Hilary’s Learning Log

Hi Hillary,
Congratulations on this 1-year milestone, fantastic job and really doing great… :sunglasses: :partying_face: :clap: :clap: :bouquet:

What I thought was special was to see (a little bit) that your rhythm guitar seemed a little smoother with the song you were singing, probably because you were not particularly concentrated with the strumming (or maybe is see that wrong ?) at the time and you concentrated on singing,… that’s sooo the other way around for me :grimacing: :roll_eyes:
And for what it’s true, and I certainly hope so for you too, for me the mini-F was much more difficult to learn than the “regular” F :crossed_fingers:

Liked the story too :sunglasses:

Keep on going and I wish you a lot of playing the next year :smiley:
Greetings

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Thank you both for your kind words!

@DavidP It’s good to hear that I’m my own worst critic, and that the floundering isn’t too noticeable to the casual observer. I’ll have to fight with myself a bit more before considering posting it in the general AVOYP - it was hard enough to make myself bury it here in the depths of my LL :sweat_smile:

@roger_holland I think you’re probably right about rhythm being smoother when I’m not thinking about it too much…unfortunately as a type-A leaning person, that can be really hard!

I did initially have a harder time with the mini F than the full barre in terms of getting the strings to ring out, but once I got that sorted, the speed came more readily. The thing holding me back now on the ‘regular’ F is that I’m still slow getting into it – nothing (a lot) more practice won’t address, but definitely a long-term project. It is gratifying, though, to be able to start to play along with some of the songs with F in the app that were entirely out of reach earlier in the year!

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I’m starting to feel the pull to move on to some new material lately, and I had been reminding myself to slow my roll, but I realized today that I’ve actually been working on module 12 since the middle of October (~10 weeks or so)…which explains the restlessness!

Items from this module aren’t as clean as I’d ideally want them, but going through Justin’s list of benchmarks and watching Nitsuj, I think I’m actually doing well enough to start sampling module 13. Power chords no longer sound like total garbage to me on acoustic, palm muting isn’t exactly comfortable but has started to become more doable.

My power chord songs for the module are Semisonic’s Closing Time, and The Head and the Heart’s Let’s Be Still. For Closing Time, I’m doing fairly well on the verses (even singing along a bit), but haven’t quite nailed down the chorus (and haven’t even attempted the bridge properly). For Let’s Be Still, I’ve been mostly playing along with the app and using it for all-down 8ths and palm muting practice. I’ll need to go through and diagram out the chords/song structure if I opt to properly add it to my repertoire, but I’ll probably wait on that until less of my brain is occupied by the palm muting.

I’ve continued working on Let It Be with the full barre F - it’s not pristine, but I can do it at a slow tempo without having entirely lost the ability to sing along. I’m considering Valerie as another F song to officially learn - it also uses Dm, and I don’t currently have that chord represented in my repertoire (the G1 Dm songs were unappealing).

I’ve also circled back to Stand By Me recently, which was one of my grade 1 songs. I added the backbeat hit some time back (before reaching that module) since it makes the song so much more recognizable. My next task is being able to sing it, or at least start the verses so other people can sing, so it can be a campfire song. I’m starting to finally turn the corner on it - today I was able to sing along to much of it while playing with the app backing track…once I tried shutting my eyes and trusting that I knew the song. Looking at/reading where the lyrics fall is apparently too much input for my brain, but when I closed my eyes and followed the backing track, I was thrilled to discover that most of the lyrics were there!

For 2024, I’m looking forward to finishing the rest of grade 2, and hoping that my G2 commencement ‘set’ can be mostly songs I’m able to sing along with - which is not something I EVER expected to say or do. But I’m finding that it makes songs so much more recognizable and more fun to play. I have 5 songs that fit the bill so far (they will need more polishing), with another 2 or so in progress…so just a few to go.

I’m also looking forward to taking a trip to Southpaw Guitars in Houston sometime later this year to upgrade (I’ve got a sinking fund in progress to pay for the guitar and trip). TBD when this will be happening, but I’m hoping my skills will be good enough by then to “let the wand choose the wizard,” so to speak.

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Sounds like you are making slow and steady progress, Hilary. You’re following a sensible approach and the strong foundation laid will serve you well as you continue. The trip to Southpaw Guitars sounds exciting.

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Tiny victory today - I was listening to a song in the car, and I could hear the strumming pattern.
I’m also in the midst of/near the end of my longest streak of consecutive days practiced since I moving and starting my new job in September - 12 days! I may be able to string a 13th on tomorrow, but that’s where it’ll stop since I’m leaving town.

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Hilary, I just came across this as I’m exploring the website for the first time, and I wanted to tell you how inspired I am by your posts on the learning log. I loved your videos and especially ‘The Story’. Very well done!

