Although I am still trying to get my amp via aux in to my pc.
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Stuart - in my view you are missing out on the biggest possible boost to your learning that you can have / need.
Playing along with other music is essential.
I would honestly halt in your JG course progression for now and make sure you remedy this situation asap. You do not need to spend a lot of money. Just buy a cheap practice amp with Guitar and Aux inputs.
Or if playing the backing tracks on a PC, just a simple audio interface or mixer, so you can hear both PC and Gtr/Amp.
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@Stuartw This lesson might give you some more context on when and how chips can be used, and I deliberately missed the “triad” part:
Just watch this video and try to listen to the various techniques demonstrated by Justin and hear how they differ from chips. Just as letting each chord ring out can become monotonous, chips are also a technique that is only one piece in the great scheme of things.
Some examples of chips in practice, often used along with other techniques:
James Brown - Get on the Good Foot
Miles Davis - On the Corner
Herbie Hancock - Steppin’ in It
Jimi Hendrix - Long Hot Summer Night (without lead guitar part)
Curtis Mayfield - Little Child Runnin’ Wild
The Police - Roxanne
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Why? I’m happy with things as they are. I never intend playing with or for anyone else and happy to noodle away for me! Selfish may be but this is my time where I can forget the ‘world’ for a bit.
Well this got me thinking. In fact to the point where I thought what is the point of carrying on! But then I thought sod that for a game of soldiers I’ve spent 4 years on this journey so not giving up now. Although I have taken note of your comment I’m not stopping grade 3. I have set myself a goal for grade 3 which I intend to complete.
Well I had a second hand amp that I buggered up by connecting to the pc. The amp may have had a faulty aux in, I don’t know. Anyway it doesn’t work anymore. But thanks to the generosity of a senior member of these forums I have a new amp so going to give it another go.
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If you’re happy and having fun then that is great - that is what it is all about.
But, honestly, you have posted many times about your frustrations and dissatisfaction which suggests you could be happier in your guitar progress and with your musicianship.
Playing along with songs and backing tracks will bring enhanced progress and even more fun, I guarantee it. Not because it is rehearsal for playing with others or in a band but because it is immersing you in playing music in context and with the feel of being a part of a wider sound beyond what you yourself are making.
My apologies that my words came to you as discouragement whereas my intent and wish was to encourage you to practice, learn and play in a different way that I am convinced will make you a better player and musician.
Which is fantastic and bravo to the person who made the gift to you. Please do play along with songs. So many benefits are there. Here are two major positives it brings. You will be improving your rhythm skills, being able to play in a groove that matches the feel of a song. If you hear scales played over chords adds life to them and is the only way they begin to make musical sense beyond being finger exercises.
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Stuart @Stuartw, I definitely encourage you to try to get your new system working with auxiliary input so you can play along with backing tracks. It really will open up your understanding, awareness, and feel for the music in a way that playing in isolation just can’t. I wouldn’t necessarily say you should stop everything else, but I’d definitely set aside a little bit of time to try to get that working soon.
Like you, I have no plans to play with other people, ever. I’m just interested in learning as much as I can and becoming a better player, and I absolutely think that this is an essential piece of doing that.
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4 posts were split to a new topic: How can I get sound from my old PC to my amp so I can gear both through headphones connected to the amp?
True, but it’s not necessarily the lack of playing along to others that is the problem. Physical issues also cause frustrations as my old fingers wont do what my head wants them to do!
Noted. Let’s see what happens now that I have the tech. sorted.
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I watched the chips part of the video but the overall lesson is 3 grades above where I am!
Had a listen to the various songs (as well as the ones shown in the lesson) and to be honest I couldn’t work out what was the ‘chip’ and what wasn’t. Just all blurred into the overall sound.
