The 1-to-1 Sessions

Richard_close2u · December 27, 2021, 1:36pm

The 1-to1 Sessions …

A thread for competition winners and Community Award recipients to offer the story of their experience having had a one-to-one online lesson with Justin.

Originally hosted in the JustinGuitar Forum here: The 1-to1 Sessions ...

Moderator Note.
I have worked a long time on the edits here so there is a clear narrative flow.
Each individuals write-up of their lesson is quoted as a full reply to the topic. All responses and subsequent conversations then follow made as a direct reply to the relevant post rather than to the overall topic itself. This involved some splitting and judicious editing. I hope it all comes out okay for everyone. I had considered posting only the write-ups but thought there was so much else that was good that would be lost I chose to migrate virtually the entire thread.
If you see anything I may have missed please message me.
Richard

Richard_close2u · December 27, 2021, 1:37pm

@Garfield on November 15, 2017

Garfield:

I had a skype lesson with Justin on Saturday. Close2u has asked me to post a bit of a summary which I’m very happy to do.
Prior to the lesson Justin asked me to think of subjects that I wanted help with and these are the subjects that we covered. I may have forgotten bits and bobs.
Holding the Pick
I wanted Justin to check my basic strumming technique and to look at how I’m holding the pick. I hold the pick with thumb the side(ish) of my forefinger but it’s mainly the pad of my forefinger. I have been concerned that I should be holding it on the side of the first knuckle on my forefinger. Justin took a look and said he often holds it like that depending on what he’s playing. The key thing is the make sure the tip of the pick is coming out the side of the thumb – which it is. He asked why I was asking about this and I have two reasons; firstly, pick noise. On this he asked what pick I was using which is a Jim Dunlop nylon 0.6mm. He said these were good for beginners but do give a flappy percussive sound, to get a clearer sound he recommended I try a red tortex pick. Which I shall do. He also said to give it a few weeks with the new pick as it can take a bit of time to become accustomed. My second reason for asking about this was that I feel like I struggle with palm muting, I can do it on down strums but I’ve been struggling to mute up strums on a song I’ve been practising. Justin wasn’t sure if he could mute up strums and said it’s not commonly done. It turns out he can do it but said it felt a bit weird, he helped me to do it by softening the strum quite a lot and moving my hand position.
A Minor Barre Chord Changes
I then said I’d been struggling with changing to A minor shape barre chords. He took a look at me doing a few changes and said “nothing wrong you just need to do more one minute changes”, I guess I knew that but I was hoping for a miracle cure.
I hope that I don’t fall in love with you.
I wanted him to help me on the turnaround section of “I hope that I don’t fall in love with you”. I learnt this a while ago but I always get a bit stuck in this section as there are a few choices. He walked me through this bit showing me the basic version and the fancy version. He showed me the correct fingering for the “walk” bit which goes C,G,AM7,G/B. This bit was very helpful and I think I’m making progress on this now.
Guitar and Piano
Next I asked him about how best my girlfriend and I could play together, she’s a beginner pianist. She can sight read music but knows no chords, I can’t read music and only really know chords. Justin said that if she learned some basic guitar chords and their inversions then we could play our way through the beginner songbook. I’m now looking for a good piano teacher on youtube that teaches basic chords, I seem to be struggling but I’ll keep looking. The other thing he recommended for a jam was to put a capo on the 6th fret and to play the blues in A, my girlfriend can then solo over this by just using the black keys – sounds simple but we’ve not tried it yet.
12 bar blues
Lastly as we’d been talking about playing the blues I asked him why my chunka chunka 12 bar blues doesn’t sound quite right. He had a listen and said that my time feel is a bit out. He highly recommended playing along with the original to get in the groove of the song and then to “lock in”. At this stage Justin became quite animated as he emphasised the importance of time feel and groove. I’ve heard him talk about this in lessons before and he’s dead right you can muck up chords and get away with it if the groove is there, alternately you can play the chords/notes perfectly but it won’t sound good if the timing is out.
I thanked him at the time but I’d like to do it again here in case he reads this. He’s an excellent teacher, since I’ve been learning I’ve done a lot of youtubing and watched a lot of lessons but there is something about the way that Justin teaches that really speaks to the student, it’s like he understands why it’s hard and he’s on the journey with you. I’m probably not expressing myself very well. Maybe it’s just that he’s a good guy and it’s nice to hang out with him on youtube.
G

