Good write up Al and great to see you at the OM. Thought your debut was great and now the first one is out the way the skies the limit. Good job also on American Pie, that’s a marathon of a song to play through but you kept it steady and clean. As Adi said nice tones as well. One for the next OM maybe 
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Good update Al and nice reflection on what you got from the OM. As you say no matter how much you practice and record yourself playing live (even virtually) is a different experience. I think on reflection most of it is about coping with the unknown and “playing through” mistakes which is key.
Haven’t played American Pie for so long…something I need to dust off after listening to you play. Good start on this as well.
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Thanks @adi_mrok, @TheMadman_tobyjenner and @Rossco01!
Thanks for listening and for all the encouragement and support. It really does help build and keep confidence and enthusiasm! 
You and everyone in the community set such great examples of how this guitar journey can go! Much appreciated thanks! 
I’ve chosen a probable song. It’s not American Pie but does have a link (and as many chords)…
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Enjoyed the update, insights, and rendition of American Pie, Al. Keep doing what you are doing and look forward to more recordings and the next OM.
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Wow its been a long time since I updated anything…
I’ve mostly enjoyed picking out songs at random from my playlist or from the songbooks and strumming away rather than any focused ‘new’ activity - but that’s all good and still helping consolidate and learn songs.
I wasn’t inspired for proper practice tonight so turned the camera on and recorded some of the songs I quite like messing around with at the moment…
Killing me softly - this was going to be the one I was thinking of for the open mic but given I’m not playing at that thought would record. I’m not keen on the G to B7 chord change still… It came out a bit slower than I thought and I may re-record with better lighting at some point hence not putting in the AVoYP section so more a progress point…
Mashup of a couple of songs using the same chord progressions… Again - I’ll probably do properly at some point but in case I don’t get round to it - at least I captured the half of an idea I got to incase I move on before doing properly…
Some one minute changes… 
Again - I’ll do properly at some point (or not) but had the camera on and its a nice progress point to capture.
I think next I am going to look at some finger style and some riff / solo parts and maybe scales and improv as well as tighten up a few ‘in-progress’ songs from my list. I also need to write up my own songbook or song cheat cards so I can more easily learn / play songs without needing to thumb through for the chords.
I think I’m at something like 10-15 songs I could ‘polish’ to play to some degree and another 5 that need some work to join up properly so want to get those so I can play at the campfire if we go camping this summer. After that I think I’ll look into the Grade 3 lessons, sorting out my barre chords and scales.
It feels like quite a relaxed set of goals / aims and the longest / laziest consolidation ever but seems to fit life at the moment and even if its probably a plateau - its still a nice one to pick up the guitar and enjoy the sound from
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Some cool sounding recordings there, Al, making good progress. As for longest/laziest consolidation … I feel that I have been largely consolidating for the last 3 or so years 
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I’ve never really attempted any solo or lead style riffs or playing but decided on Sunday evening to have a go at this instrumental track from a famous film from the 80s… Lots to work on still including smoothing out, hammer ons, more controlled muting etc. (and I mess up at the end).
Still very much a work in progress and I want to put the drum track and keyboard parts together at some stage but pleased to have found a piece of music that’s got me off the ground and onto learning lead style parts.
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Making good progress, Al. Tone was wicked and should sound great over some drums and keys.
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Hi Al,
Nice to see your progress…Keep up the good work 
Greetings,Rogier
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Good progress Al. A very topical song choice with the new Too Gun hitting the cinemas. Loved the tone you got.
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That was a great start Al and pretty appropriate song at the minute… will sound great with backing track.
I can’t remember what gear you’ve got but if you have the option to throw in a compressor that should give you more sustain on the notes so they wont “die” as quickly.
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Well done Al, sounds like a good start and great tone, as said earlier. I am glad @sairfingers gave a clue, as I certainly recognised the piece but had not a scooby as to its origin !!
Looks like a nice developer, keep us posted.
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I need to rewatch this movie before I see the sequel. I probably watched it around 20 years ago you played it well I still recognized the theme straight away, playing simple instrumental riffs like these from favourite movies TV shows or whatever is a great way to learn basics of lead playing as Justin often recommends. One of the first ones I learnt was a simplistic version of Pink Panther theme 
all the best!
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Thanks all for the comments and encouragement! 
Thanks Jason for the suggestion on compressor - will have a go with one on a virtual pedal board in Logic for now…
Not sure if I ever posted current pedal board so here it is:
I probably should have just got the TC Electronic Plethora X5 given it contains all those pedals and more but I like that I don’t have to fiddle with menus and the like… I could probably squeeze a compressor on there… 
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We did exactly that at the weekend as my sons keen to watch it! as I pointed out to my son (now 14) I was 16 when it came out. It’s still a great film although the flight sequences seem quite dated now (cutting edge at the time). We’re planning to watch the new one next week on holiday.
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Nice board and some good pedals. I hadn’t seen that Simplifier before. What are you outputing that into? or are you just using Phones on it? That’s a fair wedge of money just in those few pedals.
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Thanks, They kinda built up slowly… I don’t have an amp though so some offset there… Until you mentioned a compressor - I am trying to keep it capped at that size as well. For the sorts of music I like / play I can’t think of anything I wouldn’t be able to get from what’s there.
The Simplifier is nice - not sure it’s for everyone but I like how it doesn’t have any menus or options or usb or app etc. Just some shaping of the tone. I tend to keep it on a pretty clean tone. I quite like the new Victory pedal amps if I wasn’t already sorted but they are even more and halfway to a Kempler or Quad Cortex… 
I just didn’t get on with a lot of the solid state or digital amps or multi-fx approaches although I know many people have good success with them.
But managed to settle on guitar and sounds I like and could play and listen to and enjoy
It’s going into a Focusrite Scarlett and then into Monitors and Headphones. I wanted to end up with a setup that sounded the same recorded as it would when I listen through when playing.
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Also have a rewatch and sequel lined up for next week… hence picking up the tune. I am tempted by a few others like Danger Zone as well. Enjoy!
Great read Al, I see a lot of similarities with my journey, starting out a little fast then going back to consolidate which is the phase I am in, just going through grade 2. Will check back in here for ideas. I am not the best at coming up with my own plan, so will copy from yours and others and modify as I need to.
It feels great that there are several of us in similar modes, keep going and look forward to more updates.
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