Eldrix's Learning Log

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Hello! Today I’ll be starting a learning log, I’ve recently been feeling down, how I’m not progressing enough to doing things to progress, so I’ve set up this massive 4 hour practice routine, I know as beginner this isn’t smart to do, but I’m 5 years in and I feel confident enough to pull it off, so I’m going to try to post on here everyday about what I’ve learned, what I can improve on, and you all can keep on accountable haha, anyways this routine is a bit more than just guitar but I’ve already finished the day and I joined doing it.

The Routine:
Warm-up 10mins
Exercises 15mins
Scales 15mins
Chords 15mins
Improvisation 30mins
Song Work 1hr
Ear Training 15mins
Theory 30mins
Singing/Vocal Training 30mins

Warm Up:
I’m not going to log my warm up everyday because it’s the same thing, but today I’ll share it seeing it’s the first post. I start off by doing some hand stretching, I use the video from 365guitarlessons, I’ve been doing this for about as long as I’ve been playing guitar, then I tune the guitar If needed, and doing some simple 1234 exercises to get the fingers going, or I just noodle around

Exercises:
Speaking of the 1234 exercises, I’ve been really trying to get that down, and I’ve doing combinations of it like 2314 for example. I’ve using the 10 daily exercises video from Brandon D’Eon, I plan on switching the exercises each week between the ones in his video, or maybe I should practice them all at once? I’m not sure. but I can go up to 218bpm on the metronome with 1234, gotta start practicing the combinations now!

Scales:
Might sound dumb but today I just practice the Minor Pentatonic up and down, It’s actually a scale I know but don’t feel like I’m as good at it compared to the Major Pentatonic which my non-musical friend made a joke about, and then I realized I didn’t know it and then I practiced it up and down for like a month lol, just dozing off while watching a TV show.

Chords:
I just recently finished Grade 2, and at the end of Grade 2 Justin gives you a list of things you should’ve explored before you move on, as I said in my introduction course a lot of the stuff I’m learning is things I already know, so when Justin says (just mess around it a bit) I take that as I’m going to put hours into this and master it lol. But anyways today I practice the good old wonderwall chords which are “Big” G, G5, Cadd9, Dsus4, A7sus4, Emin7, Dadd11/F#, F6/9. I really dislike the sound of F6/9, but I still practice it :frowning:

Improvisation:
I actually suck at this, today was many the 5th time in my life where I’ve sat down and tried to improv, so I am just messing around with it a bit, using the a minor pentatonic over a backing track on Spotify.

Song Work:
Finally the last part of the guitar part. I did some song work, I practice a new song I’m learning which is Master of Puppets by Metallica, and revised an old song I learned which was Nothing Else Matters by Metallica, funny I didn’t know I was a Metallica fan until now lol.

Ear Training:
Something I lack in but really want to get better at. I used a website called Toned Ear, and I just worked on Intervals, Major 3rd. Perfect 5th, and an Octave.

Theory:
I’ve dedicated this entire time to learning the fretboards notes. I used a website called The Random Scale Machine which will throw a note at me and I have to find it on the fretboard, very useful if you’re trying to learn the fretboard as well.

Vocal Training:
I like calling it vocal training, makes me feel professional lol, but I just started using this website called Singeo, I got a 30 day trial so I’m trying it out, and it seems okay so far. We worked on this Sss exercise to practice breathing, so that’s cool I guess.

Anyways thanks for reading if you did, if you have any ideas what I should change or add to improve my routine that would be great. Thank you once a again and have a good day :smiley:

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4 hours a day is massive. Good luck!

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Thank you!! I’m gonna need that luck lol.

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Great start to your LL, Eldrix, sounds like you have a good plan laid out :slight_smile:

Like JK mentioned, 4 hours is a lot to maintain each day. Just remember to go easy on yourself if you don’t achieve that some days or begin to fall off that schedule. Bernth was talking about this in a video I watched the other day and said he’s seen many of his students burn out or become discourage when putting in place long practice routines like that. I’m positive Justin also mentions this concern regularly too… But hey, if you can make it happen consistently, good on you and go for it!! You’ll be an insane shredder in no time! :guitar: :fire:

Alright! Now this is what I like to see!! :metal::confounded:

Ah, that’s cool! Thanks for sharing this, I’ll have to check it out! I’ve got to the same point in theory, i.e. learning the notes, and haven’t moved past that as I want to get it cemented before progressing. I’ve been using Justin’s suggested method and can easily nail all the natural notes when just focusing on that exercise but still have mental blocks when trying to do it on the fly. That website will help with that aspect I’m sure.

