Thanks for sharing your progress Andres, it is very inspiring to read.
This works very well with me too. I love singing and can’t do without and not playing the chords really allows me to give all my attention to the Rhythm and make it “blend” naturally with the Melody. I
mess things a bit when I put the chords in for the first time, but with practice anything falls into place.
Congrats on the open mic. It must take a lot of courage to get out there and perform. 
Great first post too, using it as a summary with goals and repertoire.
I might steal that idea. 
2023-05-02
The time has come for another assessment, this time for the goals set for the first year after starting my learning log. Hard to believe six months have passed since my last assessment.
When setting my goals and writing down my repertoire last year I intentionally ignored the songs that I am able to somewhat play flipping pages through my guitar chord songbooks (the songbooks with tabs are a different play game for me). Before Justin Guitar I didn’t bother too much if the timing of the chord changes wasn’t the best, or if a chord grip that was difficult for me didn’t get very well fretted, but I used not to attempt to play a song if the rhythm was not indicated (and explained) in the songbook. Now I look for better sounding chords, cleaner and in time chord changes, and I can figure out something with the rhythm if is not indicated (or explained) in a songbook or an internet source.
After setting my goals last year, I made a spreadsheet with 36 songs that I wanted to learn or revisit. I assumed I could go through them at a rate of one song per month. It didn’t work that way. As my current objective is not somewhat playing the songs, but playing them at the best level that my current skills allow, I’ve spent more time that I had initially estimated working on some of the songs I’ve tackled. Doing otherwise does not provide enough time for me to improve and develop them. I had not found this dedication before.
My goals didn’t include playing live virtual performances like the ones Justin Guitar or Justin Guitar Community hosts. Playing (and singing) in two Justin Guitar Community open mics added two songs to my repertoire that were not originally on the list I had prepared. That is a plus. The song I played for the JG Xmas Bash 2022 was already part of my repertoire.
I posted Lack Of Practice Blues in the originals subsection. I composed it last year. It was unexpected as previous attempts during my lifetime had not passed from one verse or two and a possible chorus with no idea of how to play it with the guitar. Another plus.
After my six month assessment I estimate I’ve put 60 more hours of practice, mainly because I’ve been able to do more short weekday practice sessions to work on songs and the ear training. I think that’s the upper limit of what I currently can dedicate to the guitar and I may have to roll it back a little as the warmer days are coming, and yard projects and outdoor life kicks in.
I want to keep my three, five and ten year goals as they were set to be able to later compare dreamed versus achieved. For sure I’ll be short with some of them, but I’ll be happy to see after reaching the end of each term how much I’ve progressed since starting my learning log.
Setting goals for the next six month is a different story as it can help to organize my practice. For setting these goals now I can have a better sense of what can be achievable within the available practice time than when I had started my learning log.
Note: Click the triangle or the three dots to see more under each header.
The goals I had set up for the first year (since starting my learning log) and my assessment:
I want to have my repertoire of rhythm guitar (and singing) songs increased to 10.
→ Partially accomplished: my repertoire of rhythm guitar (and singing) songs has increased to 7. I am working on the 8th.
I want to have my repertoire of finger style songs increased to 2.
→ Partially accomplished: my repertoire of finger style songs increased to 1.
I want to be able to play a basic version of a classic piece.
→ Surpassed: I am able to play a basic version of two classical pieces.
I want to be able to sight read quarter notes from 1st to 6th string (frets 1 to 4).
->Not accomplished: I haven’t been able to allocate time to work on this goal.
I want to be doing the Justin Guitar intermediate guitar courses.
→ Not accomplished: I haven’t finished the Beginner Course [Classic] yet.
I want to have completed JUSTIN ear training exercises S6 to S9.
→ Not accomplished: After two consecutive times arriving to the same answers for exercise S2, I checked the answers because I thought I had them right, but I got only 40% success. That was after 27 attempts during one year; I had passed S1 with 100% success. Once I checked the answers, exercise S2 was no longer useful and I had to move to exercise S3. After attempting exercise S3 I found that I had to find a way to go back to S2. I’m using my programming skills to write a simple MS Excel macro that will allow me to play randomly recordings I made of the S2 exercise chords played in my own guitar, guess the answer, and verify it. Let’s see how this works out for me.
I want to have learnt the basics of music tracks and video edition.
→ Partially accomplished: I am able to merge videos and add titles and transitions using ClipChamp. I Installed OBS but it is well above of what I currently need. I learnt how to add silence before a song with Audacity to give me time for getting ready with the guitar to play along.
I want to have learnt the basics of computer generated music.
→ Partially Accomplished: I’ve been fumbling around with Garage Band exploring the features and I used it to create a backing track for Yellow Submarine.
Where I want to be in six months (after one year of starting my learning log):
I want to have my repertoire of rhythm guitar (and singing) songs increased to 10 (3 more).
I want to have my repertoire of finger style songs increased to 2 (1 more).
I want to be able to play 18 bars of Asturias, having added the bass notes to Habanera, and having started working on Minuet in G, nowadays attributed to Christian Petzold, but originally attributed to J.S. Bach.
JustinGuitar sight reading exercises will be on hold but I want to revisit some exercises of the the Hal Leonard method I have that are sight read based.
I want to have finished Level 9 of Justin Guitar Beginner Guitar Course [Classic].
I want to have started consolidating Justin Guitar Beginner Guitar Course [Classic] together with select material of Beginner Grades 1 & 2. I am already working on the riffs of Grades 1 & 2.
I want to have completed JUSTIN ear training exercise S3.
I want to continue developing my video edition skills.
Audio editing will be on hold for now.
I want to continue creating backing tracks with GarageBand.
Repertoire update (after one year of starting my learning log)
Note: unless noted otherwise links are to the respective AVOYP post.
The Beatles’ Yellow Submarine
America’s A Horse With No Name
Richie Valens’ La Bamba
Elvis Presley’s Can’t Help Falling In Love
The Beatles’ Love Me Do
Zachary Richard’s Travailler c’est trop dur
La guaneña (No translation, traditional Colombian song)
La cumparsita (No translation, traditional Argentinian song)
Isaac Albéniz’s Asturias (first 18 bars of a basic version)
George Bizet’s Habanera of Carmen (basic version with the bass notes)
My assessment:
I’m satisfied with my progress so far. No changes necessary except finding a way to reach a good enough for now level with the blues exercises of Stage 9 to move on to consolidate the Beginner Course. Next assessment to be in October 2023. By the way, the medical procedure I had last year has been so far successful in keeping my arrhythmias at bay. Hopefully it stays like that.
That was really a nice read Andrés. You seem to be very structured in your approach. Really admire that. - I really lack that skill, I am here and there and everywhere at the same time. 
- Very nice repertoire you have build up. Happy to hear your health is stabilized. Sending my best wishes for your health and continuous guitar journey. 
2023-08-01
Three months after my last assessment.
I finally was satisfied with my version of The Beatles’ Yellow Submarine and posted it in the AVOYP section.
I’m currently in between jobs so I’ve had some extra time for the guitar in general and specially for practicing the 12 bar blues variations and minor pentatonic patterns. I’m reaching a good for now level with most of them. When playing the blues variations on the 6th and 5th string (the equivalent of playing an E chord) my fretting hand was not doing enough pressure on the 6th string to get a clean sound on some of the variations, so for a while I dedicated extra time to playing on those strings in addition to playing the whole progression.
Blues improvisation has been so far challenging. I reviewed again the lessons Justin has about this exercise, both the one in the Beginner Guitar Course [Classic] and the one in the Grade 2. After that I incorporated the Grade 2 lesson on learning a Beginner Blues Solo in my current practice for the Stage 9 of the Beginner Course. That and finding some easy to play blues guitar licks without bending could open the gate to find the elusive bluesy flavour I am looking for my improvisations. I guess it will be Practice It Until It Happens as per Tip 7 of the Grade 2 lesson.
I’ve been practicing A Horse with No Name and La Bamba. So far I’m alternating playing straight eights with playing the patterns suggested by the songbook I have. I think it will be like Yellow Submarine and these songs could take me 10 months or more to play them with some fluency. Sometimes the intended sound sneaks in but flies away. I am confident I can trap it and make it a permanent part of my playing.
