So I have been taking Justin’s beginner course. I am now at beginner level 3 module 16. Here is my problem—I have discovered finger style guitar. I am addicted. I have learned Landslide by Fleetwood Mac finger style and now I am at a cross-roads. Should I continue with the beginner course or should I take a break and do finger style? I still practice all of the things for the last module I completed by picking but I really enjoy finger style and I like being able to finger style the melody. Any suggestions on the direction I should go?
Eh do a mix
I found Justin Johnson around then and spend most of a year playing with that stuff haha
Hi Jeff @rinkrat, I’m just starting Grade 3 myself. Coincidentally, I’ve been really enjoying finger style the past 6 weeks or so, and have been focusing on that for the past week or so as a change of pace. My current thought process: continue on through the Grade 3 lessons, while having fun with finger style in the free form parts of my practice. I expect that much (not all, of course) of the knowledge in Grade 3 will be applicable to finger style as well. As a beginner, one of my goals is to be a well-rounded guitarist so I will try to be disciplined, while still making time for other things. Now for the broken record statement: we’re all different, and what works for me might not be the right path for you! I also reserve the right to change my mind next week. 
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I tend to play my electric guitars with a pick but always use finger picking on acoustic. It works for Eric Clapton!
Listen to players like Tommy Emmanuel, Justin Johnson and Joscho Stephan for inspiration.
How you choose to manage your practice time is up to you, but a change is as good as a rest and swapping between the two different threads of learning will help to keep you motivated.
You could just say this semester you a concentrating on finger style. And you will see how you feel next semester. Personally if I was to do that I would keep my fundementals pratice routine going a few times a week just to keep my other skills and repertoire solid
I’m with Judi on this one and although I haven’t really gotten into finger style , as yet, I am slowly working through Justin’s app and looking forward to enhancing and encapsulating all aspects of the programme to be able to become an “all rounded” guitarist. I do think though that it is sometimes nice to become more specialised in some areas especially if you have a particular bias towards that style. Which ever way you decide to go just keep loving it and enjoy 
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Jeff @rinkrat
I got into finger style at about the same stage as and in my opinion there is no need to decide on one route or another keep them both going it will make you a better all round guitar player.
Michael
Hello Jeff
The beginners course is a very well thought-out course that lays a foundation for learning how to play guitar well… also finger style… after grade 3 the course delved deeper in styles and many students make choices about which way to go then (and in there head earlier often 
) … the urgent advice that is often given here is… first eat your vegetables (the beginners curses) and then your sweets … (for me everything was and is the dessert, but that is another story) …
In the meantime you can of course take a look further and continue with the fingerstyle of course …Follow your hart… but hopefully you also choose to complete the beginner studies … it is the foundation for just about everything …
Greetings,Rogier
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I echo what others have said. I’d continue the course and reserve some amount of your practice time for fingerstyle, or I’d maybe take an exkurs and come back later.
Lots of helpful and interesting things to learn in those modules to become a well rounded guitarist. Alone the chord explorer studies are great tools to discover, but there’s so much else I wouldn’t skip.
That’s pretty much what I did after G2 consolidation. I did a beginners fingerstyle course whilst topping up practice session with items from G3. Now I’m focusing on the blues whilst topping up with items from G3/G4 before starting the intermediate fingerstyle course. At the end of the day It is what keeps you picking up the guitar and developing you skills based on the solid foundation you’ve built from G1/G2.
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You should do whatever excites you. You will be much more invested, you’ll have better progress, and have more fun 
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As about everyone else is saying, you do you.
I think one of the points Justin makes in his course is that after grade 3, you should be a bit more independent in your choices and pursue your interests. His courses become a little more al a carte and there are several options that touch on fingerstyle, blues (much more in depth), jazz and so on.
One thing to consider is for subjects like jazz and fingerstyle, Justin’s courses are somewhat introductory rather than comprehensive like his blues courses. So they are great starts and foundations, but you may opt for more at some point.
