5 Month Guitar Progress (Videos + Breakdown)


This month I worked on the final stage of the Justin Guitar Beginner Course. I have tracked my guitar progress over 5 months (links at bottom of this post) and this month marks a major milestone.

Go to week 20 from the table of contents if you can’t wait because I showcase the 10 songs that I learned all the way through. Guitar has gone from being something I wanted to always learn to play and now is becoming part of my life. So if you are early in your journey like me and want some inspiration to carry on then watch that video first.

I am not saying I’m an awesome guitar player but I have definitely improved and it is a big thanks to Justin Guitar and his free beginner course. By recording my guitar progress I have held myself accountable and also been able to prove to myself and hopefully you reading this that it is possible to learn guitar later in life. 

If you still aren’t convinced by the end of it then read my post here, 17 Reasons Why You’re Never Too Old To Learn Guitar where I talk about why older people learning guitar have a great skill and mindset for learning to play later in life.

It would be great to have you along on my guitar progress journey so if you would like to join me then please subscribe to my YouTube Channel here and sign up for my email updates here. I won’t spam you, I just want to keep in contact with like-minded people and provide you with some updates, tips and any recommendations that you will benefit from along your journey.

So let’s get into my progress this month.

What I Learned In My Fifth Month Of Playing Guitar

Below is what I have learned this month but my running total of hours learning to play guitar including this month is: 130 hours

I wrote an article at the beginning of this journey called How Long Does It Take To Learn Guitar? This was an article based on a book I read plus online research and I am measuring my progress against it.

Once I finish Justin Guitar’s Beginner Course I will give feedback against this progress but in the meantime, it is well worth a read to understand what the projections are based upon the research found and whether the timescale is realistic.

Summary Of What I Learned / Did / Recommend This Month:

  • Total of Hours of Guitar Practiced this month: 32 Hours
  • Huge Milestone: Complete The Justin Guitar Beginner Course!
  • 10 Song Showcase – See Week 20 below.
  • Chords: Bm Barre Chord, otherwise it’s all been about songs!
  • New songs I have been learning: 
    • Let It Be – The Beatles
    • Fly Away – Lenny Kravitz
    • Once – Liam Gallagher
    • Everybody Hurts – REM

17 Week Guitar Progress (Stage 9 – Justin Guitar Beginner Course)

So I have been working on some more songs to help me get to the 10 I need as part of the final test. I now know how to play 3 all the way through and I only need 7 more, so I have been working on another 3 this week.

Songs I Have Been Learning This Week

The first song that I have been learning is Let It Be by The Beatles. You can watch me play this early in the video and this song has the F barre chord within it. Again I can’t escape that every time I need to play the F chord it halts the flow of the song. 

I am not sure how to progress this other than just keep on learning songs that have an F in it and try to increase the speed and fluidity of how I play it. If you have any suggestions then I would love to hear them, please leave a comment below.

Another song I have been learning is Fly Away by Lenny Kravitz which uses power chords. However, no matter what I do right now I can’t get this right haha, it has been such a struggle. If you watch the video you will see around 2:50 the frustration I have had with learning to play it this week. 

I had to laugh as otherwise it would just be just too much and the guitar would end up in the garbage or I would set a world record with how far I could throw it.

So I didn’t make any real progress this week with that song, but you know, ‘Rome wasn’t built in a day’ etc so I just need to knuckle down and get on with it.

The final song I have been learning this week was inspired by listening to one of Liam Gallagher’s albums. There is a song on there which the album is named after, Once, that I have decided to learn. It is not one that is covered by Justin in any of his tutorials but I found one on YouTube that is simple to follow if you want to try it is here.

There are some barre chords in the song, including the F chord so that is good practice if you are working on those. You can see me attempt the song at 4:30 on the video. 

18 Week Guitar Progress (Stage 9 – Justin Guitar Beginner Course)

I now have 7 songs in my repertoire, my quiver, my back pocket, under belt my belt so speak and only have 3 more to learn.

 So in this video, I have showcased these 7 songs that I have learned so far:

  • Mad World – Gary Jules
  • Fields of Joy – Sting
  • 5 Year Time – Noah & The Whale
  • Let It Be – The Beatles
  • Wonderful Tonight – Eric Clapton
  • Redemption Song – Bob Marley
  • Once – Liam Gallagher
  • Everybody Hurts – REM

Another one that I attempted this week but isn’t on that list is Wild World by Cat Stevens but after trying to play it I have decided to do other ones and revisit it at a later date as it is a beautiful song.

