Bret's Learning log

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22

Rattling through my head today and yesterday. I have a habbit of quitting/giving things up for what ever reasons.

I took music back up, to help deal with a depression I am going through from a divorce last year. I thought, yeah great just learn to play music, don’t have to be amazing, just play along, and then write your feelings down, put it to some music and it will be cathartic, that’s all I hear is how music is cathartic, and that people write music through their experiences, and come through ‘the other side’ so to speak

Unfortunately, I am not experiencing this. I am finding that I don’t feel like I am getting better/improving, I constantly am critical in such a way that I don’t play, and while I have written things down, I still feel like crap. I have been working on this for a year now, and while I wanted music to be my savior, or my anything, there are days where I feel nothing when I play, except frustration because I feel like I suck.

I continually hear and want to feel that music is fun to play, I just don’t feel it when I play, usually badly… I don’t know how to overcome this feeling to just keep going to be honest.

Stick it out I will, however, I guess this learning log is now going to be some kind of emotional torture piece for people reading along, i’ll do my best to keep them short.

23

High expectations are always a burden. They have a tendency not to be fulfilled. I know that myself as well.

I don’t know if this would work for you. But that’s what I do sometimes. Find a simple song, try to let go of expectations and pressure that you have to be good. Play it just for yourself. Without app. Without added pressure. Just listen to the music you are creating - and if something does not sound right, it won’t matter at all. Just for this dedicated playing without expectations time. Would that help?

Let me know, if you don’t want any comments. Thanks

24

Yes I think it might.

I am going to stay away from the app songs for now, and look through songs I really wanted to learn, and see if they fit the chords I know and a strumming pattern and go from there. It could be that expectations you are talking about, and feeling like the stuff I want to play I am not playing because I am not at that level yet.

I’ll do that tomorrow and see how I go. Thanks for reading.

1 Like
25

I just wanted to share a little update, and what I guess you could call a win.

After my last post and feeling super discouraged, I actually haven’t touched and instrument in nearly a week, except for some vocal work almost daily no piano or guitar.

I went to see a performer Thursday night, who had also performed at my work last week. While she was at my work, she was sitting and the way she held her guitar looked supper uncomfortable, but guess it works.

When I saw her perform standing up though, something occured to me how she was holding the guitar, which I tried today.

When I sit properly, the guitar is at an angle for me to play, the neck isn’t close to my body, it’s like an almost 30 odd degree angle away, this makes my fretting hand comfortable for all chords so far, minimal wrist bend. The F chord, just starting on that and it’s a progression.

However, I put my strap on, and literally stood up, keeping the same angle of the neck, made a little adjustment to the strap, and felt like this was by far the most comfortable way. I was continually trying to have the guitar flat across my body, which wasn’t how I played it sitting down, so why try to do it standing up right?

Anyway, the chords felt decent, actually good. I went through a scale which seemed to be ok, the F chord however, is a little more difficult standing here, as I have a decent wrist bend. So my practice will include slow changes for the F chord, with minimal wrist bend, and given that is where I am at with this chord, it’s good that it is known now and not later.

Aynway, just felt like I am feeling marginally better today about it all.

Also, after sitting there mesmerized by this chicks performance, I decided that I want to perform, nothing like what she is doing, and nothing right now, but maybe some day busking for shits and giggles, maybe a pub or what ever, but at least now I have something that music is ‘for’ rather than just aimlessly playing, which can also be what it’s about right?

26

Yes. I think it’s very important to have a purpose. Something, that is your personal “why guitar?”. It might feel like a small step for you . If you ask me though, it’s a huge one :sun_behind_large_cloud:

27

I just spent the better part of 2 hours going through an Aussie guitar songbook I have, 101 easy guitar songs, and I managed to find nearly a dozen level 1 songs, the same level 2 and then I guess there would be more level 3.

I think this as mentioned before, is going to be a really big motivator for me, as they are songs I grew up and songs that I love.

I will look for somewhere on the website, but I thought I saw somewhere to suggest songs, I think that Justins space is amazing, everything he does for little money, I have purchased quite a few things to help with donations because I believe that he is doing and has been doing an amazing thing.

I would like to suggest some songs that I think people could also love, which might help with some motivation.

I was also put onto this website, which truthfully could have been someone from here,

but if you type in your chords, you get a list of songs, I think this could also be a massive help to find songs you love to play to keep your motivation.

