Hi Michael. I wish you luck with your Christmas’ concert adventure .
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Wow, Michael, that sounds very exciting 
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It’s great that you took the chance to participate in the concert. Although it sounds like really a lot of work, I’m sure you’ll progress tremendously. Keep the joy alive 
.
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You’ve taken on a lot of learning all at once Michael. Sounds like you’re up for it though so have fun and enjoy the concert and I’m sure you’ll be glad you did it when it’s all done and dusted.
Good luck! 
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Hi Michael,
I wish you a merry… uh a lot of luck with cristmas because you ask 
,but above all i wish you a lot of fun 
This is the best way to grow as a guitar player,…keep on going 
Greetings,…
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Nothing like giving yourself a challenge Michael and it seems like you certainly have done here! Respect to you for jumping right in with both size 9’s!! I’m sure it’ll do you wonders to have such a focus with such a tangible goal, good luck, you’ll be great! 
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Part 8 - December 22
I thought it was appropriate today to post my latest update as it is the first anniversary of joining the community, which also coincides with about when started as a beginner on Module 0. Although to be fair I had played a little bit, more than 50 years ago, which helped me at the start.
What a year it has been, having gone from the very basics to having learned enough to be in my first gig playing with the local acoustic guitar club, unbelievable. I think I realised early on that one ambition would be to play in front of a live audience but getting the chance to do that in less than 12 months was well beyond my expectations.
So, what has happened since my last update in October. Well not really much progress in Grade 2 as I have spent the last few months learning the songs for the gig, which meant learning new chords and cherry-picking things from later lessons that I needed. I used F chord cheats but did play Bm as a barre chord, which was an achievement. Playing with other guitarists is completely different to just playing along by yourself. You must be so conscious of the tempo set by others, not easy when everything else is going on.
So, what did I get and learn from the experience of my first gig, see also my separate post. Michael's first gig Strumming is the issue for me and needs a lot of work, Justin’s Strumming SOS Course has come along at the right time. I have signed up for this and I think I can already see some improvement. I had not really played with Capo before, so playing even the basic open chords in a different part of the fretboard took some getting used to. Need to practice playing standing up, gave it brief try but it was going to be too much of challenge in the limited time I had to prepare, so that is something else I need to work on.
As a result of my exploits at the gig I have received a gentle nudge from some prominent members or the community to perform at an OM, sounds like a good goal to do this in 2023. I am sure playing solo in front of an audience even if it is over zoom is quite another challenge. With that in mind I think I already know the song I want to learn and play, but in the short term need to get some of my Grade 1 songs posted on AVOYP, I had promised to do this before now but learning for the gig took over.
Have now restarted on Grade 2 lessons but not done a lot of Theory or Ear Training in the last few months, so I must get back onto that. F chord is coming on very slowly, but I feel it is starting to get there. The Strumming Course is getting a lot of my attention at present.
Finally, thanks to Justin and his team, all the mods and the members of community for all their help, support and valuable assistance over the last 12 months and wish everybody the best for 2023.
Michael
PS Just got a badge for the anniversary as I am typing this, nice touch
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Hi Michael,
Nice one year anniversary 
Great to see you growing as a player
Greetings,Rogier
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Hi Michael. A good log for your one year anniversary, we’ll done.
I have also found myself playing along in a guitar club and already I can see the benefits of playing with other guitarists of a higher standard and being pushed beyond your perceived limits.
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Roger @roger_holland
Yes an amazing year, never expected anything like it turned out and a little surprised to be honest. I am fortunate that I am able to put in the practice time
which makes the difference.
Peter @prbushe
You are right being part of group of fellow guitarist is great fun and you soon realise how much you still have to learn. Must say they have all been very friendly and supportive.
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Part 9 – March 23
Time for another quick and short update
Guitar
Sort of mid-way through Grade 2. Consolidating Modules 8 -10 and working through 11 to 14 in a sort of piecemeal fashion, needed the blues lessons, see below.
Presently struggling through Happy Birthday Finger Style, real challenge to coordinate fingers on both hands, much more difficult than expected.
Barre chords, coming on but changing them fast enough for a song and making them sound reasonable is difficult.
Completed Grade 1 Strumming Course and moving onto Grade 2, but already done the Blues lessons.
AVOYP
After promising for a while I eventually posted my first Grade 1 Song – Brown Eyed Girl. Lots of helpful comments – basically I played it a bit fast. Hoping to be good enough later this year to take part in a Community OM, well at least that is a nice target to aim for.
Theory
Made good progress and just about to start Module 4.3, all starting to make sense.
