March 21st, 2022
How it’s been going:
Great! I had a goal of recording my self playing the 5 songs (chord progressions at least) that I was working on for Grade 1 consolidation and I did!
Stand by me - Chord progression (Consolidation song 1/5)
Hey Joe - Chord Progression (Consolidation song 2/5)
Mad world - Chord Progression (Consolidation song 3/5)
Chocolate Jesus - Chord Progression (Consolidation song 4/5)
What’s up - Chord Progression (Consolidation song 5/5)
I’d say that if I were to do something like this again, I’d spend more time trying to record the whole song. When practicing I did play the songs in their entirety but I’d like to at least show more when making a video. Good news is that the Grade 2 songs have some potential to sound really good in a recording!
Speaking of Grade 2, I started it a couple of days ago and am moving along nicely. Stuck 3 & 4 chords sound great, I love the wish you were here riff and am starting to get the hand of it. The E Minor Pentatonic scale felt really awkward playing up and down but even that is getting easier and easier at 80BPM.
What I’ve been Playing:
- Every Rose Has it’s Thorn - a 16th note pattern (I’m getting the pattern from Justin’s Rock Song book) which I’m really getting used to at this point. I love playing this song, the only issue I’m having is switching chords mid bar. Just can’t seemed to do it right with this pattern. I feel like I’ll get it eventually though
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You Shook Me All Night Long - First song I’m learning that combines riffs and strumming. AC/DC is one of the first bands that I listened to that I really noticed the guitar. They got me interested in playing guitar in my teens. I’m playing the C chord here like the record (not Cadd9) so it’s not as useful for getting used to stuck 3&4 like Every Rose has It’s Thorn but I love the song. I want to record and post this song some day.
EDIT: Forgot to add that I’m using the Dirty Deeds Katana patch that Justin made for the tone. It sounds really close to the record (For pretty much any AC/DC song) when playing with the bridge pick up. Would recommend for anyone who has a Katana!
The Plan:
I expect that I’ll be spending at least 2 weeks total on Module 8. From how I’ve been feeling so far I feel like I can make that. Of course I’ll evaluate at the end and see if I should spend more time on it. I’m definitely going to be working on You Shook Me All Night Long after I move on. A long term goal for me (years) is to play all of the songs in the Rock Song book. I’m not close to ready to play the solo on this one but I’m excited to have the start of 2 of the songs in the book. 
New Gear/Purchases:
Yesterday I ordered Justin’s rhythm reading book from Amazon. I was learning You shook me all night long from the tabs in the song book and there was some rhythm notation that I just did not get. I couldn’t find the meaning anywhere and figured I might as well start learning to read rhythm notation since it’s used in justin’s and other tabs I’ve seen online. Really excited for it to come tomorrow.