Richard_close2u · December 27, 2021, 1:39pm

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Richard_close2u · December 27, 2021, 1:40pm

@Amelie on November 15, 2017

Amelie:

I had my Skype lesson with Justin about 10 months ago. It was a lot of fun. We talked mostly about rhythm and tempo. Because I usually play without a band sometimes it is hard to keep a steady tempo. Justin suggested I listen to guitar players who have really good rhythm, like Kurt Cobain. He mentioned that people have been banging drums for 4,000 years but have only been playing melodies for a few hundred years, so rhythm is really important. He also told me to download a drum app to use when I practice called Drumgenius. This app has been really helpful. Justin also suggested I listen to BBC Radio 6 to discover new music.
Since the Skype lessons I have been performing a lot. I played a few big shows at the San Diego County Fair this summer and I got the chance to play with San Francisco jazz drummer Myron Cohen a few times. I also had my first official paid gig a few weeks ago, when I played at the anniversary of a local restaurant.
Thanks again to Justin and everyone who organized the competition and helped make the Skype session possible.

Richard_close2u · December 27, 2021, 1:41pm

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Richard_close2u · December 27, 2021, 1:42pm

@michael246 on November 16, 2017

michael246:

First of all I feel like I could spend that hour better so here is some tip for future winners. I have so much respect and gratitude towards Justin that when I asked him questions instead of exchanging my thoughts with him I was just listening in silence most of the time. Guess I didn’t want to be rude and that resulted in me being too passive. He is very straightforward guy and open for conversation so don’t make the same mistake.

Before lesson I wrote e-mail with topics that I want to cover and those were:

What/how to practice

Transcribing melody, making my own arrangements

Money. Related to teaching and selling music online as copyright law is very confusing

LESSON

I had guitar during the whole lesson ready to play but it turned out that we were just talking whole time I told Justin about what I do and what I want to achieve. From there we started lesson. My goals are:

Make arrangements of popular songs

Build repertoire and YT channel. This will have 2 purposes. I can start to busk/playing live. This YT thing does not need views/likes etc. It will serve me as my “Guitar CV”. For example it might be useful for finding new students.

Composing original songs. It’s very long term goal so I don’t think too much about it right now. It might happen it might not.

OUTCOME

I do not follow religiously practice routine that Justin made. Althought it gave me some nice ideas so I tweaked it and do almost everything that I was advised except theory because it’s still confusing and I feel like I should concentrate on other things BUT I’m still willing to learn that just not at this moment. My main focus is now on strength excercises, ear training, arranging, building repertoire and “easy” songs that I could teach in the future.

I had 2 students for about 2 months and the best part is that I didn’t even looked for them. They found me somehow. “Hey, I heard that you play guitar. Would like to give me a couple of lessons?” It was fun, I learned more about myself/teaching and hopefully they also learned something from me. I tried to do some video lessons for them with simple exercises and OH MY GOD this is suprisingly very difficult Reviews were good though, so it turned out all right. hehe

So far so good but I had one fail in the meantime. I decided to participate in fingerstyle competition and sadly I didn’t make it. Maybe next year.

There were few more minor things that happened but for now I will keep it to myself. If someone is interested in more details from my lesson with Justin please ask questions and I will try to answer them.

Richard_close2u · December 27, 2021, 1:43pm

@FourTwo on November 25, 2017

FourTwo:

Hi all, I’m reporting back on the Skype session I had with Justin a couple of weeks ago. I haven’t called it a lesson, because anyone that’s had a session with Justin will know it’s not like a teacher/student thing it’s more like spending time with your mate, having a chat whilst learning stuff at the same time. I’ve been lucky enough to have a session in person with Justin, so I knew what to expect and as always he didn’t disappoint. He asked me to share the Garage band file of my winning recording of the song “And then the rain” so that we could go through remixing it in the skype session, so that’s what we did. Having got into mixing and layering tracks in songs with no prior knowledge or experience I knew there would be areas where Justin would be able to redirect me into a more organized and structured approach. So it proved - even in basic areas, which, having spoken to Justin became rather obvious. Here’s a summary of the things that we covered in the remix of the song:

Drum & bass - It seems rather obvious now in retrospect that drum and bass are the underpinning of the song and should work together complement each other, but I’d never really mixed my tracks like that, just treated them individually without regard to the context of each with the other. Justin stripped back the drum sound, eased off on the reverb (the latter became a common strategy with all of the tracks he looked at!) and left a much clearer track for the basic beat of the song. He then remixed the bass to fit perfectly with the drums, again easing off on the reverb.

rhythm guitar - there are a couple of rhythm guitar tracks on my recording so Justin tweaked both, but particularly one that had a grungy sound. He took off some reverb and also some gain then added a little tremolo, which separated the sound from the other guitar tracks nicely.

