Pedro's learning log

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1

Hi Everbody,

Looks like a lot of people are doing a learning log let me try to resume my journey so far:

I already explain this in the Old dogs section, so I’ll just say that I’m 49, I’m originally from Lisbon, Portugal but I live in Switzerland near Zurich. I went to a local shop and bought a Duwina acoustic guitar. Duwina is a family company from Czech Republic, that makes really good acoustic guitars.

I started from scratch 10 weeks ago… but it looks like 6 months already.
I started with 15…20min a day and after 2 weeks, but when calluses formed I started playing 3x 30min a day. Nowadays I do minimum 3x30min a day but somedays I do a bit more. If I am a bit more stressed from work at the end of the day, I just play after dinner until I am tired. This can be anything from 30 minutes to 1 hour and half.

First few Modules were really hard. I remember that D chord being impossible, and the C wasn’t any easier.

I am now in Module 12, and here goes a list of stuff I know and how much I know about them.

Good Chords that can play and change to and from them without looking: G,Em,Am,C,E

Almost good. I can play but the changes are not always perfect: A, Dm:
The A was always a weak point. The top joint of my index finger is very overused and if I try Justin’s way of learning the A I get a lot of pain after some time, and because my hands are quite big I am forced to do the A with the 2nd, 3rd and 4th finger. On the Dm I just don’t usually play many songs with it.

Stuck 3&4 - I learn to play the I wish you were here with the Riff, so I get to play some of this chords on a daily basis. It’s part of my little music book.

F - I was one of the luck ones with big hands that got the F right after a few days. from C to F I can do 60 changes per minute, from Am to F around 45 but from G to F they are still far from perfect so it’s still a work in progress. I try to play as many musics as possible with the F to force my way into it. House of the rising sun, Hurt and Had you ever seen it rain. Plus I do a lot of playing with the C Chord Progressions that Justin’s teached a few modules ago.

The strumming was a bit of a struggle. This was probably where I invested more time in the first few weeks. That old faithful beat the hell out of me. I am also a dedicated marathon runner, and in the first weeks I run counting my steps with the left foot(1 to 4) and the “and” with the right foot like a metronome to simulate the strumming pattern. Down, Down, up, up, down. Still strumming and singing is a struggle. I usually sing with just down-strums and only when it’s more solid I sing with the correct strumming pattern. But my brain is still struggling to multitask.

Usually I have a few things in progress from the previous module. Currently I have the Sus2/4 from last module while I am also working on the Power Chords. And the of course the Fu%çZ&%&ç/% finger-style happy birthday is still on my daily routine.

The musics I am currently actively playing are:
Wish you were here
Hurt
House of the Rising Sun (pick and fingerpicking version)
Everybody hurts (fingerpicking)

I know I might be going a bit fast but I am enjoying so much the process that I just want to practice and learn more. I am not much of a campfire player and being introvert at heart, music is something very intimate to me. So I only play musics that I really like, and that is not very easy at this level. Because of this I spend a lot of time doing improvisations with the chord progressions and playing notes from the scale on top of the them as Justin suggested.

I hope to keep you guys posted on my next steps :slight_smile: , that might eventually include an electric baby in the next few months.

Cheers,
Pedro

10 Likes
2

you re rushing …

its better to slow down and learn things correctly and thouroughly the first time than rushing , hitting a wall and having to start all over again

Slow down , its not the goal that matters its the journey
enjoy it

3

You’re moving so fast you’re leaving scorch marks! I am glad you’re enjoying the process, I just hope you’re retaining what you’re learning! There is no way I could do that; I’ve been here 2 years and am only finishing modules 13 and 14 now! I’ll probably be consolidating into summer as well.

Please do keep us posted. We enjoy keeping tabs on each other.

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4

Thank you for your reply.
Yes I am retaining everything I am learning, and I am having a lot of fun.
It’s just my nature to move fast, and dedicate a lot of time and effort to everything I do. I hope this doesn’t sound like flexing because I didn’t mean it to write it that day.

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5

90 minutes of practice a day, wow! As long as you are enjoying that amount of practice and not getting burned out, keep it up.

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6

I’m a beginner too, and have only been playing a few weeks. My fingers ached reading your post - hehe. Impressed you are able to do 3x a day practice already. I’m only on G1-3 still, but looking forward to graduating to the more advanced fun songs you’re playing. Nice to read a learning log of another beginner.

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7

Hi,

Thanks for your message.
You probably have heard this before but that pain will go away quickly as soon as you start getting the calluses.

8

Hi everbody,

A small update on my journey.

I am still in Module 12 but I have been having so much fun, that didn’t advance in the modules besides practicing 1.5 to 2h a day.

I have been forcing myself to move between chords faster by doing some drills where I try, at 60bpm and with the old faithful, to play a diff chord in every strum. Its very hard for me because if forces my brain to don’t think too much in the chord you are moving to, because you are basically always moving. This helped me a lot in a “cognitive” sense.
I have also being playing over and over again the 3 scales I learned so far with alternate picking and I can already feel right hand dexterity improvements.

This last week I found out some great tabs of one of my all-time favourite musics: The unplugged version of Down in a Hole from Alice in Chains. The music has accustic 2 guitars, one plays fingertyle and one note picking (not sure if this is the right name) with the pick. All basically around Am/G/D a few D5 here and there. I have been only playing the Intro and the Versus (both fingerstyle and picking) but being able to play with my own hands one of my favourite all time musics is an amazing felling.

Also my Acoustic Duwina is going to have to share her time with me with a new electric sister. I just bought a Epiphone Les Paul 59 (I absolute love the LP sound). So I will most probably stay at least another week or 2 in the same module just having fun.

