Newbie routine questions

While jelqing, how hard should your erection level be and can I use one grip with my right hand and a different with my left?

You can use whatever grip you like as long as it is comfortable and you can maintain the same pressure throughout the stroke.

In terms of erection level, a semi is what you want. I use about a 30% erection level before I start and find that to be quite effective. To describe what that is, when my penis is clearly swelling and is starting to lift away from my body, I start jelqing then.

Hope that helps you :)