He then moved on to one of the lead guitar tracks that contained fills that accompanied the vocals. Unfortunately I’d mixed them so that the guitar was drowning out and competing with my voice in parts so he tidied that up and made a big improvement on the overall clarity of the recording.

All through the process he referred back to the frequency range that each instrument occupied and showed me how to use the sound envelope in Garage Band to place that instrument in the appropriate range so that it would complement the other instruments without competing with them.

At the end of it I’d learned a lot which I will use in my future recordings, and many thanks to Justin for taking the time to go through this stuff with me.

For those interested I’ve posted the remixed recording on my Soundcloud page. You’ll find the remix and the original here, in case you want to do a comparison yourself:

SoundCloud - Hear the world’s sounds

Stream And Then The Rain by Fourtwo42 | Listen online for free on SoundCloud

One more thing …

Justin and I had a conversation early in the session which I thought I would share as I found it really interesting and counter-intuitive. We were talking about vocal style - each of us has a unique voice and we have to find our own vocal style. I try to copy the artists that I’m recording in order to (eventually!) find my own style - haven’t succeeded yet, but will keep trying. Justin then explained that he went through a period of vocal training from some top voice coaches to try to improve his vocals. After a sustained period of this he happened to be jamming with a friend of his who’s in the music business, who made the comment that Justin was not singing with his own voice any longer, rather, all of the traditional vocal coaching had him singing in a traditional, coached manner. Justin asked the friend how he thought Justin should be singing and the friend said that it should be in Justin’s own voice - however he wanted it to sound. Justin took this advice and started to sing in a more natural, but rougher manner, rather than the professional, coached manner and had much more authentic sounding results. Whilst I’m sure Justin would not downplay the benefits of receiving proper musical training, whether for voice or instrument, I think his point was that it is not always the best way forward. I hope I’ve explained this properly if not, perhaps Justin can jump in and recap in his words as I think it’s an interesting point worth sharing.

Neil

Richard_close2u · December 27, 2021, 1:43pm

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Richard_close2u · December 27, 2021, 1:45pm

@redrhodie on March 02, 2018

redrhodie:

Okay, I did it. I got up the nerve. I had my lesson yesterday. It was awesome.

I had a bit of anxiety before hand, mostly because I had never used Skype and couldn’t test it out beforehand. Connecting worked, but it was several minutes into my lesson before I realized that although I could see Justin, he couldn’t see me. Haha. Oops. He thought I was being shy. I just didn’t know I had to hit the video button.

But for anyone who is shy, Justin was very understanding of that, and you don’t have to put yourself on video to have your lesson. You can still see him. I would not recommend this, though, because then he can’t see if there’s a physical issue going on, like mine, which was lifting my hand too far off the strings, and hitting some strings I shouldn’t.

Before the lesson, I emailed him a list of things I wanted to talk about, and that’s what we did. He was very kind and helpful. We mostly chatted about songwriting, engineering and mastering an LP.

We also talked about guitar practice. He said the most important thing to practice is rhythm. He suggested playing along with songs I like the rhythm of, with muted strings.

Then we worked on one of my problems. Bm is my nemesis, especially when coming from G. I knew the answer was to practice, but he gave me a really specific prescription of 5 minutes of changes from G to Bm really slowly, with strum pick out strum to make sure every note rings out, followed by 5 -1 minute changes. I will do it.

At that point, he had answered all my emailed questions, and there was still time left. I told him that I was happy, and we could end early, but he would have none of that, and started asking about my weather. Luckily I quickly thought of something else to talk about. Making small talk is not my forte. That would have been awkward. Haha.

