Wooo, what a gorgeous guitar, Mark. And how neat that you set it up as an incentive.
I enjoyed your post. I especially like the way you have set up your goals.
I look forward to continuing to read about your journey. Blessings!
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Hi everyone, well it’s been just over a month or so since my last confession so wanted to give a bit of an update to how I’ve been getting on since my last posting on the Californication solo.
Grade 2 Progress
As I had mentioned in my last update, I ended up lingering on the power chord module for quite some time, messing around with a few different songs and overall having quite the blast! A few Green Day songs and Song 2 from Blur being my practice rotation along the way. I was also spending quite a bit of time exploring some new songs and diverting myself with some other bits like the Californication solo. All of which kind of sidetracked me from my earlier goal of saying I wanted to finish grade 2 by the end of May!! Anyway, I finally moved on to module 13 about three weeks ago now and……. Well I never, how much of a riot is the blues stuff!! Always enjoyed blues music but would have never considered myself a blues person at all. The groove is just so “there”, it’s the only way I can describe it, and I’ve been finding it incredibly addictive to strum along to!! Plenty of work on the 3 x 12 bar progressions in G, E and A. Some of the changes (C7 to G7 for example) are where I’m focussing, as well as looking at mixing up the different fingerings for A7 and E7 in a single progression. Justin’s solo is fun and I’ve got it working quite well, the Californication solo work helped a lot on this. Improv in the Am pentatonic is a bit hit and miss, but what I’m really noticing is that just slowing down a bit in my head really helps, understanding I actually have the time to think about what to play is kind of unexpected, I had the temptation to play a note on almost every beat at the beginning, gaps are good! All in all I’m feeling pretty good about the blues module, and sneak-peeking ahead I know grade 2 consolidation is long and about revising all of the fundamentals from grade 1 and 2 so I’m likely to be moving on to the last module soon and smiling at where I am. I had a listen to a recording of myself about a year ago now and had a true realisation of how much I’ve progressed, it’s quite nice to hear that and take stock! The other overall interesting thing now is how I’m starting to just generally search songs I would like to play and not being scared by what chords are in there, general confidence at this stage that I will be able to play a song is a real boost. All in all I feel like I’m in a good place and looking forward to rounding out Grade 2! 
OM-IX Preparation
After listening to the recording of OM VIII I’ve taken the plunge and put myself in for OM IX in July. Still 3 weeks to go but no doubt that will disappear very rapidly indeed!! I had 3 songs in mind as options when I signed up and have been practicing all 3 and have now landed on the one “chosen one”. I did my first video recordings of the song over the weekend and feel in pretty good shape. My focus now is to get everything as automatic as I possibly can do, with a test run in front of my partner intended as a dress rehearsal at some point! If I can play (and sing!) in front of her then, touch wood, I’ll be set. Nervously excited about the prospect of the night itself and it’s been interesting and enlightening to read other’s experiences of previous OMs. Overall a good experience and it’s a different thing working on a song with the intention to actually perform it.
With the OM prep I’ve not posted up any AVOYP updates in a little while but have the intention of doing a blues post before bumping on to module 13. More than anything though I’m just enjoying playing every time I pick up the guitar, whether for specific practice or just a bit of a strum.
A slightly lengthier update than I was thinking it was going to be, if you’ve made it through then thank you!! 
- Mark.
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Hi Mark,
What a comprehensive LL. How could I have missed it??? , well , there are more that I have yet to read , but they take quite a bit of time … In any case, this one was a good read 
Greetings,…
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That’s for sure but believe me you will be fine. Far as I know no one has come to any harm yet, unless they were damage already Sure you could fill in some names!
Good to the progress report, all going well by the looks of things !
@TheMadman_tobyjenner Cheers Toby, definitely looking forward to it rather than worrying about it. At the end of the day it’s doing what we all enjoy doing so it’s all good!
And I’m definitely not commenting on pre-existing damage! 
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Sounds like things are progressing ever so well, Mark. You are developing your abilities and having fun playing. Look forward to the OM.
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Hey All, the Monday after the OM weekend before…It’s not quite been a month since I last posted an update here but let’s just call this the July update, most likely part 1 of 2 for the month as I wanted to share thoughts on how I found prepping for and playing at OM IX. The second update, to share over the next week or so is going to cover and be my rounding out of module 13 which I’ve obviously still been practicing but it’s taken a bit of a back seat.
When signing up I really had no real set idea of what song I wanted to play other than I wanted it to be something new to me rather than anything I’d learned over the course so far. This was a bit of a challenge in itself! But I shortlisted 3 songs and over the first week spent solid time on all of them before landing on Half the World Away by Oasis. A song that’s meant alot to me before and despite a daunting looking volume of chords actually all ones that I’ve covered and learned already, hoorah! I shudder to think how many times I’ve played and played it in the last 3-4 weeks or so, shared recordings with family etc. I think Trond made a comment in the OM chat that it looked like I’d played it a thousand times, he’s probably not too far wrong!
