Hey everyone, I thought I would start logging my progress so at the very least it prompts me to showcase my progress and hopefully it keeps me motivated.
So I joined this forum in September last year and started Grade 1, I made good progress and plowed through to Module 5 in about 6-8 weeks. I went to town on tracking my progress via a spreadsheet, and focused on the technical tasks, chord changes, strumming patterns, etc. I was very happy with my progress, for some basic chord changes I easily surpassed 30 in a minute. But this is when it all went down hill. I spent the following 2 months only motivating myself to do one 30 minute practice session a week, and was at risk of giving up entirely again.
At the start of February I gave myself a shake and got back into it. Focusing less on tracking my progress, and constantly increasing BPM on chord changes, which had become a chore. I’m now playing guitar way more than I was at the beginning, my fingers are settling in so the pain isn’t limiting me anymore. I’m often playing for an hour or two (with some breaks to rest) most days now, and the majority of the session is songs, minus the odd riff or series of chord changes to warm up.
I believe part of what I struggled with at the beginning was that I wasn’t particularly enjoying the very basic songs, and it wasn’t motivating me to play. I’m now playing some songs which I’m finding more challenging (although they are ultimately very easy), but I’m seeing progress and working towards Grade 1 consolidation now. For some of the tracks I’m using the Justin Guitar app which is doing OK for me at this stage, I’m also trying out Jamzone which is a bit more advanced and has allowed me to see how my playing fits in with a backing track where I can remove the guitar etc.
I’ve met all of the criteria so far apart from memorisation of 5 songs. Well, I have memorised all of these however I’m not happy with my performance of them yet so I expect to spend a couple of weeks on this.
I’m currently working on:
Hey Joe - Jimi Hendrix
Mad World - Gary Jules
Black - Pearl Jam
You Don’t Love Me - Dawn Penn
Fade Into You - Mazzy Star
Today I’ve started recording myself as I’m playing songs in an effort to identify where I’m going wrong, which has been very useful so far. Hopefully I’ll be happy enough with my playing soon to post some videos here. Stay tuned!
I am really stoked you stuck through that low time and came through it. Its tough when you want to play songs but there are none you are really interested in and you are not yet quite good enough to play any that you are fired up to play. I totally get that. Things will open up more in the next grade even more for you. You will learn more chords and that will give you more choices and give you some better strum patterns, more songs to choose from and the song will sound better.
All honestly, I didnt even play a single song or consolidate untill I finished level 2 and was consolidating it both 1 and 2. I focused on only the foundations and tried to stick with justines practice routines the way he lays them out and I did it every other day. I am a huge fan of the practice routines he provides us. Its easy to edit amd add stuff even. I used the timer and I just did it. When I did the 2nd level consolidations it said learn 10 songs I was like uh oh. I dont know any and havnt looked at than many but it was not bad because I had done enough foundation stuff that I was able to choose them and after about 4 weeks just cranked the level appropriate ones out.
The other last tip is and I messed this up my self and it took me a few months to figure out, and I am really glad I did figure it out. Even though there are songs that are you may not like, its not a bad Idea to give a listen to some of these lessons also. Justin gives some really good advice and tips that are applicable to many other songs and aspects of play in song lessons that can benifit you even if you dont want to become proficient in the song that lesson is actually teaching. Someone linked to a song lesson where he is describing a technice in the forums. It was some level 2 song I compleatly bypassed, mind blown. I was like dang. If I had just looked at it. Oh well i can pass the knowlege to others at least. I do that know in level 4. I have watched almost every video up and through 3, dosnt mean I know all the songs but I have cheaked them out for interesting patterens or techniques.
While I was consolidating my Leval 3, I decided to gonbsck and learn every level 1 and many of the level 2 songs that I skipped and learn all the extra cool stuff he shows at the ends for more advanced players. These songs are great building blocks dont forget.
Great job keeping your self motivated. This learning log will go a long way keeping you motivated also. Keep up the good work Rick.
