First off…please don’t feel the need to follow or interact with this LL, any input is obviously very much appreciated and welcomed, but I know there’s already lots of deserving LLs and I’m only doing this as I think it’ll keep me focused and honest with practicing
I’ve been ‘playing’ almost 3 yrs and I ‘passed’ Justin’s beginner course (book form)
About 6 months or so ago and have just been drifting since, playing songs (poorly) and not really putting in the correct practice.
I’ve finally got myself a dedicated practice space (well, I will have by Wed/thurs) and have set up a routine to follow.
This is this weeks schedule
Let’s see how it goes, might add/remove some things as I go to keep things fresh, but I’m very determined to get certain techniques/skills down before moving on to other things.
Song practice includes songs that I love but some also contain chords/skills/techniques that I want to develop, these are…
Where is my mind - barre chords.
Suck it and see - barre chords incl A shape.
I could’ve lied - finger pick & barre chords.
Get around the wind - finger style.
Tell me why/needle and damage done - hammer ons, picking out individual strings while strumming.
You and me - thumb & finger strum, slides.
Polly - power chords.
This is my plan for this week. Will update every Monday and will post vids on how the songs are coming along with practice.
If you’ve made it this far, thanks for giving me your time. See you next Monday
Just remember that the key thing is to actually practise! Don’t spend too much time writing out and filling in schedule sheets.
Also don’t commit to weekly updates. That just puts you under pressure and when you don’t do an update you’ll feel you’ve failed in some way.
You have a point Gordon. I can tell that keeping regular updates, recordings etc. is demanding and having a job, family life, chores etc. can make it a real pressure cooker .
Oh I know! practice is paramount, but it helps me to be organised and have a set list of objectives during each session. It’s how I made good progress during most of the beginner course, otherwise I just noodle and drift around different things. Yesterday was a good solid session, got all the ‘practice’ done and spent plenty of time on songs, It helps not wanting to put my new guitar down.
I’m feeling good about things and I’m not putting to much pressure on myself, I’m
Just really pleased I’ve got the hunger back and looking forward to where it takes me
Good luck with the practice regime. I must admit that this is how I work as well. If I don’t have an objective in mind, I tend to drift down different paths that often lead to nowhere. As has been said on here already, You don’t need to post every week, just when there is something to note down to show where you are and, for me, what I want to achieve before the next log report. Sometimes I miss a week as there is nothing to ‘report’. I use my LL as a record of how far I have got and I can go back to remind myself of how I started out when I feel that things are not moving in the right direction.
I’ve been reading through lots of these learning logs/road cases and they are so inspiring To see how people have grown over time with skills and techniques (and in many cases have grown in the amount of guitars and gear ).
I’m going steal a few ideas and just do a quick update to mine. As I’ve said before, there’s so many learning logs to follow so please don’t feel the need to follow and interact with mine, as I know this site can be a time sink that could be spent PRACTICING (although it’s very much appreciated and welcome )
I’m finally getting together a dedicated space to play/practice. This is how it looks at the moment.
Looking to add a suitable mic stand, wall hangers for the guitars and other bits and bobs.
Short term goals- 6months
Consolidation of some lessons/techniques from beginner course.
Start Justin’s theory course.
Learning/memorising scales up and down the neck and improvising over backing tracks.
Put together a ‘set list’ of 10ish songs I can play start to finish from memory.
Have a dabble with recording through garage band.
Take part in a community OM
I’ll be using Justin’s grades/modules video lessons once I’ve consolidated the beginner course and go from there. I’m undecided where to go after that, maybe blues or folk, we’ll see when the time comes what I’m enjoying most.
I’ve had some very sage advice about not putting pressure on myself to update weekly, so have decided to just enjoy the journey and update when it seems right.
I’ll leave it there for now, if you’re still reading this…what the hell are you doing!!! Pick up that guitar and get playing
Hi Lee. Good you’ve started your learning log. As I see, your learning log is as interesting as any other can be. Having set some goals in writing can be motivating to put the practice time in to achieve them. Wether you meet or not those goals just trying to achieve them will make you a better guitarist.
