Hey, how are you doing? Justin back with you today to talk
about your practice schedule for Lesson 4 So...
We're starting off with two minutes on your finger stretch exercise
Remember to just keep it real slow Just 2 minutes right at the beginning
Get your hand warmed up Don't press too hard and wear your hand out
or it'll make the rest of your practice session a little bit painful, ok?
So 2 minutes working on that exercise Then we're gonna have 1 minute on
your D minor chord perfect So just playing the chord over and over
Put the fingers down, strum it, lift it off, put it down, strum it you know
over and over again, just for 1 minute
Then for 1 minute you've got chord perfect on whatever chord you're finding most difficult
Now, for me, it was mostly D minor again So I ended up doing 2 minutes on D minor
But if you find by the end of the week or couple of weeks that the D minor
is feeling comfortable but you're really struggling still with D or whatever other chord
then spend some time working on those other chords as well
You can alternate it everyday you can it's really up to you
Work on the thing, the chord that you're struggling with the most
Most times it's gonna be D minor to start off with and then you will
change it a little bit later on
Then you've got two 1 minute changes sessions on your two worst chord changes
Again, for most people, D minor to A minor is going to be the first one
that's gonna be a struggle
Then you can pick whatever one, other chord change you're finding the hardest
Whatever one you struggle with the most you got the lowest score on
should be the one that you practice on
Probably it's gonna involve Dm, so like Dm to E would be probably quiet tricky one as well
So just feel it out, pick you two hardest chord changes and those are the ones
you should be working on
Then we've got 2 minutes on strumming I want you focused on that strumming pattern
DOWN DOWN UP UP DOWN DOWN DOWN UP UP DOWN
Muted fingers, not trying to worry about applying it to a song, just
really working on that thing keeping your hand moving, doing it to a
metronome if you can you don't have to but it would be a good idea
if you at least give it a bit of a go once or twice
There's a metronome built into my site as well as in the practice schedule
if you want or you can try the Justin Guitar Time Trainer Metronome
as well... lots of metronomes around just try to find one that's really good
and accurate because you don't wanna be practising
with a metronome that's a bit wobbly
You've then got 2 minutes on your riff fun
It's gonna be Sunshine of your love this time. ok?
That's the riff that I'd recommend that you have a go at doing
It's loads of fun It is gonna be difficult, ok?
So don't worry about it too much if you find it hard. It's very likely to be hard
But you gonna learn a lot from trying to do it anyway, even if you don't feel like
you are doing that well, you're probably doing better than you think
And then you've got 10 minutes of song work That adds up to a grand total of
20 minutes. For the song work
I've given you some songs that I've suggested already, probably the choices
I mean it's up to you. You pick your own ones
My favourite ones would've been 505, probably Chocolate Jesus and
A Girl Like You would've been my personal choice, but you pick the ones that
you feel like are gonna work for you
The big question on everybody's lips How do I know that I'm ready to move on
What do I need to be able to do So it's a fairly similar kinda thing to last time
I'd recomend that you've got you new 1 minute changes, so pretty much
all of your 1 minute changes up around your 30 changes per minute
That would be a good goal for all of these ones involving the D minor
You wanna've memorized all of the chords so far, so
you need to make sure that you've memorized your A, D and E and your
Am, Dm and Em
So you can just play them you don't have to look at a chord chart
or anything like that
The memorization of those chords really really super important.
I want you to be able to strum that basic Old Faithful strumming pattern
DOWN DOWN UP UP DOWN
Consistently, just without applying any chords
Preferably with a metronome, but if you're still struggling with a
metronome thing that's OK.
That's one of those things that will grow But at least tapping your foot along
and keeping your hand moving consistent that's the key thing here is the consistency
of the hand movement if you can't keep the hand consistent
you need to do more practice on it
If you can, have a go at applying that strumming pattern into some of
your song practice as well. It's a really good way to get it engrained in your
playing right away and kinda make it feel natural, is to put it into practice
in the real world of playing songs, but many of you will find that pretty difficult
I think, so see how you go with doing that. But that's not a thing
you have to have done
The riff - there's no set thing just have a go at doing the riff
If you can play it in a couple of weeks then great if you can't then that's
OK too
And with the song work... It will be good to be able to play
one song kinda most of the way through and getting it right most of the time
There's no set thing like you have to be able to play this song
If you're keeping the strumming real simple you wanna be able to play the song
through without mocking it up too much with the rhythm just keeping your hand
movement consistent
Having a go, occasionally, at this Old Faithful strumming pattern
if you want, but you don't have to be able to use it right away though the whole song
That's not, you know, part of the requisite for moving on.
With all of that information you have to then make a decision like
Yeah, I'm kinda cool to move on You don't want to stay on this lesson
until you're bored
It's got to stay interesting, it's got to stay fun. So if you're like
Yeah, I'm getting really bored at doing these things now
Move on to the next lesson and get some new things to learn
some new riffs, some new chords so you got some fun stuff to keep
you interested. That's really the most important thing is
Finding things that inspire you to pick your guitar up and get playing, OK?
That's got to be the key thing here for you practice. I'm hoping
you're enjoying my left handed practising If you haven't seen any of that go and
check the Nitsuj lesson where you can watch me fumbling around on my
chords as well... that's... Well, I find it funny because
most of that stuff feels pretty easy for me this way around
but flop the guitar over the other way woooh.... man.....
there's some difficult stuff you guys are working on right now and I know
how difficult it is, that's why I'm saying You've got to be nice to yourself
You've got to be forgiving of things that are not going right and know that
If you keep practising things are going to come good
It is all about practice, this guitar thing. It really is.
That's a trick, so wishing you a splendid week or twos practice
And I'll see you for more very soon. Bye-Bye.