It’s really good to hear that you skipped ahead and didn’t have any issues. I must admit I was worried I’d never be able to play songs if I did that.
I’m very excited for Grade 2 with the new chords and I’m itching to get stuck into power chords. I’m expecting I’ll move onto it in a week or so as I’ve made amazing progress in only a week focusing on songs and improving my strumming.
Also I’ll definitely give the songs a listen when he recommends them from now on. Usually I don’t I must admit.
This past week has been great. I offically took the plunge and posted myself and got some good feedback and positive praise which has been very motivating and has encouraged me to record more.
This past couple of days I have been getting stuck into the first module of Grade 2. I’ve picked up most of the new chord shapes quite easily and am starting to think about focusing more on changes. The Em pentatonic is memorised and I’m currently focusing on muting the other notes, I may move onto a metronome in the next couple of days. The Wish you were here riff is a killer and I’m not making great progress with that.
As for songs I am choosing to only focus on Wonderwall right now, which feels like a great goal to set. The strumming pattern isn’t even on my mind right now, the focus is to just learn the song. As for keeping my old songs up to date I’m working on encorporating more complex strumming patterns into a couple of them and making slow progress. Exciting times. I intend to spend a few weeks on this module.
I’ve made some progress over the past two weeks that I’m very happy with, although I’ve been putting in quite a few hours. A minimum of an hour and a half a day, some days a few hours, it doesn’t feel like a chore, I just can’t seem to put the guitar down some days.
Anyway, Module 8 mostly went well, I mastered the new chords very easily, the Em pentatonic and the other bits quite easily. So I spent a lot of time focusing on an area I thought was weak - my strumming. I’ve managed to apply the old faithful to a song that I’ve previously only been playing with downstrums. I’ve also succeeded at playung Fade into You - Mazzy Star at speed with the correct strumming pattern which has been great as this is a song in 6/8 rather than 4/4. However, the big win has been my progress on Wonderwall. The strumming pattern is mostly locked in and I can play it across almost all of the chord progressions at the required bpm. But it’s way away from sounding good throughout the full song, this is something I’ll be working on as a longer term goal I think.
This evening I decided to move onto Module 9 after spending two weeks on Module 8. I didn’t feel there was much more for me to fine tune. So far it’s been a success. The F chord hasn’t been as bad as I imagined, I can get it to ring out probably 6/10 times, the F chord cheats are mostly easy for me too apart from the F mini - this will be one to focus on. I’m looking forward to learning some new songs here. I’m going to focus on
Dreams - Fleetwood Mac
House of the rising sun - The Animals
These both seem quite easy to pick up and should test my F chords. Infact I found Dreams so easy I was able to play along to it during the introduction section of Justin’s video on it.
Anyway, I’ll probably spend some weeks on this module mainly for the F chord and to cement the exercises into memory. I’m hopefully going to work on recording one of my songs as well.
Exciting times ahead, I’ve made so much more progress in these past couple of months that it’s given me a huge amount of motivation.
I decided to move on from Module 8 after a little over 2 weeks as I met all of the criteria, and I’ve been playing for 1-2 hours a day.
I have been absorbing the content for Module 10, it took me 2 days to watch the videos while running through the new material, and today was the first full practice day.
Already I’m very happy with my progress. Alternative picking hasn’t been much of a challenge. So the focus will be doing it while cleaning up the scale and adding a metronome in. My F chord is sounding great and I’m achieving 25 changes per minute between F and C and F and G. So all good. La Bamba wasn’t too difficult to pick up after some focused practice, next step is working on the timing.
In the background I’ve been working on polishing Wonderwall, which honestly I think has massively improved my strumming. This has really shown in the push rhythm practice as I didn’t find that difficult at all. I’ll aim to get a video of one of my songs up and I’ll probably aim spend 2 or 3 weeks on this module.
Oh, I forgot to add I got my guitar setup by a tech, what a difference! I feel like it improved my F chord in an instant, my entry level guitar plays so much nicer than it did. For anyone that reads this and hasn’t had a professional setup - get one, it’s well worth the money.