All the best and looking forward to seeing how your practice progresses :sunglasses: :+1:

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Hi Eldrix,
Good for you that you have so much time to play :sunglasses: :smiley:. that will ensure that you make big jumps. I myself are that lucky too and often practice a lot in one day, a disappointing day is about an hour, but four hours is certainly not strange for me, only I don’t do it in such a structured way, it would probably go faster learning that way ,but for me that should not be just very much fun (a bit like school :scream:… :grin:)…but if it works for you it’s perfect :sunglasses:
I wish you a long learning curve,
Greetings ,Rogier

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Yeah getting burnout is something I got watch out for, but if I wake up one day and all goes to hell and I don’t feel good I’m totally okay with missing a couple days or something. Or I’ll shorten the time of the routine. Also I love Bernth, I haven’t watched his videos in awhile but maybe I should pop in and see what he’s up too.

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Yeah I personally enjoy having a very structured routine because it keeps from noodling, like for the past couple months I’ve put in about 2-3 hours a day, but it was mainly noodling around with solos I’d already learned and scales I’ve already learned. And don’t get me wrong I was still improving by doing that, just not as much as I’d want too. And if someone sets up a structured routine and finds themselves not practicing for that 4 hours or being bored the whole time, then it’s better to just pick it up and play what you want. Because it’s better to have fun and mess around then to not play at all.

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DAY 2 LETS GOOOO

Exercises:
Started doing different combinations of the 1234 exercises, I mainly focused on doing 2143 today. It’s something different and a lot more challenging then 1234.

Scales:
Today I got bored of the Major & Minor Pentatonic Scales so I learned a new one and that was the Mixolydian Pentatonic Scale. Practiced it for the whole 15 mins, so that’s 3/5 Pentatonic scales down, but I am gonna spend the next couple of sessions focusing on the Mixolydian Scale

Chords:
Just practiced the same chords as yesterday, but I think tomorrow I’ll focusing on some of the other chords from the list I got from Grade 2.

Improvisation:
I saw some great Improvement with Improv today, I practiced with The Mixolydian Pentatonic and The Major Pentatonic over some backing tracks from YouTube.

Song Work:
Got further into Master Of Puppets, I can now play up to the first Chorus lol.

Ear Training:
Really starting to get good with the Major 3rd Interval, still need a lot of practice with it.

Theory:
Worked on the string notes again, this whole section is for learning the fretboard until I can remember all the notes by heart.

Vocal Training:
Did some more Sss practice which makes me want to pass out lol, and did some lip trills.

That’s it for today! Thanks for reading once again.

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And Boom, Day 3.

Warm Up:
Actually did something different here, I started doing one of Bernth’s Warm Up Videos and I found it super challenging and fun. I still did the hand stretching though, very important lol.

Exercises:
Still on the 1234 combos, but I think similar to what I did with the Warm Up, I’m gonna see if I can find a Bernth video that covers multiple exercises within that 15 mins

Scales:
Just learned the Mixolydian Pentatonic yesterday so I just practiced that for today.

Chords:
Switched up to practicing F Chords (F, Fmaj7, Fmaj7/C, Mini Barre F.)
absolutely hate the Mini Barre F but I see it coming in handy one day lol, I’ve already mastered the other chords pretty much but I thought I could freshen them up a bit.

Improv:
Used the A Major Pentatonic again but this time I start soloing over popular songs that are in the key of A Major, some of those songs being Foxey Lady by Jimi Hendrix, Wagon Wheel by Old Crow Medicine Show, and Unwell by Matchbox Twenty. I found a giant a playlist on Spotify of songs in A Major, tons of good ones

Song Work:
Starting to get really good at Master of Puppets

Ear Training:
Starting to get really good with Major 3rds, there’s a game I used to play call Destiny, I have about 2500 hours in the game because I’m a complete nerd, but there’s this song from the game called Journey and there’s a part that plays a Major 3rd I think twice before continuing the rest of the song, it’s at 0:17 in the song, and I think that too Identity a Major 3rd, and for Perfect 5ths I use Star Wars of course, need to find a song for an octave.

