Edgar's Learning Log

Community Hub Learning Logs
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Hi there, community :metal::guitar:.

I’ve been reading some of the learning logs posted here and thought it would be nice for me to create my own, and be able to see my progress :blush:.

Setup

  • Guitar: Tenson SG
  • Amp: Amplitube (App)
  • iRig Blueboard (pedal board)
  • Acoustic Guitar: Álvarez AF66CESHB Artist

Recordings

Goals

Short-term goals (0-6 months)

  • Finish Beginner Grade 2
  • Learn more songs to practice strumming
  • Assist an Open Mic (As listener :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:)
  • Record myself playing a song each month

Medium term goals (for next 12 months):

  • :man_shrugging:t2:

Long-term goals (>12 months):

  • Finish Beginner Grade 3
  • Get “You Shook Me All Night Long Solo” by ear
  • Play a song in an Open Mic

3 years

  • Getting comfortable jamming with other musicians
  • Play some songs with solos included
  • IF I get married. I would like to play at my wedding and surprise some members of my family who didn’t even know I’m currently playing :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

5 years

  • I want to have completed the advanced course from Justin

  • I want to be able of doing covers (metal-covers :metal:) of songs I love, like the OST of some videogames

My history

Until my start at Justin Guitar

My history with music started very early, as my mum enrolled me in piano lessons at 8 years old. Sadly I dropped out after 2 years. Then, at 16, I discovered rock and roll and heavy metal :metal:. And, as every other lad, wanted to be a rock star :man_singer:.

I bought a guitar and the same day created a band with some of my friends :joy:. We had a lot of motivation and by using guitar tabs we managed to play some songs. Sadly I was a “guitarist” who had no idea what he was doing. I just had memorized some tabs without knowing what I was playing. And even though I played power chords, I didn’t know which notes were. Set aside open chords that I didn’t even try.

Without any learning plan to progress through, and the pressure of having to find and memorize new tabs for playing with the band, I dropped after 2 years (again :joy:).

I left my guitar in its case for 14 years…

And then, one day, some youtube channels started to catch my attention. One was a Spanish musician that analyzes the music of well-known rock songs instrument by instrument (somehow he manages to find the original tracks for every instrument before the mix for the album). And the other was a young self-taught girl that posted a video of his 6 years of progress learning guitar. Watching her videos I saw one of how to start learning guitar, and she mentioned Justin Guitar among others. So I took my guitar and started this journey (again) on the 14th of August 2020

9th March 2022

I think I’m near to getting the intro of Nothing Else Matters, but I’m finding it a bit difficult to get on tempo in the fast bit. I decided to start practicing some finger tapping in the coming days

Log updates

11st April 2022
14th April 2022
21th April 2022
7th August 2022

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I borrowed some ideas from the template de @iainism shared in his learning log. Thanks for sharing!

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Glad it’s worked for you! The original idea was from @adi_mrok :grin:

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I had a go at Mad World by Gary Jules - nice and simple so seems like an ideal campfire song :fire:

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Probably is my best song for strumming. Or at least the one that I picked the groove better :slight_smile:

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Ah, wanting to be a rock star as a teenager and thrashing out some power chord songs, sounds familiar :joy:!

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The eternal dream :rofl:

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And now we can live the dream … to be musicians, rocking out, with an audience here in the Justin Guitar Community.

Great first entry to launch your Leaning Log Edgar. I look forward to following your progress.

Can’t offer too many thoughts on medium term goals. My approach is based around long term aspirations, some might call that my north star, and then current focus in which I set myself small goals/objectives. And I stay with current focus until something happens to make me change focus. But always moving towards that north star.

Keep doing what you’re doing!

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Agree. I think my mind works in a similar way. That’s why I didn’t know what to set as a mid term objective.

What I’ve been thinking is to write down my guitar aspirations. Like the songs I would love to play, performing live, create some guitar covers on my own, write a song, etc.

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Sharing those aspirations sounds like a great plan, Edgar. Then just keep taking steps towards them and all is well in the world.

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What an interesting musical history you have Edgar. I love the enthusiasm and make it happen attitude of your 16yo self. Is the guitar you took out of it’s case August 14 2020 the one you bought when you were 16?

