I really appreciate this chapter. At the end of grade too I was just starting to wonder if I remembered all the things I learned/explored, and this summarizes everything, so it gives me a better idea what I should know by now, and I like the fact that I can just push on the link and repeat the things that I want to work on a little more. Can’t wait to move to grade 3 though!
I’ve been playing electric guitar seriously for about a couple of years. My goal is to get to play in a band, know how to sing and accompany myself rhythmically. Which course should I head to now?
Grade 3, Module 19
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Hi everyone, Just a question, I just got the end of grade 2 and watched the rut busting video and began to consolidate I decided to go back to grade 1 as about 9 months ago I was ambitious and decided to skip to grade 2 because of the excitement plus I had been playing very casually for about a year and was practically self taught with 15 minute online guitar lessons. Anyway I finished grade 2 and am relatively satisfied, I have gone back to grade 1 to consolidate and immediately picked up on myself having wrong pick position.
I was using three fingers instead of 2 and I have just realised the wrist tension etc. from that. I’m sure that there are quite a few other mistakes that will take atleast a few weeks to get solid.
I’m wondering If I should continue learning songs and expanding/practicing while getting stuff solid . ( IK this is long hopefully you can answer) thanks 
Ben @ItsGuitarTime
Welcome to the community first of all.
My view is whatever you don’t give up learning songs.
Michael 
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Yeah I think I have decided to consolidate my learning and practice some new things as all part of expanding and consolidating .thanks
Hey Ben @ItsGuitarTime
Definitely take your time and as Michael says above, just use this consolidation time to play and learn songs you want to learn and have fun. FWIW I’ve only just started grade 3 about 9 months after finishing grade 2!!
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Well that’s me failed then Perhaps I need to go back and re-do Grade 1.
@Stuartw Stuart, I see the smile, so not sure how to take the comment. I know you have worked hard to be able to do certain things. Also saw the comments re comparisons and rate of progress in another topic. Without more context and detail, I think all I’d focus in on is the enjoyment factor and the progress towards aspirations. If you are enjoying the time you spend with the guitar either playing what you can play or practicing to develop further then all is good and no need to necessarily go back at all. If there are some Gr1 things that are not enabling then maybe go back and refresh. And if you only play songs by reference to charts and you don’t envisage scenarios where that’s an issue then I’d not worry about it.
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Just finished the grade two course, and now Ill do 6 months of consolidation. I started in December '21 - so its very slow but hopefully steady progress at over a year per grade! Sometimes I spend quite a bit of time trying to learn a song in more detail than just strumming along, but mostly this is just how long its taking me. I’d rather have the grade i’m on now really down solid, than rush ahead and be doing more advanced stuff badly. so if there are any other tortoise’s out there, don’t be disheartened, you are not alone! I plod on towards one day being intermediate, which before JG, seemed an impossible dream.
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This sums thing up nicely sir ! It took me 22 months to get through the old Beginner Course and the “new” Grades 1 and 2 have additional material Don’t think of it as slow, consider it more meticulous. My constant reminder to folks over the years about this learning malarkey ? Its a marathon not a sprint. Take it at your own pace no right or wrong. But the sprinters will be the first to crash and burn.
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@_will
Hey Will, you’re not on your own mate. Another tortoise here!
If you’re doing it in a way that suits you and you’re having fun along the way then it doesn’t matter how long it takes.
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Slowly slowly catchy monkey 
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Took 6 months for grade 1, taking my time through grade 2 and then I spent 6 months just on module 12.
So far about 3 months on module 13.
Meticulous tortoise… New user name…
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Great advice, Justin. Thank you!
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Hi Justin, thank you for all these lessons. I completed the course up until this point around a year ago. Over the past year I played all my favourite songs (to thr best I can) learned a lots of new things like all kinds of bar chords, a little bit of music theory, one or two John mayer songs and lots of other things. Then one fine day listened to John mayer soloing and decided to come back here, did the blues and rock module again and now I think I want to learn blues, mainly because of John mayer but also listening to Eric clapton these days. To all the people I would I higly suggest to go out and explore for a few months, listen to new songs, try learning them, try singing them while playing and see that you can play almost any song out there (at least an easier version) with the skill set you have now. Again, thank you Justin for these lessons.
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What’s the blues and rock module you refer to?
The introductory modules in the grade 2, module 12 and 13.
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Trying to think about what my practice routine will look like for consolidation. When I think about the question “where do you want to go now?”, the obvious answer for me is fingerstyle and learning new chords. I’d love to see what your routines were if you felt the same by the end of Grade 2.
Cross posted with my learning log.