Trevor's Learn to Shred Log

I should have started this yesterday - story of my life :slight_smile:.

Currently using Justin Guitar and Yousician to learn to shred :sign_of_the_horns:. I am consolidating Beginner Grade 1 and just got done with my practice for the day. This is what I did:

  • I played songs in the app for module 7 that I am having trouble with, currently around 7ish songs. Pink’s Get the Party Started song is currently the one that needs the most work. I am having a hard time getting the Am to Dm change fast enough
  • I did a few minutes on the 6/8 Tasty strum pattern
  • I then did random chord changes. I made index cards for all the chord changes covered by the course (I also added in the F chord), I take five off the stack and practice those for two minutes each.
  • I then did two minutes of the F chord practice
  • I wrapped it up with the song Smile in module 7. This still needs work especially when switching to the C chord.
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Dm is pesky, But it does sound great once you get it solid. These cord changes feel so daunting when you are at this stage, but you are doing great.

IMO The one min fast changes are really a solid drilling technique, thats what I used to really lock mine down. Depending on you practice scedual. Its the one thing i tried to do every day at that level even when I only had 10 mins to pick up my acoustic. I would just do 6 runs of my 1 min changes and then just go out the door. If you dedicate that practice time now early. Before you know it you will be able to do super quicks chord changes in 1/8 time during a song in rythem without thinking. That will go amazingly far for you when you are in you later begginer stage and all through out that intermediate stage. Every really good lead guitarist leads well cause he knows where the rhythm is in the back ground.

Sounds like you are kicking butt Trev, keep up the killer work. Especially that F chord. Thats the big one. Once you have that you can use it to play all the notes on the low E string.

hey , im also a Justin guitar / Yousician user :slight_smile:

good job you’re on the right track !

Thank you for the tips and kind words.

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Right on. I have read through some of your learning log. You are dedicated. Pretty awesome!

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Sunday March 30th:

Put in a lot of time this week practicing.

JustinGuitar
Still on consolidation of Grade 1. I did the same practice routine:

  • 1 min Chord changes between 5 random chords
  • 2 min F chord practice - it sounds good most of the time now
  • 2 min 6/8 strum practice/chord changes
  • Practice playing 8 songs from Grade 1

Yousician
I am on level three. I am trying to gold star all the songs from levels 0-2, current songs left:

  • level 0: 17
  • level 1: 177
  • level 2: 484 :sweat_smile:
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Awesome :sign_of_the_horns:t2::sign_of_the_horns:t2:

Move that shape down a couple of frets and and then 2 more and all the way back to F back in 1/4 note time. Get a feel for keeping you fingers togeather where they are suppose to be for the shape, you will hear different note voicings. Sound great.

Or just keep working the lessons in order, which is what is the best wayost likely :laughing:. You might not want to get ahead of your self, but it never hurts to just explore :wink: for fun.

You will get there soon enough. Nice update.

That is a good idea. I am all about getting ahead of myself :slight_smile: . In my opinion, I want to start the hard stuff early. I don’t seem to get frustrated that it is taking a long-time to get right, because I haven’t even got to that part in the course yet.

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Sunday April 6th 2025:

JustinGuitar
Sticking with consolidation of Grade 1 for awhile I think. Trying to get the chord changes smoother and better sounding. I am also playing a lot of the songs from the app. I think the biggest change is that Last Kiss is starting to sound pretty good using the Old Faithful strumming pattern. I still need work on Smile, especially changing to the Dm chord.

Songs I am working on from the app:

  • Last Kiss
  • So Far Away
  • Heart of Gold
  • One Last Time
  • Smile
  • Mad World
  • Wonderwall
  • Wish You Were Here

Yousician
I finished level three, but am not really going to push onto the next level very fast. Trying to finish all the songs and that is where most of my time is spent. I am starting to regret setting the goal of gold starring all of levels zero through two:

  • level 0: 17
  • level 1: 158 (down 19 from last week)
  • level 2: 435 (down 49 from last week)

Sunday April 13th 2025:

JustinGuitar

No change from last week except I added all of the chord change songs from/to Dm and a few others that can use some practice. In total I have 16 songs that I play when practicing and just choose shuffle to switch through them.

Yousician

Same as last week:

level 0: 11 (down 6 from last week)
level 1: 138 (down 20 from last week)
level 2: 367 (down 68 from last week)
Total: 516

At this rate it is going to take me a couple more months to finish.


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Thanks for sharing Trevor! I also use Yousician with JustinGuitar and have from the start. I’m on the last song of level 7 now and make it my goal to gold star only the level 2 levels below the one I’m currently working on. For example, now I’m working on gold starring level 6 as I just finished gold starring level 5. I also don’t focus too much on the ā€œcourseā€ songs, I usually do a little bit of work on either 3 silver starring the next course song (I don’t move to the next one until I have 3 silver stars) or gold starring another section of the level 2 below mine. My progression slowed quite a bit around level 6 on the course work because things do pick up quite a bit in difficulty there, but stick with it and work on some form of daily progress and you’ll be surprised how far you can take it.

