These reviews are part of my online guitar lessons with JustinGuitar. They help consolidate in my mind how I am doing compared to my hopes and what I need to do next week to improve.
Did I reach my goal?
Yes and more. I had hoped to get the strumming to every other beat, but I have managed to strum D DU UD (the old faithful strum) most of the time keeping in time most of the time. My scales are getting more automatic and I even managed to do a simple jamming session with myself with a backing track and just playing notes from the scale in any order, just using 3 strings. This doesn’t sound much, but it showed me how to just enjoy myself on the guitar without any preconceived plan.
This week also had another highlight in that I challenged myself to learn a song (Willy And The Hand Jive) in 2 days and post a video of it on the Facebook group on the 3rd day. I did it and it wasn’t that bad for a beginner.
Things to work on next week.
Strumming! It needs to be more automatic and more arm movement. My wrist is doing most of the work at the moment. I also want to be able to alter the strumming during the song so that it matches the feel of the song more.
Obviously I have still to improve the chord accuracy and speed of change. This will only come with practice.
Next week’s aims
I want to consolidate module 4 (Dm chord), improve my feeling of the songs as well as their accuracy. I would also like to play a scale to a slow metronome beat.
The music theory course that I am doing is now talking about power chords. I am not really ready for them yet, so I will probably read about them but not try to learn them yet.
Only 14 weeks now until I have to get up in front of an audience and perform rhythm guitar to my friends lead guitar. Luckily only 2 songs with ADE chords!!!
Hi Tony. For me it sounds a lot. You’re getting very comfortable with the guitar and enjoying it. It’s an advantage of going slow and letting the knowledge settle and the hand dexterity develop before going for more.
Week 9 since I started learning the guitar. This week there is not a lot to review. I didn’t start anything new just practiced what I had already learnt. The songs are getting more automatic with the chords getting slight better sounding. Strumming does not seem much better, still not relaxed. With the scales practice I am finding problems automatically finding the correct string with the pick. I am hoping this will improve soon.
For week 10, I am going to start module 5 and learn the C chord. I am doubling my time practicing strumming and going to start practicing using a song as the ‘metronome’, as using just a metronome seems easier than keeping time with a song.
Overall, content with my progress so far.
One bit of good news, I have a second hand Katana 50 mk2 arriving this week. I have been using a katana mini to practice with, but I will need a bigger amp if I am going to ‘perform’ in 13 weeks time Is this the start of my amp/guitar collecting phase?
Time flies when you are having fun, Tony … 9 wks already.
Soon is such a relative term. All I can say is that if you keep up deliberate practice, putting in time on a regular frequent basis then it will all improve. Whether or not you find the improvement to be soon or not
Well it has been 10 weeks since I started learning the guitar and I am pleased with the slow but steady progress.
Last week I said that I wanted to improve the strumming and scales. The strumming is getting a bit more automatic and in better time. Scales haven’t improved to any great extent. I am going to have to record them to see the improvement week on week.
I started module 5 with the C chord and am getting OK with that. I will continue to consolidate this moule next week.
A couple of new items last week. My Katana 50 mk2 arrived and I have been playing with that to see what I can do with it. I love the sounds but the recording side using the USB port is coming out muffled. I need to investigate that. I also started to get to grips with a solo piece, True Love Ways by Buddy Holly. This is proving a lot harder than I expected. Getting both hands to find the right string at the same time is problematic at best.
The last new adventure for last week is that I am trying out different recording software. At the moment I use Audacity which is OK but will probably not be good enough for future projects. I am looking at Reaper at the moment to see if it is better for me than Audacity.
Next week’s aims are
Get the C chord accurate with reasonable speed changes.
Get the solo piece good enough to be able to play it correctly most times against the music track.
Make a decision on the DAW software I am going to use.
Get my scales so that I can play them accurately at a metronome beat of 60 BPM.Edited as I have been told by Richard on the Facebook group that I am trying to do something here that comes later in the course. So I won’t beat myself up on this at the moment.
Record or video my progress on my 4 songs in my song book
Hi Tony, finger picking is like any other guitar skill, at the beginning it may look impossible to do; just practice it very slowly and gradually increase the speed once you reach more fluency, like you’ve done with the chords you’ve learnt:
@dobleA , thanks. I have been told that I am a bit early to start this really, but it is starting to fall into place. I now am starting to hit the right string more often than missing it. Onwards and upwards.
Now I am worried! I am having my first session with my friend who will be playing lead guitar while I am playing rhythm on Sunday. Up to now it has been fun, now it is getting serious. Still I still have 10 weeks to get things right before my ‘debut’.
In reality, I am actually looking forward to it… I think.
Well, that went well! I started off very nervous, but as we started playing, the nerves just went and I really enjoyed the experience of play rhythm to his lead guitar. I learnt a lot and now have lots to practice on. I was too quiet, due to practicing at home, so I now have to practice with the headphones on so that I cannot hear the pick. I also still need to relax when strumming and just strum to the song rather than concentrate on a pattern.