I wasn’t too nervous in the build up to the OM during the day and I’d had a day out and therefore away from the guitar on Friday and thought to myself that I’d only do a couple of rehearsal play throughs in the run up. During one of which my partner told me “You know it!!”. Sound checking made it all very real and when Jason came around to me my head went totally blank at first as to what to play for sound checking!! Played the first couple of chords of my song without wanting to give anything away, realised I needed to do a singing + playing check and defaulted to 3 Little Birds 
I was shocked at just how quickly it seemed my slot came around, likely mainly because just so into everyone else’s performances. When everything cut to me it’s all gone a little bit blurry, but I know I forgot to say where I was from in my intro chat and was speaking at, for me, a million miles an hour. I’d written myself a post it a few hours in advance to have in front of me saying “Slow Down, Sit Up, Smile, Send It!” I more or less got 3 out of 4 there as the one thing I did not do was slow down, not as much as I’d like anyway.
Once I started playing the performance itself I felt pretty pleased with, and the benefit of those many play throughs certainly showed, it was kind of autopilot but at the same time the worst instance of RBS I can ever remember! I knew my fingers fumbled with the last few chords of both choruses in different ways but living Justin’s mantra and the app training of cracking on with the song really helped here. I’m surprised in some ways my fingers found their way back to where they needed to be, although I shouldn’t be.
Could I have played it better, yep absolutely, am I disappointed, 100% absolutely not! Reinforced by the stunning comments in the chat, some lovely DMs and Martin’s intro to his song following me commenting that he hadn’t got himself set for his slot as advised during my song as he was enjoying it, thank you Martin!!!
An amazing process and amazing experience, I’m going to be keeping a beady eye out for the OM X note as I really want to go again. One more time a huge THANK YOU to the organisers, how you herd this many guitaring cats so well is a mystery and mastery. To my fellow debutants, all of you guys were terrific and I hope you took as much from your first show as I did. Every performer was top notch and I don’t think anyone could argue that were this a live OM somewhere you’d have had the room rocking just like the chat and gallery! Yet again the amazing supportive nature of the community shone through in the audience with the best encouragement possible.
And as some people have posted, here’s a dry run of my song from last week, the Zoom vocal balance seemed very strange with the vocal mic needing to be quite cranked for some reason compared to my OBS recordings, I think this balances a little better.
Module 13 update to follow!
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Hi Mark what a fabulous entry in your LL, really happy you enjoyed the show both as a performer and an audience member! I think Toby is issuing Call For Interest to OM X today so keep you eye out! all the best Mark and keep doing what you doing!
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Great reflection, great attitude, Mark. Keep on keeping on, ever onward!
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Hi Mark, good progress. Practice is paying off. Good OM performance.
What a fantastic write up describing the journey to your first OM performance Mark. I’ve walked in everyone of those footsteps, so know exactly what you mean. You did great and reading this I understand why ! It really does pay to put in the time and play these songs to death.
Maybe 2000 times for the next OM, now you’ve signed up ?
Thanks a lot Andres, appreciate the comments
Oh at least 2,000 I think next time Toby!!
Thank you for your support 
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Back again for the quick second July update as mentioned in my OM experience post above.
I’ve posted up my couple of AVOYP’s that I wanted to to close out module 13 for anyone that wants to check them out - Before You Accuse Me & Justin's Beginner Blues Solo
It’s taken longer to do so as a consequence of putting that time into the OM debut but that’s no bad thing at all. It’s been nice to have the two areas of focus really.
HIghlights of the module really is the simplicity but effectiveness of blues strumming, how much fun you can have with the 12 bar progressions and the window into effective solo-ing with the pentatonic scale. I feel like combined at this stage everything is really coming together with the added bonus that the OM has given me a real confidence hit in both playing and singing.
I’ll be watching and going through module 14 over the weekend and with some of my song exploration to date I’m already ahead of the game a little with slash chords (Half the World Away and Songbird have a couple in them so I understand the principle). The module seems more skills based rather than new chords or scales which will be good stuff to focus on.
If I can go through that in a few weeks and by mid-August say I’ve completed Grade 2 and ready for consolidation time I’ll be chuffed, more or less 18 months to have got to this point. I’ve got my brother and a few friends down for a weekend at the end of the month and looking forward to getting some beer fuelled playing and singalongs going, apologies in advance to my neighbours! (Well not really, they’re a noisy bunch and it’ll be nice to give it back )
All in all I’m more than pleased with where I am, managed to tick off a few things from my 2022 goals and just loving the feeling of having my guitar in my hands. Thanks to Justin and team for the methods and dedication to what they do.
Next LL update sometime in August!
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Bravo, Mark. Keep doing what you are doing.
So do you have a looper pedal? If not it is fun to be able to lay down your own rhythm and noodle away in the minor pentatonic. But beware, can be addictive 
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Thank you David, no stopping me at the moment, for better or worse!!
I have got a Ditto+ looper yes, but it was bought a little prematurely in retrospect considering where I was. I’ve had some dabbling with it from Justin’s “Why D’you Only Call Me When You’re High” song lesson and a few stabs at dice song writing but with the 12 bar progressions it becomes much more in play. Noted for the caution on addiction but I think I’m a lost soul already with the guitar overall!
Congratulations Mark…
because this…
is one of the most important things in life…
Greetings
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Wise words Rogier, thank you man!
Great updates!
So you should be you are making fantastic progress mate.
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