Absolutly beautiful guitar by the way 
I love PRS guitars, hopefully someday I can get my hands on it myself…
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Thanks Kevin! You can keep your hands off my PRS
(I know that’s not what you meant but couldn’t resist, forgive me! 
)
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Well, if it disappears some day, you know where to look
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Very true!!
Hi Mark,
I‘ve just been enjoying reading your learning log and listening to your songs. You‘re doing really great 
. Right now, I‘m in consolidation phase of grade 1 and definitely miles away from your level. Seeing what you have mastered in grade 2 is a real motivational kick for me (don‘t get me wrong - I am motivated - but now even more 
).
Your entry about your preparations for your first OM was a great read, as well. Very honest, funny, interesting, and inspiring 
.
I‘m looking forward to learn more about your progress 
.
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Crikey, my last update was July, oops!!! Whilst not keeping up with the documentation of progress I’ve continued to push on through what’s been a really busy summer. One comment that doesn’t fit into any of the below however is that the Community continues to be a place of joy and inspiration, terrific to see the swathe of introduction posts and the ever expanding, amazing, AVOYPs people are posting up. Kudos to you all 
OM-X Preparation and Performance
Hmmmm………interesting one this. Following the undoubted adrenaline and confidence boost I took from OM-IX I jumped straight back in with OM-X. In contrast to the first show I already had my song “selected” as it’d been in my practice rotation for a little while but not as a focussed song, Green Day’s Boulevard of Broken Dreams. I had a tonne of stuff going on through summer, aided by the weather we had in the UK, so the bulk of the OM level practice took place in the couple of weeks leading up to the show. I wanted to do this one standing and had been practicing it stood up, feeling pretty decent with it all………until I had the bright idea a few days out to add in a foot switch (my Airstep connecting to my Yamaha THR) to move between the tremolo intro section, the clean verses and crunchy chorus tones. Adding that into the mix, in retrospect, I didn’t practice this anyway near enough and whilst I had a few pretty clean run throughs, when the OM RBS kicked in it felt all over the place with timing the changes. It just added an additional layer of nerves of something to go wrong / think about and it messed wit my singing half looking at the floor whilst trying to remember to sing into the mic!! Amazing feedback in the chat and post event from the community but I was disappointed in myself to be honest. I bit off more than I could chew without giving myself enough practice time to bed it in. A bit of overconfidence I think, and a reality check, although good to test yourself, perhaps that’s not the best environment or approach! On the upside it’s a clear lesson for me for rehearsing for a performance and for the next OM I sign up to. Don’t make last minute changes folks!!
NGD – Unplugging!
There’s been plenty of recent topics around my Faith acoustic purchase which I absolutely adore! Shout out to Andertons for their support, time and terrific customer service through my testing and buying. My “original” Yamaha acoustic went to a local charity shop and sold within a day and my Eastcoast electric sold to a good home. Safe to say the current pair of instruments I have will never leave me, but I will expect the family to grow over the years obviously!!
Learning Progress - Closing out Grade 2
It took me forever to sit down and go through module 14 what with the aforementioned busy summer and also a bit of general procrastination. There still weren’t many days where I didn’t pick up the guitar but was more messing around rather than structure practice. Some of that was also down to knowing what was in 14 (standing up, playing without looking, recording etc.) that I was part way down many of those little avenues. The 2 new things really were / are thumb muting and percussive hits. I’ve spent less time dedicated to mod 14 practice and more planning on incorporating those final couple of skills from the grade into consolidation.
So, here we go then, grade 2 has been a big step up from grade 1 looking back with so much covered it’s quite incredible. The fact it’s all stuck in my head and hands is a true testament to Justin’s teaching. And now we’re getting into darker / colder nights here I’m ready to play songs songs songs…!!
Grade 2 Consolidation Plan & Goals
I’ve spend a good bit of time considering how I want to approach grade 2 consolidation. I’ve landed on an approach of listing songs I’d like to learn (we’ve all got a list 200 long right?!) and isolating ones that focus on skills taught throughout grade 2 (like “simply” an Oasis song or two for stuck 3 / 4 ). Clearly a lot of songs tick more than one box so I’m listing songs below with what specifically I’m looking to consolidate from learning that song. Across all of these there’ll be general things too, like the thumb muting, mixing in some slash chords where suitable (and identifying where suitable is!), embellishing with sus chords, playing more stood up and improving recording production and so on. I’m giving myself through until Christmas to work through consolidation and go New Year, New Grade. So the big reveal……:
- REM - Everybody Hurts
- (fingerstyle, stuck 3 / 4 even if it’s just one chord!)
- REM – Man on the Moon
- (no specific grade 2 skill but I’ve been wanting to learn it since @rod58 played it in OM-IX!)
- Green Day – Good Riddance
- (I want to kick on to the fingerstyle version, a different pattern to what I’m used to)
- Green Day – Macy’s Day Parade
- (Percussive Hit & Barre Chords)
- Blur – Coffee & TV
- (Percussive & Barre Chords)
- Oasis – Whatever
- (Stuck 3 / 4)
- Oasis – Don’t Look Back in Anger
- (Stuck 3 / 4)
- Red Hot Chilli Peppers – Californication
- (hammer ons mainly with the riff but I’d like to continue to develop my playing of the song)
- Bradley Cooper / Lady Ga Ga – Shallow
- (fingerstyle and it’s such a lovely song)
- Notter – An Original Song
- (I’ve got some lyrics written for a couple but not really done anything with them, to include a solo too)
- Nirvana – Lithium
- (Power Chords)
- Eric Clapton – Cocaine
- (Power Chords)
- Metallica – Enter Sandman
- (move beyond the opening riff to the whole song, multiple areas in this one for consolidation)
- Metallica - Nothing Else Matters
- (Bit of everything really!)