Things are going well last 2 weeks of good solid practice have really helped progress already. Blues shuffle/riffs sounding better (although still need plenty of work) scales becoming more fluid and clear, definitely need extra work on soloing over backing tracks and the percussive strum technique.
Having a blast playing through the songs on my list although still need work as not up to scratch yet. Hope to have the confidence to post a vid or two soon of a couple of them. I’ve been having a dabble recording guitar and vocals through Garageband which has been great fun but would like to work out how to film myself on my phone while using the audio from GarageBand, so will make my way to the recording section and look for some answers
It’s been brilliant being part of this community and has really helped inspire me to push myself a bit more, especially with singing along to songs and just generally having a go finding a couple of songs I can play and sing while not sounding too awful is a real confidence boost.
Anyway, just want to say a big thank you to the community for being so helpful, supportive, inspiring, encouraging and generally just being a lovely bunch of people. I only wish I got involved sooner
Practice has pretty much remained the same the last week or so, the usual solid hour ish of scales/blues/percussion strum and improv then song practice/play through. Its been slow progress if I’m honest with myself and the last couple of days have been more frustrating than fun the songs I’m working on are very hit and miss when trying to play them, sloppy chord changes which lead to poor strumming and timing issues. The finger style songs are the same, lose the pattern and timing. I was playing them better a week ago lol
I was hoping to upload some progress vids today but when recording I just played them poorly, I was a bit frustrated so just don’t want them documented lol (even tho it might help show the improvement down the line in future vids). And trust me, it’s not anything you’d want to see
I’m out seeing a friend tomorrow and then a family day Sunday so I’ve decided to take a complete break until Monday, back to it after the weekend with fresh eyes and ears and hopefully a better state of mind.
One song I was happy(ish) with is ‘Reckless serenade’ a simple strummer with a few barre chords involved that i recorded about a week ago and posted in the recording section
As I’ve said at the start of this learning log, please don’t feel the need to follow or leave comments (although they are welcomed and much appreciated) as I know this forum is quite a time sink and there’s already lots of great learning logs to look through. It’s more of a place to come and have a little rant to myself or jot down my current state of mind during this whole learning process, the highs and lows can be quite a ride.
If you’re reading this I hope you’re doing well and having fun on your own journey. Take care, Lee
I feel like that quite often Lee… i pretty much have 2-4 songs in progress… and i hit that wall all the time the ones that i feel like i cant do, i just put them aside for a while and go back and play something old, try to brush those up a bit etc. etc… i also find it very calming and helpful to fingerstyle chord progressions. Throw in a hammer on or something, here and there. You can do a lot with just plucking random chords too… probably what some call noodling but i find noodling to be exercise in it self… trying out patterns… work on perfect chords, chord changes and so on… i have actually stumbled over a few very sweet fingerstyle melodies when playing around…
my point was Lee im in that boat of yours a lot of times
Hi Lee,
Song sounded great, very smoot strumming! Don’t be so hard on yourself, there are better and worse days and they not necessarily split 50/50 . Break should help, or just plough through this period when you don’t feel like when you are on point. I started playing late and if I learned anything from this facts is that periods of best performance are short and whimsical, over 80% of my practice is usually something very mediocre.
It’s been a rough month or so with illness in the family so the guitar has taken a back seat, things are looking a lot more settled the last few days, so hoping to get the guitar back in my hands and spend time amongst the community again. I’ve missed it, Lee
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practice is paramount, but it helps me to be organised and have a set list of objectives during each session. It’s how I made good progress during most of the beginner course, otherwise I just noodle and drift around different things. Yesterday was a good solid session, got all the ‘practice’ done and spent plenty of time on songs, It helps not wanting to put my new guitar down.
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the songs I’m working on are very hit and miss when trying to play them, sloppy chord changes which lead to poor strumming and timing issues. The finger style songs are the same, lose the pattern and timing. I was playing them better a week ago lol 
the ones that i feel like i cant do, i just put them aside for a while and go back and play something old, try to brush those up a bit etc. etc… i also find it very calming and helpful to fingerstyle chord progressions. Throw in a hammer on or something, here and there. You can do a lot with just plucking random chords too… probably what some call noodling