Hey, how you doing? Justin back with you to talk about your practice for lesson 5.
First thing I wanna mention is,
I'm not including the Note Circle as part of your practice routine.
Remember that I've got a music theory course on the website,
and the first few stages of that are completely free.
They include some exercises and some worksheets for this sort of stuff.
If you wanna get more of the music theory stuff,
you might wanna go and check that out.
There will be a link, as usual, in the description for this lesson.
Let's talk about your 20 minutes.
We're gonna start of with 2 minutes of the finger stretching exercise.
Really trying to work it down now further toward the nut,
making sure that you're really feeling a stretch in your hand when doing that.
Not so it's painful, just so it feels like a stretch.
Okay? Make sure you know the difference.
You don't wanna hurt yourself here.
This is a really beneficial exercise particularly for those with small hands
that need to really work on the stretch. We're gonna do that 2 minutes.
Then we're gonna do 1 minute of C chord, Chord Perfect.
So, just taking the chord off, put it on,
strum, pick out one at a time, make sure it's all good,
strum again, make the corrections, the usual drill.
You know about this by now. So 1 minute of that.
Then we've got another 1 minute of Chord Perfect on whatever chord
you're struggling with the most.
Now, for me it was most often the C chord, cos that's a hard chord.
So don't be surprised if most of your practice between now and the next lesson
is gonna be on the C chord.
For most people, it's the hardest chord.
if you're struggling with the D, as well,
which is another chord that I found hard on the lefty playing.
So it would be okay in this 2nd minute to maybe work on the C chord and D chord,
alternating between them.
Not 1 minute changes stylie, where you're trying to go fast.
Just each time trying to make sure the notes in the chord are
as perfect as you can make them.
That's really important.
Then we go into 1 minute changes,
and the ones that I'd recommend you go for this time are A minor to C.
Which is just moving 1 finger, going from A minor, relatively simple chord,
and then your 2nd finger will slide up a little and you'll move your 3rd finger.
So just getting used to moving between those 2 different chords.
Really, really important chord changes.
A minor and C appear in songs together all the time, so definitely worth practicing.
Then I've written down that we should be doing C to E minor,
which is another very common chord change you'll encounter in songs quite a lot.
You are able to change these up though,
if you find there are other chords changes you're struggling with,
you can change it up.
Cos you should be working on the chord changes you're finding the most difficult.
Then we've got 2 minutes on strumming.
So, work it with a metronome, picking a strumming pattern,
and trying to keep it nice and consistent,
possibly exploring the variations every 4 or 8 bars if you want.
But mostly, most importantly, working on it,
feeling relaxed and playing it with a metronome,
and getting your synchronization with the metronome really strong.
So your down strum,
and the down click on the metronome happening at exactly the same time.
That's really the big key thing you should be working on there.
We've got then 2 minutes on working on your riff on Come As You Are.
Like I said, we're not trying to nail that riff by the next lesson.
It's an exercise, it's a riff, it's good fun,
hopefully you enjoy doing it.
Just give it 2 minutes of trying your best to keep the notes nice and clear,
working on your pick and making sure you're picking 1 note at a time,
the notes are working out right.
Lots of things to think about and learn in that exercise.
And then we're on to our 10 minutes of song practice.
Loads of cool songs that you can work on.
Hopefully you'll enjoy my suggestions that I mentioned earlier, as well.
I think the ones that I worked on for my personal lefty practice,
were Eleanor Rigby, Get Lucky and Black by Pearl Jam.
Eleanor Rigby by The Beatles,
Get Lucky - Daft Punk, featuring Nile Rodgers,
Black by Pearl Jam, all fantastic songs.
Quite often you're gonna find G chord and C chord with each other.
Being that we haven't learnt the G chord yet,
you might find some of the songs, "I got one that's got a C chord in it"
but you're gonna find a G chord in it.
Just wait, we're gonna be tackling the G chord next lesson.
Just this 1 week or 2 worth of practice on these songs,
or any other ones you've got that you're working on, and we'll be through.
As far as the big question of when to move on,
you're probably kinda familiar with the drill, right?
So I want you to have memorized the Note Circle,
so you're familiar with sharps and flats, which notes are white notes
and how tones and semitones work, that kind of thing.
It's just a one-off memorization of that.
You should have memorized the C chord as well as the other chords we've learnt.
The 1 minute changes but involving the C chord that we've talked about,
specifically trying to get over 30 changes in a minute, preferably higher if you can,
but 30 would be a good minimum now at this point.
The strumming, you should be confident at making your own strumming pattern up,
and practicing it with a metronome at a reasonable tempo,
say between 80 and 100 beats per minute.
Really trying to feel the down strum with the click.
For some people that's gonna be really difficult.
If you're really struggling with it, let me know in the comments,
and maybe I'll make another video,
just to focus on the strumming stuff, like a play-along strumming video.
Strumming is generally considered the hardest part of learning the guitar.
Learning to strum in time,
and not letting the strumming go when you make the chord changes,
or if you fumble on the changes, that's the hardest part.
That's why I recommend so much my Beginner Song Course app.
Not just that it's a product that I want you to buy,
but we designed so that you're working on keeping your rhythm consistent,
playing it along with a backing track.
It's the closest thing you'll get to the real world of having these drums bass,
or other musicians to play along with.
Really keeping on that timing,
trying to keep that strumming hand nice and consistent and even.
That is the key thing there.
The riff, doesn't matter, it's just an exercise,
see how good you can get it by next time.
And the songs, one of the songs that you choose to work on,
maybe getting it to a reasonable level where you can play it through.
There's not really a specific, like, now you're good enough.
That would be really complicated to try and figure out.
So, just where you feel happy with at least one of those songs.
Remember in your song practice, you don't have to do lots of different songs.
You could put all of your energy into one song.
That is a good idea, as well.
Depends a lot on your personality type. I like doing a few different songs,
and then I tend to focus on one for my repertoire,
but it's up to you.
Some people will prefer to have lots of different songs to work on,
to keep them interested,
Other people will get more satisfaction from really nailing down one song.
You have to make that decision for yourself.
Wishing you an awesome week or 2 of practice,
and I'll see you for more very soon.
Take care of yourselves, bye-bye.