Artax's Learning Log

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Is it too late for me to start a learning log? :thinking: I haven’t used this part of the site because I know myself and it wouldn’t have been a fun read. But now I’m out of the beginner grades, I’m going to try to only use it for tracking positive achievements throughout grade 4 and up.

So for first entry, I’m in Major Scale Maestro 1 module, and I’ve been doing the one finger solos using the major scale pattern 1. I’m just learning pattern 2 and I suspect we’ll be adding the two patterns together for practicing easy solos using them both. I like these exercises, even though I still am fumbling around with picking wrong strings sometimes.

Also I am practicing Enter Sandman using the song lesson video in the Songs section. Its challenging to say the least. My fretting hand has not liked that Hetfield positioning for the opening riff. But it is getting a little easier after three weeks or so of practice. My pinky is still quite weak and the reach I have is so short, it will be a miracle if I can play it that way without getting buzz from having to fret with the pinky so far back in the fret. I am seeing progress on the accuracy and tempo for this song with its multiple riffs. I am only at the halfway point of the song though.

Random thoughts:
I’ve got three of my instruments in their cases because we’ve had bad weather for the past 6 weeks, so those instruments will be easy to grab while running to the storm shelter if needed. One guitar I have out is my Squier, and it has an HSS configuration. Or SSH. Or whatever. Two single coils and a humbucker at the bridge. I have been hitting the middle pickup when practicing riffs, because its directly under where my pick lands when I have my hand in prime position for palm muting. This is making me consider not ever buying a guitar with a middle pickup. Maybe I’ll eventually improve my picking and it will be a non-issue. I have two electrics with this configuration. I’ve lowered the pickup as much as possible, but I’m still hitting it. I guess I like to put my pick low between the strings.

The humidity has been higher than normal in my house this season. Not higher than what is considered normal for normal humidity, just higher than what it is normally in my house, which is 45-50%. But its’ been 55-65% in the guitar room. I’ve had to adjust the action on a couple of strings due to string buzz, so that’s fun, because I feel like I am really able to care for and do my own maintenance on my instruments.

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Great! Looking forward to your posts in here! :slight_smile:
And also I have been with Justin for maybe four years now and am still lately having the intention to start a learning log.

I’m also hitting my pickup at times and am not so glad about it, here it’s the the bridge humbucker on my Les Paul copy.

I agree - it’s great you can do some maintenance yourself!

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Good to see you starting a Learning Log, Stacy.
There’s never a better time than now! Above all, it shows your commitment.

Looking forward to following your story. Best of luck! :grinning_face_with_big_eyes:

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Its never too late.

I always hit my middle pickup too its super annoying, and I don’t ever use it. I was considering removing it, but I am still early in my electric guitar journey and sound analysis. So I decided it would be a bad Idea because I am still constantly finding new sounds in my own equipment. It’s just stuff I have not explored fully this could be the case here so I will wait.

Maybe for your next guitar what you need is a guitar with just double humbuckers. Something like a Les Paul. No middle at all.

I do think its fantastic that you do your own work. Great job, there is real satisfaction in taking care of our own gear, and being able to maintain it and do our own midifications. Its always suprising how many people are scared to do basic things like this. :wink:
It just depends on how you are brought up diging in and repairing stuff on your own and its a huge money saver.

Hunker down during those storms and glad you started a nice log.

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Stacey, I’ve read lots of your posts since I’ve been in this forum and I’m really happy that you are starting a learning log.

I fully recommend getting into your own guitar maintenance. I did that and then eventually even built a Strat and just finished renovating (completely) a very cheap affinity tele. All my guitars required some work on them and a bit of work significantly improved their playability and it’s really not difficult.

Regarding hitting the pickups, I don’t hit the middle pickup on the Strat much but I hit the pickup selector switch a lot - drives me nuts, especially as I love using the middle pickup alone and the difference in sound is quite large between middle position (3) and position 2. Normally when I hit the switch it goes to position 2.

The answer to this is get a tele :grinning_face::grinning_face::grinning_face: but not a Nashville

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It’s never to late to start a log!

Who knows? I think talking about both, success and progress, but also about frustration, is worth telling and can be useful for the reader. But you will know best!
Looking forward to follow your log entries!

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@domi7 Thanks! Yeah hitting a pickup is not something I expected to have to deal with! Funny the things that make playing guitar so special and individual.

@BurnsRhythm Thank you.