Also, one that I have been learning previously and struggling with is Summer of ‘69 by Bryan Adam but again I am not sure I am going to be able to complete this without spending a dedicated few weeks to it. So in the interest of momentum, I will likely choose another.

Pick Ninja

So over the course of my learning so far, there have been quite a few occasions where I strum and the picks have moved or slipped in my hand and even dropped out of my hand entirely.

By luck or coincidence, I can’t decide which, Aaron from Pick Ninja got in touch with me and introduced me to a new product just released and asked if I would be interested in trying it out. I did and have to say that it really helped the pick stay put and give me some confidence. 

I talk about the Pick Ninja in the video but I also wrote an article about how to stop your pick moving, slipping or being dropped. After talking to a pro and researching the best products along with DIY solutions I came up with a comprehensive article that I hope will benefit you, check it out here How To Stop Your Guitar Pick Moving, Slipping or Being Dropped.

19 Week Guitar Progress (Stage 9 – Justin Guitar Beginner Course)

I have been working on two additional songs this week with one more required after that to get me to my final 10. The final 10 that is required to ‘graduate’ from Justin Guitar’s beginner course.

Next week I plan to showcase the 10 songs that I have learned and complete the course. Hopefully, it will serve as some inspiration to any of you doing the course or learning later in life.

The two songs that I have been working on this week are Hey Joe by Jimi Hendrix, which is a simplified version that I tackled before but this time I am trying to learn all the way through.

The other song is Everbody Hurts by REM which obviously quite a sad song but it makes me happy to play it! It sounds cool and is fun to learn to play. I will likely include it in my final 10 next week.

20 Week Guitar Progress – 10 Song Showcase – Justin Guitar Beginner Course Complete

Well this is it, I have finally made it to the end of the Justin Guitar Beginner Course and in this video, I showcase the 10 songs that I have learned to pass this final stage. I would like to say a big thank you to Justin for the course which offers up for free and it is so detailed and well explained that is has been a joy to play through, so thank you, Justin!

Are the songs perfect? Nope, but I have come to understand that they don’t have to be. The important thing to realize is that we all make progress at different speeds and that we choose to move on at different times when learning online.

So some of us will really get stuck into each stage and spend a lot more time than I have and others will whip through the course a lot quicker than me. As a result, at the end of the course, we all come out with different levels of playing.

However, we finish up the beginner course we all would have learned a lot of the concepts yet our strengths and weaknesses will be all different. This is natural and over time with focused practice and just through the natural learning of songs, this will change.

It has been a blast so far, so I hope you enjoy seeing this showcase of songs and if you want to join me then please subscribe to my YouTube channel and you can sign up for my email updates on the homepage of this blog.

What Next? 6 Month Guitar Progress Breakdown

I hope you can join me on my journey, so if you would like to keep updated then please subscribe to my YouTube Channel here and sign up for my email updates here. I won’t spam you, only provide tips and recommendations along with updates on my progress.

I would love to hear from any of you learning to play guitar and if you have any questions, comments or want to tell me how you are getting on then please leave them in the comments section below. I will do my best to answer them and provide any help, feedback, and encouragement I can.

All the best, good luck on your guitar journey and don’t forget to check out my other guitar progress posts below.

Look forward to seeing you there.

Guitar Progress Posts

If you are learning to play guitar or are interested in seeing my progress updates then please use these links below

1 Month Guitar Progress – Getting started on The Justin Beginner Guitar Course – Stage 3

2 Months Guitar Progress – Stage 5 Through To Stage 7

3 Months Guitar Progress – Blues and Fingerstyle!

4 Months Guitar Progress – Final Stage Of The Justin Guitar Beginner Course

6 Months Guitar Progress – What Next? and Learning My Most Complex Song Yet.

7 Months Guitar Progress – 25 Hours To Learn This New Song But I Love It!

8 Months Guitar Progress – Frustrating Times!

Luke Winter

I'm Luke, the owner of this site, and I started learning guitar in 2019 online. I documented all my progress on YouTube and created this website to help others wanting to learn guitar online later in life. Find out more about me, what gear I use, or just get in contact by clicking on my image next to this bio.

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