I’m revisiting Pueblito viejo (Old Little Town) and Esperanza (Hope) that are Colombian songs that I first learnt 40 years ago during my in person lessons. Some months ago I had done a kind of transcription of the introduction of Pueblito viejo as my ears and fingers remembered it. After later finding my notebook I found that my transcription was accurate except a couple of bars, but in the meantime I had gotten accustomed to playing those bars my way, so I’m now retraining myself to play them correctly. The version I am following has an second introduction or interlude that is new for me. Esperanza is an instrumental piece. The version I played before was a simplified fragment. Now I’m attempting to play a full version that has a lot of ornaments. First days trying to play it required me watching very closely a video I found in YT, going note by note until I could see how it was played and trying to replicate that on my guitar. After repeatedly trying I have been able to slowly connect the notes and play a few bars with relative fluency.
I’ve kept practicing Asturias and Habanera. I’m getting more fluent with playing from memory the first 18 bars of Asturias and I think I’ll be able to post an update on that soon. I’m practicing Habanera with the bass notes. I’m slowly getting a little more of finger coordination and independence and hitting the wrong notes less often. I’m also working on making shorter two notes after the combined hammer and pull off. When I first played it I was playing those two notes as 8ths, but they are 16ths. Although It was not intentional it may have simplified some things for me at that time. Now I have to break the habit created and learn how to play it with the right timing.
I’m gradually entering in consolidation mode of the Beginner Guitar Course [Classic]. I’ve recorded the Peter Gunn Theme and I’m practicing the Seven Nations Army riff. When I have several of those riffs ready I’ll post a collection of them in a single video. I am also reviewing some the short melodies of a Hal Leonard method that I was using before finding Justing Guitar. It allows me to practice sight reading and to have some practice with the looper with the electric doing the accompaniment and the acoustic the melody for the melodies that the accompaniment is indicated. I will also post a collection of these melodies. I have Spanish Theme recorded. Practicing the newer content of Grades 1 & 2 and revisiting a Reader’s Digest guitar method from the library, that I was also at some point following, are part of the consolidation plan.
2023-09-26
After two and half months of unplanned extra guitar practice time I’m back to regular working hours and reduced practice time. I used this extra guitar time to practice the 12 bar blues variations 3 & 4, the minor pentatonic patterns 3 & 4, and some song and pieces that I’m working on. Good progress with everything.
12 bar blues variations 3 & 4 are getting more fluid. Now I can do them following one of the blues drum patterns of the guitar modeler at 80 b.p.m. Still they’re not as automated and fluid as the basic pattern is. I have to work also on my strumming hand to emphasize some notes.
Minor pentatonic patterns 3 & 4 are much better, Now I can do them with alternate picking at 60 b.p.m. (120 8th notes per minute) of the metronome.
I revisited two songs from my guitar life before Justin Guitar and played them on JGC OM 18. The following Monday I recorded them for the AVOYP section, they were Pueblito viejo (Old Little Town) and Mi Barca (My Boat).
I was planning to get ready for recording the first 18 bars of Asturias, but after realizing that bars 17 to 24 were similar to bars 1 to 8 with a couple of variations, I changed my mind and decided to go for the first 24 bars instead. Changing the pedal note from open second string to open first string for the last 8 bars of those 24, after 16 bars playing the pedal note on the open second string, has been challenging for me.
I’m getting better with the bass notes of Habanera, but not so much with playing the two sixteenth notes after the combined hammer-on and pull-offs specially when the third string is involved. Now that I am doing better with the bass notes I’ll bring the metronome in to work on the timing of the four bars that have those sixteenth notes.
Esperanza (Hope) is getting better. I almost can go through the first section with only a few stumbles on some not yet completely memorized notes. The second section practice is more about maintenance because I still remember how to play it from my in persons lessons. I started working on the third section and I’ve already memorized a couple of bars.
For A Horse With No Name now I can play the two bar rhythm suggested in the songbook doing the two chord changes this song has throughout. My next goal for this song is to be able to play and sing it. For practicing playing and singing I alternate playing a straight eights rhythm with playing once in a while the rhythm suggested in the songbook. As the lyrics fall wherever in the bar, when I practice playing and singing I alternate doing it very slow to work in the phrasing and doing it faster to get into the groove.
La Bamba is progressing slowly and I’m starting to feel more fluid playing a two bar rhythm using only down strums and up strums instead of the two bar combination of strumming and bass line rhythm the songbook suggests. Anyway I’m practicing the suggested rhythm too, but I’m not very fluid with it yet. The rhythm pushing for the chord change from mini F to G is now sounding like the song. I’ve attempted to play and sing, but until I have the rhythm more automated, playing and singing won’t work very well (nothing to do with the Spanish because Spanish is my first language).
I’m still in the research and preparation phase for a song that mixes English and French that I want to revisit. I would like to play it for a future OM participation. I’m first giving it a try to a couple of arrangements until I find which one I want to commit to practice. I’m working on another song that is fully in French. Chord changes and rhythm are not an issue for this one, but syncing the playing and the singing is not coming easy. To improve on that I’m doing the exercise of playing and singing slow so I I can relate each beat to the right syllable. Now that I think about it, I should also do the muted strings and singing exercise with this one.
I’ve recorded now two riffs of the lessons of Justin Guitar, Peter Gunn Theme and Seven Nation Army, and I’ve started working on Sunshine Of Your Love. Even with some guitar skills already learnt, every new riff that I tackle require some time to get fluid with it. They are an excellent exercise and in top of that I can play something that can be identified as part of a specific song (in some way as the song); that’s a double win. I’m waiting to have recorded about three minutes of riffs to post a compilation in the AVYOP in a consolidation topic.
I’ve continued revisiting some practice melodies from the Hal Leonard method I have. I’ve recorded Spanish Theme and World Beat. The finger picking of Ode To Joy is ready for recording with the acoustic, but my C to F chord change with the electric for the accompaniment needs improvement. Gradually I feel more comfortable using the looper to add an extra layer of sound and be able to finger pick the melody and accompany myself.
I expect that by the end of October I’ll be switching my practice routine from Stage 9 of Beginner Guitar Course [Classic] to full consolidation mode.
2023-10-31
It’s assessment time again, this time for the goals I set six months ago for what I wanted to have accomplished after eighteen months of having started my learning log.
As time has passed, the urge to burgeon my repertoire has been replaced with a serene determination to be able to play (and sing) each song or piece I want to learn or revisit to the best of my current guitar (and singing) skills before moving to the next. That does not exclude working in more than one song or piece at a given time. I think this approach is working for me, building more confidence in my guitar skills and feeling ready to perform in front of others should the opportunity arise. Nothing wrong with playing just for fun and giving just a try to new songs or pieces or revisiting old ones at whatever stage they are.
After my one year assessment I estimate I’ve put 85 more hours of practice. The increase in the number of hours of practice was mainly due to having had extra time in my hands for two and half months. That by the way didn’t mean that I could play guitar all day long. Was this a preview of what retirement could look like?. In average it was 6 hours per week instead of 2.5 hours per week during that two and a half month period.
With a very reduced practice time available it has been a challenge to keep learning and at the same time maintaining in good shape or improving what I’ve already learnt. When the songs and pieces of my repertoire that I wanted to keep in shape were no more than two, 10 minutes after the regular practice of the lessons was enough to refresh them. Now, even with the modest number of songs and pieces that I currently want to keep in shape just playing all of them would require about 45 minutes that would take most of one of my two weekend practice slots and wouldn’t leave enough time for the lessons and practicing new songs or pieces. Maybe going back to reserving one weekend per month for repertoire maintenance and free playing as I had started doing this year may be what I need.
Note: Click the triangle or the three dots to see more under each header.
The goals I had set up for the eighteen months (since starting my learning log) and my assessment:
I want to have my repertoire of rhythm guitar (and singing) songs increased to 10 (3 more).
→ Accomplished: my repertoire of rhythm guitar (and singing) songs has increased to 10. I am currently working on four more. This was initially the target for the first year and not for the eighteenth month, but it’s still good.
I want to have my repertoire of finger style songs increased to 2 (1 more).
→ Partially accomplished: I’m still working on my second song. I’ve working also on riffs and some short melodies that are not included in the target but equally contribute to developing the same skills.
I want to be able to play 18 bars of Asturias, having added the bass notes to Habanera, and having started working on Minuet in G, nowadays attributed to Christian Petzold, but originally attributed to J.S. Bach.
→ Partially accomplished: I’m now working on being able to play 24 bars of Asturias. I’m more fluent with the bass notes of Habanera. I haven’t started yet with Minuet in G.
JustinGuitar sight reading exercises will be on hold but I want to revisit some exercises of the Hal Leonard method I have that are sight read based.
