Practising slowly is the way to improve faster! I am also impatient in nature and it took me some time to learn that I have to slow down - and even longer to start practising it 
What hit it home for me was to learn how to fingerpick a melody over an alternating base line. Took me many months to learn just one song with a very simple melody - my fingers just would not move independently. And then I tried to sing at the same time while finger picking ā¦ took me several months more. And breakthrough only came after slowing down.
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It ALWAYS helps me.
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OK, I get it. Slow it down. Sure, if youāre learning by rote. Practice a slow song or progression slowly. When do you start to groove? I mean when do you really start to thump that guit-fiddle? Youāre gonna slow-walk Jumpinā Jack Flash, La Grange, everything? Play a slow thing slow and a fast thing fast ā build up to the fast stuff. If your thing is to slow down every fast thing, I would like to hear you pull it off. Learn to jam and cut it loose once in a while. Push yourself.
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Yes. Thatās true. I hear Justin saying āpractice slowlyā (e.g. scales) in the videos over and over again. And I agree when Iām watching and rewatching the videos. But thenā¦itās so easy to get carried away when actually practicing. So, I hope, it will really be helpful for me having a āreal lifeā corrective, reminding me that there is no harm in going back and slowing down.
Ach Franz, might I tempt you to move to Finland? Usually the cafeterias at work places open their doors already at 11:00 
The idea to enjoy taking my time is inspirational. Thank you so much 
I might adopt that idea after my vacation, sounds reasonable.
Molly, thank you for pointing this out. Deciding to integrate dedicated slow practicing exercises into practicing routines is one thing. Actually having the guts and the patience to change quite deeply rooted behaviour will be a process.
@CT Thanks I always value your opinions and there is a lot to unpack in your post. First of all, thanks for making me check the chords to āJumping Jack Flashā, itās a great song. UG has a capo first fret version that can be played with open chords. I will have a go at it. Hmm ā¦ there will be ways to slow it down (not to the extreme) and make it sound good - in Tito & Tarantula style for example, I can see how that could work 
It surely is not my thing. Thatās why I love the challenge so much that I took away from my first in person lesson. It will be terribly hard for me. Meaning I will have to push myself to practice certain things more slowly. I wonāt slow down playing songs Iām playing for fun, but the idea is that practicing certain things more slowly can in the end help me to play the songs better - and consequently to have more fun with them.
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You learn the fundamentals slow then you can speed up otherwise when you do want to have fun it will sound rushed and sloppy. Short term pain for long term gains
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in track and field you can t start by comparing yourself to usian Bolt
You have to start at the basics first and do slow times on a 100 m
and then after a few years , when experience will build up , you ll be faster
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This is music weāre discussing here isnāt it? Itās all about feel and groove; being in the pocket. Practicing scales is all well and good but you just get good at playing scales and it comes out in your playing with scaley solos. As the song goes: āā¦it donāt mean a thing if it aināt got that swing.ā
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Before you practice a new song, print off the lyrics and chords and study it and mark it up with a highlighter. Identify the repeating chord progressions in different colours, and particularly chord progressions that are unfamiliar.
Listen to the song, clap the beats, make further notes.
Work on the different sections, and only once achieved, put them all together.
Totally agree with slow, donāt entrench errors, it makes it harder to undo after a while. This is where rushing leads to failure.
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Yes. Thatās another of my experiences yesterday. Simple eights notes up down strumming with accents on beats 2 and 4. I thought thatās done and dusted. The teacher looked and me and said something like āI hear what you are doing, but not overemphasizing the accents so much will do.ā Thatās something I will have to relearn slowly. And as much as I like practicing with metronomes taking the exercise back to 60 BPM or so will be a challenge
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I can hardly practice the C major scale introduced in module 9 without hearing and dreaming up melodies. Thatās probably a quite big issue when it comes to practicing speed and technical aspects, but I hope my imagination can help me later with improvisation and solos 
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Iād definitely get the same observation about my playing. I can do strumming patterns, keep a fairly even pace but I havenāt taught myself to emphasise specific notes yet.
That said I think it will come quite quickly. At the first strumming patterns broke my brain, I was hitting the strings when I should be missing them and vice versaā¦ it seemed like Iād never get it. Now, after some months of playing if you give me a new strumming pattern I pick it up much faster. I kind of see these emphasised notes like learning a new pattern. Iāll bet you donāt need to be down at 60bpm for long 
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Thatās what I do when Iām trying to learn songs with simple finger picking patterns. I print the tab and colourcode different chords in the tab. Only then I check from the chord sheet whether I read the tab correctly.
Btw: Welcome to the community @PJ_Paulos
Hi Pj,
Welcome here and I wish you a lot of fun. And Iād like to add
ā¦start by listening to the song many times and try to figure it out without the chord sheets in front of you, as tempting as it is (Iām guilty of that too often ) ā¦ The major disadvantage of the current times is that we become lazy and do not properly learn the extremely important value of searching with your ears.
Greetings,Rogier
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Hi Nicole, Iā m very happy to read your first in - person session went well, your teacher seems a wise one and one you can trust. Slowing down? I wouldnāt be able to learn anything at all if not at a 
pace. How do I know itās the right way to go? Because Justin says it is and it makes a lot of sense to me
Justin would approve of your new teacherā s advice 
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Yes, it seems my in person guitar teacher and Justin could get along wellā¦
Thanks for sharing the video (I hadnāt watched it yet). Itās one of the best JG videos I have seen so far. I will keep it bookmarked
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It really is some of the best advice one can receive or give.
We all want to learn the F chord quickly (mine took a year) or any number of songs without knowing the basics - and itās always the basics that take most of the time.
As I told myself when I first got the guitar āHave you got the Albert Hall booked for next week? No? then it doesnāt matter how long it takes to learn it.ā
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+1, we arenāt launching the space shuttle here, let 'er rip and find your own voice on the instrument. Oh, and live your best lives! 
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Even for this, you need a strong foundation. Thatās what this is about: not rushing learning the basics, but creating a solid foundation. And yes, this takes time, and a lot of players want to go too fast.
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I agree, Els. In the end slowing down and allowing for additional time to correct more or less deeply ingrained bad habits is a set of tools to reach the magnificent goal of finding an own voice on the instrument.
It will take time. It will surely be annoying and frustrating, but it will pay off in the long-run.
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You do need to learn to speak before you can find your own voice other wise you just speak gibberish which makes no sense to anyone.
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