28

After being inspired again by Ziggy’s learning log, I have gotten back onto the horse and tweaked my practice a little. I was having issues with the digital practice log and goal setting in that I wasn’t really setting goals for practice, or weekly review.

I have since stolen Ziggy’s format and decided to give this a go. It was pretty overwhelming to try and work it all out at once, so I have started off a little smaller, but will play with it daily to get it to where I want.

Major 2025 goals

  1. Have 5 grade 1 songs or equivalent memorised
  2. Completed Grade 2 JG ( I have already finished 70%, but going back to consolidate and verify my current level)
  3. Completed Grade 3 JG
  4. Have 10 Grade 3 songs or equivalent memorised
  5. Have 20 Songs memorised and played with recordings for feedback
  6. Watch and complete blues immersion with a basic level of proficiency and understanding ( Yes I know this is years of stuff, so just a basic level is all I am aiming for right now)
  7. Completed the beginner fingerstyle course with basic understanding and proficiency.
  8. Be ready to sing at an open mic night ( by the end of the year… Possibly a JG one)
  9. Completed SOS strumming course - all 3 sections
  10. Completed and understand Practical Music Theory up to grade 5. (I have done up to grade 3 already)
  11. Completed looping course - have rewatched at least 3 times for better understanding
  12. Have a very good grasp on internal rhythm
  13. Explore 50 new albums I have never heard before
  14. Completed transcribing course and worked on using it to learn my own songs
  15. Complete all 3 ear training courses.

I loved the idea that Ziggy had of listening to a new album weekly, I am also complaining about todays music, but never taking time to find any new stuff, so I am going to go about this and find an album and listen to it for a week, I might write about it or not, but it is going to expand my musical knowledge, which will only help me in my music production career I have undertaken.

Now to guitar. I haven’t broken up my short term goals yet. I have decided to restart Grade 2 at Module 8, this week I will be verifiying where I am at with this module, if I have already done enough to consider moving on to module 9, and if not, I’ll take note and this can be part of the new goal setting criteria I set out on a Sunday. I think by next Sunday I’ll have a pretty decent timeline.

I will probably add in a few more yearly goals for this year as I get a little more understanding on this practice routine and how to work with it.

I have probably 90 min a day to practice guitar, which will include 30 min of theory and memorization type learning, which I know I never do and which I think is a big reason for me feeling like I am not getting anywhere. I can’t expect to just know it after 3 tries, so I am going to dedicate specific learning time off the guitar to help engrain stuff in my brain.

I have a bit of a new zest after this week, having had a few hard weeks trying to get somewhere. I am someone who loves to do things structured, but I know in myself that I am not great at creating that structure, so this is a big step in making that a better habbit for myself.

I’ll start off this week with just consolidating grade 1, and working on module 8 to see where I am at, as well as recording current levels for a few techniques which will give me the ability to set goals during the week and further.

Hope this all takes off as I really do want to get better, and it seems like another step in the right direction to get there.

B

29

So here is the first week of doing the manual log and working on really detailing the things I am having troubles with and setting really good practice goals.

Week in review
While my target was 7 hours of practice I did fall short, onl 1 hour 45… couldn’t get into the practice mindset -
How to fix - Work on the “just 5 min principle” that I will only practice for 5 minutes when I feel this way, 99 times out of a 100 I will practice more than 5 min, so just start.
Grade 2 Mod 8. Going back through grade 2 from the start and making sure I am consolidating properly. Stuck 3/4 chords seem really solid. OMC for them were all above 75 changes. A good challenge for next week is going from G to Em7, just using my 3rd finger, help to get some strength and dexterity in there.
C Maj scale and notes in open position realised these practice items were essentially the same thing with different starting positions, have consolidated these into just 1 item.
New Scale Practice Method - Using Ziggy’s method, I’ll start scales at 60 bpm, but change the note counts, starting with 1/4, then 1/8, Triplets, and 16ths. When each one is good 3 times through without issues, I’ll increase the speed, going forward this will be a way I do all scales for a while.
Technique Finger stretch - moved up to 8th fret for stretches between fingers 1/2 2/3. 3/4 will stay at fret 9. I feel my pinky starting to get stronger, as is finger 3
Spider - I find this super hard. I am at about 50 bpm on a good day. Focus right now is hitting retting hand down at the same time I pick, so that as I get faster the synch is better.
2/4 Strumming rhythm - 100bpm. I noticed I didn’t have quite enough distinction between the 1 and 3 and the 2 and 4, Will focus on that this week.
Wish you were here Riff - I worked on the changes to Asus2 in this, as i didn’t really know what to do, I have a better understanding now, it is a lot cleaner. Continue to work.
Repertoire Started Dreams by fleetwood mac. Using this for a strengthening exercise on my F Bar chord. 80% speed on GP was not too bad. I am also going to use the fmaj 7 and g7 chords to add the flavor and increase fretting hand dexterity and knowldege of those chords.
Brown Eyed Girl Riff - Super slow, coming along slowly. Fretting hand still misses the first movement about 40% of the time, will stay slow here, and work on just breaking it down until it is perfect before speeding up
Brown Eyed Girl Song - Played V1 and V2 and Ch1 with GP at 100%. I felt quite comfortable, I haven’t memorized it, but I did manage to work out most of it before looking at the sheet music, which I find a small win.

