Unexpected practice things along the way while learning guitar that really helped you?

Yes, I agree, great topic! Thanks JK :slight_smile:

I practice chord changes alternating both ways that Justin suggested, concentrating on accuracy and then also speeding up the changes, although I donā€™t time myself or count how many changes now.

One thing that has helped me that probably seems really obvious is actually memorising the songs I learn. I used to learn a song and enjoy playing it and then forget it pretty quickly when I moved on to other songs. I had a great time playing but kinda felt like I couldnā€™t actually do anything and wasnā€™t making any progress. I think this has helped me with building some confidence.
(one day I might even work up to sharing a song :grin: I know the feedback will be extremely valuable)

I love reading threads like this! I learn a lot and get great tips from what everybody shares. Thank you! :smiley: This has also inspired me to focus more attention on things that I know are important but havenā€™t been making enough time for when I practice.

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Iā€™m only 6 weeks in and started off without a pick, enjoying the feel of the strings. Week 4 my Dunlop selection arrived in the post and itā€™s just so much easier to know when Iā€™m getting the fretting right with that brighter sound using a pick. No more second guessing if Iā€™m slightly muting a string or not quite getting the pressure right.

And yeah, even at this stage I can whole heartedly agree with the sā€¦lā€¦oā€¦w iā€¦t rā€¦iā€¦gā€¦hā€¦t dā€¦oā€¦wā€¦n comments.

Getting past that temptation or mindset that faster is somehow better is going to be just so fundamental for me. Keep it deliberate, get it clean, and increment the pace from there only after those first two are pretty much happening naturally.

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I am having to play it over and over, too. Often without the App because the app, even at 50% speed I just canā€™t get the D to F chord changes down fast enough! Which brings me to the discussion about the OMC.

I used the OMC religiously in Grade 1, and yeah, they often sounded not so good. but it definitely helped me. Now though, as Justin suggested if I do OMC they are the PFC version so Iā€™m definitely not getting them up to 60 in the near term. I do wonder though if I need to go back to plain old OMC for these dang F chords because I am NOT getting them down!

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Rebecca,
Keep in mind that we all learn and/or retain differently.

If OMCs were working & PFCs arenā€™t then go back to OMCs. Later down the path, attempt PFCs againā€¦ at least thatā€™s what I would do! Also, barre chords are very difficult for me to change TO. From, not too badly but to a barre is really, really, really difficult!!! :rofl:

Keep after it! Good luck!:four_leaf_clover:

Tod

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Oh, one other thing that might helpā€¦

Capo on the 4th or 5th fret. It wonā€™t sound ā€œrightā€ but could be easier to fret the barre F further away from the nut.

Tod

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Yes, and thatā€™s where the one minute changes/PFCs come in! Even when I donā€™t have OMCs as a formal part of my practice routine, I do quite often use them as a warm up exercise to un-stiffen my fingers

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Yeah, this resonates with me. The triads opened to door to me realising (finally!!) in a concrete way that chords were just really consonant selections of notees together and then several lightbulbs went off in succession. . .USING them in jam situations however, is proving to be much more challenging than understanding their construction and where they can be played. . .slowly slowly we can get them ā€œthereā€. . . even though there are also still the various inversions, etc., etc, to learn. . :face_with_peeking_eye: .

Itā€™s hard to learn and play through your music idolā€™s (or anyoneā€™s) song at the right pace, for 3-4 minutes, wanting it to sound ā€œright.ā€ Whoa!!! Recipe for frustration. After some experimenting, I ended up doing this. I wrote down a set of chords in a sequence that seemed to sound musical. I started with open chords mostly; inserted F an B chords to make me do barres. Played with adding sus and 7th chords, and ended up after trial and error with a twelve bar musical phrase. Itā€™s something short and immediately familiar that I play with a metronome at various tempos. From there I can try altering the chord sequence, and work on playing notes while strumming. I ended up making three more of these progressions which are part of my warm ups. It sounds like music.

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