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Thank you, Maggie :slight_smile:

Yeah, my 16yo self was everything attitude :laughing: . What a pity that I didn’t add a bit of constance and structured learning in the mix :sweat_smile:

Almost, I had for 3-4 months another guitar. A Stratocaster from the brand Academy, but then, another friend wanted to join us, so I did the trick of selling him the strat and buying the Tenson SG for myself :laughing:

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Hey Edgar, a good start - setting out realistic objectives is a key thing as is keeping track of your progress, it lets you know if your objectives were realistic or tells you that you’ve not kept the impetus going.
Patience and tenacity is what you need to get there, there are going to be times when things don’t go quite to plan, it happens to us all!
Keep chipping away at it all and things will work out, good luck and have fun during your journey down the road of becoming a musician :+1::+1::+1:

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Thank you Darrell,

Yep, indeed setting realistic goals is the key thing. I have a lot of things on my mind that I would love to play, but aren’t realistic at the moment.

Now that you say it, probably is for the best to don’t plan too much ahead, and I’ll stay with the 12-months goals. When I accomplish them, we’ll see which would be the next goals.

Maybe one day I’d be able to add as goals stuff like the Thorugh the fires and flames solo :sweat_smile:.

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:joy::joy::joy: yeah, Herman Li is a difficult act to follow!

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16

Edgar

Just got round to reading this and its a great entry Learning Log/Roadcase. Great to hear your back history and you relaunch. You have a good set of goals and ambition, look forward to seeing your development.

Cheers

Toby
:sunglasses:

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Thank you :blush:.

I tried to set realistic goals. The one I’m more afraid of is to gather the courage to do an open mic :sweat_smile:.

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Now you put it out there, Edgar. You can do it. It’s a super safe place with the only expectation being for people to give it a go, the only result being learning and encouragement.

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19

Today I start Module 13. Let’s play with some blues :sunglasses:

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Log update: 14/04/2022

Hello there! There’s about time to make a proper update to my learning log :smile:. The one I did before was just to save the date in which I started module 13

Gear

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I treated myself with the iRig BlueBoard for controlling Amplitube, which is the app I use as “amp”. The excuse was that I want to record Enter Sandman and as it has parts with a clean tone and the rest with distortion, I needed the gear to do the quick changes. Besides, it allows using the loop-pedal characteristics of Amplitube, which I heard Justin on an occasion that is a good tool for rhythm for beginners :sweat_smile:.

The thing is that it is harder than I thought to nail the moment to do the change, so probably I’ll end up recording Enter Sandman twice, one for each tone :joy:.

And I’m still fighting my desire to buy an acoustic guitar. For now, I have it under control since I promised myself to do it after grade 3, but man… it is hard. And even harder seeing your nice acoustics here :rofl:

Objectives

Due to the new feature of the songbook to categorize songs, I ended up watching all the videos about Effective Practice. Despite the fact that I think they are for Grade 3 students :man_shrugging:t2:.

Watching the videos made me think more about my guitar goals. Beyond the 12 months goals, I already had set.

3 years

  • Getting comfortable jamming with other musicians
  • Play some songs with solos included
  • IF I get married. I would like to play at my wedding and surprise some members of my family who didn’t even know I’m currently playing :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

5 years

  • I want to have completed the advanced course from Justin

  • I want to be able of doing covers (metal-covers :metal:) of songs I love, like the OST of some videogames

Progress

I’m just starting with module 13. Don’t know how much I’ll stay here, but for now, seems realistic to think that I’d finish grade 2 in August.

However, I have detected some flaws in my playing to work on:

  • Chord changes to F
  • Chord changes to A → I’m trying to improve my A air change since I still placing finger 1 first and then the other 2. And that creates a funny sound (kind of a hammer-on) whenever I change to A
  • Sing along with songs → I have trouble with searching for my repertoire. Being from Spain makes that hardly any person knows the lyrics for the songs I learn with Justin since they’re all in English :sweat_smile:. So if I want to be ready for some moment of action when someone throws a guitar at me, I should really work on singing while strumming. Which I haven’t accomplished much yet.

And that’s it. For now :wink:

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