A good tip for you (if you weren’t aware yet), when you select a song, you can actually just select a single section to work on gold starring, rather than trying to execute the entire song perfectly. Some of the strumming songs are incredibly difficult to gold star, like around level 5, because it seems like it doesn’t have absolutely perfect recognition of every up strum sometimes. I would have never been able to gold star it without doing one section at a time. All you have to do is click the part itself when you get to this screen. I was kicking myself for not recognizing that earlier.

I spend a majority of my time on Yousician playing songs that are roughly around my grade level and I’ve learned how to play quite a few songs that way. If you’re using it to learn how to play songs without having to have an app open by memorizing the songs, I’d highly recommend that as soon as the song is over, or maybe pausing during the middle of a song, practicing key parts of the chord progression or riffs directly from memory to try and commit them to your mental storage. After I finish a new song I’ll play what I can from memory (if I want to remember it) and then whatever I don’t remember, I’ll play through again and once I run into the part I didn’t remember, play it a few times with it paused, play through it unpaused, then try to play it all from memory after the song. Rinse and repeat enough times and you’re sure to remember.

I also find myself working a bit ahead of where I’m at to try and develop my skills faster. I never originally had any intentions of getting into lead guitar playing, but when starting to learn blues licks I was having so much fun so it gave me an idea. I was able to play Fade to Black by Metallica rather well, everything other than the solo. So I figured, what the heck, I’ll try to learn the solo. I was originally working off of Youtube tutorial videos, constantly breaking down each section and trying to memorize and learn it, but it’s a bit hard to keep in time and understand if I’m doing certain things like bends properly. I then realized that Yousician actually has these solos in the hardest versions of their songs. Fade to Black, the full rythym and lead version, is a level 12 song in Yousician which is well above my level. But I can slow the solo section down to 30% in practice mode and get really good experience playing it in time, and it’s able to tell you if you’re bending accurately or not with a live chart of your bend.

I’m also working on the Hotel California solos, and luckily found that they have that too. Still again, a bit beyond my current level of playing, but being able to see in live scrolling view all of the notes while also showing me if I’m bending appropriately has been extremely helpful. I work on getting my notes accurate at a slow speed, and when I have a relatively high percentage of notes played correctly (basically everything but maybe 5% of the bends), I’ll bump the speed up by 5% and start over. It’s been a fantastic experience.

Combined with JustinGuitar’s educational videos, my autodidactic learning experience has been extremely effective. JustinGuitar is the bread and butter of the learning experience for me with regards to educational techniques, and Yousician is the gravy on top. Yousician definitely lacks in the educational context and kind of lets you figure things out on your own, which I’ve found isn’t always the best route for certain things you’d never think to think about purely based on their very brief videos and songs.

I ll advise the complete opposite

Get gold on songs you play if it makes you happy ( I do it , I gold all songs I play )
but what matters is how the song sounds when you play !
It must sounds nice and clear , later you can try to play calm and then louder to add dynamics

Dont focus on the stars
Use your ears !

Getting gold on songs is definitely a challenge, and I don’t try to do it for the songs. It’s just a completionist task for me to make all my courses look gold, just a way to really challenge myself. Strumming chords doesn’t always seem to have 100% accuracy anyways so it seems like an impossible task to do for everything.

[quote="tjc, post:9, topic:395981ā€]
I am starting to regret setting the goal of gold starring all of levels zero through two:
[/quote]

I mean , getting gold on so many songs is not a good practice

play less songs , but play them well , do not stop at getting gold

I see, I might have misunderstood Trevor and thought he was talking about just the course songs. Trying to gold star every single song outside of the course work definitely seems like an overwhelming task

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@theryanbamford - Thanks for the tips! I just followed you on Yousician.

getting gold on so many songs is not a good practice

@GrumpyMac - I don’t agree. Getting gold on all these songs definitely feels like a good challenge. I am getting better and I do think my playing sounds good. I will occasionally keep going on a song/section to 100% it (not just gold star it), especially if the timing is tricky.

Couldn’t find your username on Yousician. If you don’t mind sharing it, would love to follow you.

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Awsome choices of songs

Except wonderwall.:face_vomiting: get rid of that one. :rofl:

Haha just messing around and being controversial. I saw them live back in 96 in San Fransisco on their Morning Glory tour, I guess it was. The girlfriend, now wife, was super into them. I was more punk rock/grungy dude.
So Play it and enjoy it. I even know the words cause they played it to death on the radio back then.

Great list, lots of stuff you will be able to come backto and even make better later as you grow in skill. Rock on bro.

:victory_hand:t2::love_you_gesture:t2::sign_of_the_horns:t2:

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hahaha. love it.

Thank you!

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Sunday, April 20th 2025

Same as last week. Not much progress on the JustinGuitar side of things. Got a cut on my index finger; now I can say I poured my blood and sweat into playing this week. No tears… yet.

level 0: 5 (down 6 from last week)
level 1: 109 (down 29 from last week)
level 2: 295 (down 72 from last week)
Total: 409