Goals for the coming week
Grade 2 Mod 8 - I consider this passed. I will keep playing songs to get the stuck3/4 chords more natural, also continue to play wish you were here riff.
Grade 2 Mod 9 - Revisit all mod 9 lessons, decide where I am at with Mod 9 practice and ability.

  1. Cmaj scale/open strings - work on new scale method at 60bpm - increase speed as necessary
  2. A min pent pos 1 - work on new scale method, record bpm reached
  3. Rhythm - complete section 3 JS rhythm book with marching rhythm practice
  4. Accent 2/4 strumming - solidify accents on 2 and 4 and quieter 1 and 3 strums
  5. Write down process for E string notes on all frets - memorize all frets for natural notes by end of the week on E string
  6. BEG riff- continue practicing riff at slow speed.
  7. PMT - Go back through notes of chapter 1 and 2 - write down things missing or forgotten
  8. Fingerstyle - I now have 2 fingerstyle pattern foundations, write notes in book and then practice these and get thumb base line strumming down to 75 bpm
  9. WIsh you were here - get Asus changes down correct. Play from start up to asus changes 100% accurately by end of week
  10. Dreams - use as warm up or fun play, work at 100% bpm, find parts of song struggling with and then flesh those out.

There are probably a few more things in there that I haven’t added, but I like this start. It is more clear and more defined. Anything outside of these goals will be bonus :wink:

30

Summary Targets - Practice 7hrs - Actual 2

This weeks guitar had me watch the vid on better practicing, will be adding in visualisation too technical stuff.

Timetable updated to cope with school and add more songs in to play.

Week in review
Target 7 hours got in 2, included in this was the vid on better practicing which I took away some new ideas.
I’ll be doing 30 min technical an mind prac in the mornings, especially before school so I have more time in the afternoons to punch out songs.

Grade 2 Mod 9

I have 3 vids left, including californication riff. I’ll finish these 3 vids and start on Mod 10. Goal to have Grade 2 finished by end of April. Once completed, I’ll consolidate for a month on techincal stuff and songs, biggest part of my learning has to be songs from here on.

PFC - Been doing this for Fbar to open chords, all are at low 40’s. Goal is 50 and I will consider the F strong. My biggest weakness on the F is shuffling fingers are putting them down, I am working on landing and being right, that is a main focus on the PFC for this round.

Cmaj scale/Pentatonic in position 1 I practiced Cmaj at school just for speed, went ok, but seems my brain doesn’t keep up. I”ll be implementing new scale strategy this week and see how that develops.

Technique. Finger stretching - staying at 8th fret, fingers 3 and 4 do not cooperate on low strings, I might have a short pinky, so will keep those going. Finger 2 and 3 also need some solid work, they seem to be the ones that don’t stretch the most.
Spider @55bpm, will be adding in mental rehearsal to every technique. 60-90sec and then practicing, to see how it affects the playing.

2/4 strumming was at 100bpm, I think it was at about 70% I know I lost the rhythm in the 2 and 4 strength a few times. Will keep that in there this week, maybe slow it down and emphasise 2 and 4 more.

Goals for the week

Increase speed on all scales by 5bpm by end of week
Have E string natural notes down solid and remembered fast
Fingerstyle patterns 1 and 2 at 60npm to test over the week
Start Californication
Finish Module 9 and start Module 10
Add in 3 16/th not strumming patterns from module 9 into rhythm practice
Do 50% of my practice this week purely on songs.

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31

This will be a short one
Week ending 6th April.

I was in the studio for school this week and got to play around a lot, but my practice schedule did suffer, so I have decided to stay on the same practice schedule this week and re-focus.

