Following Justin’s recommended practice structure for Grade 3, I find myself unsure what to do with the 5 minute “Knowledge - any” slot.
Generally I just use it to figure out and memorise scale patterns, but that is getting a little dull and I feel like I should be making better use of the time.
I’m not completely new to music theory, it might even be fair to say that I’m further along with theory, than I am on the physical skill of playing guitar. But I’m not sure what I should be learning next on that front, if that makes sense.
Is this the point where I should just go ahead and pay for Justin’s theory course? Looking at the lesson titles, it seems like I would be jumping in at around Grade 4 with maybe a couple lessons to fill gaps from Grade 3.
As far as I can see, you have been ready for the Theory course for a while,…
Start it now ,…With just a few skills it is already good and fun to do,
Greetings,Rogier
I have music theory in that slot. One knowledge slot on practicing a scale (currently major scale position 1), and one on learning about music theory.
Grades 1 & 2 music theory were straightforward, grade 3 I’m at now and it’s a mix of useful & interesting (major scale theory) and completely cryptic (key signatures on sheet music?!?). Although it sounds like you’re a lot more knowledgeable on theory than me so you might find it easier.
I don’t do 5 minutes a day though, I think that would be too hard to fit in. Every couple of weeks I watch a new video when I feel like it - it’s probably the least structured part of my practice, I’m more interested in the playing part.
My only critique of the grade 3 practice format as I don’t think it has enough time to learn and practice songs. So I added more time for that.
I went ahead and paid for the theory course, ran through the Grade 1 & 2 tests just to confirm I wasn’t missing anything important and looking through the Grade 3 content now. A lot of it is stuff I already know, or had learned ages ago and just needed to revise. But there are definitely some useful tips, and some things that are new to me, so I feel like it will be worth going through all the videos.
I have a separate session for knowledge building but I usually spend a bit of practice time consolidating theory on guitar. Stuff like: making sure I can convert chords and chord shapes into scale degrees and notes, deriving scale formulas for the major modes, randomly pick octave intervals and making sure I can fit scales in that shape, picking a key and finding different sets of diatonic chords.
,…With just a few skills it is already good and fun to do,