->Accomplished: I’ve revisited the Hal Leonard method and practiced some short melodies that require sight reading to play them. I’ve recorded a couple of them.
I want to have finished Level 9 of Justin Guitar Beginner Guitar Course [Classic].
→ Accomplished: Last weekend I practiced one last time all the 12 bar blues variations and all the minor pentatonic patterns and I feel that I have reached a good for now level with those (although some days were better than others), and hence I think that I can conclude the regular practice of the Stage 9 and move to consolidation of the Beginner Course [Classic] (and Beginner Grades 1 and 2).
I want to have completed JUSTIN ear training exercise S3.
→ Not accomplished: Still on exercise S2 (completed but not passed). I created a spreadsheet with a macro that play randomly 10 chords (from the ones I’ve selected) corresponding to JUSTIN ear training exercise S2 so I can keep working on this exercise until the goal is met. My chord recognition in good days had been only 70-90% (7 to 9 of 10 chords identified on the first try) more often in the second pass, but some 100% recognition passes have started to happen. I’m playing for now only A, E and D. I’m still mixing up A and E. When I’ll able to consistently recognize 100% of those three major chords I’ll add the minor ones. When I’ll be able to recognize those six chords then I’ll attempt S3 again.
I want to continue developing my video edition skills.
→ Accomplished: I’ve continued enhancing my videos using ClipChamp and learnt a few tricks more. I was able to put a translation of the lyrics to two videos of songs in Spanish.
Audio editing will be on hold for now.
→ As planned I’ve not attempted any audio editing.
I want to continue creating backing tracks with GarageBand.
→ Accomplished: I’ve created a backing track for practicing Elvis Presley’s Don’t Be Cruel to work on my beat count. I purchased a license of Guitar Pro using the discount for Justin Guitar students, but I haven’t done too much with it yet.
Where I want to be in six months (after eighteen months of starting my learning log):
I want to have my repertoire of rhythm guitar (and singing) songs increased to 13 (3 more).
I want to have my repertoire of finger style songs increased to 2 (1 more).
I want to be able to play 24 bars of Asturias and Habanera fluently, and having started working on Minuet in G, nowadays attributed to Christian Petzold, but originally attributed to J.S. Bach.
I want to continue revisiting exercises of the Hal Leonard method I have that are sight read based.
I want to be halfway of a combined consolidation of Justin Guitar Beginner Guitar Course [Classic] and Beginner Guitar Course Grades 1 & 2.
I want to have passed JUSTIN ear training exercise S2.
I want to continue developing my video edition skills. I want to be able to combine videos.
Audio editing will continue on hold for now.
I want to get started with GuitarPro and continue creating backing tracks be either with GarageBand or with GuitarPro.
Repertoire update (after eighteen months of starting my learning log)
Note: unless noted otherwise links are to the respective AVOYP post.
My assessment:
I’m satisfied with my progress so far. No changes necessary except finding (again) a time slot for repertoire maintenance. Next assessment to be in April 2024.
2023-11-07
After the assessment time for my eighteenth month (since starting my learning log), it’s now planning time for my Beginner Guitar Course [Classic] (and Beginner Guitar Course Grades 1 and 2) consolidation. Although I don’t want to put a time frame to it, I want to put a defined scope to it, so I can consider wrapping it up when everything in the list is covered.
As prior to starting Justin Guitar lessons I had been using other resources, I want to include them in the consolidation game (at a similar level of where I was at before making Justin Guitar my main learning resource).
Although I didn’t officially finish my Stage 9 of the Beginner Guitar Course [Classic] till the end of October, I had been informally doing some of the consolidation items listed below and completed some of them.
For Justin Guitar Beginner Guitar Course Grades 1 and 2:
| Selected Lessons | Module | Status |
|---|---|---|
| A 6:8 Strumming Pattern | 6 | |
| Dynamic Improvements | 7 | |
| All Down 8th Note Strumming | 8 | |
| Open E Minor Pentatonic Scale | 8 | |
| The Stuck 3&4 Chords | 8 | |
| Ups to the All Downs (16ths) | 9 | |
| C Major Scale | 9 | In Progress |
| 5 Common Chord Progressions | 10 | Done |
| Alternate Picking C Major | 10 | |
| Beginner Hammer-Ons | 10 | |
| Major Scale Improvisation | 10 | |
| The Rhythm Push | 10 | |
| Introduction to Dice Songwriting | 11 | |
| Beginner Sus Chords | 11 | |
| Re-Active Listening | 11 | |
| Shuffle Grooves and Strumming | 13 | |
| Beginner Blues Solo | 13 | In Progress |
| 12 Bar Blues Progressions | 13 | |
| Backbeat Hit | 14 | |
| Essential Slash Chords | 14 |
| Riffs | Status |
|---|---|
| Peter Gunn Theme | Done |
| Seven Nation Army | Done |
| Sunshine of your love | In Progress |
| Come as you are | |
| Wish you were here | |
| Californication | |
| La Bamba (Option 1) | |
| La Bamba (Option 2) | |
| Happy Birthday Finger Style | |
| Enter Sandman | |
| 12 Bar Shuffle |
For Hal Leonard Guitar Method:
| Exercise | Status |
|---|---|
| Spanish Theme | Done |
| World Beat | Done |
| Ode To Joy | In Progress |
| Blues | In Progress |
| Rockin’ Robin | |
| Yankee Doodle | |
| Surf Rock | |
| Au Clair De La Lune | |
| Aura Lee | |
| He’s A Jolly Good Fellow | |
| Worried Man Blues |
For Reader’s Digest The Complete Guitar Course: Learn To Play in 20 Easy-To-Follow Lessons:
| Exercise | Status |
|---|---|
| A Bad Moon Rising | |
| Stand By Me | |
| Michael Row The Boat Ashore | |
| Jingle Bells | |
| Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star | |
| Edelweiss |
2024-02-13
I’m now three months into a combined consolidation of Beginner Guitar Course [Classic] and Beginner Guitar Course Grades 1 & 2 review. Progress has been slow but steady as it could be expected from having several concurrent pursuits being chased.
To be able to practice select material from Beginner Grades 1 & 2 and at the same time have more time for consolidation practice, I reduced my weekend lesson practice time from 40 minutes, split in two 20 minutes sessions, to 20 minutes, split in 10 minutes sessions. It’s roughly one session for scales and melodies and one session for accompaniment.
C major scale is getting better although still I’m not able to play it with a steady rhythm. It goes better if I play it wile saying do, re, mi… aloud, but not if I say C, D, E… I’m practicing it both ways (and in reverse order too 
).
The blues guitar solo of Grade 2 is improving. When I started practicing it I started in the fourth bar so I’m now practicing bars 1 to 3. Sometimes I practice just a couple of bars at the time.
I’m now in the fourth and last riff of Grade 1, Come As You Are. Same than the previous ones, I’ve struggled to play the right note sequence, let alone make it sound like a riff, but I’ll get there as well. It’s a good introduction for me for playing Nirvana’s music.
For the 6/8 strumming pattern I’m using the same approach I used when I was learning the strumming for Yellow Submarine. In 6/8 I can do six down strums and six down strums with up strums, but missing the down strum in beats 2 and 5 for the final pattern has not been easy for me. After attempting the whole pattern a couple of times I’m practicing it now at snail pace doing only the down strums to automate them and later add the two up strums.
I’m still practicing one of the 12 bar blues variations of the beginner course. It’s the fourth one that was my weakest one. It’s now gradually getting more fluid.
The last two items of my accompaniment practice routine are two two-bar strumming patterns that are suggested for two songs I’m learning.
After fulfilling my desire to be able to play (and sing) Travailler c’est trop dur at JGC OM 20 I started with the practice of a song that mixes French and English lyrics. This time is not a niche song but a mainstream one. After some research I settled for a mix of a more or less basic chords accompaniment for the verses and right hand notes of a piano version for the introduction and the interlude.
La Bamba is improving. The next challenge is playing it faster so I can coordinate better my singing with my playing. I’m currently playing the accompaniment at a lower speed than the record and probably trying to sing at the speed of the record. I may not necessarily end playing it at 153 b.p.m. as the record, but maybe at a faster tempo that I still feel comfortable with and the singing pauses don’t sound like full stops.
Like La Bamba, A Horse With No Name is improving, but it will also require some more work on improving coordination between singing and accompaniment. In this case I’m not that far of the recorded version tempo. Same that with La Bamba, I’m using an alternate strumming pattern that I can play and sing with rather than the suggested strumming of the songbook (or the app).