This week I decided to move onto Module 12, I have put a pin in Module 11 for now because I’m not particularly interested in fingerstyle yet, however I do intend to come back to this. I’ve been quite excited about power chords for a while and the sheer number of songs it will open up for me.
I’ve officially extended my practice routine to an hours worth of material. I’m spending a bit of time on F chord changes and incorporating F chords into songs, and I’ve kept La Bamba in my routine for now as I think I can go much further with it.
Oasis - Wonderwall (this one is killing me, I know the song and the strumming pattern but the timing and pace is hard)
Nirvana - Smells like teen spirit (it’s early days, another tough strumming pattern)
I feel like I’ve rushed through Grade 2 in the past few months and it seems like a good time to slow down on the content and really focus on some areas before I move on. I’m probably going to spend a few months here.
My main focus will be:
Massively expanding my songbook. I have a huge backlog of possible songs to attempt.
Challenging myself with some harder rhythms / tempos
Power chords / barre chords for strength
I’ll aim to start posting more of my recorded progress in the following weeks.
There is nothing wrong with spending time at the end of 2 consolidating all of that information. Its a good place to chill and get your self set up and really comfortable. Once you get into 3 you will have a lot on your plate so your plan to take your time solidifying what you have learned so far is a solid one.
I would suggest cheaking out more difficult strum patterns for fun, but also keep trying to get basic ones like “Fade Into You” strum hand going like a metronome. Watch your video and look at your hand movment. You want the up down up down all the exact same even when you are not hitting the strings. Justin describes this. I used to have issues with it, still do sometimes. This will reallly help you with the more complicated patterns. Dont feel bad, even Kurt Cobain forgot to do it at the start some songs and then suddenly he caught himself and had to self corrected. You can see this in the MTV unplugged video.
Your doing awsome. I enjoyed your Mazzy Star video. Keep up the great work. You have a good plan.
You’re right I’m definitely going wrong here. It’s been a tough one for me hopefully I can break the habit I’ve created. I’ll be working on this for sure. Thanks for the feedback
It’s been ages since I’ve updated this. I’m pleased to say I’ve only missed three days (consecutive fortunately due to a weekend trip away).
My practice regime has shifted from being highly structured to being much more unstructured but I’m enjoying the freedom a bit more and it’s enabled me to play for much longer with more enjoyment.
I am occasionally warming up with some scales and alternate picking exercises for a few mins and gradually working up to higher bpm. I didn’t realise how much I’d improved until I looked at the bpm in guitar pro and I’m doing some over 100 now. I timebox myself to 10-15 mins here and don’t do this every day. I then take a break for a few mins to prepare for the bulk of the session: songs.
I’m mainly working on:
Nirvana - Smells like teen spirit. This is actually going well but is proving difficult to speed up, I’ve almost memorised all the parts now and I’m playing them OK, the strumming pattern was quite a nightmare to lock down. I’m hoping I should be up to full speed in a month or so, or maybe less, who knows.
Marilyn Manson - Sweet dreams. This was a fun one I found on the forum here and it’s been quite easy to learn up to speed, amazing for power chord and riff practice and sounds good with distortion too. I hope I’ll be able to post a video in a couple of weeks.
These I’m not really working on actively but occasionally playing to keep the fire burning.
Fade into You - Mazzy Star. Locked down the new strumming pattern after feedback and it’s playing much better.
Oasis - Wonderwall. While it’s memorised and I can play it at full speed it’s not my primary focus as I’m not that happy with it and also getting bored of playing it. Maybe I’ll come back to it.
I don’t know what is next, I’ll probably stick to power chord songs and maybe pull another one in when I’m happy with sweet dreams.
Someone linked to a song lesson where he is describing a technice in the forums. It was some level 2 song I compleatly bypassed, mind blown. I was like dang. If I had just looked at it. Oh well i can pass the knowlege to others at least. I do that know in level 4. I have watched almost every video up and through 3, dosnt mean I know all the songs but I have cheaked them out for interesting patterens or techniques.
shaka bro