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Thank you for your kind comments, Karen! Seeing what other people are up to and what they’ve been able to accomplish with Justin’s lessons is one thing I love about this forum!

I’m still plugging along here, but I am finding that, although I enjoy listening to modern bluesy/soul music, I am entirely uninspired to learn to play it. I’m about 8 weeks into this module (probably didn’t finish watching all of the lessons until maybe 3-4 weeks ago, however), and though I’m a long way from being as proficient as I’d like with my practice items, practice for this module feels more like a chore than I’d like it to, so I’m probably going to move on…once I muster up the energy/motivation :sweat_smile:.

I have some songs that I’m either currently working on or am considering learning, that use seventh chords, and I may keep a couple minutes a day of practicing the beginner blues solo, but otherwise I think I’m going to get out of Dodge. My motivation to pick up my guitar over the past week+ has been low, and it’s not because I haven’t had time. So, on to module 14, learning some new songs and starting grade 2 consolidation.

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I learned how to play blues chords, 12 bar blues and the solo but I really didn’t incorporate them to my practice routine. It’s not my cup of tea and I prefer to invest my time in other techniques.

If you feel you’re not motivated to play these lessons just move on and you will always have time to go back and relearn them.

At this point the most important thing is to stay motivated and practice the skills you feel will be useful to play the kind of music you enjoy.

That is not a tiny victory, that is great achievement. I think listening skills are as important as mechanical skills for playing guitar. Being able to hear things is incredibly helpful. Don’t be discouraged if it comes difficult, but keep trying at those things. You will soon see benefits of it. :slight_smile:

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I’m still here! Progress has been slow, and I haven’t been practicing as much in the past few months, but I’m still picking my guitar up at least a couple times a week. I’m making an effort to pick it up more lately, even for a short few minutes, to help compensate for my reduced practice frequency, since outdoor summer activities and a new relationship have been occupying more of my time - which I have no regrets about! I just need to adapt to the new routine.

In the months since my last log, I’ve gotten through module 14 and started module 15. I’m not sure I’d say that I properly “graduated” grade 2, but I reached a point where I needed/wanted new material, especially since much of the module is about refinement, which will be more of an ongoing thing, and less of a specific practice item.

Lately, I’m mostly doing repertoire revision, revisiting fingerstyle exercises, and doing some new technique stuff from module 15 (finger gym, linking chords with scales). I haven’t yet identified new songs I want to learn, and I have to admit it’s harder to do so than in grade 1, where there was a ‘menu’ of options. The open-endedness is both wonderful and paralyzing, though many of the songs I glance at will have to wait until I learn Bm. I am not as solid as I’d like on many of the songs I learned for Grade 2, so I periodically cycle through those as I get bored/frustrated, hoping that some time away will help me reach further. Nothing too exciting going on with my playing, just keeping on keeping on!

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Hi Hilary! Nice to read your latest entry and good to read you are still playing and enjoying your guitar playing and life in general. Sometimes, guitar has to take a back seat, there are so many other things that keep our attentiveness. Keep on keeping on!

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My 2-year JG-aversary was earlier this week! I’m still at it, though logging fewer practice hours than I would like due to being busy with other things, plus the fact that I now live in an apartment rather than a duplex, so I can’t play as early or as late in the day as I used to (maybe not can’t, but won’t, since I don’t want to be the obnoxious neighbor).

Looking back on my log, I worked on module 15 from June through earlier this month, when I noticed a loss of enthusiasm and went ahead and watched the first (35-minute whopper of a) lesson in module 16. Even though I’ve spent a long time on these last few modules, I don’t feel as solid on them as I wish I did – it’s hard to remember if this is how I felt in grade 1/2 as well, but perhaps part of that is that it’s much less objectively defined at this stage.

I do wish there were Nitsuj videos for grade 3 – I didn’t watch every video of his for grade 2, but it was helpful to watch his last couple practice session before moving to the next module to make sure I felt I was at a comparable place.

I think the only song I’ve learned recently (and not even that recently) is Tom Petty’s ‘Learning to Fly,’ otherwise mostly revision of songs I’ve previously learned. I’m not sure if my next move will be to tackle a new song, or to try to use the open chord shapes up the neck to spice up something I already know. So far, I’ve been using random songs in the app to try to build up my fluency in the different shapes/positions for each chord. It takes away the mental load of remembering what comes next, freeing up more neurons to remember where I can play G with the C shape, for instance.

The other big news is that I’ve got a weekend trip to San Diego booked to go on Taylor’s factory tour, and to hopefully upgrade my guitar! This has been in the sights for a while and was originally going to be a trip to Houston, but El Cajon/San Diego is closer and less expensive of a trip. They said they usually have a handful of LH models in their showroom to try, as well as a nearly-full array of RH models that I could have a listen of if I wanted to order something else. At least this way, I can get the different body sizes in my hands and hear/compare different tonewoods (even if I don’t go home with one I’ve actually played). I’m looking forward to getting something a little smaller!