The way I’m doing the exercise Ode to Joy of the Hal Leonard method, looping the accompaniment with the electric and playing over the melody with the acoustic, has been very entertaining. First I’ve learnt how to use the looper of my guitar modeller and second I’m working in how to play melodies along a looped accompaniment. This last part has been quite challenging as what I hear as being on the beat, the recorded practice show me that I’m off. There was some improvement between the first and second recorded practice, having been able in the second one to keep the sync at least for the first four beats. Some practice with the metronome instead of the looped accompaniment has showed me that I’m off with the duration of some notes playing the melody, 1/4 notes played like 8ths and 1/2 notes played probably as 1/4 notes with a dot. One unexpected difficulty has have been having issues with the C-F-C chord changes in the electric that I don’t have in the acoustic. I’ve doing one minute changes and practicing just those changes to find (again) my place in the neck of the electric.
From the same guitar method I’m practicing also an exercise called Blues. I’m playing it the same way than Ode to Joy. All exercises from this point onwards include the chords for the accompaniment so I can keep doing both finger picking and strumming for every exercise.
Asturias and Habanera are improving. With Asturias I got frozen less often switching from the B string pedal note to the E string pedal note at the sixteenth bar and with Habanera I get less tangled with combining thumb and other fingers and more accurate with the duration of the notes.
Esperanza is progressing well. First section is almost fully memorized but not completely fluent. Second section needs only maintenance as I had played it before. Third section is not fully memorized and it has some rough spots where I am not playing the right note length and stumble trying to play it with steady rhythm. I’ve taken a quick glimpse to the fourth section and started to figure out, with the help of the video I’m following, what could be the fingering of the fretting hand to play the triads of that section.
I’ve added one more section to my consolidation scope: to play all the Module 1 songs of The Justin Guitar Easy Guitar Songbook. I’m not planning to play and sing them, but to play along the record to practice playing with the band. However, I’m tempted to add my voice to Lennon’s voice asking to give peace a chance. Let’s see how it goes.
For my song learning and review I decided to keep a spreadsheet with the dates I’ve practiced a song I’m learning, or played a song I know already. Still planning to dedicate once in while a weekend to just play repertoire.
I would like to point out that my current consolidation plan is a personal approach based on my previous experience and current development of my guitar skills. I think it can work for me and I’m very excited following through it. Anyone developing his or her consolidation plan I think should start with Justin’s suggestions and from there can add whatever he or she considers fits its own needs, including ideas taken from the approach taken by another fellow students.
Consolidation Status
For Justin Guitar Beginner Guitar Course Grades 1 and 2:
| Selected Lesson: | Module | Status |
|---|---|---|
| A 6:8 Strumming Pattern | 6 | In Progress |
| Dynamic Improvements | 7 | |
| All Down 8th Note Strumming | 8 | |
| Open E Minor Pentatonic Scale | 8 | |
| The Stuck 3&4 Chords | 8 | |
| Ups to the All Downs (16ths) | 9 | |
| C Major Scale | 9 | In Progress |
| 5 Common Chord Progressions | 10 | Done |
| Alternate Picking C Major | 10 | In Progress |
| Beginner Hammer-Ons | 10 | |
| Major Scale Improvisation | 10 | |
| The Rhythm Push | 10 | |
| Introduction to Dice Songwriting | 11 | |
| Beginner Sus Chords | 11 | |
| Re-Active Listening | 11 | |
| Shuffle Grooves and Strumming | 13 | |
| Beginner Blues Solo | 13 | In Progress |
| 12 Bar Blues Progressions | 13 | |
| Backbeat Hit | 14 | |
| Essential Slash Chords | 14 |
| Riff: | Status |
|---|---|
| Peter Gunn Theme | Done |
| Seven Nation Army | Done |
| Sunshine of Your Love | Done |
| Come as You Are | In Progress |
| Wish you were here | |
| Californication | |
| La Bamba (Option 1) | |
| La Bamba (Option 2) | |
| Happy Birthday Finger Style | |
| Enter Sandman | |
| 12 Bar Shuffle |
For The Justin Guitar Easy Guitar Songbook:
| Song: | Status |
|---|---|
| Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way | |
| Blowin' Smoke | |
| Boys 'Round Here | |
| Dance the Night Away | |
| Feelin' Alright | |
| Give Peace a Chance | |
| You Never Can Tell | |
| You Sound Good to Me |
For the Hal Leonard Guitar Method:
| Exercise: | Status |
|---|---|
| Spanish Theme | Done |
| World Beat | Done |
| Ode To Joy | In Progress |
| Blues | In Progress |
| Rockin’ Robin | |
| Yankee Doodle | |
| Surf Rock | |
| Au Clair De La Lune | |
| Aura Lee | |
| He’s A Jolly Good Fellow |
For the Reader’s Digest The Complete Guitar Course: Learn To Play in 20 Easy-To-Follow Lessons:
| Excercise: | Status |
|---|---|
| A Bad Moon Rising | |
| Stand By Me | |
| Michael Row The Boat Ashore | |
| Jingle Bells | |
| Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star | |
| Edelweiss |
Andrés, I have read all of your planning and progress and you showing progress in many areas. Have fun as you continue to complete your many goals.
Looks like you have got yourself well organised Andres. And having completed the old BC, you’ve made a wise decision to go back over Grades 1 and 2, which although being the equivalent, have so much more content. Definitely worth the extra investment time !
2024-04-30
It’s assessment time again, this time for the second year after starting my learning log. As I’ve been lately doing less new skill acquirement and more practice of the already acquired skills I sometimes feel that I’m not achieving too much. It’s definitely a different dynamic and it’s when I look at particular goals that I can find where the progress is being made.
Guitar Pro
After Guitar Pro having been sitting installed but unused for a while, I’m using it now and although I’ve just scratched the surface of what it’s possible with it it’s set to become a very important part of my guitar practice. So far I’ve written a tab for a song and I’m working on two more. Writing the tabs by myself, even just copying someone else’s tab or score, has been very useful for understanding a song’s structure and developing musical awareness. Being able to explore how notes should sound before committing to practice has been very enlightening specially when making twists to the arrangement. Being able to practice segments following the tab at reduced speed has been very helpful to acquire progressive fluency with a song.
Total practice hours
After my eighteenth month assessment I estimate I’ve put 44 more hours of practice. The drop in the number of hours of practice was mainly due to having less time in my hands. For some reason weekends have been busier and weekdays have less free time due to late working hours. In average it was 2 hours per week, sometimes missing a day or two of weekend practice but being able to have some 10 minute weekday practices to compensate.
A Horse With No name
This song hasn’t gotten too much practice recently. I can play and sing more or less fluently the first and second verse with the chorus, using a straight eights strumming, but the third verse has a somewhat different phrasing and is not detailed in the tab I have. It’s kind of third verse is like the other verses so figure it out yourself. I put the original record as a background track in Guitar Pro and I’m going to enter the lyrics to check if what I’ve figured out so far it’s correct.
La Bamba
This song is progressing well. Even without having finished the Guitar Pro tab I’m using it already to practice the song introduction. My singing tend to stray from the accompaniment so I have to practice more on how to keep both synced. The speed I’m playing the introduction is still very far behind the speed I would use to accompany my singing. For now I’m not trying to reach the speed of the record or play the solo.
A song with mixed English and French lyrics
This song is progressing well also. I’m now most of the time playing the introduction decently although at a reduced speed. I’m still working on how to fret some of the accompaniment chords. Air changes has been helpful to train my fingers where they had to go for some chord changes. For the interlude I’m just practicing the first bar of it for now. That’s because the fingering I need to do on the fretboard to make it sound as the tab I entered in Guitar Pro, that is based on a piano score that I twisted to fit within the guitar range, is very challenging for me. That bar has slowly started to sound a bit as it sounds in Guitar Pro. There is a four bar section that moves through a series of Em variations and I’m still finding how to play them so they don’t sound the same. I intend to play this song at the same speed than the record.
Esperanza
For this one I have a Guitar Pro tab made by the YT channel that posted the video I’m following, but I haven’t used it yet. I’m thinking in using it for smoothing the first and second section. Progress has been slow with the third section but I’m finding the way with some notes at the end of it.