Cheers,
Pedro

1 Like
9

So last 12 days have been great but I am still in module 12 (this has been the most time I have been in a module). Learning power chords and specially palm muting on an acoustic was not making much sense, so I decided to speed up the electric guitar process while I’m consolidating some of the stuff I learned until now.

After trying out quite some guitars I decided on an Epiphone Les Pauls 59 - I just love the sound and the neck is great for my big hands. Also that neck it’s like a mid term from most of the electrics I tried and my acoustic, so I will probably make switching between guitars easier.
I also got a katana 100 gen3 artist to explore the world of tones and learn what tones I want and when. Ordered both from Thomann together with a basic setup on the epi. Amazing service, and very quick delivery. I was a bit afraid of the transport because I live near Zurich and its quite cold and dry in this time of the year but the guitar arrived in 2 days in perfect condition. Here’s a few pictures of the arrival.

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Back to playing:
I am now 3.5 months on my guitar journey!
I keep playing around 2h per day, in sessions of 30 to 45min each.

I play the electric on at least the first 2 sessions and the acoustic later in the day. After dinner I do the fingerstyle practice as Swiss German people have quite strict noise rules at night.

I usually do 15’ improvisation on the Am Pentatonic Scale, and a few runs on the C Major. On the improvisation I try to focus on doing some geometric drawings and shapes on the scale, and then repeating the ones that sound better and discovering new ones. This has been helping tremendously my right hand coordination, as I can now pick the House of the Rising Sun much more consistently and without thinking so much.

Riffs:
I keep practicing the acoustic version of Alice in Chains Down in a Hole and added last 2 days the first riff of Metallicas Seek & Destroy - an old favorite from my 16’s and a great way to enjoy the crunchy and lead sounds of my Epi Les Pauls with the Katana. Curiously that Metallic Riff is mostly in the Am pentatonic scale.

Musics:
I have been playing the Like a Stone and I’m the highway from Audioslave. Also trying to sing with my weak voice.
I keep playing Hurt, Everybody Hurts and House of the Rising Sun almost daily.

Module 12:
I am getting the power chords mostly well but maybe 15% of the 5 shape ones the lower E is not fully muted (now with the electric this is much more audible). So I still have some work to do here.
The palm muting has been a bit of a struggle but I think it just needs more work.

My F is way way better. Most of the musics I play now have an F, so the F on the acoustic is now 80% of the times perfect (change timing and sound), and on the Electric it was just wow… first time was so smooth. I barely do any strength and it sounds so clear all the time.

I am hoping the palm muting improves and I can move to chapter 13 soon.

2 Likes
10

Hello Pedro,
from a fellow Gen3 Artist owner!
Only had mine a few months so I can’t tell you much about it.
Your new guitar looks great, you’re set up to have a lot of fun!

Nice update!
With 2 hours a day practice you’ll progress well.

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11

Hi Pedro, it looks you’re progressing well. The overall time (number of days) may have been short for the first modules, but the total number of hours you’ve put on it may have been enough. It can be different for everyone (different previous musicality, mind and body coordination, and motor skills). Good you’re giving yourself time to develop the skills now you’ve found guitar things that are taking a little more effort to get fluent with.

Update your learning log as often as you find it useful for you. Don’t get discouraged of doing so. Not everyone who reads it reacts with a like or comments and this is a very busy place now, so, it’s hard to keep up with every thread (and still it’s something to do on top of the guitar practice not instead of it). The main benefit of keeping a log is consigning your perceived progress and feelings at that time, and being able to go back and realize how much you have progressed, and get some self encouragement from that.

Congrats on your new guitar and amp. I think that having the possibility of exploring tones is good for fun and for more serious stuff (using them in songs)

I don’t know if you have checked a couple of videos in YouTube called Os mais famosos riffs de guitarra, part 1 and 2. I learnt the Eye of the Tiger one from there.

I’m more familiar with Brazilian music than Portuguese music. In the future I would like to play and sing some songs in Portuguese. “Ai Se Eu Te Pego” is top in my list and some Roberto Carlos songs may be next or first. A lot of music to explore.

Keep having fun learning to play guitar.

Edit: clarified one sentence.

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13

Thank you so much for such a kind message. I will check that youtube channel.

I mostly listen to english alternative rock and indie music, but there are some Brazilian musics that I really love from Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil and Seu Jorge. Seu Jorge did an album covering David Bowie in Portuguese that is genious. I almost forgot one of my all time favorite bands from the 90’s was Brazilian: Sepultura :sign_of_the_horns:t2:

I will keep updating the log every week or every few yes.

Thank you!

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Hi Pedro. I know Gilberto Gil :+1: I’ll check the others.

15

Belated welcome aboard, Pedro :grinning_face:
You appear to have really jumped in and are speeding along in your progress!
Congratulations! :smiling_face_with_sunglasses:
You have some beautiful gear that should satisfy your requirements for quite some time (although I did notice space for one more guitar in that stand :rofl:)
How long have you been living in CH? Did you go down the Schwiizerdütsch path?
I lived there for 10 years in my youth :wink:
Salü

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16

Hi Brian,

Thank you for your message. Well there were no stands just for 2 guitars, but my wife did the name observation as you… lol.
I have been living here for around 12 years but I lived 8 years in the French speaking part. I have struggling to learn hight German, so I think learning guitar will not leave any space left on my almost 50 year old brain for the Schwiizerdütsch. :laughing:

Pedro

17

Oh, I’m not sure…
You can try combining the two by starting here :rofl:

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