Theory:
I realized that The Random Scale Machine is a cool way of learning but I don’t feel like I’m remembering the strings enough, so I watched a couple videos and learned about the count to 5 method. For example you want to play a B which in on the 7th fret of the 6th string, then starting from the 5th fret on the 5th string, count 1 2 3 4 5 going down towards the nut, and on when you reach 5 you’re at the next B note, you can repeat this on every string expect for the 2nd string which you only need to get to 4 before you can play the next note. It’s a pretty cool way of thinking, I’m going to see if I can practice that for a week and see if it works better than The Random Scale Machine.

Vocal Training:
I did some more Lip trills and Sss exercises but the website Singeo was down so I wasn’t able to take a lesson, I might work it later when the website starts working again

Overall today was kind of a rough day, I didn’t sleep much last night so I was really tired, still 4 hours is better than nothing, I plan on taking Friday off though so I can spend time with my family all day. Thank you for reading once again, Have a wonderful day!

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Alright, Day 4!!!

Today I spent a lot of time optimizing the routine to better fit my needs. So I stopped using Justin Guitar’s Practice assistant because the timer wouldn’t work if I changed tabs on my PC, plus I didn’t like the metronome. Instead I switched to Modacity which is an app on my phone that houses all my practice items and routines, it works so much better than the Justin Guitar Practice assistant. I was thinking about decreasing the time of practice because I was finding some things too easy, like chords and scales to be specific, but then I had common sense and realized that I just need to start working on harder things, So we will see!

Exercises:
The Bernth Warm Up & Exercises are difficult, but I love it because it gives me a good challenge, I’m starting by just practicing the first block of each because that’s better then fumbling all over the fretboard trying to do the harder blocks

Scales:
Mainly Focused on the Mixolydian Pentatonic Scale again, which I was able to do double notes at 140bpm which is good, and started working on another scale which was the Dorian Pentatonic. I think I’m going to practice the Dorian for the next couple of days then move on to the final pentatonic shape. I man not realize it when I’m practicing but I’m making really good progress in this category, I’ve been meaning to learn all the pentatonic shapes forever now, and with this routine and log I’ve been doing, that’s happening very fast.

Chords:
Getting really tired of practicing chords because I’m still mastering the easier chords, I think I’m going to try to find some that are more challenging. But over the F Chords are complete I find them extremely easy.

Song Work:
Didn’t really focus too much on Master of Puppets today, mainly because I’ll pick up my guitar without realizing it and practice songs for a quick dose of dopamine, good habit I’ve developed over the years, one second I’ll be in the middle doing something on my pc, then randomly will pick up my guitar and start noodling, that’s why I preach leaving your guitar in reaching distance from where ever you sit.

Improv:
I need to find a way to make this more fun, it’s so boring to sit there and solo over a scale over a song, mainly because I’m not good at it yet and don’t know the fretboard well enough. So I made a stupid mistake, but I skipped improv completely today.

Theory:
The method in which I talked about yesterday works really well, although it’s just the beginning, I already know by heart where all the B notes are on guitar, with probably a total of 30 mins practice, which isn’t bad.

Ear Training:
It’s crazy how just a couple of days ago I didn’t even know what a Major 3rd was and now I can hear it perfectly, same with the Perfect 5th although I’ve been practicing that one for awhile, I struggle with Octave still, but by the end of this week I’ll get it.

Vocal Lessons:
Finished the first level of the Singeo Method, I can already hear some small improvements in my voice, although I’ve never spent a penny on music lessons, Singeo might be worth it for me.

Thank you for reading once again, and have a wonderful day!

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You ain’t gonna believe it but I wrote out all of day 5 and forgot to press send? I’m 17 years old and I forgot to press send, wow. But anyways it doesn’t really matter because I don’t want to post on here, after doing this for almost a week I feel no benefit for it. I feel like it would be better to write in a private document so I can really go into detail about what I need to improve and how. I think I would just feel more comfortable that way, either way I love doing this routine and am gonna keep doing it every morning for the foreseeable future :slight_smile:

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