It’s been a while since the last post and I was starting to fill bit rusty. Here’s 10th and last fingerstyle exercise, I was keeping it to conclude whole set as it is my favourite due to wonderful chords progression.
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That is so sweet ! 
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Radek, I have looked and listened to much of your learning log. You have a broad range of interests and passions in your guitar playing. I really think the Lakewood acoustic sounds much fuller sounding than the Takamine, which had a thinner sound. You have done an impressive amount of practice and congratulations on the 1000 hours of practice announced in earlier post. With my 40 minutes of practice per day, it will take me 5 years to reach that milestone 
. I enjoyed your fingerstyle exercises and some day may add to my practice when I am ready. I am impressed with your classical renditions on steel string acoustic. I look forward to more of your videos.
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Thanks Toby, happy that you like it !
This simple yet wonderful chords progression .
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Thank you Steve. That’s true, quite a variety of genres is interesting me, it not necessarily helps to learn faster but allows to stay engaged and motivated (most of the time 
).
This is very true, these two instruments are hard to compare. I think Takamine would sound better if it had no pickup (it rattles) and had 12-53 strings (perfectly doable) but the tone wood on Lakewood is just far more better.
Thank you kindly. I think 1000h is one of rites of passage, not just guitar, anything worthwhile practicing. It feels lika a lot but now, when I’m pass 2000h, I feel like I’m only starting getting to where I would like to be.
Don’t be so hard on yourself, I’ve seen you playing “Morning has broken” and it sounded wonderful, I’m not even attempting singing, you managed to do both gracefully. You already play like you are past 1000h mile stone.
Glad you like this little classical challenge, it is actually getting challenging now on the 6th piece . Thank you for the motivation!
“Trout” by Franz Schubert, challenge piece no 6. It suppose to be recorded in June but life got in the way and it moved to July. It also was bit more complicated then the previous pieces, some errors are showing up.
I changed practicing classical pieces to more focus approach and playing this pieces as first after exercises section. Previously this part was stressed between other songs in the middle of session.
Apart from classical, continuing practicing several long-term songs, learning more advanced variants of already learned pieces.
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Very nice Radek, sounded beautiful. I love the range of music covered by everyone, it really does span the whole spectrum. Must admit I don’t aspire to learn classsical (at the moment) but I really do appreciate listening to it and your studies are really cool.
May I ask, are you adding extra reverb through a DAW afterwards here? Such a strong carry.
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Thank you kindly Mark.
Yes, there is a reverb added in Adobe Audition to add more space to the sound.
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Soon I’m going on a family vacation. I will be parted with the guitar for about 10 days (it will be at luthier’s workshop) and hopefully my skills will not deteriorate much. But before I go, I recorded this little C-pop song, first with thumb slap (improvement needed). It’s from my list of long practiced songs and only about now I’m starting slowly getting into place where I can record it in more less acceptable form (considering it is the first recording).
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Your more less acceptable form is fantastic.
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Thank you kindly James, glad you liked it!
What great playing. Keep it up. Enjoy your vacation.
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Thanks Tony, two day’s without practice and already missing it .
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Trust you enjoying the vacation, Radek.
Thoroughly enjoyed Learn to Meow. Guitar and recording sounds lovely, and your playing more than just ‘acceptable’ to me (I know … worst critic and raising the bar).
One minor thing to think about. In the opening there were a few percussive hits. There seemed some echo/delay in just those moments which I felt weren’t quite in keeping with the overall vibe of the recording. Not a problem, just something to reflect on for future should a piece make more use of that technique
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Thanks David!
Yes, I spent some time contemplating either to use a reverb or not. Somehow the piece felt flat due to rather questionable acoustics of mt bedroom. Although I feel tempted to experiment and have some recordings without the reverb or at least less of it.
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The vacation is over, it was a great time in Poland. Cities of Gdansk and Warszawa were amazing, a lot of positive changes over the past few years since my last visit.
