You will get mostly the same comments from me as above. Instead, I’ll tell you how my journey has gone and you can decide if you think it is useful for yours.
I moved on to G3 after feeling I had at least given everything i G2 a try, but not concentrating on things I didn’t find reasonable to get proficient with. For example, the percussive hit was mentioned above, but with an electric guitar, I didn’t find I could make it sound good. The finger flicking for the strum was good to learn though and I did work at that a very short time.
My point is that I extracted the techniques I thought useful for my goals, and just made sure to know about the other techniques and try them at least a few times.
I moved on to G3 in large part due to reading the lesson plan and wanting to know a good portion of the topics in some of the modules. I came out of G2 with nearly zero songs I could play from memory, not liking the simplified versions. I have far better dexterity in my hand than when I started and can play a very clean set of nearly all the chords up to G3, albeit a bit more slowly than I prefer for songs I want to tackle.
Now that I have been in G3 for months, I am 2/3 through the modules. I am taking on songs far more like the original was played. There are some lessons that don’t mean much to me and I simply listen to the lesson, work on it a couple times, and save the memory for later in case I find I do need it.
Some of the techniques are difficult to master with the handicaps I am coming with. My primary handicap is poor accuracy on both hands, so I have backed off on progressing the lessons in favor of playing songs and working on the accuracy. If I could make good gains with accuracy, I could see myself progressing quite a bit further in a short time. Playing songs aims at the accuracy practice, verifies if I am progressing, and is fun, so it seems like a really good thing to do. I do short stretch and scale routines but these are usually maybe 7-10 minutes total out of my sessions. Sessions are usually 2/day, first one around 30-45 minutes in the morning before work, and second about 60-90 minutes before bed. I miss maybe one session in 3 weeks.
Be prepared (and willing) to return to anything you moved past too fast. Be sure to experience everything in the lessons, even if the topic is not directly on your journey as you see it.
If you haven’t thought about what you want to play, get into thinking about that. You will find that trying to master too much technique at once is distracting, so planning your goals in a fairly tight learning curriculum is likely going to feel better.
Use the Nitsuj lessons as a guide for when it is reasonable to move on. These helped me get a feel for Justin’s acceptance levels, so I was then able to judge myself accordingly.
Hope you get something useful from this book-sized response!
Hi Dan First want to thank you for asking the question. I’m asking myself this same question. I’m at this exact same place you are. End of Beginner grade 2. When I was at the end of Beginner Grade 1, I learned about « air changes » so I felt I had to consolidate this left hand way of moving. Now, at the end of Beginner Grade 2, I feel I have to minimally consolidate 1) this weak pinky, 2) those dominant chords and 3) shine those chord changes while strumming before I go on. Man it’s a long ride…. But, at the same time, I realize I have a tendency when I concentrate on a technical thing (air changes, OMC, …) to forget to keep time for working on songs in my practice agenda. So, at the end, I work only on technicals focused things, don’t work on what songs teach me, take out a great part of fun from my practice time because I feel I’m just doing dumbbells or pushups…. This was a note just to say hello Keep on brother and have fun
I think a trap that quite a few people fall into on this site is viewing the modules as the exciting part of playing guitar and the post module consolidation phase as the boring part, where the sole object is get to the next module as quickly as part.
Whereas I see the modules as being like football training (good for building skills) and the consolidation phase as gameday! (the fun part where you get to put skills you have learnt into practice).
For example if you have completed Beginner Grade 2 you now have the knowledge to jam to a backing track, write your own song using the DICE method and most importantly there are 1000s of songs you can play including 200 song lessons for your skill level that Justin has done.
So yeah, not only would I recommend having a break between modules/grades but I would embrace this time as a chance to learn and play a heap of songs which in my opinion is both the most enjoyable and best way to improve as a guitar player.
Wow, some great advice here! I like your perspective @MorseMooseGreyGoose regarding the modules being the training runs for the consolidation, being “gameday”. Cool way to look at it
Anyway, I have zero to add just wanted to say HI DAN! Welcome to the forum, have fun!
Thanks all for the welcome and your great responses. It’s been very helpful. I’ll take all your advice on board, nail down some more songs and work further on some techniques and try to enjoy “game day” more before putting myself back to the grind with more material to study
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?
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
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!!
@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.
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.
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.
First want to thank you for asking the question. I’m asking myself this same question. I’m at this exact same place you are. End of Beginner grade 2. When I was at the end of Beginner Grade 1, I learned about « air changes » so I felt I had to consolidate this left hand way of moving. Now, at the end of Beginner Grade 2, I feel I have to minimally consolidate 1) this weak pinky, 2) those dominant chords and 3) shine those chord changes while strumming before I go on. Man it’s a long ride…. But, at the same time, I realize I have a tendency when I concentrate on a technical thing (air changes, OMC, …) to forget to keep time for working on songs in my practice agenda. So, at the end, I work only on technicals focused things, don’t work on what songs teach me, take out a great part of fun from my practice time because I feel I’m just doing dumbbells or pushups…. This was a note just to say hello 
just wanted to say HI DAN! 
Welcome to the forum, have fun! 
