You Sound Good to Me is C and F but requires a capo on the first fret which you haven’t talked about yet at this point in the course. Just another FYI that might confuse and discourage new players when they realize that what they are playing doesn’t sound like the original recording.
I know you haven’t taught F and G yet but Dreams by Fleetwood Mac is just those two chords and is a super popular song that many people are familiar with.
I didn’t use the app but the practice assistent on the website. I’d like to share my experience. If you did your A-D switch practice you’re gonna be fine, at least for the first two songs. The third doubles in speed. You won’t play perfectly but try it for a few days. After three days I was able to do the final song quite consistent and clearly. Here are my tips:
Try to put your fingertips as much on a 90 degree angle on your strings as possible. This helped my from bumping my ring finger against the first (e) string.
Use your anchor finger truly as a pivot and move your hand position for the chords. I noticed once I started doing that the side of my hand stopped touching the e string.
The A-D 1 minute exercise makes you race yourself to the point you get sloppy. This is okay and gives you the speed to play the practice songs. I’d say once you get to about 40-45 per minute you’ll be able to keep up with the final song.
Don’t get frustrated during the song. You just started to learn, so making little mistakes in natural. Focus on the rythem and once you get the hang of that, start cleaning up your chords. Listen and look which strings aren’t vibrating (most likely the e string) and try to adjust your finger/hand position slightly to clean up and make your chord sound better.
@buckingham76 & @Argonaut779237 - Just FYI a capo at the second fret will allow you to use the D and A shapes in the right key to play along with the original
Heyy everyone!
I started practicing songs recently and while doing the play alongs, i was facing a problem on where to look, as I need to look at the play along on my screen to know when to change chords but also i needed to look at my right hand because i was also having a problem with strumming the wrong strings while playing a and d chords, and i also needed to look at my left hand to know if my hand is positioned close enough to the fret and i’m pressing the right strings (i generally play the right strings but there are some errors with proximity to the fret when the chord changes get faster), so can anyone please suggest how to approach this, also it would be really helpful if you could suggest any practices for improving my precision in playing the right strings while playing chords, like a lot of times i also strum the 5th string while playing d chord so is there any way to improve on that
Hi @Shaurya16, the key is not to try to focus on different learning points at the same time. The chord perfect exercises are there to teach you the correct fingerings and strumming the right strings, the one minute change exercises are there to build speed, … The song exercises are there to bring it all together, but mostly to have fun - and to make you realise that it’s not always necessary to be perfect for your playing sound good enough. Like playing the 5th string on the D-chord isn’t so bad you absolutely have to avoid it - it will still sound ok. Yes, try to avoid it, but don’t go in a frenzy when you hit that 5th string during a song, and most of all: don’t stop the song - continue. Because coping with a mistake mid song is also an important thing to learn. Besides, most people in your audience won’t even notice.
Hey Justin. I might have a Module 1 song suggestion (I don’t think it’s been suggested yet). My sister is learning to play the dulcimer and she’s working on “Boil that Cabbage Down”. It’s almost all A and D, at least in the song book that she’s using. There is one bar of G that’s played on the base string, but she’s been focusing on the melody (so all A and D). Just thought I’d recommend it as a possible Module 1 song. Thanks for the absolutely fantastic website. I’ve been passing along some of the guitar tips I learn here to her for her dulcimer journey.
The lesson for Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way was released after this lesson, so it’s not included here, but it is an easier song to hear the chords in the song to play along with. Additionally, Silence Is Easy is mentioned in the video, but not the text, and that is also easier to hear the chords in the song.
Edit: Silence is Easy uses E rather than D and that’s why it’s not in the text
Under the songs tab at the tob, you will find a whole series of songs. You can filter by grade and chords. Click on one of the songs and you will see Justin’s lesson for it.
As for the pricing for the app, look under the store → apps tab on the website.
Be aware that your song will need to get discovered by others and voted up. I have had a couple of mine there without many votes for a long time.
Also, Juistin has to deal with legal rights across many countries. Some owners of songs (not always the artist) do not allow playback of anything resembling their song without a royalty. Justin may not be able to publish some song lessons because of this.