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I’m sorry if my choices were confusing. Here’s how I meant them:
James Brown - Get on the Good Foot: the guitar line in the higher register playing chips in groups of 2 (not the fast one playing continuously)
Miles Davis - On the Corner: I meant chiefly the “main” guitar part that kicks the track off
Herbie Hancock - Steppin’ in It: the chord stabs when you can actually hear them ring out momentarily
Jimi Hendrix - Long Hot Summer Night (without lead guitar part): for example, the short chord bursts between 0:15 and 0:30 played in time with the hits on the snare drum
Curtis Mayfield - Little Child Runnin’ Wild - from 0:44 during the verses and the instrumental breaks, in time with the hits on the snare drum (like in the Hendrix song); it’s panned to the right channel and has some reverb on it (the same guitar plays “scratches” with wah-wah during the choruses)
The Police - Roxanne (new link to the video): pretty much every chord until 1:45 (a few ones are let ring out a little linger)
A few more examples I can think of where it’s easier to make out:
The Beatles - The Word: the guitar part during the verses sung by John, Paul & George together and also during the instrumental part
The Beatles - Taxman: the rhythm guitar panned to the right, all the way through
The Beatles - Here, There and Everywhere: again panned to the right and in time with the snare, it’s almost only chips throughout the song, apart from a few chords let ring out longer
The Beatles - Getting Better: the staccato guitar part in the intro and during the choruses + the outro
The Beatles - Oh! Darling: the guitar panned to the right and in time with the snare; it switches to a single-note countermelody during the choruses (a pretty clever idea IMO)
Apologies for the Beatles onslaught here, but I think they used chips to a great effect 
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I don’t think you can miss the chips with these Green Onions
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Is this type of triad a direct prerequisite for the other type of triads? Meaning, will I have to have these finger positions (including the mutes with the third and fourth fingers) comfortable and natural in order to advance to other types of triads? I really don’t care for this triad shape, I don’t like how it feels in the slightest. And to pair it with the third and fourth finger muting technique is even worse. I can’t even reach the thick strings to mute them above the 8th or 9th fret without my first finger coming up off the thinnest string. I don’t have any issue with the palm muting on the picking hand, so I’m glad that’s added in as a mute method. But I don’t want to spend time on this shape unless it is necessary to advance to other triad shapes.
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That will depend on how accurate you are with your picking hand. If you don’t hit strings you don’t have to mute them. With Chips part of the sound is the muted strings so if you want to learn chips the you’ll have to learn to mute.
As for the triad shape there are 3 main Major and minor shapes for strings 1, 2 and 3 so no you don’t have to learn that particular shape but you’ll only be hurting your playing if you don’t learn all 3. There are also 3 main shapes on string 2, 3 and 4 and strings 3, 4 and 5 and 4, 5 and 6. Do you need to know them all? The answer is No
I think you should take a good look at what kind of music you want to play and considerate on that. There are many things in Justin’s courses that you don’t need to know to play if you’re never going to use them but are very important to know if that’s the style of music you want to play.
Also the shape of the triad in not that important if you use them when playing lead. Knowing where the note are is. So do take the time to learn the shape if you want to play lead.
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Stacey - you have some great advice and a summary from @stitch
Triads are really important - if you’re going down certain paths.
Triad chips with the muting technique you are finding difficult is only one small area of use
This particular triad shape - I would recommend you work at it and make it something you can play.
Think of the shape as a reduced mini-barre shape.
Forget about reaching across with fingers 3 and 4 initially.
The advantage of knowing all three shapes for major / all three shapes for minor is the ability to play in one area of the neck without having to slide up and down and do big position shifts to match chord changes.
I delivered vintage club sessions on triads which you may find useful. Especially the last of these - triads in songs and riffs and the video shorts that accompany it. https://www.justinguitar.com/guitar-lessons/vintage-club-12-unleash-triads-in-songs-riffs-cla-046
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@stitch and @Richard_close2u thank you for the responses. I’ll give it some thought and I’ll watch the linked club session.
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Can someone kindly explain how Justin is palm muting and keeping his strumming hand moving at the same time? I am finding that in order for my strumming hand to keep the beat, I’m having to scrape my palm across the strings which is causing its own kind of string noise. Is he using a palm mute as one of the beats or something? For me, its getting my timing off having to quickly try to palm mute, but I want to keep my hand moving to keep the beat.
ETA I must say one of the difficulties of this technique is using upstrums- doing upstrums on the downbeats messes with my head after several bars. Its like I start out good but after about a minute of playing, I get to where I want to strum on the 1 and 3 again, and have to reset myself. Not to mention mixing up strums and down strums- makes my brain shut down.
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He’s not only palm muting he is muting with his fretting hand. Relaxing the fretted hand and using the ring and pinky on the unfretted strings. He explains it around the 2:30 mark of the video.
Personally I won’t worry about the palm muting. If you get the fretting hand mute technique down you don’t need to palm mute. I think Justin does it out of habit.
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Yes I know he is muting with the fretting hand, that’s quite obvious. I find the fretting hand muting problematic in that I can’t reach all the way up to the thick strings so I was trying to (and it was also suggested to me by Richard to not worry about the fretting mute), so I’m relying more on the palm muting.
You don’t have to reach all of the strings, just the thinnest 3 or 4 strings. You shouldn’t be strumming any more than the G B e.
He’s not keeping his strumming hand moving it is a strum them hit motion. Like he says in the video it will take a lot of practice and to start slow with just the up strum them mute.
Like I said in my previous answer I personally think there is no need to palm mute when playing chips. All you’re doing is muting muted strings but if you can’t mute with your fretting hand you’ll find muting with only your picking hand very difficult as you have already discovered.
So I’ll leave this on for Richard to explain.