Dee is advanced for me, but…BUT…it’s so beautiful and I will court her until she’ll say “YES!” 
Keeping a diary is proving to be hugely helpful, this is it until today, right below the video of these initial 7 bars! I put titles and pictures to make it more interesting to look at, I don’t expect anyone to read it…it’s too long!
PHASE 0
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Justin’s Lesson
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falling in love with the piece
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creating a clip of Justin’s performance
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compulsive listening
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hearing it in my musical imagination
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observing Justin’s fingers surfing the whole fretboard and taking into consideration the fact that I might not be able to nail it properly in the end
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wondering “should I have a try even if it looks so advanced for my current level of skill?”
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pondering, yes, there are a lot of pros in approaching it
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needing to identify and write down shorter terms goals in order to avoid frustration
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re-stringing my Classical Guitar since many months it was abandoned (I was definetely in a proper rut with it and I stopped practicing it).
DAY 1 - Should I stay or should I go? 13/12/2025
- Eh?! The C shape G barre chord…no way! The hand is hurting and the notes are soo far from ringing out clearly; what if I don’t keep the chord shape down and fret the notes one by one? No, very bad idea, the G bass note needs to ring out ideally for the whole bar lenght … few attempts… this is impossible.
- Why do I have to play the G on the 10th fret on the A string when there’s an almost identical G on the 5th fret on the D string? Oh wait… this is a D shape G barre chord I’m playing and sounds just the same! …few attempts…it’s challenging but still doable, I can make the notes ring out clear! I need to have a look at the whole musicsheet and make sure there’s not a specific reason for Justin choosing the C shape, before starting practicing it.
- I’m much relieved the second chord is very easy! I also had a look at the following chord on bar 3: I never played harmonics, probably I should check the harmonics lesson before I get to bar 3; it doesn’t seem too difficult.
- I can’t practice this piece sitting on the bed, I need a good posture, I’ll take my footstool out and practice in the kitchen, where I have a new (actually old) comfortable chair.
DAY 2 - Oh wow!
- I had a closer look at the musicsheet and at Justin’s fingers in the video and I see no reason why I shouldn’t go for a D Shape G chord if it comes easier for my fingers.
- The D shape G chord: I needed to go slow as keeping the fingers in that position hurts a bit and also I tend to have the fingers all tense after just a few repetitions; that made me take several breaks…but oh oh oh I can make all the notes ring out clearly and that little hammer-on is not impossible! I practiced the change to the following chord too.
- I used the breaks to practice the change from the second chord to the harmonics on the 7th fret, and to explore the sound of the harmonics by adding…ah no no: by removing the pressure of the fretting finger!
- I had a look at the chord on the following bar (4) to find out it doesn’t come difficult YAY!!! I decided I’ll do the harmonics with index instead of ring finger (as Justin does) because it makes the change to the next chord a lot easier for me as index is already in position on the 7th fret, it just needs to lift up a bit and go a tiny bit backwards!
- I’m very happy to observe the fingerpicking hand goes on its own, I have to conciously bring my attention to it just to check it’s doing right.
- The footstool: it is a very good idea, I adjusted it while practicing the Dshape G chord and worked looking at the camera on my phone to check the wrist to be as much straight as I can get it. This is the best I can do, also with curling the fingers on the frets.
- Next step is to check oncemore Justin’s lesson and the instruction given for these 4 bars; I think it’s fine to make my variations to the fingerings if I have a good reason for it.
- It would be really nice if I could check the lesson on harmonics too…but just by exploring it…uh it really sounded so sweet!!
DAY 3 - A nice sense of achievement
- 10 minutes practice early in the morning just on the D shape G chord, not even using the picking hand, just holding the chord in position and from that making the movements to fret the notes I need, do that hammer-on with pinky and move to the next chord; holding it down for a prolonged time is not easy (the piece doesn’t require it btw) , so I did a few repetitions for each of the movements and then I found it easier for my fingers to practice the all sequence up to the harmonics on bar three. I thought I was reinforcing my fingers like that.
- 30 minutes session late in the afternoon and it was so fulfilling! It seemed like my fingers had already made treasure of those 10 mins in the morning and were now moving more confidently. I practiced with both hands, my notes rang out clearly and I attempted to introduce some timing, not actually counting but listening to the recording and trying to rely on that. I also practiced the arpeggio on bar 4 which is super easy! I hadn’t set a specific amount of time for practicing and I could actually keep on going, but I was already very happy with myself, I played and sung my Hallelujah and put my guitar back to its place.
- I checked the initial part of the lesson just before writing this, so far so good.
- My fingers aren’t hurting but it feels like they have worked, especially on ring and pinky.
DAY 4 - Perfect starts slowly
- I practiced up to bar 4: timing is still very rough, but it’ll soon fall into place once the motorskills are consolidated, because I can rely on how I can hear the piece in my musical imagination and just bring it out from there with no need to tap my foot; I think one of the reasons for my inclination to Classical Guitar is that I don’t have to tap my foot; no kidding, tapping my foot and coordinate it with my hands is often so much demanding, it has always been…bringing out a melody is way less demanding when you know it very well, no effort to keep time, because it’s already incorporated in the melody
- I added the change to bar 5 and this G chord here is super challenging! All I need to do is going super slow, move on finger per time to position them on the fret as best as I can to make the notes clear. Some observations: if ring finger is not well curved on the previous chord it will mute the G string; this last one can also be muted if pinky in its effort to reach the 10th fret pulls the all hand and index goes over the fret. This is a very complicated chord, nevertheless by going superslow and giving attention to the single fingers the notes ring out clearly…making the music flow will be challenging, hopefully not impossible.
