Set up an effective 30 mins practice routine and edit your guitar practice to your needs!
View the full lesson at Module 8 Practice | JustinGuitar
Please keep comments and questions relevant. Thanks.
I’ve been following along and practicing fairly well but when I get to the play songs using the stuck 3&4 chords I am lost. The suggested songs I am not at all familiar with. I’m a country boy and these songs are all rock and roll. I do remember Browned Eyed Girl from back in the day and I think that would work for me but I can’t find tabs anywhere. I did find tabs that showed only the 3&4 chords going up an down the neck. I think the chords are basically G C G D G C G D and I suppose I could make that work. Also Is the strumming pattern the 8 note strumming pattern for all these songs. I see there is an app that I guess works for this but that requires a cell phone which I don’t have. Thanx
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I’ve been on this lesson for about seven weeks already! Is that normal?
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Welcome to the forum Eliezer. That would depend on how
many hours you practice a day/week. Everyone learns at
different rates and everyone has different amouts of time
to practice.
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Justin has a song tutorial video for Brown Eyed Girl, which may help. He talks about using open chords, but you can substitute with the stuck 3&4 chords. The recommended strumming pattern is ‘old faithful’.
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Thanks gsix14, That is certainly more easy to follow along with. I was about to give up on this lesson but back at it now!
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The completion criteria for this module are that we should have learned at least 2 songs that use the new Stuck 3&4 Chords and ideally played one all the way through. Does this mean that we need to play at 100% tempo of the recorded song versions? I’m using the Beginner Songs app and playing along with Brown-Eyed Girl at 60% tempo. Thanks!
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@JohninSD
Full tempo on some songs might be a big ask.
I would equally advise that 60% is not yet a sufficient tempo to think of moving on.
Choose some other songs if those you are playing are too quick also.
Hope that helps.
Cheers 
| Richard_close2u | JustinGuitar Official Guide & Approved Teacher
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is the OMC AND PFC of G(4finger) To normal D or Dsus4?
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Wow!! A lot to cover!! Not complaining mind you. I’ve been working on this for a couple of weeks now and find I’m not progressing. I increased the time to 40 minutes to give myself more time on the song practice, but this still doesn’t feel like enough. I’ve got the notes memorized and have moved that time to the riff.
What I have found is I’m just getting into the subject and my timer is going off. When I hit the timer start, it’s concentrated effort on that item until the timer goes off. I step away between every couple of items to give my fingers a break, make coffee or whatever. I’m contemplating increasing the time for more of the items, ie the riff and the stuck chord perfect. Being retired, I have the time. I can go to 60 minutes if that will help me!! Actually, I have but that was extended time playing songs, and that’s what we’re here for isn’t it?
Thanks for any advice!! Sorry this is so long.
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Hi Wayne. I find that it’s the song practice that really makes the difference. I start with the set practice routine then go to the songs. Things like finger placement and chord changing improve as a result of this.
To repeat what has been said here many times, songs, songs and more songs!
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Hi There, Greg here with my first comment. These courses are great, and I appreciate all the effort in the lessons for you to just give them away. However, if I could offer one suggestion, it would be to sell printed practice guides to go along with each lesson, Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced. Or maybe one book for all three. I find myself rewriting a lot of the practice materials, which if printed in a book wouldn’t require such.
Additionally, the book could include notation for the practice songs. I would love to play them, yet find myself intimidated by the lack of notation to reference - I can’t anticipate what’s coming, and the time and effort is quite an investment - much more than is indicated in the practice schedule
. Any luck in a soon to be released book?
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Hi Greg,
I often do the same, but I think it’s a good thing to make your own notes. I’m currently working through Justin’s music theory course and I am making my own music theory document as I go. Often I just cut and paste snippets from the Resources tab of the lesson. Other times I will rewrite it all in my own words.
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It will. These suggested times are guidance only and increasing the time will increase your progress and rate of improvement. So long as your fingers can take it, practice more. 
When practicing scales, arpeggios, etc is consistency of picking style important? In other words, should we either be strictly picking down through the exeercise, or alternate picking thoughout the arpeggio, etc? In other words, does it matter if we combine down picking some of the arpeggio and alternate picking the rest of the same exercise?
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Hey all, a few quick questions. Some of the songs mentioned to practice are not available in the mobile app, is that expected? Is it okay to play the available songs instead? Also, it’s unclear if I should be playing all the chords as stuck 3&4, I’ve been playing them all as stuck 3&4 (even when not indicated in the app) except for the D chord, I’ve been playing that in the “normal” way. Is that enough to move on? Should I be incorporating more of the older chords before moving on? Thanks in advance!
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Yes, Charles. Sometimes it is not possible to include a song for copyright/publishing reasons. Quite OK to play available songs that exercise and make use of chords and techniques you are working on. You can also look on JustinGuitar.com at the Songs section and find lessons for other suitable songs. You can use the filters to search for suitable songs. And you can play any suitable song that serves the purpose, that you enjoy, and can figure out the chords etc from any lessons, websites etc.
I think there are songs that naturally lend themselves to being played using the stuck 3 & 4 shapes, songs that the original artist plays with those shapes. That said, there are no rules. You can play the same songs with different G chord shapes eg the 2 finger G (if you have learned that), normal C chords rather than the stuck 3 & 4 C chord. The best approach is to learn to play as many different shapes as possible, learn to change between them. Then over time you are able to make choices based on what sounds good to you and makes playing a song ‘easier’'. For example I play a song using my ring and pinky to play a 2 finger G because that chord is followed by a G7 played with ring, middle and index fingers.
It is a good idea to keep working and including older chords with newer chgords in your song repertoire. It is a process of adding all the time, extending. Judging when to move on is a little subjective. I’d follow Justin’s guidelines in the lessons at the end of a Grade. If you can play the chords in songs, relatively well (based on your level of learning) then move on. Just don’t be in too much of a rush. A good idea to post recordings of you playing songs in #community-recordings:avoyp to get some feedback on your progress.
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Thank you for your thoughtful response and help! You guys rock!
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