@Ontime Same! I am two seconds away from just removing it, but like you, I think, no it isn’t quite the right time yet. Still so much to learn and its frankly a challenge I need to overcome. So, it stays in for now. Yes I do have a strat style with two humbuckers that is my favorite guitar, but it’s downtuned right now, so I’m not using it for everyday practice. It is actually pretty rewarding to do my own little tweaks when I feel its needed. It was a mental thing to get over- that even if I tweak something and its a mistake, if it puts the guitar in a non optimal state…who cares??? Nobody! Its just a guitar! I don’t have to care either! But it is quite easy for me to get stuck in my mind thinking everything with the instrument has to be just so, everything has to be perfect, in a state of perfect circumstance. A little funny story, I did a pickup swap on my Squier just to learn the inner workings of the thing. And of course we (my husband did the soldering) soldered the pickup out of phase (oops) but then I am too lazy to take it apart again to fix it, so that pickup is out of phase. Oh well. I read that some famous guitarists actually like the out of phase sound, and wire some guitars out of phase on purpose. My OCD freaks out when I think about it, but then when I realize some people like it that way, it helps me just relax about it. And anyway, its not forever. The next string change is an opportunity to fix it, if I even want to.

@Prof_Thunder Thanks! Wow, that had to be fun! I do think it would be a great hobby, and very rewarding, to rescue stray guitars and making them look and sound good again. I have not had an issue hitting the selector yet, but I have read a few forums where people say that. Maybe you’re a player that gets wild and plays with big motion! One day I hope to have enough confidence to play with big movements. Yeah I may have discovered with this problem that I love Teles, huh?

@Helen0609 You know, you’ve very right. I’ll keep that in mind and not limit myself to only certain kinds of communication. Thank you!

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If it’s equally downtuned you could use a Capo, if not it won’t work unless you use one of those expensive things that can be used for single or multiple strings.
A lot depends upon whether the ST type that you’re thinking about modding is routed for a Humbucker at the neck position and the bridge, it’s not too difficult to convert to a H H then, just the cost of the scratch plate, another Humbucker (or P90), and a new 3 way switch - unless you fancy having a go at wiring it up for in and out of phase and being more flexible still wiring the pickups as split coil as well (on another two way switch). It could be a fun project and you would end up with a real “swiss army knife” of a guitar!

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Nah its only the low E that’s downtuned to D. No big deal.

Hmm yes I think that’s more work than what I want to fiddle around with. Maybe one day in the future though. I have to be careful because I can really get invested and then its like Im on a one way street to whatever goal I’ve set, no brakes! Haha.

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So here’s a fun thing. I’ve come back to the Wanted Dead Or Alive (Bon Jovi) lesson. I learned it (kinda sorta) pretty early on in my journey maybe even like in the first year. I forgot all about it as time passed and when I thought about playing it again this week, I realized I didn’t even know where to start with the opening riff. I rewatched the lesson, and it all came back pretty quick.

Now that I have gained more ability, it is feeling much easier than it did the first time around. I started to realize that that riff is really only going to sound really good and flowy when I’m either able to move to each fret position without looking, or picking the pick pattern without looking. Well surprisingly, for me, its going to be the fret positions that will be easier to do without looking.

Here’s the fun part- after a bit of practice, my left hand is accurately landing on the correct frets most of the time while my eyes are focused on my picking hand. !!! This is a big deal for me! I am still not quite hitting the 5th fret every time after leaving the ~8th or so area. That’s a bigger jump, but I’m sure I’ll get it. I had been wondering how I was ever going to be able to play in such a way. I see so many players play without even looking and on really complicated stuff. This makes me think I could maybe get there one day. Yay!!

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So I am having a few thoughts the past couple of weeks about being an adult learner. I know they’re not unique to me. Thoughts about the slow pace of learning, having to do with time availability. Also, the slow pace of learning, having to do with my brain’s uptake ability. I’m 46…wait, 47…? No, 46 haha. And for the past couple of years especially, I’ve been dealing with perimenopause symptoms such as problems with brain fog, information retention , decrease in ability to focus, attention span decrease, some measure of cognitive decline and comprehension, basic function like conversation, etc… All these cognitive areas seemed to be decreasing to some degree in function, some worse than others.

I started HRT about 10 weeks ago and have seen some improvement in many areas. Amongst the cognitive issues, there was a whole host of other symptoms which I could list for days. But many have improved and that’s been a giant relief.

However I still struggle to sleep through the night, and I still have to work full time, so most evenings I am super tired. My guitar practice has dwindled to maybe twice a week, and I’ve brought a guitar into the living room so I can pick on it during the evening, during relaxation time, as opposed to going into the guitar dedicated space in the other room. There’s definitely also an issue with commitment when I have free time, which honestly has been one of my problems for many many years. But lately I’m not able to develop or focus on a practice routine, nor find ways to apply the concepts in learning to real playing. I think the nature of Grade 4 is part of it, being much less structured. But moreso, my current struggles are physiological, hormonal, and still related to availability of time.

