I have joined this forum recently and I find it quite interesting and peaceful space which is a nice of a change comparing to all the rest of the internet.
My plan is to post here my progress and set my short and long term goals in my learning adventure so there it goes.
I came back to playing after too long of a break due to being too engaged with my education and working my way out in my profession. Now I have finally seems like settled I bought a fairly appropriate guitar, amp with effects and I am cracking on.
Practice routine:
G maj scale technique and pace - at the moment 90x4bpm pretty much spot on, still getting some errors on 100bpm, attempt taken on 110bpm but still not comfortable.
Bending/vibrato - seems they are getting a lot better after weeks of practice, train during licks rather than on their own.
Blues licks from the web - (recheck at home which one from the list still need working on)
New practice - practice each lick on its own with a backtrack, experiment with it
Song section
Songs I’ve learnt since getting back to guitar:
Fast Car - comfortable playing, need to figure out how to play and sing along, really difficult to split my mind up
Hey there Delilah - spot on, singing seems all right along playing, perhaps after polishing my first video on the forum?
Betterman - pretty okay but still need to put some work on it
Heartbeats - bridge still behind, polish and practice pace
Gotten - verse 1 transcribed, in process transcribing remaining song, 50% of chorus done. Focus on this mainly
Long term goals:
Hey Oh Snow
Sultan of Swings
Pride and Joy (soul wrecking really how difficult it is!)
Right so been a few busy weeks guitar wise since my first post. Will try to record a video soon but my perfectionism is getting in my way - I tried to record one of the songs I know but after about 50 attempts I gave up until I get better grip at it. I am still a bit clunky around bridge and during the whole song I knock off some random strings accidentally, but hope to get there one day!
Practice routine:
G maj scale technique and pace - got to 100bpm 16th nores pretty well, now trying to get 110bpm but feels like still more work required,
Blues licks from the web - most done, need to replace some easy ones with new from Awesome Licks chapter
Song section became recently songs section to increase my repertuar so to speak
At some point I plan to go through rock techniques section and I will definitely add a legato practice into my routine, but need to watch some videos first to know what I need to work on.
Songs I know and work on:
Fast Car - comfortable playing, long term goal to sing along
Hey there Delilah - spot on, defo my first video for the forum, need to crack on and try to get a version recorded that I am happy with
Betterman - pretty okay but still need to put some work on it to get it smooth. Later on perhaps sing along?
Heartbeats - actually tried to record this one but I was keep failing on a bridge section. I will start with something easier and come back to this one later once I nail it.
Gotten - all transcribed, now trying to learn playing it. I will get there eventually, hell of a song!
Scar Tissue - I used to know how to play the main riff but never had patience to play along with the song. Figured it’s going to be easier to learn something I know at least a bit rather than starting somethig from the scratch. Goes pretty well but still working on my memory to remember which notes are played when (usually John plays sort of first section the same and second bit is different each time you progress through the song).
Anywhere by Passenger - figured out yesterday on my own how to strum the chorus which is quite tricky when I need to convert from Cadd9 to Em7 or from B7 to Em7 (I think it would be a lot simpler on an acoustic guitar in open position chords).
Back to it then! I have been MIA for a month on the forum in September/October time during my father’s in law fatal accident (hit by a car on a pedestrian crossing) so needed to fly back to my home country to get through all the stuff. It was quite emotional and I think those things make you realize how fragile life is and to cherish every single minute of it - do what you love in the first place, spend your time with those who you love/loves you and then everything else. Well enough of the sad stuff.
I think my guitar journey is still on course, I’m still enjoying it a lot, learning new stuff, practicing old and just trying to get better I guess. I am trying to limit amount of stuff I’m working on at the same time but it’s sometimes difficult, especially if you hear something you love in your speakers and want to learn it ideally in next 5 minutes. One day at a time I suppose!
Good news actually - today I made quite a spontaneous purchase and I got an electroacoustic guitar! I went for a second hand one but had a good check before I decided to get it and I am very happy both with the look and sound, especially for my level of skill. I’m posting the photo on the bottom, it’s Fender CD-60SCE in black, man it looks so badass! What do you guys think?
Practice routine:
G maj scale mechanics for warmup - got to 120bpm 16th notes pretty well, I’m finishing on 130bpm with some successful attempts so I guess that’s a nice progress!
Licks - I’m focusing only on one recently until I nail it, it’s the one at the end of Sultan of swings which I know most of you know very well I can get to 90% pace easily, but I still sometimes loose a grip on full speed - will get there! I am also looking at PJ’s Garden song but that is hell of a difficult little licks in there, will take some time.
