It’s ten days ago since the last entry in this Learning Log. Meaning, perhaps it’s time to give a short update to keep track on what happened.
The metal festival in Hyvinkää on 8.6.23 was good. Not great, but surely good. Gotta give it to Rancid, the old punk rockers, they did a great set, and I danced close to front of stage for almost the entire time. When it comes to the temperatures, it was an absolute desaster. Raining at the beginning, cold, maybe tops 15 C at the highest and unbelievably cold at night when the last band (Battle Beast) played. Perhaps 5 C or even less than that. Luckily Battle Beast used a lot of special effects and I every time fire effects were used, I was celebrating internally - at least it became a bit warmer for a few seconds.
I had volunteered to interrupt my vacation for a week of work after the festival week. So I had made the best of the slowly increasing temperatures and went back to my lonely place at the Baltic Sea last Sunday.
This time I took the Gretsch with me, but left the Mini Katana at home which proved to be a bad idea, since even a semi-hollow does not sound like much without amp. So the best I got from that experience is this rather bad picture.
Maybe there was yet another positive realization. At the Baltic Sea, I noticed that I have internalized the chord progressions for “Leaving on a jet plane” and “What’s up” and can play them with Old Faithful without thinking
The work week then was a mess, and I was as busy as expected. I did not get to play guitar much before the weekend, except for Monday, if I remember correctly. That evening, I noticed clearly how beneficial that aimless playing at the shore of the Baltic Sea has been for my more structured practicing.
Meanwhile, summer came to Southern Finland even when it’s not strictly meteorological summer yet. It has been something like 28 C outside for the last few days and even if it’s maybe 24 C only now, it’s at least 26 C inside, since Finnish apartment buildings are that well insolated. Meaning, while I have been playing around with many songs this afternoon, I had to go to wash my hands every now and again and try and cool down somehow🌞
What else happened?
I started the “Practical Music Theory” course yesterday and passed grade 1 and 2 very fast. Right now I am at the beginning of grade 3 and I am absolutely fascinated with the note circle and scales. It’s like learning to understand the grammar of a language. It’s nice to be able to speak a language but things become so much easier when I’m beginning to understand why things work like they do.
I understood that Old Faithful can e.g. be split to DDU DDU when there are two chords in a bar, and I am able to make the change to the new strumming pattern and the change between the chords fast enough even when playing at original speed with the app. Getting back to Old Faithful after that remains a challenge though.
Songs that I am working in at the moment are “Hold on”, “Leaving on a jet plane”, “Talking 'bout a revolution”, “Handle with care” and “What’s up”.
I am at the Beginner Grade 1 consolidation stage, and I do have to remind myself to be patient and keep on telling myself that I have all the time in the world. I will satisfy all curiosity with continuing the theory course and playing around with scales and patterns for scales. Otherwise it’s repetition and songs, songs, songs at the moment 
. So, finally I decided that I had to be the one who takes over this part.
.
.
I have been wondering how well these passing criteria work in practice. In theory, they sound good, but in the end it perhaps depends mainly on my own willingness to be honest with myself. And honestly speaking, I am not there yet.
?! 20 songs?! That sounds really challenging. But big kudos that you did it 
. Have fun, stick close to Justins lessons, and reach out anytime.