- Slackstring – Sunday Jen
- (been a fave of mine forever. The song is mainly piano so this is more looking at an arrangement that works solo.)
- Blues – now this one’s tricky as my knowledge of the genre is poor, so this will be researched for songs. However alongside a song or two I’d like to come up with a solo to Justin’s backing track, as well as another over a loop of my own to cover the Pentatonic scale (Am and Em)
So that’s ~15 or so songs, quite a few I know already and it’s about taking them to a new level, so hopefully that’s not unrealistic with some focus over the coming few months.
And a bonus thing I’d like to spend a bit of time on:
Make a start on learning the intro to Little Wing, definitely in the Dreamer category!!
So there we go, we keep on rocking and rolling
I’ll update the log with links to AVOYPs of the above as we get into Autumn and Winter up here.
Appreciate your reading time!
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Making great progress Mark and really good to see a focus on your goals and what you are aiming for next.
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Great update, Mark. So true what you say about adding something extra in and how it interferes with things … the need to click a foot pedal. SOunds like you have a grand plan for Grade 2 consolidation. rock on and enjoy it.
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Your LL was a great read Mark, I’ll look forward to future posts about your progress
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Fantastic update, Mark. That’s a great list of songs you have shortlisted to use for the consolidation of Grade 2. You have made a great start with that wonderful rendition of ‘Everybody Hurts’. I look forward to following your progress through the list especially the original song(s).
If I recall correctly you played ‘Before You Accuse Me’ as part of your module practice with the shuffle-type of strumming. You could revisit that one and play it with the shuffle riff. It may also be worth checking out some JJ Cale songs (e.g. Crazy Mama, Call me the Breeze, Don’t Wait).
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Cheers James. Yep you’re right, I forgot about Before You Accuse Me when I typed all that up!! Refining that more will go onto the list now and will check out JJ Cale. Thanks for the suggestions
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Hello Mark, this is once more a very interesting and in-depth log entry. I enjoyed reading it, and got quite a good climpse of what is waiting for me in grade 2. It seems, there is a lot new stuff to learn .
I wish you lots of fun for your consolidation phase 
.
I’m sorry, that you felt this way. I still can remember your performance well. And it was really great 
. I didn’t recognize the troubles you had with the new gear and am looking forward to your next performance .
Thanks Nicole, definitely a lot to learn but all fun stuff, you’ll get on great!
My comment on the OM is definitely with my overly critical eye / ear and, as I say, I got terrific feedback. Just another notch of experience. Thanks for the encouragement! 
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Great update Mark.
I did notice your struggles with tone changes during the OM - I could see it on your face, and from memory you broke rhythm. But it’s a learning experience, right? That’s one of the great things about the OMs, it’s not a one shot gig.
Looks like a good list of songs to consolidate with.
Bm will be the fun chord on Man on the Moon. It took me a long time and it was clumsy on the open mic. I played it again today to just see where I was with it and I’m much smoother with that rascal good luck!…Rod
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Definitely a learning experience @jkahn ! Don’t get me wrong, I still loved performing at it and at the end of the day it still went down well. I just know it could have been a good few percent better and that it was very much self inflicted!
Consolidation feels like the last day of school term, just do what you fancy doing!! 
Hey Rod, thanks for the DM! Bm (or bum as my autocorrect seems to want to put instead ) isn’t too bad but it’s one of the details to master. A few days of OMC between C and that will see me right.
Awesome song to play
Great update, Mark
Tbh I’m less interested what songs/techniques folk are working on (although that’s an important function on the logs for personal use). What I love to see is the consolidation of your commitment- the replacing of initial learning instruments with ones you love and create a proper relationship with and the enthusiasm for further learning.
You’re a bit harsh on yourself re OMX. Incorporating new ideas and pushing your boundaries is the whole point of the OMs in my opinion. Flicking the pickup selector or stepping on an airstep/tone pedal at the correct moment adds a whole new level of confusion to the process (a bit like singing along). It comes with practice, and when you think you have it under control then you have to practice again in a live performance setting.
Some folk think the OMs are ‘showcases’ or polished performances. Not at all, they are platforms where we can see what it feels like to play in front of others, share where we are and try out new/different things. They can be very entertaining, but sharing our flaws and vulnerabilities is a sign of strength (and entertaining! 
)
Looking forward to your next OM/AVOYP/LL
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Thanks Brian!!
I completely get where you’re coming from with the learning logs, I don’t want it to be a lesson plan with only what I need to learn, it does make the dear diary updates quite lengthy however
Thanks also for the OM comments, very true and valuable notes to keep on board. Exposing yourself (oo-er…) to those scenarios is the only real way to test yourself and the community OMs are very much part of the learning curve, like an amped up “beginners safe space” !! One day I’ll inflict a preformance on a 3 dimensional live audience and then I’ll no doubt be pining for the community!! I think we should share both good and not so good experiences, even if the not so good bits are more obvious to me only
Appreciate the support
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Hi Mark,
Nice read, you’re doing great 
…and now I really have to check out openmicX ,…I’m a bit busy with a lot of things that get in the way of playing the guitar (sometimes only 1 hour one day 
)…but I totally agree with what Brian is saying…although I’ll take an extra critical look at what went wrong with you 
(what you have learned now )
I would love to watch live on Saturday,…but parties go on here on Saturdays 
Greetings,…
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