Ok as promised, I’ve recorded my hacked up version of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
If I’m honest, it probably took me 20 tries to get a clean-ISH run through that my current ability can muster because a lot of the things you see in this clip have all been things I’ve recently learnt / practised a little.
Single string strumming and muting with little pinky and index finger. You can hear all sorts of things still ring out though
The triads are a new thing for me so the changes you can see my fingers scramble and rush to get in place and adjust and fudge my way through
This is just applying things I’ve learnt so far and just having a blast playing a super simple song. When I watch it back, it still just looks like a mashed up bunch of chords and the like, I definitely want to be able strum and pick, but it’s definitely too far out of my abilities at this stage.
@theryanbamford - thanks for some of the tips, it’s the best I could do to show you what I thought of after reading your post and playing in E… although I think because all the chords are on the 1st 4th or 5th or power chords, it definitely simplified things.
Awesome! I think this actually sounds great. It might not reflect the full song but it contains bits from the melody and I think the strumming technique you used here gives it a cool spin and makes it stand out on its own as a neat piece of creativity.
thanks… yeah just really to learn at this stage. You’re right, it’s lost the serene feel that it should have, but I think I need to develop the strum & pick skill and accuracy first haha.
Ok no clip for this update because I have nothing to really “show and tell”. More just practise work… so my routine has evolved a bit:
So in the quest for the holy grail of playing by ear I have slightly changed my routine and included some advice thats sprinkled around justin’s course.
Still have not smoothed out changing to A shape and E shape… it’s getting better though. So just strumming and “playing around” while just switching between all the chords back and fourth and taking care to choose the ones I don’t normally play.
I have started just strumming single chords and picking our root notes in between… usually C, A and D chord for this exercise… to help right hand accuracy for picking. It definitely has improved noticeably, but small gains which will likely take a long term investment of practise time.
I have now started playing by ear but we are talking about random nursery rhymes. My steps are:
a) I find something on youtube and just play a jingle or a riff and pause
b) then just try play it and find notes on the guitar.
c) then adjust the hand position after figuring out the basic notes and make a mental note of what key those notes belong to.
I don’t bother trying to perfect the tune with zero mistakes… once I can sorta play it, I move on to the next tune and rinse and repeat.
4. I’m still doing the major scales in all 5 patterns, BUT I’ve now upgraded it to play the same 5 patterns but cycle through starting at all the different root notes as a stepping stone. Because when I attempted to join them, it was too big of a leap in difficulty. Effectively if I counted right, the 5 patterns split off into 12 little sub patterns or variations so to speak.
6. Still practising Canon in D
Anyway, that’s the progress update I have - I’m pausing my dive into triads at this stage because I feel like there are better gains to be had in the exercises above first.
I really wish I had more time to compile and record so I can SEE where I’m at for progress checks. I’ve been a bit swamped lately but I am proud to report I have not cut back on practise and am thoroughly enjoying learning still!!! (thats a really good sign for me)
Anyway hope everyone is doing well and enjoying their journey.
So my update is as follows regarding my practise / accomplishments:
Transitions TO the E Shape chord still needs work so I’m still doing that.
I am starting to be able to play the Major scales 5 patterns starting from all root notes a lot more consistently funnily enough had an eye opening moment for me - see next line.
I’ve combined 3 different practise exercises (memorising notes on the frettboard, learning triads, chord change speed / accuracy) into one - learning the relative locations of the root notes helped a LOT on this bit:
a) Learning to play the 12 (Major) triad shapes
b) Using my open chords plus B and F to transition to the same triads up and down the frettboard to learn the notes on the whole neck and mixing in some power chords.
Been learning 3 songs still:
a) eye of the tiger - this was my first progression into songs other than nursery rhymes by ear (can’t do the starting 16th note opening at all :/) but can play the chords and vocals which is nice…
b) Blue Bird (just noodling by ear)
c) canon d - still memorising at this stage, about maybe 2/3 of the way)
I really hope to do a recording soon to show what I mean on the above, but I do feel I had a couple penny drop moments in the last week.
