What 3 pieces of advice would you give to future BLIM classes?

[Richard_close2u]

This topic is prompted by a post from Graeme in the BLIM Class 1 chat.
He wrote:

Then followed it with his three pearls of wisdom. Others have done the same.
I’m creating this topic to store these in an easy to find archive.

Richard

[cjipper]

3 pearls:

1. Learn how to set your goals
2. Tailor your practice time to what your goal is.
3. Be diligent in practice, but actually block out time for fun!

[GraemeCaUK]

1. Follow the plan but think carefully about what you particularly want out of BLIM and tailor your practice sessions towards achieving those goals.

2. Allow yourself time to learn songs as you go. That, after all, is the end goal of any guitar course

3. Participate in the community and class chat. Many minds are better than one

[Beatup6String]

My three tips for Class 2, especially for advancing beginners and blues newbies like me:

1. Trust the process, follow the process. This includes the 5 minute practice routines, playing over backing tracks, listening to the music playlists, and transcribing.

2. BLIM everyday even if it’s only 10-15 minutes - if you can’t play, listen actively and mindfully to the playlists or the lesson specific backing tracks or the transcribing challenges.

3. Record yourself often and compare yourself to your own recordings, not to others in the community whose baseline is very different from yours.

And yes, I turned BLIM into a verb

[sclay]

1. Read through all the months lessons within the first week. From this, compose your plan for the month, in 4 weekly chunks. Be very specific. Review at the end of week 2, and amend as appropriate.

2. Apportion more time/ practice etc to topics you dont know; less to those you do. Efficiency is key in such a fast moving course.

3. Always start with the

   a. Pentatonic Pattern
   b.Licks.
   c. Medley

Cheers Shane

[mathsjunky]

1. Do not compare yourself with others. The people who post videos are often the more experienced and confident ones.
2. Engage with the community. Record yourself and put yourself out there. You will gain confidence and valuable feedback.
3. Timing is everything. Become friends with your metronome/drum machine

[jgottwals]

Lots of great tips here already; below are just three things that I have had to remind myself:

1. Set clear goals for your playing;
2. Use the standards to learn/improve techniques;
3. Don’t rush anything, the material is yours for life;

[twistor59]

1. Record yourself often and listen back, thinking “what would Justin say if he heard this?”
2. If you want feedback, don’t hold back on sharing recordings with the community because you think they’re sub-standard. There is no “standard”.
3. Don’t try to master everything in a unit before the next unit drops.

[DeltaTyne]

1, Read through the entire unit first without trying anything.

2, pick out the easy lessons, the ones that are not hard or not long, mark them as done, and then look at what is left, you will be surprised.

3, Do not rush even if you don’t finish before the new unit starts, you have plenty of time to return, I think all on the course will no doubt be returning after unit 6 is finished, cheers HEC

[roger_holland]

Don’t compare yourself to others ,…

Record yourself on video a lot, whether you share it with others or not…

The idea is to have fun, keep laughing and don’t set yourself goals that are too high… this takes most people many years to master properly…

Greetings,Rogier

[Alexeyd]

Well… more an advice to myself than the others.
1.Make sure you’ll have time to actually do the work in coming months
2. Do 30 minutes a day, no excuses
3. Don’t procrastinate
Can’t say I did any of these 3 up until now…

[Michael_K73]

1. Buy extra High E and B strings.

2. Get comfortable knowing you won’t get good at everything in the 6 months. (Focus on core things)

3. Realize that the real progress will start after the 6 months. Right now you are in boot camp.

-M

[linrosam]

Some points of note that I ‘thought’ I had sorted, but didn’t and unfortunately held me back in the first 2 months….

1. Be honest about your own starting position, your ability and your expectations ;
2. Set your workspace up before the course starts, you do not want to sit down for a 5 min practice and spend 30 mins getting it all together, then have no time to practice;
3. Get your computer set up and learn how to import a backing track; slow it down; record self playing. Once you have your own set-up, dont keep changing it or being tempted to try different bits of software. They all have some downsides in my experience. If it works for you then it will do!

[Malz]

1/ Upon seeing the preparation and course material, you may well feel overwhelmed by the amount of work to come. Don’t be, the work becomes progressively easier to handle and becomes a routine.

2/ Setup a practice routine and stick to it. When Justin says 5mins a day, it inevitably becomes 30 mins, so leave a good hour at least for daily practice.

3/ Use the playlists lots, use backing tracks and play, record and listen to yourself, a lot, you will see a difference every month you continue the course. Have fun.

[Boris1565]

1. The course is massive. Planned and organised approach is critical to get the most out of the course. Pick your battles, but it will take more than 30 mins 3x per week to cover main topics (licks, rhythm lesson, one standard).

2. Be active in the community. Record yourself, share and ask for feedback. Ask questions. Listen, understand and incorporate feedback received.

3. Listen to the playlists / licks / exercises a lot! It is much easier to learn HOW to play when you know exactly WHAT you need to play.

[sly]

1. Know your notes on the neck

2. Know your scale degrees

3. Practice, practice, practice

[mtglazer]

1. Don’t judge your progress against others in your cohort. You are you and you will progress at your own pace.
2. Don’t be too academic, playing and practicing are more important than the reading and video watching.
3. Don’t ignore your body. I had issues with a bicep tendon tear, radial tunnel syndrome, and tendonitis in a finger, all on my left arm. I took a month off to take care of myself and while I’m way behind in the class, I am having more fun than I did when everything hurt.

[JustinGuitar]

What an awesome collection of tips for new Blimmers, and helpful reading for me too!!

[graemecosh]

From a beginner grade 2/3 acoustic player:

1. This is an electric guitar course which adds to the challenge if you’re primarily an acoustic player
2. It’s difficult to get through a full unit if you’re time constrained, the JustinGuitar team can help you prioritize what you really need to practice
3. You have lifetime access to this course it’s unlikely most of us will get through everything properly in 6 months.

[UncleGreggy]

1. As Justin repeatedly warns, Do not get trapped in the medley. Licks aren’t supposed to be a song so don’t get trapped memorizing which one comes next. Learn the licks you like and can play and sort them by whether they fit / don’t fit with the I, IV, or V (or more than one chord). Then play the licks you like and can play * in time* to a backing track (of which there are many).
2. Read the incredibly smart comments by community members annd instructors and ask questions as needed. Go beyond the BLIM community or you’ll miss out.
3. Get the basic mechanics down cold for each unit (framework, bends, special chord shapes) as early as possible. The rest will follow more easily.
4. (Cough). The standards are ways to apply what you’re learning. E.g., you can play A, D, and E standards using 7ths 9ths, and slides, sub new turnarounds, improve your power-chord shuffles. Etc.
5. (Cough cough) You’ll never get it all down. So having fun > being an expert.