Getting back to guitar practice was not easy, after 9 days of negligence my accuracy went down substantially, fingers pain was surprisingly quite prominent but the muscle memory was rather all right, I remembered most of the songs I practiced before the summer break.
Part of the problem is the guitar, Lakewood is still at luthier workshop (they have personell problems and are behind the schedule) so I had to revive Takamine to be able to practice at all. It is not an easy guitar to play, not with the current setup at least. It requires a lot of strength and is far less forgiving then Lakewood. Interestingly enough, D’Addario strings are significantly less scratchy then Elixirs, I need to confirm this when my main guitar is back from the workshop and probably switch over again. Also 10-47 gauge is far more easier to articulate then standard 12-53 although it sounds thinner and less saturated.
The classical challenge I’m working on will suffer a delay but that’s fine, I started enjoying music more when I feel less pressure to deliver. Spending more time now with my old pieces at much slower speed, it feels more rewarding then previous approach with far greater fail ratio.
Immediate plans, record the challenge piece and prepare another long term song. What I’m enjoying practicing these days are obscure acoustic songs from 90’s metal bands albums I was fascinated in my 20’s. None of it is record-ready yet but perhaps closer to the year’s end some of it will.
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Guitar maintenance update
I received Lakewood back from the luthier. They did a wonderful job on restoring small edge dents that I made over the year, looks almost like a brand new instrument. They also lower action tiny bit but it was already good from the beginning.
August is quite wet month here in Sweden, the moisture in the house is 70-73% on the ground level and 60-63% upstairs. Non of it is very healthy for an instrument. I did not measure humidity last year but now I’m paying attention. This resulted in my little crusade against the excessive moisture in the bedroom where I keep the guitars. Initially I though that a little desk dehumidifier will do the job, so I got one from the Amazon. I turned it on and let it run for a few days, impact was next to zero despite locked door and windows. So I brought bigger guns and borrowed dehumidifier from a friend, he uses it on construction sites. Bulky thing worked, brought humidity down to 53-55% but the noise, excessive heat and power consumption were not acceptable in the longer run.
I also tried natural ways like opening the windows. It did work well but only on sunny days bringing the humidity down below 55%, however it was spiking up over the night up to 63% in the morning. After research I ended up with D’addario two way humidification system. Two bags went into the sound hole, one behind the headstock and whole guitar landed in the hardcase it came with. In theory the system suppose to extract excessive moisture in controllable environment. The performance is hard to measure because it works locally inside the guitar body and just behind the machine heads, I guess I need to take their word that it does the job.
Hopefully within the two months heating season starts, humidity can be controlled with room humidifier and Lakewood will return to the wall hanger.
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Challenge piece no 7, “O Tannenbaum”. One of the easiest so far from the list (in terms of memorising), not without hiccups though. There are dead bass notes here which I only identified after the recording, the cause of it is thumb not striking with it’s nail but only with it’s tip.
Classical challenge study guide (Level ★)
Completed
- Ode to Joy
- Etude in C Major
- Can Can
- The Phantom of the Opera
- Cuckoo Waltz
- Trout
- O Tannenbaum
Pending
- Lullaby (Mozart)
- The First Noel
- Waltz in E Major
- Scarborough Fair
- Andantino in G Major
Mid journey overview of the whole exercise. Initial idea was to complete one piece per month, which is manageable as long there are no major natural life obstacles. I started it bit reserved, only to use it as a way to improve my skills that later would be beneficial in playing acoustic covers. What I did not know is that this exercise will awake genuine interest in classical music. I feel more happy and committed from simple fact of having fun with this little pieces.
Will I ever approach level ★★ pieces it is hard to tell at this point. From the study overview a took a look at it felt like embracing it would be all I could hope to accomplish (not to mention that the studies go up to five star level).
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Warmup, probably most people doesn’t give it much attention, scales, spider exercise or the likes. But it also can be a melody. I like this one, I play it every time before the practice session. I guess I fell asleep while playing .
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