Asturias y Habanera
Surprisingly although I haven’t practiced Habanera for a while it looks the practice with some other songs has become a shadow practice for it as it’s in better shape that I had left it. It still need some work with the duration of some notes. With Asturias the current issue is mixing up bars. Now that I can change of pedal note with less hesitance I’ve started to do the change in the wrong bar. This is one of the issues than can happen with classical music that often develop a theme by making subtle progressive changes to it and require extra concentration to stay in track.
Repertoire maintenance
I’ve been doing a better job distributing the available repertoire maintenance time between several songs instead of only two. The spreadsheet I’m using facilitates to look which ones have been less played.
Consolidation
Next post will be specific about my consolidation. Below are my second year goals assessment, six month ahead plan, and repertoire update.
Note: Click the triangle or the three dots to see more under each header.
The goals I had set up for the twenty-four months (since starting my learning log) and my assessment:
I want to have my repertoire of rhythm guitar (and singing) songs increased to 13 (3 more).
→ Not accomplished: my repertoire of rhythm guitar (and singing) songs has increased only to 11. I am currently working on three more. The latest songs I have been working on have taken me more time to get ready. Being ready means that within reasonable expectations I’m satisfied with how I’m playing them.
I want to have my repertoire of finger style songs increased to 2 (1 more).
→ Partially accomplished: I’m still working on my second song and also on riffs and some short melodies that are not included in the target but equally contribute to developing the same skills. The piece I’m working is considered somewhat difficult and that may be the reason it’s taking me more time to get it ready.
I want to be able to play 24 bars of Asturias and Habanera fluently, and having started working on Minuet in G, nowadays attributed to Christian Petzold, but originally attributed to J.S. Bach.
→ Partially accomplished: I’m not playing fluently neither 24 bars of Asturias nor Habanera with the bass notes, but I consider I improved a lot with them. I haven’t started yet with Minuet in G.
I want to continue revisiting exercises of the Hal Leonard method I have that are sight read based.
→ Accomplished: I’ve continued revisiting the Hal Leonard method and practicing some short melodies that require sight reading to play them. I’ve started looping the accompaniment, but I haven’t been able to record neither Ode To Joy nor Blues exercises yet.
I want to be halfway of a combined consolidation of Justin Guitar Beginner Guitar Course [Classic] and Beginner Guitar Course Grades 1 & 2.
→ Partially accomplished: I’m not yet halfway the consolidation plan I have, but as the purpose of the consolidation is strengthening the foundations, that’s being accomplished.
I want to have passed JUSTIN ear training exercise S2.
→ Not accomplished: Still on exercise S2. I haven’t done any ear training exercise recently, but I was getting a higher percentage of recognition on the later ones I did.
I want to continue developing my video edition skills. I want to be able to combine videos.
→ Not accomplished: I’ve continued using ClipChamp, but the videos I was planning to combine haven’t been recorded yet because the musical pieces are not ready yet.
Audio editing will continue on hold for now.
→ As planned I’ve not attempted any audio editing.
I want to get started with GuitarPro and continue creating backing tracks be either with GarageBand or with GuitarPro.
→ Accomplished: I got started with Guitar Pro. I’m not using it yet for creating backing tracks, but I’m using it to create practice tracks. I haven’t done anything new with GarageBand but it’s there if I need it or want to combine both software tools.
Where I want to be in six months (after twenty-four months of starting my learning log)
I want to have my repertoire of rhythm guitar (and singing) songs increased to 14 (3 more).
I want to have my repertoire of finger style songs increased to 2 (1 more).
I want to be able to play 24 bars of Asturias and Habanera fluently, and having started working on Minuet in G, nowadays attributed to Christian Petzold, but originally attributed to J.S. Bach.
I want to continue revisiting exercises of the Hal Leonard method I have that are sight read based.
I want to be halfway of a combined consolidation of Justin Guitar Beginner Guitar Course [Classic] and Beginner Guitar Course Grades 1 & 2.
I want to have passed JUSTIN ear training exercise S2.
I want to continue developing my video edition skills. I want to be able to combine videos.
Audio editing will continue on hold for now.
I want to be more fluent using GuitarPro and continue creating backing tracks be either with GarageBand or with GuitarPro.
Repertoire update (after twenty-four months of starting my learning log)
Note: unless noted otherwise links are to the respective AVOYP post.
America’s A Horse With No Name
Richie Valens’ La Bamba
A song that combines English and French lyrics
Elvis Presley’s Can’t Help Falling In Love
The Beatles’ Love Me Do
La guaneña (No translation, traditional Colombian song)
La cumparsita (No translation, traditional Argentinian song)
Isaac Albéniz’s Asturias (first 24 bars of a basic version)
George Bizet’s Habanera of Carmen (basic version with the bass notes)
My assessment:
I’m satisfied with my progress so far. If I can be close to what I had originally intended for the twenty-four month within the next six months it will be still good. It’s just a matter of keep practicing and let things happen. Next assessment to be in October 2024.
Andrés, it sounds like you are still making progress. Are you still using the consolidation status chart from February? I saw that some were done, but you did not list a completion date. I have been working on grade 1 and 2 consolidation also and found it useful to record some of the skill elements like the scales, beginner blues solo and songs. Good luck as you continue to complete the Grade 2 consolidation.
Hi Steve, thank you for reading and commenting. I’m still using the consolidation status. Next week I intend to post an update with specific details about my consolidation. I think it’s a good idea to include dates.
2024-05-07
I’m now six months into a combined consolidation of Beginner Guitar Course [Classic] and Beginner Guitar Course Grades 1 & 2 review. Progress has been slower than expected, but feeling that I’m learning or improving is a higher ranking factor than the time spent when assessing if an alternative approach is needed.
C major scale
With the C major scale I’ve been focusing on playing while saying the notes aloud, but I’ve started also to try a little more of just playing it. Playing it in reverse order is not still fluent. Last practice I put on hold the alternate picking C major scale exercise and split the one with all downs picking into three exercises : One for Do, Re, Mi… syllabic note names; other one for A, B, C… alphabetical note names; and other one just for playing it. It worked much better this way.
Blues Guitar Solo
The blues guitar solo of Grade 2 is improving. I can play now most of it with better fluency, except the las two bars that the melody moves down the neck. Justin has a Guitar Pro file for this one.
Come As You Are Riff
The Come As You Are riff is getting better. My brain is now connecting the dots and the fingers are collaborating. After adding the completion date to the status, as Steve @SteveL_G99 suggested, I found that with the current practice time I’m putting on the riffs, each riff is taking me from 4 to 5 months to be ready. Even if I don’t make changes in my routine to make available more practice time for the riffs it’s good to know how long is taking, so I can assess better my progress and soften my expectations. For now I don’t’ want to push harder with the riffs. It’s a lot of fun just as it is.
6/8 Strumming Pattern
For the 6/8 strumming pattern I’m still practicing it at snail pace doing only the down strums to automate them and later add the two up strums. Mixed results so far. I’ve started using Guitar Pro to help me with that.
12 Bar Blues Variations
I’m still practicing the fourth 12 bar blues variation of the beginner course. I’m now trying to play it synced with a blues drum pattern. Playing it on the right beat has been elusive so far.
Two Bar Strumming Patterns
Last practice I dropped from the practice one of the two two-bar strumming patterns that are suggested for two songs I’m learning as now I can play it fluently and I’m using it at least partially in the song. The time I was using for that one I’m now using it for more C major scale practice.
Ode To Joy Exercise
Ode to Joy has not progressed as I expected. I think is mainly due to the very sporadic the practice of this piece has become. Therefore, I haven’t practiced enough how to sync better the melody and the looped accompaniment. I can do now better C-F-C chord changes in the electric for the looped accompaniment. What I was doing wrong was allowing the neck to move while moving my fretting fingers. That was due to having gotten accustomed to my acoustic that has a lesser tendency to move while changing chords.
Blues exercise
This exercise hasn’t gotten too much practice lately.
The Rhythm Push
As I’m using this skill for practicing La Bamba I can now mark this one as In Progress.