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My trip to San Diego this weekend went completely sideways, but I have a new guitar on order! Details on that will wait until I have her in hand - don’t worry, I’ll post photos :wink:

I unfortunately completely missed my scheduled factory tour on Friday due to a severe weather-related travel delay into San Diego of all places :roll_eyes: They apparently had some really heavy fog that morning. My flight was supposed to leave at 7:30am, and they tried to hustle us on the plane before the weather window closed, but they had to abort boarding halfway through. We re-boarded at 8am, only to find out as soon as we were all seated that there was a ground stoppage in San Diego and we couldn’t leave. We sat on the plane for over an hour, then when the stoppage was lifted at like 9:15, they had us get off the plane again because our new assigned departure time was 11:37a due to all the flights being backed up…which did not get me to SD in time to make it to my 12:30p tour. That’s the bad news.

The good news is, the folks at Taylor are truly lovely, helpful people. I called during my delay, and the woman who answered the phone looked into options for me (was even going to go so far as giving me a tour herself, but she had an off-site meeting), but unfortunately it was a busy day for everyone there, and I’d be arriving right at shift change. I drove out to the visitor center anyway to try out guitars - there were only two LH models on display that were contenders for me, but I was able to get another very nice employee to demo some RH models in other tonewoods so I could compare (I tried myself, but couldn’t ascertain very much playing chords upside down, nor make my left fingers do anything on a fretboard…). When he learned I was in town for the singular purpose of the tour and trying guitars, he gave me an abbreviated, rapid fire, 1-on-1 tour himself :star_struck: I took zero photos because it happened so fast, but it was really cool to see the steps of the process, some very pretty in-progress guitar parts, all of their cool designed-in-house equipment, and to see how collegial all of the employees were with each other. They really went above and beyond for me, and I’m very happy to support their company by buying a pretty new instrument!

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Hi Hilary, I’ve been going through your learning log and listened to your one year JG anniversary posts on Nov. 2023 of your recordings of Let It Be and The Story. I thought that both performances were great. I especially was impressed with the steady rhythm of your strumming. I thought that your singing complimented your playing in The Song. You have made a lot of progress. Well done.

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Hilary, congrats on the 2 year JG anniversary. You’ve covered a lot of guitar territory. Now that you are grade 3, you are entering the grade that I struggled with, but enjoyed for the last 2 years. I didn’t start my learning log until the first module of Grade 3. I struggled early on until I realized that I didn’t have to master everything as I went through the lessons. I alternated Grade 3 studies with review of grades 1 and 2 and consolidation of Grade 2. Eventually I conquered boredom by adding an additional week each month of exploring other studies in fingerpicking, classical, etc. to keep from having my eyes glaze over from the constant technique practice in grade 3. I found that grade 3 was a good practice to prepare for grade 4 where the lessons are even more unstructured. I agree with you that a few Nitsuj grade 3 practice recordings would be great to show what is expected, but I don’t think that will happen with all the Justin is doing lately.

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Hilary, Congrats on the new Taylor guitar. I look forward to seeing the pics.

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Thanks for reading, Steve! I’ve been pretty loose with following the lessons at this point - lots of song revision, a little bit of the strumming dynamics course, and a little bit of trying out Bm (from several modules ahead) because I wanted to learn a song that had it, and when I actually looked at the box diagram I was like “huh that might actually be doable.”

New guitar has shipped, and should hopefully be here Friday, assuming I’m able to be home to sign for it :crossed_fingers:

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She’s here! NGD topic here

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I’ve played my new guitar for around 3 hours so far, and I’m really liking how it feels!

The concert size is really comfortable and feels much more proportionate to my body. The scale length is a little bit shorter, which feels different, but it’s not a huge change. It’s not as loud and boomy as my dreadnought (as expected with the smaller body), which is neutral for me, but probably advantageous to my apartment neighbors.

My favorite pick that I was using on my Yamaha I don’t like as much on this guitar, but some of the others in the variety pack I have that I didn’t like much before, sound good on this one (they were too much/too loud on the Yamaha). I might consider grabbing another variety pack of thicker picks just to try. For now, I’m liking the 0.71mm JD Gator Grip and the 0.6mm Ultex.

I did change strings today — the ones it came with looked a little corroded in spots, and based on the manufacture date, were close to 2 years old. They were also 12s, and I was having trouble getting the B and G strings to ring out on some chords (namely F, but I also had to press a lot harder than I’m used to for Am and C). The ones I had on hand are my usual 11s, which seem better. I’ll consider getting a setup next year depending on how things end up feeling, but too busy with the holidays now to add that to the list.

I haven’t played with the upper frets yet, but I’m excited to have more access with the cutaway.

So far, so good for what is hopefully my forever guitar :guitar: :blue_heart:

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