That is a seriously good idea, a little difficult at grade 1 but , listing the chords as they are played is good enough ear training at the very start. 
R.
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Thanks for sharing your plans, Jason.
Wish you well on the production of the EP.
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Funny the way the emphasis on what we want to focus on changes over time.
Good luck with your ‘mastery practice’, sounds like a well-thought out plan 
Out of curiosity do you allow yourself to ‘cheat’ in deciphering chord progressions, by knowing the chords in a key, or work individually by ear? (or is that a silly question if you already know what chords are in that key?)
Looking forward to the release of your EP
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I don’t really have any “rules” at the moment.
Here’s how I approached Love Me Do. I went in knowing the song was “easy,” so I expected something with I, V, and maybe IV chords. (Possibly a few others, although that turned out not to be the case.) I assumed the first chord was the I. After that, it’s about listening for the sound of various cadences. Moving from I to IV, for example. Or moving from V to I (or the opposite). I wasn’t really thinking about the exact chord with the letter name, but mainly the function of the chord in the progression. Is it the “home” tonic chord (the I)? Is it filled with tension wanting to resolve to the I (and thus probably the dominant, the V chord)?
It’s probably easier to watch a video of someone doing it (this guy is WAY better at it than I am). Here’s an example (the video should start at the appropriate point):
(That whole video is pretty informative, in my opinion.)
Here’s an earlier (and simpler) example from the same video, but in this one he was charting it using the chord letter names instead of the numbers (in this case, you’d definitely need to know the key going in — unless you have perfect pitch, but few of us are that lucky).
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Watched a couple of the examples, Jason. INteresting stuff indeed.
Everything sounds really good, Jason, that’s a nice sound from a small guitar. I especially liked whatever you were playing bass/strum/riff, I presume you were mucking about and not playing a specific piece based on your comment, but I agree it sounded cool. Might be worth exploring a bit more.
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Thanks, Mari. I liked that little riff thing, too, and agree it could be explored and developed into something more.
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Sounds really good Jason, nice few chord progressions you’ve built together there!
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Thank you!
Thanks for sharing, Jason, sounds wonderful.
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Started learning Babe I’m Gonna Leave You a couple days ago. The fingerpicking on this one is not easy to get smooth (more because of the left hand than the right – you want to keep notes ringing while you’re switching chords, and there’s a lot of thumb-over to catch bass notes, which I’ve always found challenging). I’m going slow and trying to get the “foundation” right. It’s beginning to shape up.
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Look forward to hearing you perform this, Jason.
Not a performance, but here’s a recording of the current state. This is the main ostinato with a couple of variations. I’m not playing the whole piece, just playing an “end of practice” kind of thing to see where I’m at with it.
This is the (new) Martin DJr-10E recorded with its internal pickup going through a Boss Acoustic Singer Live amp and taking a direct out from the amp into the interface. I added some EQ and plate reverb in the DAW, but nothing fancy. Just a mono track, no microphones, et cetera. You can probably hear the “piezo pickup” quality of the guitar’s timbre, but I think it’s at the “tolerable” level. If I were recording this “for real” I’d probably just go with microphones (and I’d probably use the OM-35).
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Sounds very good to me. Very nice dynamics too.
It would be actually interesting to hear the final performance recorded through a mic to see how it compares with direct-out sound.
Thanks, Kamil.
Next time I record some practice I’ll mic it and capture the line out at the same time, and make two audio files: one that is just the mic(s) and one that is just the line out. Should give a very apples-to-apples comparison since it will be the exact same input for each output file.
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I think this sounded really good! Is it in standard tuning?
Sounding good so far, Jason. I thought the tone of the acoustic was sounding good with the benefit of the Boss fx in the amp. I achieve a similar improvement when I play my acoustic through the Play Acoustic pedal that includes the TC Electronics Bodyrez pedal.
Look forward to hearing you play and sing this tune in due course.
Many of Led Zeppelin’s songs used an alternative tuning, but this one is just standard tuning. While I like pretty much all of Led Zeppelin’s acoustic-oriented stuff, the fact that this one is in standard tuning is actually one of the main reasons I selected it. I just didn’t feel like changing the tuning of my new guitar.
Thanks, David. I think using an acoustic amp or an acoustic pedal of some sort before going into the interface/board often helps quite a bit. Otherwise the quacky piezo sound is (usually) just too much for me. Good call on the Bodyrez pedal, in my opinion.
The sound I’m getting through the amp’s line out would be an acceptable “live/stage” tone, in my opinion. I’d still mic for any serious recording, though.
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Made another recording with the Martin DJR-10E. This one is a pretty basic microphone recording. Just some strumming and singing of Tom Petty’s You Got Lucky. I posted the recording in an AVOYP thread.
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