Consolidation Status| Selected Lesson: | Module | Status |
|---|---|---|
| A 6:8 Strumming Pattern | 6 | In Progress |
| Dynamic Improvements | 7 | |
| All Down 8th Note Strumming | 8 | |
| Open E Minor Pentatonic Scale | 8 | |
| The Stuck 3&4 Chords | 8 | |
| Ups to the All Downs (16ths) | 9 | |
| C Major Scale | 9 | In Progress |
| 5 Common Chord Progressions | 10 | Done 2023-10-26 |
| Alternate Picking C Major | 10 | On Hold |
| Beginner Hammer-Ons | 10 | |
| Major Scale Improvisation | 10 | |
| The Rhythm Push | 10 | In Progress |
| Introduction to Dice Songwriting | 11 | |
| Beginner Sus Chords | 11 | |
| Re-Active Listening | 11 | |
| Shuffle Grooves and Strumming | 13 | |
| Beginner Blues Solo | 13 | In Progress |
| 12 Bar Blues Progressions | 13 | |
| Backbeat Hit | 14 | |
| Essential Slash Chords | 14 |
| Riff: | Status |
|---|---|
| Peter Gunn Theme | Done 2023-04-09 |
| Seven Nation Army | Done 2023-08-24 |
| Sunshine of Your Love | Done 2024-01-20 |
| Come as You Are | In Progress |
| Wish You Were Here | |
| Californication | |
| La Bamba (Option 1) | |
| La Bamba (Option 2) | |
| Happy Birthday Finger Style | |
| Enter Sandman | |
| 12 Bar Shuffle |
| Song: | Status |
|---|---|
| Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way | |
| Blowin' Smoke | |
| Boys 'Round Here | |
| Dance the Night Away | |
| Feelin' Alright | |
| Give Peace a Chance | |
| You Never Can Tell | |
| You Sound Good to Me |
| Exercise: | Status |
|---|---|
| Spanish Theme | Done 2023-04-09 |
| World Beat | Done 2023-08-24 |
| Ode To Joy | In Progress |
| Blues | In Progress |
| Rockin’ Robin | |
| Yankee Doodle | |
| Surf Rock | |
| Au Clair De La Lune | |
| Aura Lee | |
| He’s A Jolly Good Fellow |
| Excercise: | Status |
|---|---|
| A Bad Moon Rising | |
| Stand By Me | |
| Michael Row The Boat Ashore | |
| Jingle Bells | |
| Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star | |
| Edelweiss |
| Excercise: | Status |
|---|---|
| Two Bar Strumming Pattern for La Bamba | Done 2024-04-26 |
| Two Bar Strumming Pattern for A Horse With No Name | In Progress |
2024-08-06
I’m now nine months into a combined consolidation of Beginner Guitar Course [Classic] and new Beginner Guitar Course Grades 1 & 2 exploration. Progress is still slow, but I still feel like I‘m learning and improving step by step. I don’t measure my progress against where I ideally would like to be, I measure my progress from where I was before.
I’ve rephrased the second part of my status to be an exploration of new beginner course Grades 1 & 2 rather than a review to acknowledge that the material I selected introduces new skills that I’m getting acquainted with rather than further developing already acquired skills.
For this update I decided to record a full technique practice session with all the frustration faces, distractions, and enjoyment. I edited the video to reduce the overall time as much as possible while still maintaining enough video time to include a bit of the achievements and struggles with each routine element. I also split the video in two parts, one corresponding to melody practice and the other one to rhythm practice.
I can ask myself how is that I can make so many playing errors in two minutes, and I can answer myself that‘s because I’m learning.
It’s worth to mention that this practice was just moments before the Copa America of soccer final between Colombia and Argentina, so part of my mind may have been wandering somewhere else.
I think that part of learning is adjusting the practice to the changing circumstances. As weekends lately have been busier than they used to be, I’m doing my consolidation technique practice now in a single day instead of splitting it in two to increase the chances that if I miss a day I don’t miss half of the technique practice, and end having only two technique practice sessions in a month, split in half sessions across the month, with a negative impact on the pace of progress. For me It’s easier to insert some song practice in weekdays than technique practice.
Part A, Melody
C major scale
Splitting the C major scale practice, the way I wanted to practice it, into three exercises; One for Do, Re, Mi… syllabic note names; other one for A, B, C… alphabetical note names; and other one just for playing it; worked very well for me. I’m now satisfied with my current playing of the C major scale with all down picks that is the actual Justin Guitar lesson. Singing the notes is an addition of my own to make me more conscious about which note I’m playing. After having practiced this item once more after recording the video I marked it as done and moved on to practice alternate picking of the C major scale.
Blues Guitar Solo
The blues guitar solo of Grade 2 has not improved and I even feel has moved backwards. I’ve felt that way before with other exercises and sometimes what’s ahead is unlearning, relearning and finally getting fluent with it. Hopefully is that way this time too. I’ve tried using the Guitar Pro file Justin provides for this lesson, but it’s way too fast for my current playing. I’m planning to make a copy of the file, unlock the copy and slow it down. If I’m not able to unlock it, I’ll enter it manually in a new file.
Come As You Are Riff
The Come As You Are riff keeps getting better. My brain is connecting more dots, the fingers are collaborating, and I’m finding my way to repeat the riff without going back to the anacrusis (pickup or upbeat notes). So far this one has taken me six months that is way more than the 4 to 5 months previous ones has taken me to be ready.
Blues Exercise (Hal Leonard)
Once I can remember how it goes, I can play it decently. Sometimes I struggle to keep the count when repeating the same note four times on bars 9 and 10.
Part B, Rhythm
6/8 Strumming Pattern
Creating a practice track with Guitar Pro has been very helpful for this item. I have a tendency to strumming a bit slower than required and therefore getting behind in the last beats of each bar, so the practice track help me to keep an eye on that (it should be one ear on that, but that will be a future development). I have to incorporate that 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 (1,2,3; 1,2,3) feeling.
To make it more interesting for me I’m doing a G-Em-C-D chord progression (I-vi-IV-V or 50’s progression). Surprisingly for me, when doing chord changes is easier for me to skip beats 2 and 4 working towards being able to play the final strumming pattern Justin proposes for this lesson. I need to work on keeping the strumming hand moving during the no-strings-hit beats. I feel closer to be able to try again to add the up strums on the and of beats 2 and 5.
Two Bar Strumming Patterns
This is more an exercise part of learning songs than a consolidation item. I’m currently practicing only one, the one for A Horse With No Name. I can play the pattern, but now is more about playing it synced with a simple rock drum pattern. Same than with the 6/8 strumming pattern I tend to fall behind. More about the song itself in a future post.
12 Bar Blues Variations
Playing the fourth 12 bar blues variation of the beginner course synced on the right beat with a blues drum pattern has been elusive so far. Same than with the 6/8 strumming pattern and the two bar strumming pattern, I tend to go slower and fall behind. I think is more a matter of playing a bit faster than slowing down the drum pattern although I may try the latter if the former doesn’t work.
I’m currently starting the exercise repeating the first four notes of the riff twice per bar to try to get into the groove and then when I start feeling more comfortable I add the other four notes. In the video I can see myself pushing to try to speed up a bit to catch with the drum pattern.
The Rhythm Push
As I used this skill for performing La Bamba in JGC OM 24 I can now mark this one as done.
Next update in three months.
P.S. In the video I can see that checking my glasses prescription could be a good idea.
Consolidation Status| Selected Lesson: | Module | Status |
|---|---|---|
| A 6:8 Strumming Pattern | 6 | In Progress |
| Dynamic Improvements | 7 | |
| All Down 8th Note Strumming | 8 | |
| Open E Minor Pentatonic Scale | 8 | |
| The Stuck 3&4 Chords | 8 | |
| Ups to the All Downs (16ths) | 9 | |
| C Major Scale | 9 | Done 2024-07-21 |
| 5 Common Chord Progressions | 10 | Done 2023-10-26 |
| Alternate Picking C Major | 10 | In Progress |
| Beginner Hammer-Ons | 10 | |
| Major Scale Improvisation | 10 | |
| The Rhythm Push | 10 | Done 2024-05-25 |
| Introduction to Dice Songwriting | 11 | |
| Beginner Sus Chords | 11 | |
| Re-Active Listening | 11 | |
| Shuffle Grooves and Strumming | 13 | |
| Beginner Blues Solo | 13 | In Progress |
| 12 Bar Blues Progressions | 13 | |
| Backbeat Hit | 14 | |
| Essential Slash Chords | 14 |
| Riff: | Status |
|---|---|
| Peter Gunn Theme | Done 2023-04-09 |
| Seven Nation Army | Done 2023-08-24 |
| Sunshine of Your Love | Done 2024-01-20 |
| Come as You Are | In Progress |
| Wish you were here | |
| Californication | |
| La Bamba (Option 1) | |
| La Bamba (Option 2) | |
| Happy Birthday Finger Style | |
| Enter Sandman | |
| 12 Bar Shuffle |
| Song: | Status |
|---|---|
| Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way | |
| Blowin' Smoke | |
| Boys 'Round Here | |
| Dance the Night Away | |
| Feelin' Alright | |
| Give Peace a Chance | |
| You Never Can Tell | |
| You Sound Good to Me |
| Exercise: | Status |
|---|---|
| Spanish Theme | Done 2023-08-09 |
| World Beat | Done 2023-08-24 |
| Ode To Joy | In Progress |
| Blues | In Progress |
| Rockin’ Robin | |
| Yankee Doodle | |
| Surf Rock | |
| Au Clair De La Lune | |
| Aura Lee | |
| He’s A Jolly Good Fellow |
| Excercise: | Status |
|---|---|
| A Bad Moon Rising | |
| Stand By Me | |
| Michael Row The Boat Ashore | |
| Jingle Bells | |
| Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star | |
| Edelweiss |
| Excercise: | Status |
|---|---|
| Two Bar Strumming Pattern for La Bamba | Done 2024-04-26 |
| Two Bar Strumming Pattern for A Horse With No Name | In Progress |
Hi Andrés, you can adjust the tempo on the locked file
Good luck with the rest of your consolidation. I wouldn’t get too hung up with the scale practice, once you’ve got them under your fingers just explore making music with them.
