Slow down your guitar journey so you can become a much better guitar player!
View the full lesson at Perfectly Starts Slowly | JustinGuitar
Yay! The Discusson secton is finally working on Grade 3!
Anyway, I just wanted to say how useful I found this, particularly the bit about how to memorise stuff. Just wish it had been included earlier in the course
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Timely video as I had been thinking about these ideas recently. Iāve been struggling for the last few months to find a practice routine which is both productive and fun, Iāve been getting very frustrated with the lack of progress. In the last few days Iāve gone back to the beginner course and redoing the lessons in Grade 2 and that does seem to be about my level. A lot of the songs I really want to play are too difficult for me, eg Sultans Of Swing, Iām beginng to accept that this is a very long term project and wonāt happen anytime soon, thatās ok, just keep taking small steps forward.
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i started the video to begin my new module and ended the video going back and carrying on with what i know. i need to put more time into the techniques i havent practiced as much and solidify the stuff i have learnt. wierd how one lesson can turn your entire attitude to the current progress around
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Hello @beaverboy_12 and welcome to the Community.
Youāre so right. And you should find enormous long term benefit from taking some backward steps before progressing forward again.
Cheers 
| Richard_close2u | JustinGuitar Moderator, Guide & Approved Teacher
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A lot to unpack in this one. I thought it would be about playing slowly when learning new things (which it is, in part), but turns out itās mainly about slowing down your entire guitar journey and making sure you integrate things you learn properly.
Which makes sense. Gotta turn the new techniques in muscle memory rather than just an academic learning.
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Hi convertsā¦ 
I think that many are āguiltyā of racing ahead,ā¦not me of course 
,ā¦but for some reason I keep looking in the rearview mirror 
ā¦well I wanted to see and try all the lessons once to a greater or lesser extent, that was sometimes good and mostly not 
,ā¦now I repeat everything as often as necessary and the toughest lessons with funk and Jazz will come in a long timeā¦
In the meantime Iām having the time of my life and every month I notice a kind of jump in quality of play 
Greetings,Rogier
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I agree, thereās so much precious content hereā¦all concentrated in this one lesson! I was already perceiving myself as learning slowly and this made me aware that it wasnāt slow enough for me. And I further slowed down. But it also made me proud of myself for being finally able to retain those few things I learnt this yearā¦I was already enjoying the process and it made me enjoy it even more, because I feel confident now to be on the right track. Thank you 
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Forgetting is significantly reduced by frequent attempts at recall.
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Great reminder to stop getting impatient and slow down to enjoy the journey!
One thing thatās really helpful when learning something in chunks is always ending a repetition of a chunk with the first note of the next chunk. It makes it a lot easier to combine them later
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Matthew, welcome to the community forum and to this discuss. That is an interesting suggestion and Iāll give it a try later.
Hi Matthew,
Welcome here ,and it is good to read ā¦
that iām not the only one who does it this way 
ā¦iām sure i donāt learn many things the best way,but this "deviation"i have tried a lot ā¦on and off for 3 yearsā¦ from a few months it is always onā¦
Greetings and I wish you a lot of fun,
Rogier
Very helpful suggestion! Didnāt think about that so far, but Iāve always played the next half bar by intuition and it helps me also to keep the rhythm, otherwise I tend to slow down at the ending of the chunk.
Outstanding message and just in time for me. I was beginning to feel that I should slow down a bit to practice and consolidate what I have learned. I want to get good at it, not just be able to do it. Thanks Justin.
I have a question about repetition. Iāve been working on the major scale, something I never did over many decades of playing. Iām doing about 100 bpm - if I go slower than that I tend to make more mistakes. When doing scales, what is considered a mistake worthy of restarting? Obviously landing on the wrong note, but what if you land on the right note but itās not fully clean? Or you land on the right note but a few microseconds off the beat? Would you recommend starting over for every kind of minor mistake or just hitting the wrong note? Seems like full perfection would be too frustrating a bar to reach. Also learning to ignore mistakes when playing can be important - you donāt want to halt the middle of a song when jamming or performing because you stumbleā¦ itās important to be able to quickly recover as well.
I only stop if I hit the wrong note. A note that doesnāt sound clean isnāt a mistake, itās imperfect technique. Imperfect timing isnāt a mistake either.
I agree with you- I think you need to learn to move through mistakes and not let them ruin your rhythm.
This lesson came at the right time for me. I was getting impatient with learning the module before this one, so I moved on to this new module even though I knew I need more time with the previous module! Thanks for telling me to go back, ha ha. Most of all thanks for the great tips. I wrote them down and am motivated to slow down and get it right. The tip about retention hit home too. Too many times Iāve learned something only to forget what I learned, so repeating things often will be my goal from now on. Example: Greensleeves. No idea how to play that anymore, so time to look it upš.
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I hope everyone understands how important this video is. It took me year and years to figure out this concept. Great lesson!
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