I got myself a loved guitar today to replace my now broken acoustic guitar. It’s a Grail Aspire D210CE. It sounds really nice 
. So I thought I’d record myself playing zombie.
A question to the community, please recommend me a mic I can connect to my phone to get better recorded sound from my amp 
@swashata Wow man loved reading and watching your progress. I’ve been lazy recording myself but you’ve inspired me to get started. Keep on rockin’…
P.S. I’m Jabal from Ahmedabad. Hope to Jam with you someday 
Nice, Swas! Happy NGD! Did you already have that Katana or is that new as well? Your new guitar sounds great, sounds like it has a very bright tone.
Thanks Jabal, I’d surely like to jam with you 
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Thanks Jabal, I’d surely like to jam with you . And a big yes to start recording yourself! The feedback you’d receive from this community would be pure gold!
Thank you very much Dave! I already had the katana. It’s katana mk2 50, I didn’t get the 100 watt one. I got it when I bought the schecter.
And I am glad that you liked my new guitar. I got it from a very cool guy who does guitar reviews. He gave it to me at a great deal and the guitar was very well maintained, looks and feels pretty much new 
. It has a brand new set of strings, which the person is trying out himself for reviewing. So far I am liking the tone. It’s 11-52, while I was previously playing with 10-50. I do like the brighter tone as you’ve mentioned, I will see how it goes.
Happy for you Swashata, what a great journey of discovery and music making you have ahead of you. I leave mic recommendations to folk who know about these things.
Happy NGD.
Here’s wishing loads of joy and happiness making music with the new guitar, Swashata.
Guitar sounded pretty good in the Zombie play through, as did your playing. Lots of energy, solid rhythm, clean chords.
Something to perhaps experiment with, based on a tip I picked up on from Justin’s Strumming Techniques video, is trying to vary the strength of your grip on the pick to add dynamics. Tighten the grip for extra volume, relax for less, all with the same strumming action.
I assume you were playing through the acoustic amp voicing on the BK50?
Before considering a mic for you phone, I would suggest trying to make your videos using OBS on your laptop and OBS Ninja that feeds phone video to OBS. You can read about it here. If I recall correctly you can feed audio direct from the BK50 via a USB link to your laptop, which could then be routed to OBS. If I am right about feeding audio direct from the BK50 then this solution would solve an immediate need to improve audio quality (I think it would deliver better audio than the phone mic recording the amp)
The reason I suggest that, is that you can then consider alternatives to an external mic for the phone, which I think would give you more mileage long term. If it works for you to make videos that way then you could get either a USB mic to record either the acoustic guitar or the BK50 or consider an audio interface and mic.
Going that route, in time, would allow you to make multi-track recordings in a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation). You may not want to do that now, but in time, you may enjoy doing that (I know I do).
Thanks a ton David! I am glad that you liked my new guitar 
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Are you talking about the strumming pattern course? I remember one video from the modules where Justin said a little about dynamics. Basically, he asked to play as loud as possible and as quietly as possible. I am yet to explore this on my strumming.
Yes David, for that video I was playing it through the AMP, which is a Katana MK50. I don’t know if BK50 is some other model you’re referring to, but mine is what I got with the electric. It has an acoustic mode, which I used during the recording.
Thank you very much for the great idea. I actually remembered I had already bought the DroidCam Android app for video conferencing. So I used that to use my phone as a camera and connected my Blue Yeti microphone. I have put up a video, please let me know what do you think of the audio quality!
I want to explore the acoustic sound a little more now that I have an acoustic! I don’t really plan to connect it to my amp everytime :), I was just excited at that time, so I put up a little reverb and you know, hehe!
PS: I was looking at this the whole time 
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Yup, that’s the one. You can work on really digging in and extra volume through heavier strumming and the opposite, strumming (at the same tempo) with a lighter touch. And you can also try that trick with varying how tightly you are gripping the pick.
Yes, I meant the Boss Katana 50. Sorry for not being more explicit and taking the lazy route to use an acronym.
I think the recording of the acoustic made with the Blue Yeti sounds better, much more pleasing to my ear.
Does the Blue Yeti connect to your laptop?
Irrespective, you can now record your acoustic with the mic. So no need to buy a mic for the phone.
What is interesting is to explore mic placement. Where the mic is positioned relative to the acoustic guitar can have a significant impact on the sound.
Strumming sounded good to me. No need to grimace. You start out looking and over time you will memorise the sections.