I am currently learning Major Scale Pattern 2, and I’m noticing that, cognitively, it’s kinda difficult (and it totally shouldn’t be) , and frankly, a hassle to learn these scales. Related to what I described earlier with hormones and mental struggles, I had a thought about how much harder this hobby is as an adult learner. Scales are a kid’s game- where it’s much easier for a young, developing brain to apply these scale patterns to memory much faster. Conceptually, the scales and the patternings, and the combinations and such all make perfect sense, kindergarten stuff for me in terms of concept. But memorizing scales, this is excruciating. Coming back to the guitar after four days, eight days, twelve days of being completely immersed in things other than guitar means I have to basically start the lesson over.

I shall keep going on, doing a few minutes practice here and there amongst the other thousand things I have on my task list. But geez it’s like the hardest time I’ve had in all my life in doing…simply anything.

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Good thinking with having your guitar readily avalible. I keep my 3/4 size in the living room all the time so I can just grab it. Like you say without going into my dedicated music room makes it a lot easier.

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I’ve been stalled a bit on my current JG module. I cant even remember what it’s called but it’s to do with a scale. I get how important scales are and I even appreciate learning them to increase my finger dexterity and speed and picking accuracy. But geez they’re pretty boring.

Out of sheer curiosity last year, I signed up for Guitar Tricks. I know, I know, JG gods don’t strike me down! But Guitar Tricks has a rock path that I was very curious about. So I signed up and thought I’d speed through their fundamentals courses. Basically they have a Gr 1 and Gr 2 that’s basics and intros to various concepts, and then after that, you’re ready to move into whatever path you are interested in, they have a blues path, country path, rock path …and one more…oh, acoustic path, I think. The fundamentals were pretty much the same ones Justin taught, in a bit of a different order.

Interestingly, their lessons are very short, less than five minutes usually, and the instructor is pretty good, but not as personable or thorough as Justin. The lessons don’t stress or suggest a practice routine for specific skills. But I have learned a few tricks Justin didn’t teach, and I’m using several techniques in a very practical way, in ways Justin doesn’t teach. So in some ways it’s more interactive, but in most facets, it’s very inferior to Justin’s course. I’d recommend Justin’s course 1,000 times over Guitar Tricks but I do say that supplementing Justin’s course with GT has kept me from getting too bored. And it gives me satisfaction to know that Justin’s course is, in fact, very comprehensive and thorough, giving me confidence that i really actually am past the beginner phase and flirting with being intermediate. I really am breezing right through Guitar Tricks’ fundamentals.

Moving on from that.

I am learning Love Potion #9 by The Searchers. It has a technique of sliding chords on a unusual timing, and what the tutorial called double stops in the simple little solo. I picked it specifically for it’s simplicity. Anyway, it’s fun learning each little new technique. Seems like every song out there has got some individual techniques, be it complex fingering, a fast riff, or complicated timing, etc.

Also have been practicing I’m A Believer and Daydream Believer by The Monkees. Two more seemingly easy, simple songs that turn out to have a few challenging things.

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I think that it’s really easy to feel a bit lost as you work your way through grade 4 and 5. There are a lot of topics that feel unrelated because you’re just starting to learn how they are connected. Try not to get discouraged and don’t expect that you will fully master any of the things that you are learning now - just build up some familiarity with each, knowing that you will refine all of these skills and knowledge as you use them over time.

A couple of things that might help you get out of your rut:

  1. Dig into Music Theory a little bit more. This will help you begin to see and hear the connection between chords, barre chords, and scales.

  2. When working on scales, limit yourself to a single octave (from root note to root note) so you can better hear each note and its relation to the root.

Keep moving through grade 4 and 5 and then circle back as needed. Don’t get stuck in one place because you haven’t mastered it yet. The information there represents the entire foundation of intermediate guitar playing. It will probably take years to master it and when it starts coming together for you it will all be worth it.

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Nothing wrong with spreading your wings, and supplementing your learning, particularly when you get to a more intermediate stage.
I have done so, particularly in relation to Blues playing. Justins core teaching though, remains lretty solid all the way through, as you start to see scales, triads, chords, arpeggios etc as simply different lenses of the same thing.
Re the scales becoming boring. I have found that once the basics are down on anything, becoming musical with them asap provides the most solid progress, and the most enjoyable.

Cheers, Shane

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This song is quite fast up to the original temp. It is super fun song.

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OK so lets see. It took longer to get the little solo in Love Potion No 9 down than I expected. I think one of the things that irk me still is that any seemingly simple technique in a new song I’m trying will be a decent little physical challenge. I assume this will be the norm for a few more years. I understand completely, they’re all new movements that I have to teach my brain. It just makes me go ‘grrrr’ a little bit because I have control over my fingers, dang it!