DAY 5 - Back to some practice after a few days break
- a short session today where I revisited all the shapes up to bar 5; my callouses were very dry and made it difficult to play all these pesky chords so I took good care of them afterwards.
- slow slow slow movements of the fingers to build this G chord on bar 5.
DAY 6 - Starting to take form
- Even if the hammer-on needs to be’ stronger I “already” can play up to the harmonics on bar 3 with a nice timing…yay!
- This is all more than advanced for my fingers so there must be no hurry whatsoever in achieving results.
- The G chord on bar 5 is less impossible than yesterday and I made some repetitions trying to observe the single fingers.
- I had a look at bar 6 and 7…that little slide of pinky seems impossible too, but I don’t want to think about it, I’ll adopt the Scarlet O’ Hara strategy: “I’ll think about it tomorrow”.
- Moving the shape up all at once is not really possible for my fingers, but it seems possible to re-make the shape quickly enough moving the single fingers.
DAY 7 - Fingers strenght or strategy?
- I did some repetitions on the first 3 bars only trying also to isolate the first bar with the hammer-on and repeat that one over and over; I need to develop a stronger and louder hammer-on.
- I found myself struggling oncemore with the transition Bm-G (4th to 5th bar), when I suddenly recalled I already faced a similar challenge with my fingers not being long/independent/strong enough to land in time on the frets: in that case after I guess about a year of consistent fingergym, I found out the whole hand and wrist can support the chord change (I’m a bit slow on the uptake, you know); I tried and the change is now quicker but more and more repetitions are needed to make it more accurate and smooth.
- Moving up the shape in bar 6…this doesn’t seem too difficult by lifting up all fingers except for the root and re-build the shape.
- The pinky slide on bar 6: I guess I won’t burn in hell if right before it I raise all the other fingers to make it confidently; I know the bass note should be held and ring out - but it’s impossible right now, I expect to be able to do that once my fingers will be stronger, or maybe I’ll find some sort of strategy for it as well. Anyway, hell doesn’t exist.
- I took this little tool and gave the neck a few turns, as the Luthier on the Acoustic Guitar showed my husband who then showed to me. I can appreciate from watching the first fret how the strings got closer, but the action on the higher fret seems quite high still…I’m no expert but the difference between the first and the 12th fret is quite big!
DAY 8 - The “impossible-doable-possible-refined” progressive line
- The pinky slide on bar 6: ok it happened, way sooner than expected, I did it holding the whole shape down! I can’t get much sound yet, but the movement of the fingers was possible today - just in case hell existed hahaha.
- With this piece things are impossible one day and after just some practice the day after they become doable…and with more practice they get more and more refined; it’s the case too with the change from Bm to G (bar 5): today it was possible to just put down the two additional fingers, without moving the hand with great economy of movement! The G string still gets muted very easily: the main cause is now ring finger not being curled properly: more slow practice more refining!
DAY 9 - Visulisazion and left hand practice without right hand
- I should mention that I started visualising right from day 1: I start with what I’m able to do and my mental pictures look/sound very much as drafts; along the way I aim to clearer pictures. I usually visualise before sleeping; last night I visualised the movement of the fingers, hearing the notes (not so clearly to be honest), keep time with foot and doing the counting. It’s the first time I do the counting, in my head only, it would be too difficult on the instrument at the moment. But it’s useful to be aware of it.
- I practiced only the left hand and I was happy with myself. I tried to guess only by the feeling of ring finger if it was muting the G string or not. I added the change to bar 8 and from that to bar 9…yuppydooo bar 9 is super easy!!! Oh…among all these complicated shapes!
DAY 10 - The switch Bm - G is conquered!
…and here is the smile of satisfaction on my face after clean notes had been produced through most of my repetitions!
- I had to restrain myself from moving on with the bars: the short term goal now is to refine this first phrase up to bar 7, record it and share it with this first part of my diary. It won’t be perfect, “as best as I can” will do
DAY 11 - Moving the shape without raising the fingers
- ihihih…the title says it all! It still requires a lot of repetitions to develop confidence but…well it makes sense to me, it wouldn’t be possible to move a shape which was not confidently nailed yet: as this pesky G chord is getting more and more stable it is now possible to move it up…and the slide with pinky also becomes easier.
- I played the all sequence bar 1 to 7 a few times
- I did more repetitions on the Bm-G switch
- I did some repetition on first bar hammer on
- I did some more exploring in the sound of the harmonics
- I did some repetitions on moving up the G shape and the slide, it’s not smooth yet
- I attempted to introduce some foot tapping and counting, somehow a timing seems to support the motor skill itself.
- I’m pretty happy with myself
DAY 12 - Recording and sharing Bars 1-7
- Warm up - recording - sharing - more practice aftwards!
…yes I’ll probably read it once more in 2026 
