ShawnE

After 8 months I've had my first go at singing while playing... it's definitely about 2 or 3 years too soon 😂 - but I figured it'd be good to get these early attempts recorded & documented to also look back on & laugh along with the rest of it in 10 years. Kept it simple... simple song.. simple chords... still bloody tough! I wasn't expecting to even be able to attempt this sort of thing until around the 2/3 year mark to be honest so super stoked to be giving it a bash after 8 months. Need to get a general update/progress video done soon as I'm nearing the end of my time on the current module I've been going through since the start of last month.

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... much 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 during the live performance in mum's living room in a couple weeks time. 😁

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.

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.

@Caevan O’Shite Oh yeah.. ongoing for life! Good job I got myself a million picks to get through the years 😂 @Larryz Cheers Larry! Yeah I'm aware of the G fretting... to be honest I prefer the way it sounds this way without the index finger... to me, the traditional G sounds a bit muddy while this sounds a bit cleaner & the fact it's way easier to play is just a bonus... the middle finger mutes the 5th string so there is no A note. With that said, I do still practice forming it the more classic way you described using the index finger on the 5th string as I know there'll be certain times when I'll prefer the G to have a bit of that muddiness for some songs.

After 72 hours I reckon it's fair to say I now know the cowboy chords... even if changing between them still requires a lot of work.

Overcoming that god-forsaken guitar quitting phase.

I promise I'll be bearing all of this in mind! I have seen & felt the result of how much easier things are with less tension & a more relaxed approach... I find changing these basic chords to be a lot easier when that left hand is very relaxed... but oftentimes doing appears a lot more difficult than saying while it's all still pretty foreign 😂 I'll certainly keep at it & fortunately it can surely only improve with time, practice & all this useful advice!

Cheers for that.. all inputs of advice are massively appreciated! The reason I've anchored my pinky in this video is mainly because in the lessons I'm following I was advised to try a bunch of different things to see which felt more comfortable.. these riffs are being run as basic first-base finger exercises rather than trying to play them as songs etc. - I note you said this is the first video you've watched - in some of my previous videos I'm running the same riffs but without anchoring the pinky at all. As it turns out I prefer playing them without anchoring the finger... though haven't yet found the ideal comfortable spot... sure it'll come in time!

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!

This one isn't for the squeamish... if you don't like looking at calluses forming you may want to give this one a miss... If you're morbidly curious like I am then you may want to give it a watch... 😂 Short 6-7 minute documentary outlining the 54 days it took for my calluses to develop before settling down.