NEWS + Strumming SOS & More!

Howdy guitar friend, are you still struggling with rhythm? My new course will help you! And... let's say good-bye to 2022! December 2022 News Howdy guitar friend, Oh my, it's already almost the end of the year, and what a year it's been. I hope your guitar has been a positive part of your year - spend a minute to think about all the things you learned and improved on since last December! :) Next year will mark the 20th anniversary of JustinGuitar! It's fun to reflect on the journey. Writing lesson plans and coding the website in the back of a tour bus - to today, where I have an international team supporting me and over 650,000 registered students. What a trip! The last few years have seen an incredible leap for the website, and I greatly appreciate my team! Laryne (Ops Manager) does an incredible job keeping me organized and helps with pretty much everything. Barbara makes everything look beautiful, and our developer Kris has been doing a great job taking over the coding when the previous developers, Ben & Mike, moved on early in the year. The incredible Community guides Lieven, Richard, and David have done a great job helping the community grow in a wonderfully positive way. Jon, the engraver of Tabs, is always on point! The whole Musopia team has done amazing work with the app. My workshop colleagues Pete, Dave, and Carlo helped make this year's workshops the best ever... Also, thanks to Cass, Ross, Jamaica, George, Adam, Tom, Robby, the Planet Aragon team, Russel and Angela in accounts and Rupert. Thank you all so much! :) Personally, it's been a great year too. Seeing my daughter thrive and grow into such a considerate young girl is my greatest joy. I started Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu which has become an important part of my life, and we finally finished our house renovation, and I am enjoying it! Now let's see what's on our last 2022 menu... and that includes [Strumming Foundations]( - my brand-new course to help you become a confident rhythm guitarist! December Highlights - New Course: Strumming Foundations - Have you downloaded my Christmas gift for you? :) - New Song Lessons - Ways I use Guitar Pro - App: Review & Win - Guitar Care with MusicNomad - Donating to Food Banks - Community Highlight & Approved Teachers - Life Stuff... Do you feel like you've got a poor sense of rhythm? Do you struggle to stay in a groove when you strum? And even if you get the strumming right, it still doesn't feel good? My [brand-new Strumming Foundations Course]( is for you! We'll work on developing a great sense of rhythm and building a strong strumming technique. This course, part of my Strumming SOS series that replaces the old Strumming 1&2 DVDs, starts at the very beginning and approaches all the basic mechanics often overlooked. Strumming Foundations contains 17 lessons, an exclusive workbook, and Community support at all stages! You also get a 30-Day Money Back guarantee: if this course doesn't help your strumming, I'll give you a full refund. [Start Strumming]( My gift for you is the free [12 Days of Christmas Songs]( ebook! Let's spread the holiday joy! [Africa - Toto]( I've always loved this song, but every time I tried to learn it, I got stuck on the chords and spent hours debating if it was this or that... but finally decided to figure out an arrangement as best I could! And seems pretty popular so far, hope you enjoy it! [Like a Rolling Stone - Bob Dylan]( So was it about Brian Jones or not? I have 'known' it was about him since I was a teenager, but after a few folks disagreed in the video comments, it seems that nobody else thought that, so it was only 'famously' to me! :) lol - but still, it's a fun song to play, and I really enjoyed doing the intro! [Sunny - Bobby Hebb]( This song is great for beginners looking to challenge themselves: you can play it using easier chords! However, we'll also look at a real barre-chord workout version for intermediate players. You can hear the electric guitar [playing chips]( in the original, so we'll also explore that! [Silver & Gold - Neil Young]( We can never have enough Neil Young lessons, eh? :) I love his acoustic songs, and this one is nice to play, just enough tricky stuff to make it interesting but not a struggle. The song shines through. If you like NY, then you'll probably love this! [Mr Tambourine Man - Bob Dylan]( This is an all-time classic, and a great one to pull out at a party! In hindsight maybe I should have added the famous intro from the Byrds version, but I always preferred the original - hope you dig the groove baby doll! Chords/lyrics + tabs for all my song lessons are available with [JustinGuitarTabs](. :) [View All Songs]( Guitar Pro is a fantastic tool, and you can use it in endless ways. [This lesson]( is not an ad, but part of [Grade 3]( the perfect time to start exploring software like that. Use code [JUSTINGUITAR]( for a discount on your license! :) 💰 Review my app for a chance to win a $100 Amazon gift-card! :) Can you help me spread the word about how effective the JustinGuitar Lessons & Songs app is and how it's impacting your guitar journey? If you have a few minutes to spare, please [go to this link]( and leave your review about the JustinGuitar app. Share about your experience: how is the app helping you? What are your favorite tools and functionalities? How long have you been using it? :) Word of mouth is so powerful, and there's no better way to encourage other students to download and use my app than by sharing real testimonials from people who dig the app as much as I do! To thank you for your time, Musopia will draw a lucky winner to get a $100 gift card from Amazon. Some exclusions apply; [read the official rules here](. [Review & Win]( What an amazing year for the JustinGuitar Community! We started 2022 with a brand-new Community, integrating our old forum and commenting system on the website lessons on just one platform. Almost a year later, we couldn't be happier about all the great feedback we got about that transition. The Community is more active than ever, and it welcomes new students from all over the world every day with a common passion: the guitar. It's great to see so many of you introducing yourselves, posting videos of you playing, organizing Open Mics, and helping each other regularly. I plan to join many more Open Mics in 2023 and get to know more students through the Community Awards and topic discussions. Although I don't always have time to reply to every single one of you, I read as much as possible and count on my excellent guides, Lieven, Richard, and David, to welcome and support y'all. A big thank you to all regular members, who always welcome new students and bring important feedback to my team's attention. I appreciate all of you! [Explore My Community!]