I’ve just now finished this lesson. I was keen to learn you can’t always get what you want but the actual lesson looks like it has some complex retuning of the guitar and use of a capo. Its also not on the lessons and songs app. Very frustrating. Am I missing something ? Should I be looking somewhere else to learn this song?
Hi Phil, I can understand your frustration. The lesson is grade 4 and you learn about open tunings in grade 3. Justin does give you a hint in the lesson description page. When he says “ You can play it with the C and Fmaj7/C”. I saw on Ultimate Guitar that you can also play by switching between the C and F chords and just play the D chord on the “But if you try sometime,” part of the song.
Justin played in what I understand was a good Rolling Stones cover band and he likes to be accurate for those songs. If you treat this as a dreamer song, it would not be too hard to give Justin’s lessons a try. It only takes tuning up 3 strings by a tone or semitone to tune your guitar to Open E and Justin has a lesson on how to do that on the website. Sometime chords are simpler in Open tunings, so it is worth giving it a try.
Im sure it was mentioned but Hotel California is great for F chord! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQFcAh_YZ5s
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Another one - Mr Jones by Counting Crows.
Chords used: Am, F, Dm, G and C
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A song I literally could hear when practicing the chords was Strip My Mind by RHCP. Great song and fun to play. I think it would be a good one to practice for this module.
Could Wind of Change by Scorpions (1990) be a good song to practice the F (barre) chord?
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Yes. That would be an awesome song to practice the F chord.
Is it me or do you find that you are behind in terms of really doing well with the songs in the particular lesson? I find myself going back to easier songs to really be able to keep up with chord changes, strumming, etc. When I try the newer songs in the lesson I find I struggle to make them sounds anywhere near good lol. I guess that is the only thing I find tough about doing lessons on my own. You don’t know how much you are really progressing. I keep a journal but basically just track effort and content.
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@jdavitsky Jason, you are not always (usually) supposed to be able to play like the opening demo on the song lessons. Justin gives the beginner lesson after the intro. Later he shows more advanced techniques. I’m in grade 4 and there are still a few grade 2 songs that I haven’t mastered the way they are played in the intro demo 
Thanks Steve, that is helpful. I love this style of learning, however it is tough to gauge how you are doing in terms of the average. Like “where should I be or what should I be capable of at this point?”.
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“Learning to Fly” by Tom Petty.
I am a big Tom Petty fan. This was the first song I learned using the full barred Fmaj chord when starting my guitar journey (after struggling to get my Fmaj to sound good). The song contains a simple strumming patten, includes 3 open chords which are commonly used in conjunction with the Fmaj chord, and is easy to sing.
Strumming Pattern: Consistent and even 8th note strums (D U D U, 1 and 2 and, etc.)
Fmaj - D U D (1 and 2)
Cmaj - U D U D U (and 3 and 4 and)
Amin - D U D (1 and 2)
Gmaj - U D U D U (and 3 and 4 and)
Keep consistent 8th note strumming and remember the Cmaj and Gmaj both start on an up strum.
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