May 12th, 2022
How it’s been going:
For the past 2 weeks I’ve been on the Finger Style Module in grade 2. For the most part I’ve spent about 2 weeks per grade 2 module but this one almost broke the mold! One of the milestones that I wanted to hit before moving on was getting the Happy Birthday finger style to a point where I could comfortably play it at a party if the need arose. Gotta be honest, it was a real struggle for most of the time. It was a deceptively hard song for me to grasp, but riiiight before I hit the 2 week mark (yesterday) I was able to play it properly. I’m proud of my self for at the very least sticking to it and not letting frustration turn to despair.
Besides that I’ve found the whole finger style module much more enjoyable than I thought. It’s a beautiful style and I’m so glad I purchased my acoustic guitar because I don’t think I could fully appreciate the tone or the style by trying it with just my electric (I know there are electric specific finger style songs but there is just something about an acoustic guitar playing this style).
What I’ve been Playing:
- Happy Birthday - I’ve said enough about this above so here’s the AVOYP: Happy Birthday FingerStyle
- Hallelujah- Such a beautiful song. I’ve struggled with the changes to the full F chords here and the half bar change from F to weak G but I’ve been getting better and better at it.
- House of the Rising Sun - Another beautiful song in finger style. I specifically wanted to choose songs with full F chords switches and since this one has a big D to F switch it fits the bill. Another that’s not perfect but it’s got me pretty comfortable with the F chord.
- If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next - This one is from Justin’s Rock song book. I’m playing this song during my repertoire revision time. It’s a good song and great for me to practice rhythm. Wanted to practice a song with full F chord switches but that involves strumming so I don’t get rusty in this module. I’m attributing me passing 60 changes per minute on the F chord to this song which is a big mile stone for me.
The Plan:
I’m starting the Rock Module on Saturday! I’m really excited about this as my interest in the guitar started with Rock. There are so many songs that I love that will open to me with power chords. I may stay on the module longer than my normal 2 weeks for Grade 2 even if I feel comfortable with the content if I’m having a lot of fun with it. But I may not, I expect that I’ll spend a lot of my consolidation time for Grade 2 with rock module content so I may just move on. We’ll see.
New Gear/Purchases:
I couldn’t help my self =) I got a new electric guitar. I made a whole post about it here: New Guitar Day Yay!
My first ever guitar was a cheap Epiphone Les Paul Special when I was a teenager. I believe that was their cheapest Les Paul at the time. There was just something about the shape that I gravitated to. When I decided to pick up guitar again at the end of last year I was skeptical so I bought the cheapest guitar I could find, squier mustang bullet HH. A guitar that I love in it’s own way but not something that inspires me every time I look at. After consulting the boss (my wife) I finally went to the local guitar store and picked up this beauty (I suspect we’ll have good times for years to come):