So, then we talked about stage fright. I told him my physical symptoms, and he assured me it’s really normal to have them. He told me if I want to perform, I should start in front of a small group of friends and then maybe do an open mic, working my way up incrementally until I was playing arenas. Haha.

He pointed out the worst thing that could happen would be forgetting the words, singing off key, or forgetting the chords, and even if those things happen, and even if I get booed off stage, it really isn’t a big deal. But he told me how to write a cheat sheet so I’d be less likely to forget things in the heat of the moment.

That’s about it. I didn’t cry, even at the end when I told him how much he changed my life.

Thanks again Justin. That was fun!

Lynn

Richard_close2u · December 27, 2021, 1:45pm

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Richard_close2u · December 27, 2021, 1:46pm

@Fox Cunning on March 17, 2018

Fox Cunning:

Well I have had my Skype session in the end
I was quite nervous, hands shaking, my skill level instantly went from beginner to newborn sloth with no arms… but Justin was just as cool and encouraging as you all can imagine.
He is such a positive person, and always points out what you’re doing well first, and then makes you focus on the issues you should work on.
He gave me sound advice on all the topics I enquired about, and all he said made sense in such a way that I was left pondering: “How did I not think about this myself, it’s obvious!”.
For example, in order to improve my bends, he advised me to play on an actual backing track – I most often play on just a drum beat so I am not limited to a particular key/range of modes, but it’s a lot easier to notice if I am bending out of key when there is a backing track in that specific key!
Now I’m working on what I promised to do this year: a first-take A/V of an improv, where I will try to incorporate what I’ve just learnt.
Thanks again Justin, it was a rare pleasure and a honour!

Richard_close2u · December 27, 2021, 1:47pm

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Richard_close2u · December 27, 2021, 1:48pm

@Tonebender on March 27, 2018

[quote=Tonebender]

Hi everyone, hope everything’s going well in the justinguitar community …

Haven’t been on the forum in a while but i thought i’d swing by and share my experience with Justin. Close2u asked me to do it a while back and I completely forgot about it

The skype lesson wasn’t really a lesson I guess, more like a conversation.

We didn’t actually talk about how to play the guitar that much because I wanted his advice on teaching. I’ve been playing for ten years and started teaching two years ago, so I figured I needed more help in that area.

He gave me some advice on teaching rythm and we both agreed on the fact that rythm is key when you’re a musician, but it’s also very tricky to explain and teach. You can teach the mathematical theory behind it like how to divide a bar and how to ‘‘remove’’ or ‘‘add’’ notes in a rythm pattern but the ‘‘groove’’ is hard to describe, and you can’t teach something that you’re having trouble defining yourself. It’s more absctract and personal than mathematical I guess… I’ve spent more and more time on rythm with my students since then but now i feel comforted by the fact that I’m not the only one struggling with this aspect of teaching music

One of the main advice that Justin gave me during the session was that it is really important to define stages in the student’s progression and he suggested that i went on his website to see which songs he taught for each stage, especially in the beginner’s section. He said I could use the website as a reference, and I thank him for that. The website is great for learning how to play but I also find it great as a teacher because it’s well organised. It’s like a roadmap for me now.

Anyway, thank you Justin for your dedication as a teacher, I’ve been using the website for ten years now and will continue to do so, as long as you keep teaching Neil Young tunes :)[/quote]

Richard_close2u · December 27, 2021, 1:48pm

@pkboo3 on June 09, 2018

pkboo3:

