Gordon, thanks for reading and listening and for your encouraging words. This is definitely a work in progress. I listened to the original and decided that I willl need to do something completely different for the chorus, with arpeggiated chords if I want to follow the original style. I’ll see where this takes me.
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9March2025 - I am halfway through with IM Foundation 1 practice, mixed in with Grade 3 review and consolidation and also acoustic and electric blues and classical. This is my updated schedule and my weekly practice log:
I wouldn’t recommend this scattered approach unless variety is more important than progress. But I am making some progress and not getting bored, so I am happy.
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And that’s what it’s all about. 
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What is IM Foundation 1?
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Hi Stuart,
IM Foundation 1 is my shortened name for Intermediate Method Foundation Stage 1, taken from the Justin Guitar Intermediate Method book. It follows the old or classic Intermediate Method lessons that were in the classic website lessons. I am using the book organization since it gives me a starting point for my grade 4 practice shedule that I combine with the new Grade 4 lessons. Here is my lesson planning post from the end of this past December 2024:
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Thanks for the information.
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That sounded great Steve 
Good progress…of course you’re happy
Greetings
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Well on your way with those barre chords, Steve! And super structured practice schedule as always 
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@roger_holland @Helen0609 Rogier and Andrea, thank you for your kind words of encouragement.
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14March2025 - I finally finished the transcriptions of the power chords for the six songs listed for Grade 3 Module 15. When I was learning and practicing module 15 back in Nov/Dec of 2022, I only finished transcriptions for a couple of songs. I decided I could do more later during consolidation. I finally gave up on transcription as I advanced through the modules, so I am committed to completing all the transcriptions in this review / consolation phase for Grade 3.
Since it has been over two years since I started Grade 3, the review of Grade 3 feels nostalgic, since that was the beginning of this learning log. It also gives me a chance to review my Learning Log and find any gaps in my learning or practice notes that I have forgotten and need to remember. Since I am only working on Grade 3 consolidation one week per month, it will take more than a year to complete the consolidation by working through all Grade 3 module transcriptions.
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14April2025 - I finished a week of classical guitar practice which gave me time to catch up to where I had finished in the F. Noad Solo Guitar Playing Book 1 back in 1979. There was a Vivaldi piece in chapter 12 that was the furtherest I had gotten in the book and one I used to play to remind myself that I had learned to play classical guitar. On reflection, I remembered that I am completely self taught in classical guitar and had no internet, videos or iphone back then, just this very same guitar, music stand and footstool and a lot of time to practice. I did have a record player and an LP record of famous classical guitarists, but my memory of my playing ability may be distorted. I am using this as a stopping point to go back to the Werner Classical guitar method since that has the videos that promotes better practice habits. I only had a couple of days to practice this piece and thought that I could record it, since it was one that I had learned many years in the past. The resulting recording was not very good:
I decided to extend my week of classical guitar and spend a couple of more days to practice. One of my problems was that I was sightreading and my bad eyes don’t see as well at 69 as they did at 24 years of age. Here is the music I was playing from:
I decided to enlarge 135 % on two pages and tape to together to create music I could read:
With the enlarged music and 2 more days of practice my sight-reading and playing had improved some.
There is still much room for improvement but this gives me a starting point to judge my improvement in the future.
Next I need to put this song into Guitar Pro and practice a little each week until I haver it memorized. Then I should be able to play more smoothly and more musically pleasing. I only have 1 week of classical guitar scheduled every 2 months so this would just be a side project.
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Nice progress there Steve. I don’t know the piece at all but the second version is a big step on
Have you tried maybe practicing classical guitar 1 day a week rather than a week each 2 months? I think if had that gap I’d spend the first day or two getting back to where I was but perhaps that’s just me.
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Great update of your log, Steve! You are making good progress although you only have so little time to practice classical guitar. As always, I appreciate your perseverance!
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Matt, thanks for listening. I had read in Justin’s lessons somewhere that if you go more than 3 days between practicing something you start forgetting. I also think I need to have at least two days in a row to make progress. Since I didn’t want to dedicate too much time to classical guitar, I tried to do 3 days in a row in one week each month, but I found that I did 2 days of review and 1 day to learn something new. When I changed to every other month, I found that I still could review in 2 days and have 4 days to learn something new in a 6 day week, which worked better for me. It might not work for you or others 
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Hi Andrea, thanks for listening to my learning log entry and for your kind and encouraging words.
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When you put it like that it makes perfect sense to me
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@Stuartw Stuart, I forgot to mention back in March, that you don’t need the JG Intermediate Method book to see the basis for my practice schedule. You can go to the website and search for “intermediate foundation” and select the “intermediate foundation (classic)”, then select Intermediate Foundation 1 and then select the “Foundation 1 Practice Schedule”. My practice included this list of practice items plus the blues lessons on the website. I am also using the list of songs from the “Songs for Foundation 1” from the classic lessons for my practice also, although I am leaving off “in the Cold Cold Night” since it doesn’t have a video lesson and “Fire” by Jimi Hendrix is really a Grade 5+ to Grade 7 song (a little too hard).
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10May2025 - I decided that I needed to add more time to my Grade 4 (part 1 or 2) practice plan. I added another 2 weeks of grade 4 practice which also allows more time for all the other areas of learning and fun:
This also means that I will be in grade 4 practice for at least 18 months or 1 1/2 years. I will also be consolidating grade 4 when I am in grade 5.
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