All good stuff and well worth the morning with him. A couple of more sessions planned before the proper ‘debut’.
Well what a week this has turned out to be. | had my first session with my friend playing the lead guitar and me playing rhythm. We have now decided on the 2 songs that I will accompanying him on, so I now have 9 weeks to get them right! It was noticeable when the amp was cranked up to ‘gig’ level how many duff notes I was playing :-0 . It was really helpful that he lives in space countryside, so we could practice at real levels. I will have to practice with headphones to get the same experience. Playing loud really does sound different!
Last week’s aims were for me to get the accuracy of the C chord better, and I am pleased with that. Then I wanted to improve my strumming, still work in progress. It is getting more relaxed and I am getting there but not there yest. I also wanted to try out Reaper as my DAW. I have played with it a bit now and it will be my program of choice for music recording. I am still sticking with OBS for video recording. I never did get around to recording the songs that I am practicing though.
At the end of the week I started modules 6 and 7. The reason I included module 7 is that there was not a lot ‘learn’ it was just putting all the ideas together to try and make sense of what I had learnt up to now and how it fits together.
I will now have a few weeks consolidating all that I have learnt so far and getting my notes correct. I was pleased to see in module 7 the idea of fast accurate chord changes. Justin did it to a two minute timer. So far I have been doing the chord progression of EAEDAD to a metronome at 120 BPM changing on the 1 beat. I am going to change that now to the accurate changes in 3 minutes using the same chord progression as before.
All in all I am very pleased with this week’s progress.
Not too much progress this week as it was a short week with Easter coming at the end of the week. I am practising 2 AD & E songs, ‘Willy and the Hand Jive’ and ‘Lay Down Sally’. I am also starting to learn ‘Take me home country roads’. This is a lot faster and has most of the new chords in it. I cannot play it through at the moment. My fast perfect chord changes are coming along nicely. Following the EAEDAD pattern I can get 25 changes per minutes. The chords have to be perfect before I can move onto the next one. This exercises is a lot harder than it looks!
For next week, It will be the same as the last week, practicing the perfect chord changes and the 3 songs. If I start to get bored, I will start the ear training lessons.
Hey Tony, I’ve really enjoyed your Learning Log, thanks for sharing!
I’ve been learning since October last year.
You are doing really well mate, much better than me in many ways.
I had a bit of a wobble last night and nearly went full rock’n’roll and smashed the damn thing up in my living room…
VERY frustrating!
Anyway, you have inspired me to go back through my own log and get disciplined with it all again.
Hi John, Thanks for the comments. I feel your pain with the frustration. Sometimes my fingers will not do what I want them to. I have learnt now that if they don’t start working within 10 minutes it is much better for my sanity to just walk away and come back later in the day.
I am at the consolidation point at the moment which can get repetitive. I think I might have to start on module 8 sooner than I thought.
I was getting a little despondent as I have not noticed any real improvement over the last few weeks, so I thought I would re-record Lay down sally again. I am happy to see there is a little improvement from last time. Still plenty of duff notes though
I am going to try and load a link to the video on my web blog. If it doesn’t work I will upload it to YouTube.
Well this review is for week 13 and 14 really as I didn’t do a review for week 13 as there wasn’t anything specifically to review. I have completed module 7 of the beginners course, which is basically just working out what to consolidate before moving to the next grade. I am now learning two new songs that have 3 chords in each, but these songs include some of the ‘new’ chords in each one. They are ‘take me home country roads’ and ‘Bad moon rising’. Both these songs are a lot faster than what I have been used to so are good songs for moving me forward.
I have also started the ‘Ear Training’ module and have allocated 5 minutes a day to just play a simple tune by ear. At the moment the two I am getting practice with are, Happy Birthday and the National Anthem. Don’t ask me why I chose those it was all down to the tune in my head at the time
The practicing of the 2 songs to play in front of an audience in June is going well, I am playing both songs every day so that they become second nature.
I recon probably another week of consolidation and then I will start the 2nd grade of the beginners course. I will also do the next lesson in the Ear training course.
My new toy. This is the first guitar that I have bought, my other one was a gift from a friend who wanted me to learn the guitar. It’s a Squier Classic Vibe 50s. I always wanted a Fender Stratocaster, so this is the closest I have come to it (so far).
My main music influences are the instrumentals of the 50s and 60s, so this should suit me well.
Hi Tony,
Congratulations on your first own new guitar guitar
A beautiful guitar…
what a great feeling you must have , I now have my first new guitar for 3 years and 6 days (just looked it up) a fender player,but remember it like it was yesterday. unfortunately too heavy for me, but that’s why it hangs still beautifully shiny on the wall without any damage
Greetings and a lot of fun with it
Is this the start of my amp/guitar collecting phase? 
, I now have my first new guitar for 3 years and 6 days (just looked it up) a fender player,but remember it like it was yesterday. unfortunately too heavy for me, but that’s why it hangs still beautifully shiny on the wall without any damage