I take classical and fingerstyle courses outside Justin’s program at this point (mostly song lessons) and look to Justin Guitar as a foundation and where I find many fundamentals as I need them. I have dug through (and return to frequently) courses through grade 6 as I find them interesting and helpful. But for more advanced lessons that Justin doesn’t provide, I need to find them elsewhere.
I like Six String Fingerpicking, if that helps. For Jazz, justin has a video of him taking a lesson from Jen’s Larsen, so I have gone to his website.
If you have time and desire, absolutely do both. I have discovered that I’m really drawn to fingerstyle and am taking songs I can strum and going back to learn them fingerstyle or with elements of both. Maybe it’s because I’m left handed playing right, but I find finger picking to be a bit easier and more accurate than strumming. You will need to search for fingerstyle lessons elsewhere as Justin’s offering is good (as always) but very introductory.
Interesting! I have been finding the same thing! Dang gross motor skills…
For those of us with goals of just playing music around the home and no aspiration of playing out singing or in groups or wailing the electric amp, finger style is a good fit.
There are additional fingerstyle lesson modules in Grade 3, so that will feed some of your “fingerstyle addiction” LOL!.
Since you also want to be learning songs in addition to practicing the techniques in the lessons, you can always find fingerstyle songs to learn that are within your current fingerstyle capabilities.
Lastly, you could start adding in some of the “Folk Fingerstyle” lessons from Grade 5, but don’t stop progressing thru Grade 3!
YMMV
Two songs I learned to strum first and am now learning fingerstyle are Mr. Bojangles and Behind Blues Eyes (Justin has a lesson on this one).
Play what makes you pick up the guitar! Only playing guitar regularly and working on improving your skills will make you a better player. But the journey does not have to be the same for everyone. If you love fingerstyle then work on that - you can progress the rest of the beginners course in parallel at a slower speed or come back to it later when you feel like it - or you really want to play a strummed song. As has been mentioned by others Justin’s fingerstyle lessons are great introductions. Ignore the the official grade they are placed in and just go for it and challenge yourself. And if you want to progress further after that search out some youtube channels that are specialised in fingerpicking, there are so many great songs out there.
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Hi Jeff,
… the above has worked for me too.
If the above doesn’t collide too much with it, try still to improve in other fields, like theory, ear training, transcribing, and all the stuff Justin recommends anyway, but just as much as it still is fun!
Like you, I started fingerpicking at grade 3 (two years ago), and it became bit like a drug 
It helped me a lot when I had difficult times and I sat down, doing excercises, but ever more often picking just like it came to me and in the course forgetting about the world.
The thing here is, I did very often my own stuff, probably not improving as fast as I could and improving my repertoire as fast, but I learned quite a bit meanwhile and it kept me happy.
As long as you’re really engaged with your guitar and playing, I would like to contradict to some of the internet teachers who sound like maximising the efficiency in learning is key.
(while it can be helpful to know how to make improvement efficient, of course)
And this is one (of the many) points why I appreciate Justin so much - he always states that the journey should be fun and you’ll know best where you’d like to go and permits you to just sit down and noodle around.
Sorry for the long text!
All the best on your journey and see you soon,
Dominique
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Thanks all for the excellent advice.
Love this community.
I got to the end of grade three and was increasing bored with strumming repetitive chords to pop songs where unless I sang along, didn’t sound like anything recognisable. I also damaged my wrist trying to do the new barre chords at the end of the grade.
I had been attracted by the more melodious finger style stuff but there’s little on Justin’s beginner course and I felt very lost. When I looked ahead at grade 4 it was more barre chords (which I couldn’t do due to injury) and blues (which I am not really interested in).
The answer for me was a switch to Classical guitar, which is essentially finger style. Since last November I have been learning to read music and am working through Trinity College’s exam grade material (now two thirds through grade 3). If you don’t like the classical repertoire/don’t want to learn to read music, you can do Trinity’s Acoustic and Plectrum grades, which give tabs as well as standard notation and have more contemporary music. Or you can do both as the skills are very similar. I am really enjoying it.
Justin’s course is a fantastic beginner course but he says himself at the end of grade 3 it’s time to find your own path.