Hi James @Socio. Thank you for reading and commenting. I tried again with the Blues Solo Guitar Pro file and this time I was able to change the speed. I don’t know what happened when I tried it before. Now I’ll be able to use the file in my next practice 
. I agree with you about the scales. After learning how to play any of them is more about playing with the notes than repeating the actual scale over and over. They can still be played from time to time either as a warmup or for maintenance of the skill.
2024-10-29
It’s assessment time again, this time for the thirtieth month after starting my learning log. My practice time has gotten reduced even more, but not the interest in developing my guitar skills. The strategy I’ve adopted to counterbalance the lesser quantity of practice time has been to dedicate most of the available time to select goals instead of spreading thin on numerous guitar projects. I personally enjoy spreading thin, but it requires enough practice time to cycle over each project often enough to make steady progress on each.
Guitar Pro
I’m currently using Guitar Pro to practice the 6:8 strumming pattern, Justin Guitar beginner guitar solo, a finger picked piece, and a couple of songs. It has been very helpful so far for my guitar practice. Using the original record as a background track for A Horse With No Name didn’t go as I expected, but it has been a good learning experience. More on that further below.
Total practice hours
After my twenty-fourth month assessment I estimate I’ve put 30 more hours of practice. The continued drop in the number of hours of practice continue being having less overall free time in my hands. Weekends have kept busy and weekdays keep having less free time due to late working hours and other life stuff; good life stuff anyway I would think. In average it was 1.33 hours per week, sometimes missing a day or two of weekend practice but being able most of the weeks to have a couple of 10 minute weekday practices to someway compensate.
A Horse With No name
I’ve just practiced it a couple of times during the six month period. As intended, I put the original record as a background track in Guitar Pro and started entering the lyrics, but I couldn’t align the lyrics with the record in the same way than they’re in the songbook I have. So far, if I’m right, it looks for me that I need a pickup note at the beginning, an extra beat somewhere, and I would need less beats somewhere else to start the second verse where it starts in the songbook. It has been so far a good transcribing exercise, but to move forward with the song I resorted to buy sheet music for it that has the whole song including the third verse bar by bar that it’s easier for me to play and sing. One thing I got that I was not aiming for was the guitar solo. So I have something additional to work on when I restart my practice with this song that for now is mostly on hold.
La Bamba
I was able to play it a JGC OM 24 and record it for the AVOYP section. So this song is now part of my repertoire as one that I can play from memory and one that I should keep playing enough often to keep it in shape.
A song with mixed English and French lyrics
This song is mostly on hold now. It was progressing well. I entered the whole song with lyrics on Guitar Pro and I had been practicing it at reduced speed. Here is a short video of how things were going with this one. If someone guess the song I won’t confirm or deny if he or she is right.
I Belong To You.
This is a new one and is for practicing the all down 8th note strumming on the chorus that Justin suggests in the songbook from him I have. It was not a song that was in my wish list, but I’m liking it so far. I’m doing fair with the little above the basics pattern he suggests for the verses.
Esperanza
This song is mostly on hold now. I think once I restart the practice with this one I should focus on getting fluent with the finger picking of the first three sections along the Guitar Pro file provided by the YT channel before trying to play the other sections.
Asturias and Habanera
These two are the ones I’m focusing right now. Still surprisingly for me Habanera it’s in a better shape that I had expected. I’m now practicing with the metronome to try to tame those sixteenth triplets and regular sixteenth notes in one of the bars. I play it three times on each practice session. I also need to play the right bass note as I sometimes play the sixth string when I’m supposed to play the fifth and the opposite. It’s more than I’m automating the wrong playing than hitting the strings by mistake. With Asturias my focus is on playing the 24 bars straight at least three times using the metronome. Usually the first one goes smooth and even with a nice tone, but in the following repetitions I start to mix up bars and changing the pedal note on the wrong bar.
Repertoire maintenance
I’ve kept doing a better job distributing the available repertoire maintenance time between several songs instead of a few ones. The spreadsheet I’m using keeps facilitating to look which ones have been less played (or not played at all). Anyhow my priority is keeping the ones I’ve learnt to play from memory fresh in the memory.
Consolidation
Next post will be specific about my consolidation. Below are my thirtieth month goals assessment, six month ahead plan, and repertoire update.
Note: Click the triangle or the three dots to see more under each header.
The goals I had set up for the thirty months (since starting my learning log) and my assessment:
I want to have my repertoire of rhythm guitar (and singing) songs increased to 14 (3 more).
→ Not accomplished: my repertoire of rhythm guitar (and singing) songs has increased only to 12. I had been working on two more, but they are mostly on hold for now. Some new ones may enter as part of my consolidation plan.
I want to have my repertoire of finger style songs increased to 2 (1 more).
→ Partially accomplished: My second song is mostly on hold now, but I completed the Grade 1 riffs and started to work on the Grade 2 riffs. The riffs I’ve learned so far have been played with the pick, but I still consider that some the skills needed to play a melody with a pick are the same than playing it with the hand. Of course the hand allows to play simultaneous non adjacent strings at the same time and that requires a different level of coordination and control of the playing hand.
I want to be able to play 24 bars of Asturias and Habanera fluently, and having started working on Minuet in G, nowadays attributed to Christian Petzold, but originally attributed to J.S. Bach.
→ Partially accomplished: I’m playing more fluently 24 bars of Asturias and Habanera with the bass notes. I haven’t started yet with Minuet in G.
I want to continue revisiting exercises of the Hal Leonard method I have that are sight read based.
→ Partially accomplished: Although I revisited the Hal Leonard method and practiced some short melodies that require sight reading to play them, I didn’t succeed yet with looping the accompaniment to record either Ode To Joy or Blues exercises.
I want to be halfway of a combined consolidation of Justin Guitar Beginner Guitar Course [Classic] and Beginner Guitar Course Grades 1 & 2.
→ Partially accomplished: I’ve completed about 21% the consolidation plan I have. Everything I’ve completed so far I feel that has strengthened my guitar foundations.
I want to have passed JUSTIN ear training exercise S2.
→ Not accomplished: Still on exercise S2. I have done some ear training with A, E, and D only. My percentage of recognition has improved, but I haven’t felt ready yet to introduce Am, Em, and Dm.
I want to continue developing my video edition skills. I want to be able to combine videos.
→ Partially accomplished: I’ve continued using ClipChamp, but the videos I want to combine still haven’t been recorded because my live looped accompaniment skills aren’t enough strong yet. On other side, for the videos of my practice session I posted on a previous post I used a lot of video editing tools I hadn’t used before. I can say that I put ClipChamp (or maybe my computer) to the edge.
Audio editing will continue on hold for now.
→ As planned I’ve not attempted any audio editing.
I want to be more fluent using GuitarPro and continue creating backing tracks be either with GarageBand or with GuitarPro.
→ Accomplished: I‘ve become more fluent with Guitar Pro. I’ve used it for creating practice tracks and I’ve been able to use some automation features to enhance my practice sessions. I still have to explore more what having the original record as a background track can do for me. I’m not using GarageBand currently
Where I want to be in six months (after thirty-six months of starting my learning log)
I want to have my repertoire of rhythm guitar (and singing) songs increased to 14 (2 more).
