of a challenge you could give it a go yourself, there are tons of how to clips on the internet. Justin also has a couple of lessons about it. If itâs an acoustic, itâs a bit more difficult in the sense that you canât always change back to how it was before you started tinkering on it.
Iâm currently in Module 3 with its accompanying songs in the practice assistant, and would still like to practice the songs from module 2 as an extra. Where would I find those practice songs from the practice routine module 2: Three Little Birds, Common People (truncated) and Down On The Corner? I looked on the website under Songs and on the app and cannot find them. I would like to continue practicing the switching of chords to these songs as my changes still need refinement, and those practice songs are really helpful with that visual indication of when exactly you have to change chords, when to strum etc. Any help is greatly appreciated!
Hi Christopher, Three Little Birds and Common People are assigned to Grade 1 on the website - perhaps thatâs why you couldnât find them. (I searched by song title rather than filtering by grade.) I didnât see Down On The Corner on the website, and donât have the appâŚsorry!
Hi Judi, thanks for your response. These three songs are part of the practice routine for module 2. Itâs the last 10 minutes where you work through these three songs and the video is completely different from the song videos where Justin plays the guitar and explains everything. The video from the practice module has all these timed animations along with lyrics that is really helpful in hitting the chords at the right time. I am looking for these animated song videos, not the ones narrated by Justin
Ok never mind, I found a way to add that particular practice Item to my current routine. So all good now. FYR, hereâs a screen grab of the video I was referring to.