Keep on keeping on, you are doing great.
Thank you very much David. Sorry I couldn’t get to your earlier, I got stuck with some work and chores.
Thank you for confirming, I will get that course (hoping the JG website accepts my Indian RBI regulated CC 
) and add that up to my learning.
Thank you. And yes, the Blue Yeti connects to my laptop and OBS can pick from it. Since it is a USB mic, I think I can get it connected to my mobile too, but I haven’t tried that, since OBS is far superior in setting up recording.
THANK YOU VERY MUCH. I read this comment last week, and I spent the budget on something else 
. A Boss FS-6 dual footswitch. The person from whom I bought the Acoustic guitar suggested me this and it connects beautifully to my Katana MK2 50 amp. It has 4 channels and the footswitch can toggle between all four of them.
This also gave me the motivation to explore Justin’s course on the Katana amp and download and try out the patches. OMG, those are wonderful, I will post today an AVoYP of zombie where I change the distortions. Thank you once again for the great advice, you Sir, are awesome.
I am on Module 10 F chord changes. I have switched from the App to the website for managing my practice routine, because the website is more flexible. I still use the app for playing along the songs. It helps a lot getting the chord changes right.
I was practicing the Californication riff and I have mostly got it. To play the whole song, I realized I need to be very comfortable with my barre chords, so that’s what I am practicing. Here’s my target for the next few weeks:
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I have been practicing since last week, and I thought I would post a video here. I am very weak with the barre chords at the moment, but I am feeling getting better. But barre with the acoustic guitar is another story 
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Please let me know if you have any trick up your sleeve to get better at those barre chords. I really want to do this.
Keep doing what you are doing, Swashata, no shortcuts … practice, practice, practice.
Doing well on the song so far. Can you play that over the app to be sure of getting the timing spot on. Concentrate on keeping the hand-moving during the pauses
Thanks David, I am actually sure that I am not getting the tempo right! Unfortunately the App doesn’t have that song right now 
. I will try playing it over the original song and follow your advice on keeping the strumming hand moving. Right now all my concentration goes to, making the barre shape.
I think same as David no shortcuts just practice and trying to find a way that helps you play it better. Someone once suggested you can try with your right hand pushing guitar’s body into your chest slightly - that way you sort of push out the neck onto your fingers if that makes sense and notes can sound nicer.
Another suggestion is playing higher up the neck first around 5th/9th fret so you need less pressure go get those right. Try it out and hopefully it helps at least a bit 
Thank you very for all the tips much Adrian. I appreciate it very much 
Hello everyone, it’s been a long time . Finally I caved under the summer and a little work load.
I haven’t been able to learn anything significant, but I’ve been practicing almost everyday.
Since last two weeks, been trying to get this (Hero by Enrique) under control and I thought I’d add to my learning log.
Please let me know what you think and what else I can do to practice 
Hey, Swashata, glad to hear from you and that your are keeping on with your guitar playing and practice.
Seem to be doing well on the song.
What I would suggest is at this stage you should practice in an appropriate chair with attention to posture and avoid resting the left arm on the left leg. I suppose eventually one can assume all kind of positions to pay guitar but for us learning probably best to avoid anything that is not a good habit while we are laying our foundations.
Don’t know the song Swas but you your picking and chord changes were pretty clean. Well done.
David is right about your posture. You’ll never play barre chords up and down the neck with your arm resting in your leg.
Thanks @DavidP and @sairfingers . You are absolutely right. I was just being a little lazy at that time. I usually practice sitting on a chair only 
This is the original song Enrique Iglesias - Hero (Official Music Video) - YouTube
A super hit when we were teenagers 
Hi all, it’s been quite a while. I paused my learning, well, no excuse, maybe I got a bit overwhelmed by life .
It had been 4/5 months since I played something and my guitar was just staring at me. Sometime last month I finally picked it up again thinking “enough excuses”. Spent first few weeks practicing all the things I knew. Man the finger pain .
Anyhow about a week ago I started where I left off, the power chords module 12. This has been the most enjoyable module for me. The songs are 
.
I thought I’d post a practice session. This is by no means the actual song “Sweet Leaf”. I am using the chords to practice sliding keeping up the count as much as possible. Please let me know what you think.
Hi Swashate,
Not heard from you for 7 months,…naughty boy 
,…Good that you started again ,…just keep going on 
Greetings,Rogier