( Book a private lesson with one of my [Approved Teachers]( If you need extra help or motivation to achieve your guitar goals, [contact one of my Approved Teachers]( They offer personalized lessons online and are very familiar with my teaching methodology. It's the best way to start 2023 strong and focused on your goals! Take Care of Your Guitar - and give back to those in need! Do you wonder how to keep your guitar healthy, clean, and safe from low humidity or how to set it up properly? I recently received some goodies from MusicNomad, and their guitar care stuff is great! So I'm going to introduce that brand to you. :) 💡 This is not a paid advertisement! To thank us for this spot, MusicNomad is donating 20% of your purchase to support food banks in the UK and the USA. So, you get access to great guitar care products, and we pay it forward by helping those who need extra support in these difficult times! All you need to do is [buy a MusicNomad product from Andertons]( (delivers in the UK, no code required!) or [from the MusicNomad store]( (delivers in the USA; use 'promotional code' JUSTINGUITAR20 to activate your donation at checkout!) and complete your purchase before December 16, 2022. These products grabbed my attention: - [The Humitar ONE]( this easy-to-use product protects and monitors your guitar from low humidity in your home and the danger of it drying and cracking. - [Keep it Simple Setup]( a properly set up guitar plays and sounds better! This kit has all you need to measure if your guitar is well set up, including a tutorial! - [Total Guitar Spa Kit]( keep your guitar polished, clean, and conditioned - with an attention to detail that our 6-string friend deserves! 🙏 Remember to add code JUSTINGUITAR20 in the checkout if buying from the USA, so 20% of that purchase goes to charity! More on the food banks is below. [Explore MusicNomad]( About the Food Banks Where 20% of your purchase will go! [FareShare]( is the UK's longest-running food redistribution charity; I donate to them regularly! If you can, please consider donating to them too. They believe that no good food should go to waste, especially when people are hungry. Very precise, right? :) For over 40 years, [Feeding America]( has responded to the hunger crisis in America by providing food to people in need through a nationwide network of food banks. This is my first time supporting them, but I did my research, and it's serious stuff! ❤️ Don't need to buy anything? I still encourage you to donate to a local food bank if you can afford to do so! It's giving season, and many people out there really need our help right now. Thank you! ❤️ A big thank you to [Andertons]( for supporting the campaign above. They're my absolute favorite music store in the United Kingdom. Check them out for all your gear needs! [They also sell all of my songbooks]( and have a killer [YouTube Channel](. :) Life Stuff... What a crazy month! Everything has been full-on, work, life, and play! But just another couple of weeks to push through, and then I'm planning to take a proper break until the new year! Looking back on the last month, the personal highlight was entering my first BJJ (Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu) competition. Was just keen to test my skills, but I really enjoyed it. The experience was the prize I was after, and ended up with silver medals in both Gi and No Gi too, both in lower age brackets (Masters 3 and Masters 2, but I should be Master 4, a Senior :) lol). Very happy with that for my first comp. The pic above is with my awesome coach [Jay Butler]( and many of my team mates were down to support. Great club! A few days later, I was in Helsinki to see the app development team at Musopia and hang out at Slush (a cool start-up event). Was awesome, and got to see my first snow of the season. Many awesome things coming for the app and the website :) very exciting. I like December, I always have a bunch of things to finish off, so there's a mad amount of work to get through and then a big release where I don't work much at all, and I do a lot of reflecting and thinking about the coming year. I find the darkness a bit depressing, so I love the Christmas lights and festive spirit, though I dislike the consumer culture that comes with it. Well, I have a ton of things on my to-do list so I best bid you fare well :) Hope the coming month is filled with much love, laughter and music! Jx 📺 What I'm watching... Y'all know that I'm a huge fan of Neil Young... [this interview with Zach Sang]( is one of the best he's given; he shares a lot - if you're a fan, you'll love it! Over an hour :) [The Swimmers]( - this incredible film on Netflix is about two sisters that escape Syria, and one goes on to swim at the Rio Olympics. It's touching, and I feel like it's changed my perspective on refugees and the struggles they face. Heartbreaking what some people have to go through with nothing while others (like me / you?) produce so much waste. 🎶 What I'm listening to... [Cardinal Black]( - The awesome guitar player Chris Buck lays down some amazing guitar, as you'd expect, but the songs are great too! :) [Harry's House]( - The more I listen to this album, the more I like it. Yesterday I was on a train for an hour, and I had the album with the new Dolby Atomos Lossless thing and my Apple Max Headphones, and wow. Honestly, some of the best-sounding production I've ever heard - incredible clarity and depth. Joanna Newsom - A friend reminded me of this artist, and I felt a wonderful nostalgia listening to her again. Her song [The Sprout And The Bean]( is just sublime - the polyrhythms she plays on harp while singing at the same time are extraordinary! [Try this live version too]( [Explore JustinGuitar]( Copyright © 2022 Justin Guitar Ltd, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you signed up on my web site justinguitar.com, hope you enjoy my newsletters! Our mailing address is: Justin Guitar Ltd PO Box 695Farnham, Surrey GU9 1NB United Kingdom [Add us to your address book]( Want to change how you receive these emails? You can [update your preferences]( or [unsubscribe from this list](. [Mailchimp Email Marketing](