32

Summary Targets - goal - 7hrs - Actual 4hrs 15

This last 2 weeks were meshed together as I didn’t do a lot of practice the last week. I found that this week I got a lot more in, nearly 5 hours for the week, but with all my time it still isn’t really enough, but I am super happy with the progress of the stuff I did.

Total Hours practice 4hr 15, goal 7 hours.

Week In review

I managed to focus more on getting the items done, but doing them for a little longer than set times. I feel like my shorter 2min timeframes are not working, so I made them a min of 5 min, so me I went on further for 10 min which I think is better for the muscle memory

I have added in visualising for 60 seconds before a lot of the technique stuff, and also working on visualising without the guitar, I’ll see how that progresses now that it is part of my routine.

Grade 2 Module 10 No Additional videos done on Module 10, Goal for this week watch all of module 10 with notes taken.

Grade2 Module 9 Completed, This week I will start on Californication riff, which I didn’t do last week.

Technique

Fchord is still not solid, PFC are ok, but to make this work, I am adding in specific practice time on 3 songs that do Fchord changes, they will be my meter on how the F chord is going.

C Maj Scale: Have moved up to 70 bpm for 1/4 and 1/8 notes. triplets and 1/16 still at 60 but both are getting more solid.

Amin Pent Pos 1 85bpm 1/4 notes and triplets solid. Using beats 1/3 on metronome, will change to off beats. Will push for 90 this week. Funnily 1/8th notes not as good, still at 80, 1/16ths at 60. Goal is to increase all by 5bpm by end of week (3 x through )

2/4 accent strumming Really off with this. Working on marching and playing, as well as soft strums for 1 3 and accent 2/4. Was at I think 70bpm, forgot to record.
Goal this week, 70-75 bpm, march in spot cleanly, with accents on 2 and 4 clean, with no buzzing.

Started first 1/16 note strumming pattern much harder, marching slowly at 60bpm just on 1 2 3 4 was difficult, got there in the end. Goal now to get to 65 end of week, add in pattern 2 to practice.

Finger Gym Finding the hammer ons not so strong, moved down to 7th fret. My fingers stretch at angles, especially 1 and 4, which I don’t see anyone elses doing, so I am working on strength here in straighter positions so I can stretch straighter. Goal is 70bpm with off clicks

Spider 60bpm, I find this super difficult, as an additional technique, I found some more finger work, will be adding in something called 1 2 3 4, where all fingers stay on 1 string, then one finger at a time, go to the next string, helps to strengthen dexterity and individual movement, as well as rinigng out all strings instead of muting when not needed.

Knowledge

Brown Eyed Girl Riff I know this 90% by heart, but my technique is terrible, going to go and slow this down by at least 50% from current, and work on this. End of week will have knowledge set of the notes, and then work on slow repetitive timing until accurate, then move up in speed.

Californication riff Get this in knowledge by end of week, determine BPM and work on that.

Wish you were here did no work on this this week, this weeks goal, get the whole of it in my head, I have I would say 70%, but I lose the changes. Get changes in my head, and play at 60% speed perfectly. I’ll give this 2 weeks, but end of week knowledge.

Aural Training

I haven’t done much on this, so this week I will dedicate 1-2 hours to this.

Goal - Go back through the first few videos of the course and my notes, get some grounding back in Aural training.

Repertoire

Dreams - Currently 85% playing along with this in Guitar pro. Goal this week is to have v1 and ch (essentially it’s all the same) in my head, so I don’t look at sheet music. Play at 85% no music, then see if I can do 90

Sweet Child of Mine - get music into GP, put v1 v2 into memory chords only. Play along with music maybe 60 or 70%

Brown eyed Girl - I can play this pretty well with track, so now V1 into memory, play this without sheet music over and over, memorize v1 chords by end of week.

Mr Jones - Good for my F and push chord. Memorize V1 chords, play at 60% with track, working on no sheet music.

New Goals for the week

  1. Grade 2 mod 10 - all videos watched again and new notes taken
  2. Grade 2 Mod 9 - Californication riff printed out, and started to learn
  3. C maj scale, 70-75 and 60-65 bpm on new method
  4. amin pent pos 1 - 85 80 and 60 bpm for new method, work on increasing by 5 bpm
  5. Rhythm - Practice all metronome stuff with marching as much as possible, especially repertoire
  6. 1/16th note, strumming pattern 1 and introduce 2, 60bpm, get solid with marching
  7. Finger gym 70bpm with solid hits on hammers
  8. Add in 1234 exercise, Keep spider where it is, aim for more accuracy at this level
  9. all other knowledge per headings above.