Snow Hey Oh - I have dedicated a separate section in my routine to just practice this song. I still make a lot of mistakes but I am amazed how it’s going, it’s the song that made me play and buy my first electric guitar years ago and that also defeated me and my eagerness to learn playing guitar few years back.
Song section - just generally practicing songs I know depending on a day. I leave it for last just to enjoy and chill. Hopefully some of those I can share with you during Christmas break - I am planning to take some annual leave and I am not planning to go back to my family this Christmas due to Covid so seems I will have plenty of time to practice, yay!
Songs I know and work on:
Fast Car - comfortable playing, long term goal to sing along.
Betterman - comfortable playing, lately trying to sing along which will take some time.
Heartbeats - as previously said I left it for a while but now I bought acoustic I can detune it and play the song every time I need to earlier I was bit discouraged by constant detuning and tuning back up just to play a single song.
Gotten - all transcribed, know how to play all bits but got bit bored for now so will revisit once I want to again.
Anywhere by Passenger - playing it often during Song section, possibly soon I’ll record it especially that I have acoustic now and I think chorus will sound a lot better on acoustic.
Blackbird - great song, getting better and better, need some practice still.
Slide Goo Goo Dolls - my first song I am able to play and sing, yay! Once I’m ready and figure out how to record my singing without any interface in place I might share it with you guys
Gone PJ - second song which I am trying to sing along to, however still needs some more work as strumming is bit tricky on this one, especially AOL version I have found on youtube and I prefer
Okay so now the main guest - I present to you my new guitar! Really nice Xmas present I made myself
So this post will be slightly off from a usual pattern, I plan to set some goals for this year similar to others however I wanted something new and quick, so I will keep it short!
I am learning a new song, possibly many of you know, it’s RHCP - Snow. Now Justin was saying in his lesson once you get progression you will have it, but clearly easier said than done!
I went back to basics - slow down, get it sorted and speed up. Songs bpm is 105, I am at 75bpm now. Supposed to be a quick question, so there it is - below is a quick sample of me playing, do you think I should still practice at this pace a bit more or am I ready to add another 5 bpm?
Becuse I play longer due to slowing song down my hand gets sour quicker so on one hand I would love to move on, on another I don’t know if I should and I don’t make too many mistakes! Have a listen and let me know your thoughts!
Okay so I have seen plenty of interesting posts around RCs since January with some goals set and expectations - I think it is a nice idea to do the same and post it in here, sort of a self-appraisal type of thing And to make things more interesting I will also update my practice routine and songs I am and have worked on so far.
I think so far so good with my practice, I feel I am making Gulliver steps since I started back which is very encouraging and keeps me well motivated. Community that appreciates your recordings - it only helps carry on with what I’ve been up to I will probably split my goals to three typical sections: short, medium and long term goals.
Short term goals - Technique (for next 6 months):
To learn more songs obviously! I have decided to work on less songs at the same time so gaps between recordings can be shorter than usual. I don’t want to end up with 3 months gaps and then publish 5 songs each week back to back (sort of like I ended up lately).
Polish my G Major scale accuracy and feel more comfortable at the current speed - it’s my eat your vegetables sort of exercise, to create my own music and impros will follow, for now it’s all about a technique.
Work on more licks - I am not doing many at the same time, lately it’s been two licks from PJ - Garden, most recognizable lick from Sultans of Swing and… main theme from Power Rangers, something I was dreaming to play as a child
That might be a challenge, but to finish songs I am learning now, especially my Mount Everest which is Snow by RHCP. At the moment I am at 85 bpm (song’s pace is 105 bpm) and I think soon I can move the bar up to either 90 or 95.
Medium term goals - Technique + Musicianship (for next 12 months):
Again songs songs songs, I would like to try more complex ones (like Sultans of Swing, some Santana, PJ and more RHCP) to improve the technique, so once I start making my own music I have plenty aces in my sleeves to use.
Start thinking more about what I play, so what key I am in, what notes solos consist of and why is it played that way. I sort of do it now but to a very limited scope, so that needs to improve!
That’s an ambitious one - musicianship. I need to learn how to make my own music, I feel I should improve in this aspect, so I need to start learning scales, shapes and how to use those. For the moment I only know G Major scale in E shape and A minor pentatonic in all 5 shapes and that means nothing until I can use it over different chords.
