Great update, Alexis. I wouldn’t worry so much about your song practice impacting on your progression through Grade 3 modules as the songs you are learning and the way you break them down into specific practice items is really developing and extending your skills and techniques. Just keep doing what you are doing as its working for you.
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Thanks for the update, Alexis. You are an inspiring student, rocking ahead. Enjoy the mini-break.
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Your LL was a fascinating read Alexis. I once asked my nephew who’s a fantastic guitarist how long it took to become good at guitar and he said it depends on how badly you want it and how much effort you’re willing to put into it - I think it can be said that you prove that statement to be true, it’s impressive how far you’ve come in such a short space of time.
December 22nd, 2022
How it’s been going:
It’s been a whole 2 months since my last update wow! I’ve been extremely busy workwise for the last 2 months and just haven’t had much time to practice let alone post an update here (I work at a university so Fall semester is always extremely busy). I still have picked up the guitar most days but just noodling and less focused practice (I also had the flu and a vacation that prevented me from playing for 2 whole weeks!). Things are dying down though, so I hope to get right back to where I left off.
What I’ve been Playing:
- On the Prowl - Song 5 in Troy Stetina’s Metal Rhythm guitar volume 1. I love this song and plan this to probably be my next AVoYP which should also coincide with my 1-year anniversary of starting the guitar!
- Self Esteem - This Offspring song is the next song in Justin’s Rock songbook. I pretty much have this one down but I’m trying to focus on getting On the Prowl as good as I can for my next AVoYP so I’ll wait until after that to refine and post it.
The Plan:
I plan on really starting to get back into focused practice this week and this learning log is step 1 for me to do that. I’m learning On the Prowl from Metal Rhythm Guitar Vol. 1 which is actually a perfect yearlong anniversary song to play. It has a ton of guitar techniques and specifically rock techniques that I’ve learned the entire year including Chords - open, open power and power chords, Vibrato, string bending, Staccato, off beat accents, and hammer on/pull offs. It’s a really ambitious song for me but I think I can do it. I’ll probably list out all of the techniques and point out where they are in the song in the post since it’s my 1-year progress post.
So that’s out there in the universe! I will post this song sometime in January (I started playing back on January 6th of this year, wow) if all goes well.
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Sounds like a fun song to play. I bought Metal Rhythm guitar vol. 1 as well, thanks again for the advice a while back! Currently at Whips and Chains, fortunately not too difficult once sliding power chords starts feeling more comfortable.
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Oh yeah, I love the first song too. It’s really easy to play but also sounds great with the provided backing track.
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Nice update 
Offspring! What a great 90’s band. I can’t help but to always sing and bop my head
Happy new year and “Guitariversary”.
January 16th, 2023
How it’s been going:
First learning log post of 2023! It’s been going great! Last semester at my job (I work at a University) was super busy so I didn’t get to post much for the last couple of months of the year. Now that it’s slowed down though I’ve been playing a ton of guitar. I posted 2 AVOYP this month and hit my 1 year guitar playing anniversary. Crazy how much time has passed and how much progress I’ve made. I’m glad I made a learning log really early in the journey so that I have a record of all this and really appreciated it.
What I’ve been Playing:
- On the Prowl - Song 5 in Troy Stetina’s Metal Rhythm guitar volume 1. This one is a really tough song. Honestly felt like I could have done better in the performance but I think it was that I hadn’t recorded my self for a while before doing it. AVOYP here.
- Self Esteem - 8th song in my Rock study and my goal of recording my self playing all 50 songs in Justin’s rock song book. This puts me over half way finished the “Beginner” section of the book. AVOYP Here.
- As Darkness Gathers- Song 6 and the final song in Troy Stetina’s Metal Rhythm guitar volume 1. This is a metallica style song that’s clearly inspired by “Enter Sandman”. The main riff sounds very similar. There’s also some really cool riffs in the Blues scale. Can’t wait to record this one.
The Plan:
Well tomorrow I’m going to start learning song 9 of Justin’s Rock songbook, Sunshine of your love by Cream. I really like the song it sounds like a pretty big challenge for me since I have to try and pick specific strings for it as appose to plain old strumming.
I’m still practicing the final song of Metal Rhythm Guitar Vol. 1 but I’m surprised at how fast I’m picking up the riffs. This song is a really great rhythm study since the rhythm is pushed, there’s a lot of accented upbeats, and the single note parts of the riff are really tight into the rhythm. I’ll probably be posting this song next. Most likely some time in the beginning of Feb.
After Metal Rhythm guitar Vol. 1 I plan on starting Vol 2 as well as Troy’s first Metal Lead Guitar book. He calls that book his primer since it’s meant to be gone through before his metal lead 1 & 2 books. Lots of content for me to get through ahead.
New Gear/Purchases:
I’m starting this year feeling lucky that I found such awesome content in both Justin’s website and Troy’s books so I wanted to make sure that I continue to support both as best I can by buying content that they produce. I bought a years worth of Justin’s TAB subscription and a years worth of Troy’s patreon page. Both I’ll be using extensively since after I finished the first 15 beginner songs in Justin’s book I’m going to take a break from it to go through the intermediate course and to learn other songs I’m interested in (Justin’s TAB sub will be useful here). In Troy’s case he has video lessons on all of the songs in his books on his patreon plus other useful video content. Both are supplemental but I felt I needed to support them cause the content they produce is, in my opinion, worth much more than it costs. In Justin’s case way more since most of his stuff is free!
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This is awesome alexis, inspirational.
R
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You’ve had a big year Alex. Well done.