Increasing my repertoire of finger style songs to 2 (1 more) is mostly on hold for now.
I want to be able to play 24 bars of Asturias and Habanera fluently, and having started working on Minuet in G, nowadays attributed to Christian Petzold, but originally attributed to J.S. Bach.
Revisiting exercises of the Hal Leonard method I have that are sight read based is currently part of my consolidation goal and I won’t track the progress on this side any longer.
I want to be 33% of a combined consolidation of Justin Guitar Beginner Guitar Course [Classic] and Beginner Guitar Course Grades 1 & 2 exploration.
I want to have added at least one minor chord to the ear training exercise with E, A and D I’m currently doing, that are inspired on JUSTIN ear training exercise S2.
I expect to continue using the video edition skills I currently have. No further development of them is expected to happen in the next six months.
Audio editing will continue on hold for now.
I want to continue creating practice tracks with GuitarPro.
Repertoire update (after twenty-four months of starting my learning log)
Note: unless noted otherwise links are to the respective AVOYP post.
America’s A Horse With No Name (on hold)
A song that combines English and French lyrics (on hold)
I Belong To You
Elvis Presley’s Can’t Help Falling In Love
The Beatles’ Love Me Do
Violeta Parra’s Gracias a la vida (Thank you to the life, traditional Chilean song)
La guaneña (No translation, traditional Colombian song)
La cumparsita (No translation, traditional Argentinian song)
Isaac Albéniz’s Asturias (first 24 bars of a basic version)
George Bizet’s Habanera of Carmen (basic version with the bass notes)
My assessment:
I’m at ease with my progress. I think that narrowing my goals and using the available practice time to try to achieve them is the best strategy for me now. Anything additional will be an extra gain. As I had written on my previous assessment It’s just a matter of keep practicing and let things happen. Next assessment to be in April 2025. It will be an interesting one as I’ll be able to assess together my progress both against my six month goals and what I had dreamed of having achieved three years after starting my learning log. I’ll try not to peek on the later ones till then.
2024-11-19
I’m now twelve months into a combined consolidation of Beginner Guitar Course [Classic] and new Beginner Guitar Course Grades 1 & 2 exploration. Progress has picked up recently after graduating myself of several of the consolidation items I had been practicing. Most of my practice routine is now refreshed with new items and some of them look I may not take as long to get fluent with them than with previous ones. It’s been rewarding to see more green background “Done” labels on my desktop HTML page, meaning I’m progressing (the background colours aren’t kept when I paste the code here).
Part A, Melody
Alternate picking C major
This one is progressing well. Same than I practiced the C major scale, I’m practicing it doing three passes, one with the syllabic name of the notes, another one with the alphabetic name of the notes, and the last one just playing it. Alternate picking is not new for me because I had had a try when I practiced the A Minor Pentatonic scale in Stage 9 of the beginner course. It looks I’ll be doing a review of that scale soon.
Major Scale Improvisation
The advantage of trying to improvise over the C Major scale is that whatever I play easily can sound like something someone has played before, but still here and there I found some interesting licks to delve on.
Blues Guitar Solo
With the help of the community I was finally able to use the Guitar Pro file for the blues guitar solo of Grade 2. I’m practicing it at almost half speed.
Come As You Are Riff
I was finally enough fluent with this riff to make a recording of it and post a compilation of the Grade 1 riffs. It took me 9 months to have this one ready.
After a smooth recording of this riff and two more to complete my Grade 1 Riffs compilation I spent some time making noise with a rock improvisation. Of the 11 minutes I played I’m only posting some select segments. At some points I was more engaged in exploring sounds than following the beat. I hope to be able to repeat some of the sounds if I ever want to. I don’t know how it happened, but the las two and half minutes sounded rich and connected to me.
Happy Birthday.
I started practicing this one first, before the other Grade 2 riffs, because my wife had a milestone birthday in November and I wanted to play it for her. I did it, although a little bumpy because it was still a work in progress. Practicing this one has had an easier side of mostly knowing how it goes the melody and a harder side of telling my fingers not to go for the full chord and going only to the notes Justin has selected to harmonize the melody.
Blues Exercise (Hal Leonard)
This one is mostly on hold due to time constraints. For whenever I restart with it I need to continue checking the videos about using a looper that Justin and others sources have available.
Beginner Hammer-Ons
I had had a try with this before but now I want to do a final practice before marking this as done. I’ve using hammer-ons for Habanera and Esperanza.
Part B, Rhythm
6/8 Strumming Pattern
I’m already practicing the final strumming pattern Justin proposes in this lesson. I’m struggling to keep the strumming hand moving during the no-strings-hit beats, so whenever I found myself doing this I try to correct that, even if that means getting tangled with the pattern. At some point the pattern will get automated the proper way. I’m not attempting to play a chord progression yet with this pattern.
Two Bar Strumming Patterns
I considered that I was playing well enough the strumming pattern for A Horse With No Name suggested for the songbook I have and I marked it as done. I still need to apply it to the actual song, but I’ll first learn to play it with straight eights (playing the actual song is not part of my consolidation plan, is a separate project).
12 Bar Blues Variations
I’m sometimes managing to be on the right beat with this one.
All Down 8th Note Strumming
This one entered and exited my practice routine since my previous consolidation plan assessment. I had a short adjustment period, but after that I was able to play it following a simple rock drum beat.
Ups to the All Downs (16ths)
I’m practicing this one and so far I’m being able to play it following a simple rock drum beat. I think the practice of this one and the all down 8th note strumming works better following a metronome or a drum beat to attempt to play the additional strums at the right time within the bar.
Next update in three months.
Consolidation Status| Selected Lesson: | Module | Status |
|---|---|---|
| A 6:8 Strumming Pattern | 6 | In Progress |
| Dynamic Improvements | 7 | |
| All Down 8th Note Strumming | 8 | Done 2024-09-21 |
| Open E Minor Pentatonic Scale | 8 | |
| The Stuck 3&4 Chords | 8 | |
| Ups to the All Downs (16ths) | 9 | In Progress |
| C Major Scale | 9 | Done 2024-07-21 |
| 5 Common Chord Progressions | 10 | Done 2023-10-26 |
| Alternate Picking C Major | 10 | In Progress |
| Beginner Hammer-Ons | 10 | In Progress |
| Major Scale Improvisation | 10 | In Progress |
| The Rhythm Push | 10 | Done 2024-05-25 |
| Introduction to Dice Songwriting | 11 | |
| Beginner Sus Chords | 11 | |
| Re-Active Listening | 11 | |
| Shuffle Grooves and Strumming | 13 | |
| Beginner Blues Solo | 13 | In Progress |
| 12 Bar Blues Progressions | 13 | |
| Backbeat Hit | 14 | |
| Essential Slash Chords | 14 |
| Riff: | Status |
|---|---|
| Peter Gunn Theme | Done 2023-04-09 |
| Seven Nation Army | Done 2023-08-24 |
| Sunshine of Your Love | Done 2024-01-20 |
| Come as You Are | Done 2024-09-22 |
| Wish you were here | |
| Californication | |
| La Bamba (Option 1) | |
| La Bamba (Option 2) | |
| Happy Birthday Finger Style | In Progress |
| Enter Sandman | |
| 12 Bar Shuffle |
| Song: | Status |
|---|---|
| Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way | |
| Blowin' Smoke | |
| Boys 'Round Here | |
| Dance the Night Away | |
| Feelin' Alright | |
| Give Peace a Chance | |
| You Never Can Tell | |
| You Sound Good to Me | |
| You Belong to Me [Added 2024-09] | In Progress |
| Exercise: | Status |
|---|---|
| Spanish Theme | Done 2023-08-09 |
| World Beat | Done 2023-08-24 |
| Ode To Joy | On Hold |
| Blues | On Hold |
| Rockin’ Robin | |
| Yankee Doodle | |
| Surf Rock | |
| Au Clair De La Lune | |
| Aura Lee | |
| He’s A Jolly Good Fellow |
| Excercise: | Status |
|---|---|
| A Bad Moon Rising | |
| Stand By Me | |
| Michael Row The Boat Ashore | |
| Jingle Bells | |
| Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star | |
| Edelweiss |
| Excercise: | Status |
|---|---|
| Two Bar Strumming Pattern for La Bamba | Done 2024-04-26 |
| Two Bar Strumming Pattern for A Horse With No Name | Done 2024-08-11 |
Edit: ajusted the wording of some sentences.