Hey all! I had a very successful Skype meeting with Justin this month. As others have said, he is very relatable and I felt very comfortable with him.
Topics I had for him:
• We discussed the pros/cons of audio vs video uploads to the forum. How a video can show the viewer what you are doing right or wrong. The viewer can then help you improve your form or whatever needs improvement. Also, he said there are software programs out there that can help you sync your video with your vocals. So I plan on doing a little research on that. I enjoy video’s myself, but also realize that uploading an audio is much easier. I have done both and will continue doing both most likely but will try to upload videos more often now, hopefully.
• I told him that I have issues with memory – poor cognitive skills, I guess. He gave me a few tips. He said it could help if I put my repertoire of songs in a book; put the ones I know in the front and the ones I’m working on in the back. And at least once a week, go back over all of them to keep them fresh in my memory. He suggested having a printout to help remember the visual quality of the page. It can actually help to remember what the page looked like in your memory. He suggested to simplify the song I’m learning into the most basic chunks. He also gave me the name of a man who has written books on memory and has a website that can help with that. (http://www.tonybuzan.com). But also, he said it’s OK to make a little cheat sheet if absolutely necessary. Just put the basic chords on it, maybe the beginning lines of the verses and/or chorus. Make it large enough to see, but not so large that it is so obvious.
• I brought up the dreaded Bm Chord. He told me about the “air change” technique. I used to have that in my practice routine in the beginning stages, but had stopped doing it. So I’m going to add that back in along with the Strum/Pick/Strum practice. I also played a little of “Thank You” by Dido for him which has the Bm Chord, so he could see how I was playing it. I was a little nervous, playing and singing, but he gave me some good suggestions. So that was pretty neat. Yeah, I messed up and sang a little nervous. Hehe! But it wasn’t too bad.
• We discussed the use of the Capo. The Capo can be moved up and down the fret board, according to a person’s own vocals. It doesn’t have to be exactly where it’s placed in the lessons.
• I had seen a video of his way back when, about an ergonomic seat. But I couldn’t find it, so he told me what it is. It’s called Sitfit by Sissal. I’m probably going to get me one. I believe it will help relieve my back discomfort I have while sitting on my low futon when I’m practicing every night.
• I showed him my daily practice routine. He said I was probably doing too much at a time. (I practice about 50 minutes, plus about 20 minutes of the songs I’m currently learning and rotating the songs I’m trying to keep in memory. He helped me break it down into more manageable chunks. He said I should do half of them one month and the other half in the second month.
To summarize it all, I felt like it was a great session and I really appreciate Justin for all his hard work and commitment to all of us. I think the advice he gave me about toning down my practice routine will help a lot. Oh yeah! He challenged me to perform in front of real people, because I had told him that I’ve never played in front of anybody before except for my grandkids, and that I will sit out on my back porch and play, but that’s all. So he said in six months to get the family together and play a Christmas song for them. So I told him I would. Yikes! He said everybody gets nervous and that it’s not as bad after you’ve done it once. So we will see – MAYBE! I think actually, I would be more inclined to find a place where people are just walking by, that I don’t know, and see if they will stop to listen. Is that called Busking?!

Richard_close2u · December 27, 2021, 1:49pm

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Richard_close2u · December 27, 2021, 1:50pm

@DavidP on October 23, 2018

DavidP:

Had my session with Justin this afternoon. What a great guy to hang out with, kinda felt just like it does when I am chatting music and guitar with my mates at work who also play.
A few people suggested I prepare a list of questions and after some thought I wasn’t able to do that. As I said to Justin, it is testament to his teaching and this Community that whatever questions I have in mind are either answered in lessons as I progress or here in the Community.
So over and above just being able to thank him in person, my goal was to get a good sense check as to where I am, if I have picked up any bad habits or flaws. Mission accomplished !!
So here the pointers …
When playing E-shape bar chords my pinky and ring finger tend to separate from each other. Good practice is to ensure they are touching when making that shape. Drill is to start with F and slide to G and back again, slowly, while making sure to maintain the correct shape. He also suggested speaking to the hand, to correct when necessary and encourage when doing it right. Sounds weird but I buy this.
Second point was talking about the way in which I make E and Am shapes. I naturally put my index, middle and ring fingers on strings 3,4,5 respectively for E. Suggestion is to rather go 3, 5, 4. Reason being is that it allows the middle finger to sit more on top of the ring finger and get closer to the fret. But rather than saying the other way is wrong, just a different option and useful to be able to play these chords both ways, since depending on the song sometimes one may make for an easier change.
Another interesting point after doing some bass note down up strum playing, suggested I work on getting a little more of a shuffle/triplet feel into that rhythm and accent the higher strings on the strum. I think I was playing it quite straight ie on the count and &.
After watching my finger-picking and playing some scales, he suggested I also use the pinky as an anchor when playing scales as I do when finger-picking. And on electric that will help with adding some natural palm mute.
Net result, feedback is to confirm I am doing well, both in terms of my approach and level of play developed. My E and A shape barre chords (the latter played with the mini-barre with ring finger) also looking good (other than the gap in the fingers).
We had a good laugh over my wide range of ambitions going forward … folk finger style + blues lead + slide on open tunings, electric and acoustic. While loads and loads of fun lies ahead, Justin suggested being focussed in my learning going ahead … focus on gaps in BC (next up then a look at slash chords), start on IM and then pick either folk/finger style or blues lead style modules. He suggest focus for 3-4 months then review and either continue or target differently, to avoid trying to work on too many things at the same time.
I expressed a concern about not doing the ear-training yet and seeing it as necessary to get stuck into bends and he said not really.
He talked about how the BC is a good structure but shouldn’t be followed to rigidly. For example, I mentioned that I was still due to work on power chords, I’d put them off. To which he said “no worries” you’re playing the full barres, just concentrate on the low strings. Reckon time to explore some hard rocking riffs on the LP
And lots more general chat about learning and playing. He was also incredibly encouraging and complimentary, which was good to hear. It is all well and good to think yourself that you are doing well, are following sound approaches to learning and to receive the positive feedback about songs posted, but to have Justin give what I am doing a once over and thumbs up as well as be well-pleased with my approach and thinking was an absolute bonus.
I could now gush on and on about the session, but I think you get the idea. I can’t say I am any more inspired or motivated, that would be hard but do feel my confidence has been boosted as I continue on.
In closing, I can only amplify again my experience, that if you want to learn to play then Justin’s Programmes backed up by the Community is the business. Thinking about it I realised that during my years and years of dreaming and not really learning, that what was missing (for me) was an effective structure and a place to play, so as not to be on my own. Now I have both!
Work the lessons, learn songs, record and share as soon as you can play songs, and in my experience you’ll do well.
Huge thanks to Justin, Richard and Lieven who maintain the Community and each and every one of you, my friends in music here, who continue to offer encouragement and feedback every time I share some music.

