Hi Michael, this is a great update to read. I’m somehow following your journey through your AVOYP and posts so while reading I’ve been nodding at what you wrote. Only 2 years in - and you’re doing great and working on different things and above all you’re enjoying your journey and are happy with yourself which is the main thing and a very fruitfull attitude. I wish you a 2024 full of fun and “work” and progress such as this one you’ve been writing about!
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Jeff @Jeff
Thanks for the kind words and encouragement.
You are right you sometimes forget where you have come from, I see posts about people trouble playing A D and E chords and here am I going through A shaped barre chords, I was like them at one time. Yes, I know A shaped barre chords are in Grade 5 and I am only in Grade 3, but I needed B and Bm chords for a song.
Silva @Silvia80
I appreciate you following my progress, I think that is the nice thing about the community you can see how people are progressing and like you I keep up to date with others.
I know at times I think to myself I am trying to do too many things, I sort of had that in my working life, so it does faze me.
Michael
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Roger @roger_holland
You asked a while ago
So here is the photo of the two of us taken at last nights guitar club. I’m in the blue shirt if you are wondering.
Michael
CC @MichaelBrabs
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I’m just catching up on this thread but have to say it seems pretty bloomin’ good after a couple of years, nice work.
I have no idea when my 2 year anniversary would be, I’ve started, stopped, re-started, paused, resumed etc so many times that it’s impossible to say! Realistically since I started with Justin’s lessons in Sept 2022, minus a sizeable chunk in the middle of last year when I didn’t play for various reasons (health and time mostly) I’m probably nearly a year in
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No 
…But for those who are reading along it can be handy 
…I’ll pick you out of thousands 
and also to @MichaelBrabs ,how nice you are doing this all together 
Greetings
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Matthew @mattswain
Must confess the last two years have passed very quickly, definitely making up for lost time. Having said that at the guitar club last night we each had to say a bit about ourselves to those new to the club. Had one of those moments when I had to think hard, how long have I been playing.
Michael
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Part 14 – June 24
Rather surprising, it is nearly 6 months since my last LL, must have been busy guitar wise and I have been.
Slightly different format this time based generally on Grade 3 Practice Areas.
OVERALL
Where am I, somewhere in Grade 3 and parts of Grade 4 and Grade 5 for E and A shaped barre chords. I have watched all of the Grade 3 lesson but not mastered all of them and have just started to review all of them again and work on the ones I have skipped over. Also going to have a look at the earlier grades to make sure I have not forgotten any aspect. This is the point where Justin indicates you might develop things to suit what you are interested in and I have probably done that. So, looking generally at various areas.
PERFORMING – all posted in the community
AVOYOP – Only managed to get one, I was intending to do more but didn’t happen, the one I did was Ripple by Grateful Dead.
Concert – something different in that the Guitar club were asked if they could perform some ABBA songs at fund raising charity event. I made the final cut so my first booking as a guitarist. Don’t be fooled I was very much the second guitarist and just really just did some basic strumming
Open Mic 24 – made my debut with two songs from Lindisfarne, I think it went well, you can always look back and think I could have done better but for a live one-off performance, it is what it is.
TECHNIQUE
Probably spent the majority of my time on this with having a go at
- Finger Style
- Strumming and picking out notes
- Picked Finger Style
- Palm muting
- Different strumming patterns
- 16th note strumming patterns
KNOWLEDGE
Working through PMT and currently in Grade 5.2 Quad chords
REPERTOIRE
This is expanding all the time not only with the songs I choose but also the ones that come up at the guitar club. The ones I choose are songs I have always liked but also ones where I can try out a technique that I am working on.
At the guitar club you get new songs thrown at you every session and you have to play along with. A couple of weeks ago we had 12 songs suggested to use for playing at the beach, if the weather improves. Only a couple of songs I have played and some that were completely new to me. They ranged from Daisy Daisy to Sweet Caroline. We played each song working alphabetically one after the other, now that is a challenge for an advancing beginner like me but good experience.
EAR TRAINING/TRANSCRIBING
Sort of thinking I really need to get into this after a few false starts. Still doing singing lesson and learning a lot of songs and beginning to feel I am not too bad at listening to a song and being able to follow how the melody notes, so my pitching isn’t too bad according to my teacher. Thinking I might be better to work on transcribing rather than interval ear training.
TIME
I guess this is really about keep the rhythm going at the same tempo. Have done a lot of practice at this over the last months as I felt it was one of my weak points. I had been using for a while an orange tortex pick which I like the feel of. However, I found as it is smooth it moved around a lot and although I was not bad about manipulating it back into place, I was spending far too much of my brain power doing this. So, I have changed to Dunlop Maxi Grip and much happier with this. It doesn’t move around even when I am holding it very lightly and it means I can concentrate on other aspects. Also working through the Rhythm maestro course in Grade 4
IMPROVISATION
Not really doing that unless you count playing along songs with others at the Guitar Club every fortnight then certainly, I do that
Apologies another long one, overall, I feel I have made a lot of progress in the last six months.
Michael
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Time flies Michael but slow and steady wins at the end of the day and you continue to move forward. Good on yer mate ! Onwards and upwards.
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