Based on what you’ve already played, I think Sunshine of Your Love will be easy for you.
Good on you for doing the tabs subscription. I find it pretty useful.
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Amazing progress you’ve made, Alexis! Really impressive and can’t wait to see what you bring next! 
I work at a uni too, loving the January down time whilst most of the academics are away! All just guitar guitar guitar! 
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I’m excited to start playing today when I practice. Always feel good when I start a new song. The tabs subscription is awesome too. Technically I could use that instead of the book to learn the songs from the rock songbook but I find myself looking at the book, then the video lessons, then the tab. Maybe out of habit lol.
Yup, I love how cyclical the work is. Really busy times suck but when busy seasons pass it is so very chill. 
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A little late but congratulations on your 1st full year of guitar Alexis! You are absolutely crushing it.
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Hi Alex,
Just amazing how verbose and descriptive your learning log is. And your progress is mind blowing 
. I have just listened to many of the songs and you’re really good. I would now consider you a source of inspiration and try to post a few videos too 
. Happy journey and all the best.
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Thanks Swashata, really kind of you to say. Looking back, I’m really glad I started recording my self pretty early on. Now whenever I’m in a rut and feel like I’m not progressing, I can look back at my early videos and see the progress more clearly.
Happy journey to you as well. Hope to see you post in the AVOYP section soon
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Really coming along Alexis.
Your technique is very tidy, shows you’re putting the work in.
February 18th, 2023
How it’s been going:
I’ve been very busy guitar wise and because of that I’ll separate this section into 2:
- JustinGuitar - I’ve finished grade 3! well, the part of it that’s released. I really loved the more loose structure of this grade. It allowed me to pursue what interested me while also giving me some sort of structure to follow. I didn’t master anything by any means. I’ll be spending a lot of time going back through the transcription videos and really digging deep. Also finished the 9th song in my JustinGuitar Rock songbook study: Sunshine of your love by cream (more details below). The last 2 videos of grade 3 that Justin released (Vibrato and intro to Barre chords) have been extremely helpful to me so I’m looking forward to watching the new lessons as they come out.
- Metal/Rock Guitar - I’ve finished Metal Rythm guitar Vol. 1! The final song of that book is awesome (details below) and I had a lot of fun recording and playing it. I feel that this book combined with justin’s content has really given me a solid base to move forward with in terms of rhythm. There are still a lot of books in the series so like Justin’s content, this is just the beginning!
What I’ve been Playing:
- As Darkness Gathers- The 6th and final song in Metal Rhythm Guitar Vol. 1. The Rhythm is pushed, there’s some single note fills and riffs, plus a lot of palm muting. Perfect capstone song to end the book. It’s heavily inspired by Metallica’s Enter Sandman (The main riff sounds exactly like it). AVOYP Here.
- Sunshine of your love - 9th song in my Rock study and my goal of recording my self playing all 50 songs in Justin’s rock song book. This song is tougher than it looks! have to make sure muting is on point and the rhythm is good. I think I did pretty well considering but I probably counted 6? times I hit a string I meant to mute, lol. AVOYP Here.
- Hair Rock- This is a song from one of Troy’s stetina’s books called Total Rock Guitar. It’s meant to be a supplemental book with 23 instrumental songs of various Rock styles that are arranged by difficulty. This is the first song so it’s pretty easy (though I did mess up once in the recording). I won’t bother posting this in the AVOYP section cause I don’t need any advice or anything on it but if you’re interested, here’s the youtube link: AVOYP Here.
- Should I stay or should I go- 10th song in my Songbook study. I love playing it, it’s super fun and also the right amount of challenging. There’s a part with G and F E shaped barre chords sans the bass note but I’m playing them full barre chords since I’m on grade 4 anyway. I only just started this song so no recording for another maybe 3 weeks.
The Plan:
- JustinGuitar - Instead of consolidating Grade 3 I’ll just move to grade 4 while justin finishes grade 3. I’m trying to move pretty slowly through this so I’ve only started messing around with E Shaped barre chords. This is perfect timing since Should I stay or should I go has some in there to slowly get me used to them. Half of my practice time is dedicated to this so a lot of chord perfect/OMC in my future. So far the hardest is D → G (E shape).
- Metal/Rock Guitar - Now that I’m finished Rhythm 1 I’m going to start rhythm 2, but I also want to start messing around with troy’s other books. Specifically Metal Lead Guitar Primer and the Total Rock guitar supplemental songs. So I’ve decided to split my second half of practice in half (again, lol). I’ll be spending 15 min on Metal Lead Guitar and 15 min on Vol. 2 of rhythm or Total rock guitar. I think I’m going to start playing the first 3 songs in TRG then start alternating between a chapter/song in each book. I’ll see how that goes for a while.
New Gear/Purchases:
I bought a mic! Not for singing, not yet at least. I bought it so I can record my acoustic guitar instead of trying to get my electric guitars to sound like one. This will be great for when I get to the more acoustic oriented songs like behind blue eyes and I think I remember you for my songbook study. So far it’s pretty awesome for when I’m in work meetings lol, but we’ll see how it works recording instruments.
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Nice update Alexis and more great progress! Watching your improvement and dedication is really inspiring. Really good plan ahead for you too, as always I look forward to the next updat and uploads in the meantime
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Thanks mark! Sometimes I feel like i over plan/think about these things, lol. Comments like yours make me feel like I might be on the right track.
Wow Alexis! You’ve been busy! That’s a great update! Loving following your progress and seeing you delving further into metal and hard rock
Can’t wait to see where you head next. Great stuff mate! 
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