Richard_close2u · December 27, 2021, 1:51pm

Collated responses & discussion:

PilgrimPod:

Teacher’s pet…

Thanks for sharing the experience of your one to one. As a newbie only two months into BC it’s encouraging to hear your experiences of the course and with Justin; he really does seem genuinely invested in those who are invested in his courses.

The cynic in me had reservations about starting an online guitar course that whilst was free had loads of additional bolt on material for a price. I guess the concern was it was a scheme to hook you and coerce you to part with cash to truly progress. Any doubts have disappeared these past few weeks.

That’s not to say I want everything given to me for free. If something works I’ll happily pay to support it, starting with Justin’s amazing mobile app.

Justin has truly created something remarkable here with his courses, support and the online community he has nurtured. You guys rock too!

mari:

I just saw this, @DavidP, it sounds like an awesome lesson! Thanks for sharing so many details, it’s very inspiring. Re the specifics -

“Justin suggested being focussed in my learning going ahead … He suggest focus for 3-4 months then review and either continue or target differently, to avoid trying to work on too many things at the same time.”

This is such great advice - for me! Lol

“… Thinking about it I realised that during my years and years of dreaming and not really learning, that what was missing (for me) was an effective structure and a place to play, so as not to be on my own. Now I have both! …”

So very true

“ … Huge thanks to Justin, Richard and Lieven who maintain the Community and each and every one of you, my friends in music here, who continue to offer encouragement and feedback every time I share some music.”

I couldn’t agree with you more. Thanks for sharing with the Community, David.

Mari

Richard_close2u · December 27, 2021, 1:51pm

@max_mue on November 20, 2018

max_mue:

Hey there - it’s time for my update of this thread

I had to postpone the lesson in July because of a spontaneous trip to Italy, but we caught up today

First of all: Justin is a great guy and it’s a pleasure to spend time with him - I enjoyed every moment of it. I struggled sometimes with my English skills (I’m way better at reading/understanding than talking unfortunately^^), but it was no problem. We talked a lot about music theory, because it’s a lot on my mind due to my Bachelor’s thesis.

Here’s a summary:

Position of the left hand: I wasn’t sure if the slight pain I had to deal with was rooted in my positioning, but it turned out I just should practice more often to get used to it / build muscles - I was a too cautious

CAGED system: I wondered how to use/apply it. Justin helped me to understand it’s more of a framework and helps to understand the fretboard

Double stops aka Hendrix/Mayfield style: I wanted to make sure if I understood the theory behind it correctly. Justin’s advice was to rather think of it as playing over chords than playing in a scale

Playing with others / in a band: I met some musicians lately and jammed a bit. I asked Justin if any Do’s & Don’ts come to his mind. He told me it’s better to be able to play 5 songs really good instead of playing 20 songs mediocre. Preparing/testing the tone before playing live. Prepare for practice sessions by playing along the original to the point where you really know the song without looking at a sheet of music etc… He mentioned that playing with others is valuable practice time.

