My Grade 2 Reward Song : Aerials - System of a Down Acoustic Cover (Feedback highly appreciated want to learn)

I am trying to get a whole song/riff cover by the end of each Grade and this is my take on Aerials by System of a Down on Acoustic for the end of Grade 2 !
I learnt this song from a cover on youtube and did not transpose it myself. One thing I noticed I should practice is my accuracy in hiting fast changing finger positions so it doesn’t make the squeaky noice, any other things you think I should improve ? Anything you feel I did good for a Grade 2 ? Please let me know I really want to improve !

Am planning on also getting an electric in the next two months so I’m so excited ! Starting Grade 3 tomorrow and will start practicing another song as well ! I love guitar

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Sounded great, very recognisable. Nice one.

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Thank you very much ! Getting better and remembering struggling to play this half speed VS being farily able to handle it full speed is the best feeling ever

Great work Mira, such a moody song and you’ve displayed some very decent skills throughout. Bravo and enjoy grade 3!

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Thank u very much !!! it was very enjoyable to learn !

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Awesome job here @Mirz !! You have some tricky slides here and a high tempo. Your rhythm seems very solid for the end of grade 2!

My only recommendation would be to play more System of a Down!! Keep rocking :sunglasses:

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Thank you very much !!! And I sure will !!! Will be trying my luck at Toxicity later on as well since its one of my favorites !

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Very well done, Mira! :clap:

That wasn’t an easy one to pick up being that fast moving up and down the neck. You did great, have an awesome time feeling keeping the rhythm solid throughout. :+1:

Have fun in Grade 3! :slight_smile: Already looking forward to your next post.

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Mira, very nice! I enjoyed listening, and I think you’re progressing nicely. You have great accuracy, and I think you will love it when you get your electric guitar! Keep it up!

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Sounding good Mira, look forward to hearing this end to end. Not sure who’s lesson you were using but GuitarLessons365 has a great tutorial. Wicked drop C tuning is so out there on this song. One of my SOAD favourites ! Good timing and good movement around the fretboard, making good progress.

:sunglasses:

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Thank you so much ! Yes the fast tempo was definitely the hardest thing to grasp and I’m so proud of myself that I did !

Thank you so much its very sweet ! already looking forward to start Grade 3 im so excited to get better

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I can’t wait !!! I’ll be getting it in the next 2 months since I’m giving myself time to fully take advantage of my acoustic before having two instruments to split my time between XD and thank you !!

Thank uu !! I used Ernesto Schnack’s arrangement from Youtube and it worked like a charm ! It was also my first time tuning my guitar to something other than standard XD It was very scary but worth it

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Wow!! Great job!! It sounds really good!
I´m still working hard to do that fast chord changes!

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That was excellent playing Mira.

Enjoy grade 3.

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Hi Mira,
I missed this one and it was nice to listen to, nice and tight and given your finger placement and picking you’ve been busy on the guitar for quite a while :sunglasses: :clap:
Have a blast in grade 3 :sunglasses: :partying_face:
Greetings,Rogier

Hi Mira, I’m adding to my post after reading Richard’s comments… listen to that man :blush: in my rather busy day today I didn’t take the time to read and watch properly (I still enjoy listening to it :sunglasses:)…but …learn songs and learn songs and technique the right way,and then some more songs …take your time we want to play the guitar for the rest of our lives so hurry is not desirable … a good base is :smiley:…have fun and I look forward to your next video.
Greetings

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@mirz

Mira, congratulations on your progress through the course, and well done / good vibes for sharing your first video AVOYP here. There are some tricky parts in there.

My antennae are bristling, my eyebrows are raised, my alarm bells are ringing, my curiouslty is aroused.

One song per grade?
Is that really what you mean.

Grade 1 = learn one song?
Grade 2 = learn one more song?

I think I need to lie down in a darkened room until my pulse and blood pressure return to normal!

:wink:

:rofl:

You are working through Justin’s Beginner Course.

For a while it was known as the new beginner course because it replaced a previous one - hosted on an old website.
In that old course (the classic course) what would be the equivalent of Grades 1 - 3 was categorised into stages 1 - 10. That is not an exact match as the content has been changed substantially, but it will do as an approximate summary to make my point.
Justin used to recommend that for every stage of learning, beginners try to learn and play two to five songs. Meaning that, upon reaching the end of stage 10, students had tried to learn and play upto fifty songs. Not memorise that number, but have experience of trying to play them. He wrote in the consolidation step:

You should be able to play at least ten songs all the way through without stopping.

My comment and advice to you is to please, please, do not venture to Grade 3 yet. I’m not sure how long you have been playing. I think you need to spend a substantial amount of time correcting some issues of posture and strumming. And you need to build and maintain a repertoire of songs. Not riffs. Not segments. Full songs.

I know that is some tough love. Sorry if it hits you hard and you feel I have come on very heavy. I honestly mean for you to do the best thing from where you are now - and remember I can only judge from this one video plus the topic you posted asking for help with holding a pick (where I have given you some advice also … Angle picking acoustic guitar - #9 by Richard_close2u).

Richard
:slight_smile:

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Hello Richard ! Not too heavy at all !! THIS is what I was hoping for when posting myself playing ! I am learning on my own and can’t afford a music teacher, so I will be having lots of bad habits if I don’t ask for advice from people with actual videos or pictures of my playing so your comment is exactly what I’m looking for !

In terms of repertoire, I have learnt songs that involve strumming, like Snuff by Slipknot or Willow by Taylor Swift, etc I found it very easy to learn and could play the entire thing comfortably in about an hour. The solos and lead are where I felt like it took me a LOT more time to learn them. So this is why im focusing more at the end of each grade on making one of these solos sound perfect, or at least as close to perfect as I can XD

I have learnt more songs but one of justins courses said to learn songs but also have 2 or 3 songs where you absolutely are very comfortable on it and try to make everything sound clean and flawless.

I just checked your comments about the tips on posture and picking/strumming you gave ! Thank you again these are a huge help !!

I have tried my luck at angle picking and to be fair it sounded fairly weird on my acoustic that’s why I stuck to flat picking, but I will be buying my first electric guitar tomorrow ! Do you think angle picking is worth pracitcing on acoustic as well ? Or should I leave flat for acoustic for a cleaner sound and learn angle picking on the electric ? Sorry if its a stupid question im not 100% knowledgeable in these techniques yet XD

Cheers !! And thank you again

Mira