This is my update that refers to the bits I’m doing to learn the notes I’m playing when working through chords, scales and triads in the hope to set myself up for more freedom around the guitar neck. I’ve spent a fair bit of time reading into the theory as well to
understand the voicings and the relative position for the root, third and fifth.
major intervals for WWHWWWH
reading a little about chord progressions
I’ve struggled to find material for fingers to use to play the triads and am wondering if I’m meant to mute other strings or suck it up and work more on my picking accuracy instead
Be warned, plenty of mistakes in the clip to set your expectations
I’ll try do a video of the songs I’m practising when it’s a little more… well less clunky.
Hi Ben,
That strumming arm of yours is full of rhythm and smooth going on . I haven’t watched the full video but I’m impressed with how easily you chat and how busy you are with the guitar…
Get good at playing (…bring structure to the lessons … first things first because that ultimately saves a lot of time and questions ) and start teaching
Thanks @roger_holland for the encouragement. The test for me if I’m proficient though is if I can play without thinking too hard - so most things are still in my practise routine at the moment including my starting skills (open chord changes).
On closer inspection / constant self reflection - I’m trying to vary the strumming hand to sound more fun and interesting because it always settles into a default pattern. Also, as soon as I have to play to time it completely falls apart hahaha.
Either way my intention wasn’t to teach, I’m just talking through what I’m doing so I can track my progress, share in case anyone is looking for the same answers as me and more importantly in case someone else sees I’m going down the wrong direction.
Long time no post. Been super hectic at work, but more importantly I’ve been having a blast with mucking around with songs and went down a rabbit hole a bit.
What’s caught all my attention though has been playing melodies and just working it out on the guitar by feel / ear. There are moments that the finger just somehow magically went to the right string and note and I have no idea why that note just happened to be right. Anyway, put a massive smile on my face when it happened a few times.
Anyway, in terms of my practise. Still doing the following: 30% of my time
Major triads and starting to learn the minor triads
Slowly working on noodling a little on the scales
started just doing the pull/flick off exercise slowly - it’s REALLY hard, but will keep at it.
70% of my time
Trying to make melodies sound more full in certain parts. The song I’m focusing on is Blue Bird still and I’ve gone through maybe 4 iterations and keep changing how I play it bit by bit. Nothing super flash, but definitely pushing my limits and helped me feel more and more comfortable when the guitar is in hand… not sure how else to describe it.
I’ve been trying to learn it enough to play the full song end to end which I’m getting close.
Thanks for reading all.
P.S. hopefully I’ll have a full song to show at some point if I can manage it.
I’ve been working through a fair few things and going through struggle town on learning songs. I’ve only managed to develop one of my songs further playing by ear and just piecing it together to try put all the things I’ve learned together so far (well as much as I can).
The song I’m trying to play is Blue Bird by Ikimonogakari.
There’s lots wrong with it still, but I’m fairly happy with my progress so far and being able to try apply things I’ve learnt.
If you want to see what it looks like still with mistakes, here it is. It’s the cleanest take I could do within my current skills:
Things that I’m really struggling with and have been diligently trying to work at are:
Transitions between Triads/chords and single note playing
Accuracy on the picking hand
Timing (need to play more with a metronome more once I can play through the song in a reasonably “ok-ish”).
My current practise routine is:
major scales with one, two or three fingers jumbled order of notes. Connecting the major 5 patterns on the frettboard. Also starting to weave in chords into the scales on the root note.
Triads major and minor general strumming and changing between them all over the neck.
Learning to break down a chosen song and arrange the melody and chords somehow.
developing finger strength for hammer ons and pull offs (only about 5min)
I’ve paused my hardest song at the moment for now to try apply what I’ve learn instead.
Still having great fun though. Hopefully one day it doesn’t take me 4-8 weeks to get some basics down.
lol… i’m sorry to butcher one of your fav bands haha… i really like the japanese anime songs… so I’ve been trying to build all the skills to play them and learn to construct them.
It’s seriously currently out of my reach and I’m trying to figure out the application of the chords and melody to … well squish them together
do you play anything in this space (obviously anime music is very broad).