I think I like how this manual tranmission is going of my goals, it is forcing me to be more of an reflective person in my practice, and I can really see where I don’t work. It has been a good start. Now to continue to work on this.

33

Community seems quiet lately.
Well this week I feel was another dead end to be honest. I have been struggling to play, not because of time, but because of motivation, or something that just says ‘I don’t want to practice’ so I have to work on that.

Summary Targets
7hrs target, total practice time 1hr 30 min.

Short discussion on the week that passed

So I have been quite off my game. I go to practice and do ok, I am definitely having a lot of issues with standing and playing, especially my electric guitar. I have booked in to start in person lessons that start in 2 weeks, so I am looking forward to getting some instant feedback on my playing and being able to move forwards. I have been quite frustrated these last few weeks as you will see from my previous posts, but I have not given up.

Week In review

So this week I have only an hour and a half of review work. As I said when I am standing up and playing, the position of my guitar just feels un-natural. I have adjusted it so many different ways but at this point can’t find something comfortable.
I have also really struggled with chord changes, my fingers or my brain doesn’t trust where they are placed and they keep jiggling around thinking they have to change. I am not so sure how to fix this one. That might be a question for the teacher.

Technique

New technique added in 1234, this replaced the pinky workout. Overall a good start. On 50bpm now, my low strings are not ringing out as much, the goal this week is to get those low strings ringing out before I Move up in speed
Spider - This is actually similar to 1234, but it runs diagonally across the strings, I am on 55bpm with this, this one I find hard. I”ll rewatch the video and notes to make sure I am not making mistakes- Goal to get 3x through at 55, and possibly move up a few BPM
CMAJ scale open position - Mixed bag this week. 1/4 notes at 80, almost passed, goal to get 3x through 3 times, then i’ll go up
1/8th @75bpm, ok but not clean at all. Same goal as above, 3x 3x through to move on
triplets @75 - Same goal as 1/8th notes
1/16th @65. Very sloppy this week, couldn’t get it right, so staying her for a week at 65 unless my brain has put that into good practice.

Amin Pent pos 1 - This seems to be going well, compared to c maj. goals for this are to get 3 x 3 for each current bpm, and move up a few bpm by end of week.

Knowledge

Ok, zero knowledge training this week. That really has to change. So what I did was decide that I am going to have flash cards, on my computer and my phone where I can do a quick review of things and challenge myself. I found the app and will start making those up this week.

Aural Training

I did nothing on this either. These 2 places are where I am really letting myself down, as I complain I don’t remember things, and I look back at my training log and I see, well you don’t remember because you put no focused effort into that kind of work, so why would you? This is a big thing I am seeing with this manual training log, it is just so easy to see where you are not doing the work, and can easily identify those places that are lacking.

Repertoire

I did a little work on rep this week. I have to break a few things down to smaller chunks though.
Dreams - only 4 chords, and 2 of them are the same with a small variation. F and Fmaj 7, G and G7. So this week I am slowing down to like 70%bpm. Then i’ll break this song into 2 parts, verse and chorus, which are identical. I’ll put the verse in my head this week, and practice just that until it’s in my head, then move on.
Wish You were here This riff is something that I can play the first 3 changes almost perfefctly, but I have not looked properly at the rest. So I have broken this down into the 3 respective parts from the lesson. I”ll work on part 1 this week.
Californication Finally watched the video. Adding this in as a proper study for my weekly training.
Brown Eyed Girl Riff - No work done, keep same goal as last week
Brown eyed girl song- I think I have the first verse on this, I”ll test myself this week

New Goals for the week

1234, all fingers ringing out at 50 bpm
All technique stuff is really up above,

Biggest goal for this week, 1 hour per day total. No matter what it is, just get this momentum of 1hour per day.
I’ll be working on a little more planning, probably the night before so I have even just a little more idea of ‘i’ll do those tomorrow’ and then when the time comes, if I feel different I can change it.

I’ll have my flashcards started up and running, all my theory stuff that I have been working on will be in flashcards, ready to just play with at any time.

34

Hey, I’ve recently transitioned to standing and playing and had some success eventually, and what helped me first was playing in a classical position. With your guitar on your left leg and propped up on a box or something. I would say it’s worth a try.

Keep at it man.