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.
1 Like
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 StatusFor 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 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 |
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 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 |
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 |
Other:
| 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 |
2 Likes
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 StatusFor 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 | 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 |
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 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 |
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 |
Other:
| 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 |
3 Likes
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.
1 Like
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.
1 Like
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.
- Songs that I can play rhythm guitar (and sing) fluently from memory:
- Songs that I can play rhythm guitar (and sing) fluently reading lyrics and chords:
- Songs I am working on how to play rhythm guitar (and sing):
-
America’s A Horse With No Name (on hold)
-
A song that combines English and French lyrics (on hold)
-
I Belong To You
- Songs I am planning to work on how to play rhythm guitar (and sing):
-
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)
- Non classical Instrumental songs or musical pieces that I can play fluently from memory:
- Non classical Instrumental songs or musical pieces that I can play fluently reading some type of musical notation:
- None at this stage right now.
- Non classical Instrumental songs or musical pieces I am working on:
- Esperanza (Hope, traditional Colombian song, on hold)
- Non classical Instrumental songs or musical pieces I am planning to work on:
-
La guaneña (No translation, traditional Colombian song)
-
La cumparsita (No translation, traditional Argentinian song)
- Classical pieces that I can play fluently from memory:
- Classical pieces that I can play fluently reading some type of musical notation:
- None at this stage right now.
- Classical pieces I am working on:
-
Isaac Albéniz’s Asturias (first 24 bars of a basic version)
-
George Bizet’s Habanera of Carmen (basic version with the bass notes)
- Classical pieces I am planning to work on:
- Christian Petzold’s Minuet in G (Originally attributed to J.S. Bach but nowadays considered to be by Christian Petzold)
- Originals
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.
2 Likes
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 StatusFor 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 | 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 |
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 | |
| You Belong to Me [Added 2024-09] | In Progress |
For the Hal Leonard Guitar Method:
| 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 |
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 |
Other:
| 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.
1 Like