ShawnE

@Dad3353 Cheers Douglas... plenty of great advice & suggestions there as always! Will take all of that onboard going forward... all very simple things for me to implement &/or keep in mind...! Since the turn of the year I substituted a lot of "song practice" time for straight up strum practice.. extra time noodling between chords I guess but with a goal of naturally easing up the wrist/hand during strumming (& further improving chord changes as an added bonus of that) & think it's paying off... still a long way to go with it of course but it at least definitely feels more free-flowing than it did back in December. Hopefully that'll start transferring into new song practices. @Crusoe Thanks a lot! Sticking with it for sure... I sense I'm at the stage now where things begin to kick up a gear!

Apologies for the two months absence - super busy with life stuff! I hope anyone who's still around from last year are keeping well & have had a good start to this year! On my front.. bad news is I didn't have time to record updates or really progress much through modules... However.. good news is I still managed to put in circa' one hour practice pretty much every day which has just helped me further cement the early foundational stuff as well as the new things learned in the first module of grade two, which I've now completed between the start of Jan & now... in the next module I'm about to start I (finally) start taking a first look at the F.

This is just a video of my general review on the online course I'm following now I've completed grade one... might be a useful little watch for anyone considering learning guitar or looking for opinions of an online course who may stumble across this thread (now or in the future).

Short snappy update as I come to the end of a consolidation phase... bigger & newer things to come in the next week or so.

I couldn't help but get a little festive. Been practicing stuff that should well & truly annoy my family when performed in mum's living room in a couple weeks time.

@Dad3353 Cheers Douglas, definitely open to noodling ideas. I've learned the Am chord... but I haven't learned the Bm chord. That one will be to come. Though I'm sure there can't be no harm in me taking a little gander at it in advance during these last couple of weeks freely messing around. @Crusoe Haha thank you! It does feel very distant when I think back to day one. Crazy to think it wasn't even 4 months ago. Gearing up for plenty more, though!

100 hours officially completed... couldn't help but put together a little compilation. Still rubbish but on we march!

Took a step backwards this week in hopes of eventually taking several steps forwards by mainly focusing on songs that work the two chords I find most difficult - C & D.. well, save for Dm.. but I'll tackle more of that another time. I think another couple of weeks consolidating this type of stuff & then I'll feel more ready to move onto the next chunk of learning. I'll next be reflecting on my first 100 hours & then after that it'll be December so... I'd may as well start practicing with a few Christmas bangers.

@The Pinky Thanks a lot! Haha yeah I also find it a full on quantum leap... especially any song with 2 chords to a bar (& 4 different chords within two bars) or really just anything over 100bpm. I think I've got a good chunk of the fundamentals down now... so just a case of continuing on for (hopefully) ongoing improvement with fluidity & rhythm when playing so it can flow more naturally... I'm fully prepared for it to take a verrrrry long time to fully shake off the signs of robotic-ness, though!

Month three - now entering a consolidation phase until I feel comfortable enough to move onto... you know... that F thing & the second grade of the course I'm following.

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@Dad3353 Some simple theory stuff is coming up in grade 2 of the course I'm following I believe... I'm about to start the final module of grade 1 so will likely start grade 2 in the next month or two... I can't say theory has gripped me with intrigue just yet but I am known to regularly dive down rabbit holes for hours and hours on end when interest grips me so there's still a good chance that could happen hah! @The Pinky Yes agree with that... if the majority of it can be enjoyed then it's definitely easier to continue on! Luckily I've not found even the mundane practice too boring or chore like as of yet... but then it is still early days really haha!

@Crusoe @Dad3353 Cheers both! Hahah yes 10 weeks from dreadful to bad.. and that in itself is not bad! My latest module has had me dabbling with the G today (a simplified two finger version.. at least for now) & strumming along to 6:8 time signatures instead of the 4:4 I've had up 'till now... think I might be edging back to dreadful for the next few days before it starts heading forwards again!

10 weeks in... not too much change as I've mainly been going over the same things for the past 2/3 weeks... hopefully just some small improvements with bits & pieces. The polishing of chord changes, technique, strumming, picking, rhythm etc. continues.. onwards & upwards with the G chord next. Thanks for watching!