In the end we talked a bit about the next things I’m going to work on (Jazz introduction, Fingerstyle, Ear Training, Transcribing) and if I’m going to participate in a collaboration for the next contest.

Please excuse my short summary, I’m not a wordsmith like David when it comes to writing in English ^^

It was a great experience to meet the person that actually taught me to play guitar. ‘Never meet your idol/heroes’ certainly doesn’t apply to meeting Justin

Richard_close2u · December 27, 2021, 1:52pm

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Richard_close2u · December 27, 2021, 1:53pm

@brianlarsen on February 28, 2019

brianlarsen:

When I was a nine year old boy in Beirut, I recall being transported to another world, reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I loved chocolate (still my favourite food) and Roald Dahl tells a riveting yarn. At about the same time I received the Beatles’ Sgt Pepper which opened a wormhole to yet another universe for me.

When I came across Justin’s website nearly a year ago, I felt like I had discovered a secret doorway into the chocolate factory of how music is made. I’ve been running around the factory ever since, flitting from room to room, sniffing different chords, having a taste of this strumming or that picking, as well as leafing through some of the recipe books of music theory.

I even had a go at making some chocolatey music inventions myself, which some of you have kindly tasted.

You can imagine my surprise and excitement when one of the chief Oompa Loompas (sorry Richard :P) informed me that I had received a Christmas present of a GOLDEN TICKET to meet Willy Wonka himself- a Skype session!

What would I like to ask the great man?

Only having commenced my journey, I am painfully aware of what I need to work on; and between the excellent lessons and helpful forum, I had serious difficulty thinking of what I wanted to ask Justin that I didn’t know already, or at least know where to find it.

For me, the answer to most questions lies behind that door named ‘Practice’.

Out of respect for him as a teacher, I did prepare some questions/areas to go over. But as in the above book, it’s all about the relationships. I wanted to meet this man, thank him for the enjoyment he has brought me and if I’m honest, feel like he got to know me. (Self-centred yes, but there you go)

The lesson began by me serenading him with a slight re-write of one of my previous competition entries, ‘Just a minute Justin’ (now ‘just an hour’), to give him a general idea of my playing abilities.

We then had a longish session of general chit-chat about his recent ski-holiday and I gave him a bit of my background, explaining how I ended up learning late in life. Lots of fan-boy praise from my side.

I think he was a bit taken aback when I told him about my brother having a heart attack just as I was launching into the Christmas competition and how helpful I found having an enjoyable distraction at an emotional time. He was half-expecting a funny punchline- not a personal story ending in death, so maybe I over-shared there…

We moved on to discussing how to go about writing simple fingerpicking style for songs. He noticed I had drifted off the alternate base plucking, which he stressed was of utmost importance. I hadn’t realised the thumb takes care of all three lower strings so the other fingers don’t have to shift.

We talked about the minor pentatonic scale and how it relates to major scales. He talked about using notes like words and putting them together in licks to make sense to others.

He suggested it was time for me to move on to barre chords (which I have just recently started practising).

He seemed happy enough with what I was doing. I find my index finger often protrudes way beyond the fretboard, but he was less concerned with what it looked like as long as the sound was clean.

I wasn’t sure the A-shape barre chord was for acoustic guitar, but he assured me again- just more practice.

We finished up talking about two Aussie gigs I’m going to in the coming months: Nick Cave in Liverpool in June and Tommy Emmanuel in Manchester at the end of March. I told him I’m thinking of bringing my guitar with me to see if I can get it signed by Tommy. If I’m not going down the GAS route yet, I might just pimp my current 6-string.

Are you still here?

Well, in summary: Believe the hype. Justin is a really engaging, sound and chilled dude.

Even if he thinks I’m a plonker- mission accomplished:

Mr. Wonka is aware of this plonker now!

Thank you all

(p.s. In playing terms, I had already benefited immensely before the lesson, as I had been practising much more to reduce embarrassment levels. See- practice! ;))