I’ve been consolidating Grade 1 for almost 3 weeks now and I wanted to start posting me actually playing each song once I’m comfortable enough with my progress. I usually practice these songs in the app but for recording I’ll just be playing them. I can’t sing at all, so I’ll just be posting me playing through the chord progressions a couple times for all the songs I chose.
This isn’t perfect but it is miles ahead where I was 3 weeks ago. Any and all constructive feedback is very welcome. My C to D is usually pretty good but I found when recording my self that I just can’t seem to get it for some reason. I am happy enough with the song to post and move on though.
EDIT: I just realized that the sound is a little low, I apologize, this is the first time I recorded me playing directly from my amp instead of grabbing the audio from my phone mic. I’ll have to figure out what went wrong before the next one =)
Thats pretty good. I’ve been consolidating grade 1 for a while now and i’m not quite there with my strumming yet. Your strumming looked really relaxed and easy. Keep on doing what you’re doing
Well done Alexis, steady strumming and clean chords. Perhaps keep an eye on your index finger when changing to G. It’s ‘flying’ a bit and you don’t want that to become a habit. Minimal and economic movement is what to strive for.
Keep up the good work.
@DarrellW@roger_holland I’m pretty sure I had the gain down on my amp and if I just push it up a notch it’ll be better.
@Tim_Wilson Strumming I think is one of my strong points. I think it’s because I practice with the metronome on while watching TV (at night of course, my wife could never tolerate the constant beeps). Sometimes for an hour plus if I’m bored.
@sairfingers Wow, I was so focused on the chord changes that if you didn’t point it out I probably would never have noticed! Now I’m seeing it with my 4th finger sometimes too. Will definitely work on this, thanks!
Good job Alexis, it’s funny you mention the D chord changes, for some reason despite being fine on OMC exercises to and from D there was a period where in songs it went away, never quite figured out why but it’s one of those things that sorts itself out with practice so long as the fundamental chord is there under your fingers.
Keep at it, you’re doing great
On the chords shouldn’t that be G G Em Em C D G G (or D as Justin shows). It looks like you are going from the last G straight to Em, unless I missed that
@Stuartw
Good eye, you are correct! I opted to do 2 Gs instead of 4 for the sake of brevity. When I practice the song/play the whole thing I do the full 4, I just wanted to focus on the chord changes.
closing in on the end of consolidating Grade 1 and wanted to record my self playing the songs I’ve memorized. I’m not a singer so I opted to just play some of the chord progressions just so you get a gist of where I am. Here’s Hey Joe:
Any feedback is of course appreciated. I have Mad world’s chord progression video being processed by youtube now and am close being comfortable with my last 2 songs: What’s up, and chocolate jesus. Hopefully I can get those up my the end of this week and on to grade 2!
Good job Alexis, really good rhythm and consistent strumming. I noticed a couple of slightly twangy D chords there which looked like it might be needing your third finger pushing up closer to the fret (on the B string).
I still play Hey Joe, if you’ve not done so yet check out Justin’s lesson on the song and give it a go with all down 8th note strumming. You’ve got the chords but it really changes the energy.
Congrats and keep on going! Looking forward to hearing What’s Up, that’s also part of my repertoire
Yeah I noticed in all of my recent uploads that there are some weak D chords that don’t show up as much when I’m not recording. I think my natural anxiety brings out my weaknesses even more, which is a good thing I guess. Shows me exactly what I need to work on, lol.
I’ve mentioned before but I had a period where for some reason I flapped around with D chord changes and had issues, despite being super confident in it initially! As you say, recording yourself will, unfortunately, really highlight those things to yourself!
You certainly look like you’re in a good place rounding out Grade 1
Hey Alex, where you going with that guitar in your hand?
Good vibes for a solid, fluid and rhythmical play through. The aspects that you want to consolidate are those that fine tune and polish and give it life … dynamics, variation in strumming and the very vague, hard-to-define ‘groove’.
You are ready to play along to the original now so join Jimi’s band as a guitarist and as you play along listen for the feel, the pulse, the energy of the song.
