30Nov2024 - I finally have finished the recordings of my ten grade 2 songs to complete the grade 2 consolidation. I had started the push to finish the songs back at the beginning of October and finished the recordings the last two weeks of November. Here is the link to my AVOYP post:
3 Likes
1Dec2024 - AFter two months of practicing and recording my ten grade 2 consolidation songs, I am ready for a break in the routine. In December I will work on Christmas songs from Justin’s Christmas Songbook and from song lessons on the website and from other sources. I started with the website song lesson for “We Wish You A Merry Christmas” easy version of chord melody Fingerstyle. The website song lesson has a free TAB PDF and a GuitarPro file download. This song is also in the Christmas Songbook with TAB in the TAB Arrangements section with better rhythmic TAB notation.
For the dreamer end of the Christmas song list I have looked on YouTube for different versions of the Ukrainian Carol of the Bells. I may try to learn this relatively straightforward classical guitar version, which also is a good hammer-on legato practice:
YouTube - Classical Guitar arrangement for Carol of the Bells with TAB
Next there is a more advanced version with harmonics (similar to Antonella’s Birthday by Tommy Emmanuel) and key changes but with good on screen graphics and slow version tutorial:
YouTube- Carol of the Bells - classical guitar arrangement with harmonics -TAB
Then in the uber dreamer category I found a demo with TAB of the Trans-Siberian Orchestra version of Carol of the Bells (soinetimes wrongly attributed to Metallica in YouTube) that goes from relatively easy picked arpeggiated chords and Power Chords and advances to a ridiculously advanced metal shred workout:
YouTube - Carol of the Bells - Trans-Siberian Orchestra version with TAB
The Carol of the Bells can be a rich source of guitar learning on acoustic, classical and electric guitar.
I have also added the tab version of Silent Night to my practice routine, inspired by the AVOYP by @roger_holland and the Justin Guitar Christmas Songbook.
4 Likes
7Dec2024 - I learned Silent Night - chord melody version from Justin’s Christmas Songbook TAB section and the website song lesson. NOTE - there is PDF and GuitarPro file for the chord melody version in the Learn More section of the website lesson.
I have only spent a couple of hours practice learning and memorizing this song, so I don’t think it is ready for AVOYP, but I wanted to record a version and go to some other songs. The rolling chords sound pretty good though.
Here is the version I recorded today, with an added intro using the chord progression from the last stanza but changing the last chord to a weak fingered G because it sounded better in the intro::
Since I can sing the first verse of Silent Night in my sleep, I decided to add singing. You can see my increased concentration and I slowed down the tempo some, but amazingly I got the harmonics better at the end.
Here is the version with singing:
While I was practicing this song I was noticing how fluid and relaxed Justin’s hand positions and chord grips looked, so I decided to use a tip that I had given previously to some beginners to avoid looking down at their hands. In this case I used the mirror to compare to Justin’s video lesson:
Notice the position and angle of Justin’s thumb for the C chord and how my normal C chord mostly matches up.
2 Likes
You just need to get a broken arrow tattoo to match 
2 Likes
@socio 
The one problem that I readily see now is that my little finger or pinky is extended and it needs to be curled in to be ready to play the G on the first string.
1 Like
I’m working on the fingerstyle version too, now. Had a crack at it the yesterday. That D over F# chord at the end gives me pause as well. My pinky and ring finger are still a bit codependent, it seems! I’m also working on having a less tense fretting hand. It’s tough going. I will say, it doesn’t look like you’re tensing, so maybe just not looking at your hand will solve that issue for you. Personally when I don’t look I get whole frets wrong. 
I’ve embellished it a bit because apparently I can’t just do a simple thing when there’s something more complicated available, but I figure it’s good for the musical mind, so why not! I think I’ll add your intro to it, I was also thinking it could do with an intro. That gives folks a moment to ready themselves to sing along. Great minds and all that!
Anyway, thoroughly enjoyable performances. 
1 Like
Hi Constance, thanks for looking at my learning log and listening to my latest post. I think that my ring and pinkie finger will always be somewhat codependent. I can’t bend my pinkie into my palm without my ring finger following. My problem with the D/F# chord is that I never learned that fingering of the chord. I checked back with the notes for module 14 and found there were four options for the D/F# chord. I learned option 1 and 3 but never tried option 4.which is the fingering for the chord in this song. I have to pause a second to fight the urge to use my normal fingering of the chord with fingers 1, 2 and 3.