Ear Training
Not going well at all, still working on 4th and 5th intervals, testing myself with app. I start off ok then I get a couple wrong and it all goes to pot, if I guessed every one, I am sure I would get a better score. Giving it a rest at present and need to reconsider my reference songs.
Guitar Club
Being doing Blues songs and techniques this year and we are just starting to plan the songs for the Summer concert, a mixture of Blues and Johnny Cash songs. Looks as though the group I am in means I will have to learn 8 or 9 songs by the end of May. That is going to be challenge especially as most of the songs we have consider so far I have never heard of before, to add to that I have decided that I will play standing up so that is another skill I am going to have to learn very quickly, wish me luck.
Michael
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Part 10 – June 23
Here is another update, I spent the last couple of months concentrating on learning songs for the Guitar Club summer concert, more of this later, which left me only a limited amount of time on other guitar matters, but that is now over so I can get back to some serious learning.
Guitar
Did managed to work through all the Grade 2 lesson, so I am really at the consolidation stage and looking back through some the lessons again. There are some that perhaps did not get the attention they deserve, such as Sus Chords and Power chords. Palm muting, I think I am going to leave until Grade 2 of the Strumming course. I have done Grade 1 strumming, but I am going to revisit it again to practice the patterns with the new excellent strumming machine.
In terms of songs the list I want to learn seems to get longer and longer, bearing in mind I am playing and singing. I have decided to split them into, ones I want to learn to play from memory and those from a chord sheet. I have then subdivided them into Reprise/WIP/Learn. Not quite Justin split but works for me. Those in the chord sheet are ones where the chord sequence is complicated, and/or the lyrics are quite involved. Hopefully some of these will find their way into the memory category at some point.
AVOYP
I did post up one song in May, Crazy Mama by JJ Cale. I Intend to post up another song this month.
Still hoping to do an open mic later this year if things go well.
Theory
Made good progress and I am about to do consolidation for module 4, have done some of the tests but not all yet.
Ear Training
Have taken a break from this over the last couple of months as I was getting nowhere but intend to have another go shortly.
Guitar Club Summer Concert
Took place last week and the group I am in eventually settled on the following eight songs but did work through a lot more before deciding on these.
Crazy Mama - JJ Cale / Eric Clapton
Call me the Breeze – JJ Cale / Eric Clapton / Johnny Cash
Wishing Well - Free
Devil in disguise - JJ Cale
Tennessee Flat Top Box – Johnny Cash / Rosanne Cash
Ride the river - JJ Cale / Eric Clapton
Folsom Prison Blues - Johnny Cash
Lay Down Sally – Eric Clapton
Being blues and country songs there are a limited number of chords all of which I knew so it gave me chance to use a number of strumming patterns.
Unfortunately, not aware of any video but here are some photo’s that Dorothy, my wife, took.
This is only my second gig and there are a couple of things different, you may notice from my first gig. Firstly, I am standing up, something I was determined to do. Secondly and most surprising is that I have a microphone in front of me.
Although I had been learning some of the songs with my singing teacher, I had not planned to sing but when we did the sound check the day before there was microphone where I was going to stand, so I took a deep breath and thought if I don’t do it now I might never do it. Fortunately, there were two other proper singers in the group, so I don’t think I spoiled things.
I did ask Dorothy what she thought of the performance and she said we all looked too serious and we needed to lighten up. Good advice I think, but not easy to do when you are concentration so hard.
Michael
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Hi Michael.
Good update, thorough as ever!
Congratulations on your second guitar club gig!
Sounds like your wife is a good critique for you. Mind you, she did say that you all need to lighten up a bit and I think you’ve previously said that the others have more experience than you. Maybe you can take the lead on this aspect next time! 
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David @BurnsRhythm
Thanks
The point of lightening up is a good one. The chap who organises things at the guitar club is I would say an advanced guitarist and a very competent singer. He keeps saying smile when you are on stage and convince the audience you are relaxed and enjoying it. However, the day before the concert the bass guitarist of the group that was on after us could not make it and he volunteered to play bass. He had only one practice with the other members and he admitted afterwards he found it difficult to relax during the performance, touché.
Michael
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Good on you Michael, getting out there and doing more gigs than many of us here!
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Thanks JK @jkahn
When I picked up a guitar 18 months ago I never thought I would play in front of an audience, but about 6 months in it sort of became a goal and to have achieved it!!!
Of course you don’t just turn up on the night there is a lot of preparation, what songs (some of my suggestions did make the final list), in which order and how they can be altered if necessary to suit the audience, extra chorus or shorter instrumental.sections. All a very interesting process in its own right.
