Serhat's Learning Log

JUNE 2023 UPDATE

May was another fantastic month. I was so busy (with other things as well, but mostly music!) I could not post the update:

I hit my target to do at least 1 jam or performance by:

  • Playing at the The Justin Open Mic
  • Accidentally running into an open mic and playing there (we were having coffee at a vintage dress/coffee shop. Out of nowhere they set up a stage. Turns out it was an open mic day there. Asked to play and did a couple of songs. Performance was terrible, poor playing, awful singing, forgotten lyrics and all but the experience was great :))
  • Going to a jam
  • Playing at a rehearsal for the upcoming July gig I mentioned above

I’ve been practising a bit more technique and fretboard knowledge this month.

My challenges remain:

  1. Learning to play the blues. I’m really frustrated about the lack of a resource that works for me. Everyone teaches it, but Justin has very limited material and every other single resource basically goes “Here is how you play the 12 bar blues, here are some cool licks to get you started with improvisation, now here is an awesome lick that connects the minor and major scales together”. It must be working for many out there but with the very limited time I have, I need something a lot more structured and progressing in a lot simpler steps. Did not come across something like that yet.

  2. Sounding good: My ability to learn and play songs improved a lot. I’ve been learning songs in the morning and playing them in the afternoon at jams or rehearsals, which I’m really, really happy with. But I do not like the sound of what I’m playing at all. I’m lacking so much in technique and I’m painfully hearing that in my playing and that frustrates me. Need a lot more practice.

Short update this month as I’ve been just busy with practising technique wherever I do not like the sound of what I’m playing, and learning new songs.

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