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 |