Michael
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Hi Michael. Good you and the others members of the guitar club had a good performance. About the ear training I think that is one aspect that I’m not expecting to see immediate progress for me. Each time I do it probably some brain connections are being made and suddenly one day I’m sure I’ll start identifying some chords and notes, but for now I just have to keep dedicating some time to it and not sidelining it as I’ve done for some periods of time.
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Andres @dobleA
Thanks, we enjoyed it hopefully the audience, it was free entry so they could hardly ask for their money back 
Restarted ear training from the beginning again so hopefully it will go better this time.
Michael
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Part 11 - July 23
As you requested, by Nicole @NicoleKKB here is my progress, with the kit I got for my birthday Michael’s NGearD It may be of interest to others who are thinking about going down this path.
Will add an update on more general matters at a later date.
What I got was Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 Studio which comes with condenser mic and headphones. Also got an external web cam, Logitech C920.
I knew the birthday presents were coming so I had done some research beforehand, watched quite a few videos on YouTube, as well as reading various posts in the community, so I think I was quite well prepared.
I had installed OBS beforehand, had a quick look at that but didn’t do very much than just look.
I intended to take things slowly and not rush so hoping I was understanding things as I went along. One of the issues that came up was that there was a whole lot of jargon that I didn’t have in my vocabulary so had to look things up.
First thing was to install the 2i2. If you do this through the Focusrite web page it takes you through registering the product, getting it connected to your PC, with necessary software, in my case it was to my Windows 10 laptop.
You also get to install a DAW and I went for Ableton. Again, Focusrite take you step by step through the process.
Connecting it all up to OBS was not particularly easy in the sense that the terms were all new to me and made a few false steps but when you do that you tend to learn a lot. Connecting up the sources at a basic level I managed.
Connected up mic and guitar and made a simple recording in the DAW and OBS just to make things were sort of working OK.
Did all of this over a couple days. Must say the videos from Focusrite are good and explain things very well. I had them on my iPad so was able to stop and do the task or rerun if I was not sure.
Last week I started to really get to play with making recordings in OBS. What I had in my original set up was the 2i2 as just one input. However, I had had seen Keith’s @Majik thread mentioning that you can split the inputs and control them separately. You need another bit of software installed in OBS to do that ASIO-OBS. There is an updated version from the original post which is mentioned in the later posts in that thread. Got it installed easily but getting the settings right took a bit of time as the is slightly different to the older version of the software. To be honest without Keith’s thread I don’t think I would have been aware you could do this as it had not been mentioned in any videos I had seen.
So, I did some recordings of parts of songs, so I had something to review. At the time I listened via the speaker on the laptop and it didn’t sound very good and I think I was a little disappointed. Then the penny dropped so I plugged in some ear buds and the sound was so much better. A beginners mistake I am sure. The quality of the sound is light years better than an iPad.
So, I am about to play around with the settings to get a decent recording balance between guitar and vocals so I can post up an AVOYP. Being realistic I don’t think this is going to be for a little while.
I have not set up OBS to go to Zoom yet but Keith’s thread gives you info on virtual cables etc. Think I will leave that for the present. Although I understand there may be some updated guidance coming that.
I am pleased with progress so far, but a long way to go yet.
Michael
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Sounds like you are on track on the right road progressing in a sensible way, Michael.
And have you tried using the 2i2 as your audio output device on the laptop with the headphones? That should give you even better sound than the buds and (I think) more comfortable.
The only use case I have in mind would be to perform in a Zoom meeting while making use of OBS features. For example, using two input tracks to contribute to balancing sound levels. That said, you don’t need OBS to perform in Zoom.
Once you have the Zoom settings right (Original Sound) and select the 2i2 as your audio input device it will work fine. I have not done this so not 100% certain but I think when following that path the ASIO driver combines the two inputs. There may be some settings to get right, perhaps a mono/stereo setting. And onec working with a combined feed from the 2i2 then you can use the gain controls on the 2i2 to achieve the balance between the two inputs.
Look forward to the first recording in AVOYP.
Hello Michael, thanks so much for sharing your experience with the Scarlett 2i2. Your honest and detailed report is very interesting to me. But it also makes me quite insecure, whether I really want to get such a device due to my complete lack of technical understanding 
. All I want to do is play the guitar 
.
I’ve got a better microphone now, and hope, this will do for the next time.
Nevertheless, I’m looking forward to hearing more about your progress with the 2i2, and of course a recording .
Thank you, Michael 
!