Meanwhile, I am working on major scale pattern 3 in the Major Scale Maestro module of Gr 4. This grade has felt so long and dragged out, but when I look back, really all I’ve had to do is learn three scale patterns and then link two of them together and do a little bit of improvising. Well that, and some new variations of barre chords. That really shouldn’t have dragged on for…how many months now? More than six probably, maybe eight. To be fair, I did get bored and hopped over to the Guitar Tricks lessons during this period and completed the first two grades of that. Oh and I did do a few weeks of physical therapy on my fretting hand to strengthen a stretched tendon in my thumb. I forgot about that. That put a pause on meaningful practice for a six week stretch. But it did magically make barre chords easier than they’d ever been before.

But anyway, I am working on the third pattern, and moving along a little bit quicker now.

I don’t think I’m going to bother with the suggested practice of doing the scale patterns in 3rds. It just seems like it’ll be another slow down, could possibly take several weeks to get that patterning working, and to be honest, its just confusing the standard scale patterns in my brain, seeing as I’m juggling three of them right now. It will have to be done later- lots later- when these patterns are really put down to second nature memory.

As for the Guitar Tricks lessons, I am sitting at the beginning of the rock path, ready to start anytime. However, it looks like a few concepts in their prelim rock course are techniques I’ve already been using- power chords and palm muting. So my expectation is to move through the early part fairly quickly. I’m quite interested in what riffs and embellishment styles it’s going to teach. I don’t know when I’m going to start this rock path. I think I’ll move through Justin’s grade 4 a little bit more, like do one or two more modules before I bounce back to Guitar Tricks.

We’ll see how it shapes up over the holidays.

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Just a hint, playing scales in 3rds are the chord tones of each chord in that scale.
For example
C major scale the 1 3 5 is the C chord, the 2 4 6 is the Dm chord the 3 5 7 is the Em chord etc.

You don’t have to practice playing in 3rds but it is a useful thing to know when you start learning triad. Makes following the chord changes a lot easier when improving.

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Hi @artax_2 Stacy,

I’m on holiday and thinking “pool time” whilst everyone else is asleep or reading, would be a good time to start a learning log. So I’m reading a few of them. Yours is cool.

To add a bit to what @stitch says:

As a bass player this says harmony to me - in my mind the bass player’s main roles are groove and harmony. As a pianist (which I know you are) maybe it says Bach. In a band, do I want the band’s guitarists to play it? Probably not - so from that perspective, I agree no need for you to learn how to play it on guitar if you aren’t keen on it. But will it help you when you have momentarily lost where you are in the song, and you need to lean on the bass player or keys player to get you back into the song - I hope so. I think you will have enough from your classical background to recognise the harmony. If you don’t fancy doing it on guitar, maybe sit down at the piano every so often and just play the 6 triads from the key centre ( or seven if you ever play anything involving the 7th / locrian triad), to reinforce what you already know.

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Its been almost two months since my last entry, and I can honestly say I’ve just barely even touched the guitar.

Why? I got a new (expensive) Fender and it is extremely articulate and makes my playing sound worse than it already does. October was spooky month, I watched scary movies every night for pretty much the whole month. Then my 15 year old cat got sick and I was dealing with her kidney disease diagnosis and uti infection, try to pill her (very stressful) and trying to manage her losing her appetite and refusing to eat anything.

But aside from that, I could have found a few minutes to play something, anything. But I didn’t. I just didn’t want to. A few days break turned into a couple weeks break and now its two months break. Am I reaching the limit of interest in this hobby? I know myself and I usually only have about four, maybe five years to devote to a hobby before I gain interest in something else. It doesn’t help that Gr 4 has been very uninteresting to me and constituted a screech to a halt in my progress.

I am probably going to have to hop over to the other lesson program that I’ve paid for to try to reinvigorate interest since it has a rock path. But, I don’t know, maybe I’m approaching the end of this journey for awhile. Holidays are approaching, stress at work and home has skyrocketed, and another kind of hobby has grabbed my attention currently. Maybe as we get past the holidays I can refocus but I fear with family birthdays from now until mid-February, it is going to be a stressful road (honestly August through February are very busy months). Also fall/winter brings seasonal depression so I find it hard in the cold dark months to find much motivation to do anything besides those family obligations.

We’ll see! I’ll try! To end on a positive note, I can still find the notes to play some of the songs I learned over these early journey years and I fall back on them to keep confidence up when I can find the motivation to pick a few strings for just a few minutes. Those songs are Sunshine Of Your Love, Wanted Dead Or Alive, Into the Great Wide Open, Horse With No Name, Wish You Were Here, The Beautiful People, and Justin’s Lick n’ Riff. And kinda sorta Enter Sandman but honestly that song just hurts my fretting hand.

@simon_plays_bass I love that you find my learning log interesting! I’ll try to use that for motivation to practice when I don’t feel like it so that I’ll have interesting things for you to read. :slight_smile: Thanks for your input!

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