Probably that’s when I will renew my PMT subscription to remind myself of the basics and work with Justin’s material to become a better musician.
Long term goals - Proficiency (for next 12+ months):
Knowing all notes on fretboard without a hesitation,
Understanding scales, how to play and manipulate those over different chords and backing tracks,
Start learning modes only when I feel I am able to understand those and when to use them.
Write my first song,
Enrol to a singing course.
I think those are very challenging goals but I am trying to be reasonable with time frames. If I don’t make it - so be it, as long as I enjoy the journey I am happy to carry on as it is
Practice routine:
G maj scale mechanics for warmup - got to 140bpm 16th notes, I can pull off 150 bpm after few mins of 140 so I think I am where Justin ended up which makes me super happy, as he mentioned once you get there you can play most of the solos there are.
Licks - as mentioned above, at the moment it’s Sultans of Swing last solo so I am practicing my right hand mostly during this exercise and fingerpicking, PJ Garden 2 licks + lately I have added up Power Rangers theme solo, it’s super fan legato which also uses right hand finger hammering on the fretboard, super lots of fun this one!
Snow Hey Oh - still on it! For now it’s 85 bpm out of 105 bpm, probably next week I am raising a bar to either 90 or 95, we will see how it goes. I hope to be able to record it in next 6 months.
Song section - as I said I limited amount of songs I am practicing at once now, so it’s just two right now - R U Mine by Arctic Monkeys and Life is a Rollercoaster by Ronan Keating. I couldn’t obviously resist myself and when it’s late in the evening I sometimes play around with Devil’s tears by Angus and Julia Stone not to wake up my neighbours I think all of those songs should easily be learned by me in my 6 months timeframe.
Songs I know and work on:
Fast Car - on a shelf for now, comfortable playing, long term goal to sing along.
Life is a Rollercoaster - easy chord progression, getting it smooth for now plus I am trying to incorporate some small extra additions to make it more interesting.
R U Mine - a lot of gain and fuzz on this one! Enjoying it so much, still need to work on getting solo right and some bits and pieces at the finishing line, there are some tweaks to incorporate so need some extra work.
Devil’s Tears - beautiful song, very repetitive section which once sorted out makes you able to play a whole song. For now just playing it for fun few mins a day.
Big Me - recording ready, need to trim it and upload, probably in next few weeks.
Wow it’s been over a year now since I purchased guitar and got back to it, how time flows is unbelievable. Next week will be my 1 year anniversary on this forum so I decided to do a little anniversary update and to list all the latest songs I covered in AVOYP section.
Everything started when I hit a BUY button that got me my electric guitar which some of you most certainly recognize from my recordings. Not long after I bought picks, capo, set of strings, amp and I was ready to rock. Once my calluses got a bit tougher, I decided to start practicing songs while following Justin’s programme and somewhere around July I published my first ever video recording! And on top of it shown it to you guys which I have never done before. Feedback was better than expected and that keeps me motivated to post more and learn from any guidance I can get from fellow guitarists over here.
And there we are a year later, who would have thought I will be making recordings using a proper mic and AI, switching between electric and acoustic. I am still keeping at it, still enjoying the ride and I hope to do so for many long years. Lately I published my goals – there is one I missed which is I hope to never put back guitar for extended period of time like I did around 10 years ago.
In last year I made 12 recordings (1 a month on average, wow to myself) and I attended 2 virtual open mics which were truly wonderful experience. Thanks for all those that read those updates, I am always thankful to people who are taking their own time to read my posts and listen to my recordings. I think that’s more than enough for an update, time to run through links and practice routine.
Practice routine:
G maj scale mechanics for warmup – even though I got to a desired speed I decided to slow down and work on accuracy, use this training as a warmup. 5-7 mins a day.
Impro over C major – this mostly started as learning notes over fretboard exercise but lately it’s mostly impros over backing tracks. I was actually thinking about perhaps trying to record some simple chord progression myself and fooling around with different modes and triads. Also using the occasion to practice some licks I have learnt so far, really fun element of my practice!
Snow Hey Oh - still on it! Finally reached original pace, now trying to minimize amount of screw ups along the way, it proves to be the most challenging part!
Song section – okay so since I have just posted my last 2 songs I performed at OMs I can finally move on with something new. I already started and will see how it goes.
Songs I know and work on:
Fast Car - on a bench for now, comfortable playing, long term goal to sing along.
Big Me - recording ready, need to trim it and upload, however after upgrading to mic and AI it really sounds less interesting, so I might leave it off the forum and just post it on my channel and roadcase.