Woo… I’ve always been looking for something to listen to while I do my day job. I’ve sometimes listened to local radio but it’s never occurred to me to listen to Jpop radio online! Might give that a try.
Thanks!!
But yeah, most songs I’m planning to learn is in Japanese music I think with some western iconic songs sprinkled in there at some point. Long term goals though
So I spend a fair bit of time practising and sometimes I wonder if I’m doing the right thing because it’s not always visible in terms of getting better at the guitar. Anyway, so scales is one of those things and I had a little internal celebration the other day when it just clicked. So I’ve recorded what I’m talking about.
Very stoked because I sorta broke free of playing the scales in a set way and set fingers finally.
Roughly happened between 5-6 month mark. It also meant I didn’t have to always start the scale on the root note as well (even though it’s definitely more ingrained when starting from root notes)!
I’ve recorded examples of the evolution. The key bridging exercise to make a breakthrough and move away from “just playing scales” is actually Justin’s lessons suggesting to use one finger (or different fingers) to play. I can’t find which lesson it is anymore, but that’s where I got the direction.
Time is moving by so quickly. I haven’t posted in a while because work has been busy but I haven’t let up on practise!
Also, it’s been a real time sink to make some adjustments and progress on my practise. But I finally start systematically combining my chords with my scales!!!
Granted still quite shaky. BUT the building blocks I’ve worked on is as follows:
Scales (Major) all 5 patterns
Triads (including all inversions) for Major and Minor
Connecting the scale patterns.
Playing with randomised notes and different fingers
The above has allowed me to start to see the chords INSIDE the scale which I’ve never been able to see before.
Here’s a log I record to explain my practise builds:
Starting to be able to noodle jumping between chords and single note runs and move around the frettboard a bit. Like the beginnings of it, I feel like I’m the right path… I think…
Have a good one all, hopefully everyone’s enjoying the guitar journey as much as I am!!!
Good to hear from you Ben.
I watched pretty much all of your video.
You’ve obviously been putting in the work mate, and its showing; coming along very nicely.
And the enjoyment is showing through, which makes all the difference.
Triads are probably the single most important thing Ive learnt in 5+ years of playing. Keep at 'em.
Re the scales. Its great for muscle memory, fretboard knowledge etc, to invest time in all 5 scale positions. But.
You’re a smart lad, and you’ve probably figured this out already at some level; but always be mindful that its the actual scale - in this case the all important Major scale - that should always be the primary focus; the notes, the sounds, the intervals, the derived triads etc, the relationship between the notes, and their relationship to the tonic. Get that major scale sound and feel in your fingers, and in your ‘musical imagination’, as Justin calls it.
And its best to stay in that first position to do that, rather than ‘diluting’ your focus too much across multiple patterns. Of course, the patterns are important; but in the end they are incidental. They’ll come in time naturally.
You will likely find that by doing so, the other patterns, ( and many additional Major scale pathways) will start to fall under your fingers at an accelerated rate, as this Major scale sound and feel progressively seeps in.
Honestly I agree with all your comments. The irony - my current issue is exactly what you described. How to use it for actual music. E.g. if I imagine a tune that I can whistle, how do I play it.
So on the side I’ve been experimenting how to just jump from one tune to another and never let muscle memory kick in for any of the tunes. It’s also why I started jumbling all the notes on the scale. I couldn’t actually make the leap with the lack of finger dexterity in one go no matter how much I tried so I broke it down.
Interestingly enough I’ve stopped trying to learn the distance of intervals using training apps (or similar) because I feel that I can’t translate it to my fingers. Also when I do find the note quickly, the fingers just naturally find it faster than my brain saying “oh that’s a 5th, play that note”.
I’ll take your advice though and stick to one pattern to play tunes in my head first. It might help simplify things, because it’s taking all my brain power to just switch around all over the neck and start to use the triads.
Will try post some more progress recordings as I go…
. I haven’t watched the full video but I’m impressed with how easily you chat and how busy you are with the guitar…
