Not completely organized Krzysztof's Log

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Most fun songs so far - the Good

  • R.E.M. - Everybody Hurts - Fingerstyle! Section with F# and Bm is rough, otherwise it’s very pleasant. Little modifications of the fingering pattern, from the song lesson, when changing between certain chords are fantastic.
  • Bob Dylan - Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door - Without embellishments so far.
  • U2 - One

It’s still hard - the Bad

  • Rhythm. I’m practicing with metronome and playing along songs. This doesn’t stop me from speeding up, or slowing down. Even with fingerstyle it’s all over the place. I suspect it might be impacted by my preference to target being rather faster than slower - having more time gives me peace of mind that mistake will be recoverable.
  • Foot tapping when strumming 16th notes. My foot is often trying to tap on every downstrum :eyes:.
  • Thumb + index finger strumming 16th notes. When fast strumming (90bmp) index finger sometimes is getting caught by thickest string, when upstream is immediately followed by downstream.

Other observations - and the Ugly(?)

  • Relaxed strumming with pick is slowly getting better. I’m able to more control loudness. At the same time I finally understand how it might be possible to drop pick, and dropped it few times (woohooo!). There was one time when I could feel the softness of pick grip, like I was almost not holding it, but it still couldn’t be dropped.
  • Wonderwall - still impossible to play Wonderwall strumming patterns in the right tempo, and with chord changes as in the track.

Module 11

  • Third week, module is mostly completed. I’m still polishing ending of Happy Birthday.
  • Somewhere I saw suggestion to use Fleetwood Mac - Dreams from Module 10, for practicing F ↔ G changes. This is working great.
  • After finally remembering Happy Birthday, playing it got much more comfortable, comparing to following tab.
  • I’m using Summer of '69 riff as a sus chords song practice.
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Your doing hard things, that can take people a long time. So take heart that the things that you find difficult and things that are gnar for most people.

I dig all your song, good ones. Keep up the good work.

:victory_hand:t2::sign_of_the_horns:t2::sign_of_the_horns:t2:

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Module 12 (power chords)

  • Starting it I wasn’t sure if power chords will be something I enjoy. (I did enjoy it!)
  • Playing intro of Smells Like Teen Spirit is more satisfying than I expected.
  • Most fun song: Blitzkrieg Bop - Ramones. Nothing complicated as far as chords or chord changes. High tempo makes it very pleasant. It might be though required to take a breather after playing along with it.

Module 13 (blues)

  • Starting it I wasn’t sure if blues will be something I enjoy. (I also did enjoy it!)
  • Seems to be very good for rhythm.
  • Song revision - House of the Rising Sun, across couple modules I went with it from fingerstyle, to strumming, and now using the picking rake.
  • Here might have been the first time I truly felt groove, while practicing accented shuffle rhythm (backing track + foot tapping). Everything was just lining up perfectly.
  • Instead of practicing specific blues song, I’ve spend lots of time on playing along to 12 bar blues progressions, working on accented shuffle groove and shuffle riff. While it’s not possible I didn’t improve each of these, the longer I practiced shuffle, the more I wasn’t sure whether it really sounds right (despite of playing along to Justin’s video).
  • Getting familiar with Justin’s blues solo showed me many ways to make improvisation interesting, instead of plucking individual notes in random order.
  • I was slowly adding some practices from further modules - backbeat hit, playing blind, finger gym.

Module 14 (slash chords)

  • Counting it as completed at 11 of August.
  • Most, if not all songs I focus on, and plan to focus on are recognizable without vocal (world is not yet ready for my singing).
  • House of the Rising Sun - Another slight modification in playing - leaving G string open as in the original.
  • Stand by Me - backbeat hit with different patterns (and dynamics) for verses and chorus. I’m also using normal (no backbeat) strumming for few bars where there isn’t any singing after second chorus. While in original the backbeat-like rhythm is kept, I like how getting loose with strumming sounds in that part.
  • Hurt - Yet another quite unique guitar picking pattern.
  • Yellow Submarine - Very nice rhythm, which only requires quick chord changes (on 4rd and 1st beat). Great for practice.
  • Dust of the Wind - fingerstyle! Additionally it has few slash chords to practice. It’s going rather slow, I’m still getting fairly confused by variations of the finger picking patterns used in song. There’s also few tough chords which need more work, ie. Dm7, Am/G (:hushed_face:).

Other observations

  • I noticed I often lose interest in practicing something when I manage to get it to a certain level. For example. hitting target tempo for module’s 13 blues solo. Or after practicing separately section with barre chords in Everybody Hurts, since I polished that to be able to keep up with changes, I don’t feel like playing the whole song. At the same time there’s definitely a lot to improve in how I play both.
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