Gotten - on a bench for now, all transcribed, know how to play all bits but got bit bored for now so will revisit once I want to again. However due to Luka’s last OM performance I found myself sometimes playing around with it haha, I still think it’s quite long way to go though.
Let’s celebrate 18 months since purchase of the electric and resumption of the musical adventures, Adrian.
You’ve made excellent progress on your goals and become a Community regular who offers so much through sharing your music, encouraging others, and providing useful answers to questions.
Now how’s about RC episode #7 to reflect on the last 6 months
Over 6 months since my last entry, so much happened since last post that I decided to update my Learning Log which used to be called a Roadcase back on the old forum.
Yes the mighty migration - we are on new Community now and I must say I love it. I am constantly positively surprised by Justinguitar overall, I was very keen to get an updated forum to upgrade mobile experience, bang less than 2 years since I joined and it’s done! I was hoping for migration with Discuss comments section? Done! Guys you truly do amazing job here so well done and personally I am really grateful for this amount of resources Justin and team makes to all of us available.
But let’s talk about me again since it’s my LL so as things stand it’s been almost 19 months since I picked guitar again and found Justin, since then I published 17 covers and I performed on 4 virtual OMs which was an amazing experience. Really happy with the progress and hope to keep it up. I think my goals stand as they are since I am still fighting the challenge to get Snow all polished up to satisfactory levels and this was only my short term goal!
I moved as well so now I have a dedicated man cave where I can just sit and play it’s not a big room but plenty more space comparing to my old 1x0.5m area in my old bedroom still few bits and pieces to do and add here and there, but pretty much happy with the current state.
Well this is going to be embarrassing but my practice routine lately is focused around Snow Hey Oh - believe me or not but I am still on it! Don’t want to spoil too much as I believe it will require more extensive post on it’s own, at the moment work in progress!
If I don’t practice above it’s mostly learning notes on the fretboard via Justin’s and other app and fiddling around in C major scale in order to learn notes on the fretboard.
Lately I have recorded all songs I had on my backlog for a while so soon it’s time for a new challenge! At the moment it’s TBC.
Songs I know and work on:
Fast Car - on a bench for now, comfortable playing, long term goal to sing along.
Hello dear folks, quick update from me. As recently I have finally cleared some of the backlog of songs I was learning (not all of course, still some stuff cooking up!) I was reminded by dear @DarrellW about a song I always wanted to learn but I knew it’s gonna be a rabbit hole and here I am!
So without further ado may I present to you More than Words Work in Progress! At the moment it’s Day 5 for me today and it is fun to learn. I did a little video of how am I getting on, mostly for fun to see how am I doing over time (always wanted to do it and usually started too late thinking about it) but also perhaps for others to see how is my process of learning songs looking like - I doubt many will see it on my LL however once I finalize the song at some point in the future I will post it all together as a separate post so people can actually see the process.
I tend to learn in a very logarithmic way - starting quite dynamically but the more I am getting into polishing things up the slower it tends to get unfortunately. Well that’s the process and not much I can do about it except bracing myself with some extra patience.
Here is the link to the video, listed as private so only those with link will see it (which is basically everyone here). I think it’s not as complicated as I was expecting it to be, however it is still difficult and a lot of details to remember so will take some time!
Besides that I am enjoying new house and new studio, changed my laptop to one with more USB ports and also to allow my wife to grab my other one whenever she needs to. On top of that I have a docking station as well so I am finally able to leave an interface on a table - quite handy as I was able to quickly plug in my guitar and record above video in no time. Plan for near future is to buy some monitors to connect up permanently with my interface, still considering options. Now onto the usual stuff.
Practice routine:
Songs songs songs for now and everything has been put aside. I would love to incorporate some more theory and structured lessons but for the moment I believe songs I am learning are giving me far better technical skills than playing scales. However once in a while I love to improvise a bit to a backing track randomly found on youtube
Songs I know and work on:
Fast Car - on a bench for now, comfortable playing, long term goal to sing along.
so as things stand it’s been almost 19 months since I picked guitar again and found Justin, since then I published 17 covers and I performed on 4 virtual OMs which was an amazing experience. Really happy with the progress and hope to keep it up. I think my goals stand as they are since I am still fighting the challenge to get Snow all polished up to satisfactory levels and this was only my short term goal!
it’s not a big room but plenty more space comparing to my old 1x0.5m area in my old bedroom 
still few bits and pieces to do and add here and there, but pretty much happy with the current state.
