Should I start a learning log?

What @JK said :point_up_2:
The LL is unlikely to help you with your guitar playing, although it might make you feel closer to the community.
Iā€™m a curious person and find most people have interesting stories. I donā€™t mind sharing personal stuff with strangers- every now and again you get a comment that someone enjoyed it.
Do it if you want to.

3 Likes

If you want to do one then do. I do one once a year which allows me to think what I have done, how I have progressed and what I will be doing in the coming year. Some do these monthly and daily, although personally I think that is too often.

I keep a learning plan and schedule on a piece of paper with a pencil and review/revise it once a week. It seems to me way too much time to catalogue on the computer every exercise I do, how long, how fast, how many minutes, etc. I can tell what I need to work on (a sizeable list) and if Iā€™m improving well enough without a formal learning log. To each his/her own.

1 Like

Isnā€™t that a practise schedule and not a learning log? To me these are different things.

Have a look at some of the learning logs out there and maybe consider what you might want to get out of it.

My approach has become to post an update approx once a week. I put what Iā€™m working on, how itā€™s going and note any particular problems Iā€™m encountering. My thinking is that in the future when Iā€™m struggling with some technique Iā€™ll be able to look back at my log as a reminder of how far Iā€™ve come and how Iā€™ve got past hurdles that seemed impossible. I probably should post more recordings on my log than I do

3 Likes

I guess the log is rattling around in my mind.

Learning Logs are a great asset of the community. They give people their own individual space and place within the community.
As you say, most active members have a LL.
If more people had a log then maybe they would feel more a part of the community and engage with it more.

4 Likes

Obviously, no forum topic is gonna make you a better player. Though I think it can be beneficial in terms of giving some structure and additional discipline like Silvia mentioned.

For sure. Though I donā€™t really feel like I have anything to tell or worth telling, but who knows, I havenā€™t even tried.

I needed someone to say that, now I can share this video here. :laughing:

Thatā€™s certainly something I need. I think you just sold me LLā€™s with this single sentence.

Yeah, unfortunately I donā€™t see how making a log can force me to play with a metronome and do more exercises. But feeling closer to the community is still a pretty good thing.

Thanks for the advice, I think Iā€™m gonna do exactly that.

2 Likes

No use in keeping a log if you donā€™t plot your long, mid and short term GOALS

Try to write these down in a hierarchical matter and keep track how far you progressed towards these.

The log should be a progress meter of your progress in the RIGHT direct, not just A direction

1 Like

Thatā€™s exactly what I need. Thanks for the great advice.

short : getting better
mid : getting better
long : getting even better

4 Likes

Hmmā€¦.Iā€™m struggling to agree with you there @LievenDV
Okay, so your method may be well suited for some people but I find it far too formal and rigid for myself.
To say there is no point having a log if you donā€™t do it a certain way is ridiculous.

My log is a building story of me learning to play guitar by following Justinā€™s lessons. I havenā€™t stated any short, medium or long term goals - I probably wouldnā€™t achieve them anyway! And then Iā€™d probably be disheartened!
My ā€goalsā€ stay in my head where they can remain private and can be changedā€¦as is my whim!

My log is just a story of my experience and it gives me a place in this community where we are all different.
Allow us to create our logs in our own way.

2 Likes

Iā€™m not gonna tell you what to do :stuck_out_tongue:
Goals can change along the way and nobody urges you to be a publicist of goals either.
I suppose everybody has a north star as main direction while goals change along the way; that healthy. In my Live Clubs I explained how these can move as your insights, tastes and skill grow and change.

If you donā€™t feel liek you have a ā€œgeneral directionā€ or North star, you have a higher risk to suffer ā€˜guitar burn outā€™, loss of motivation and not enough drive to work on something to progress.
As logn as you are moving forward, thatā€™s all cool though.

If recording your guitar journey is part of your goals, your serving a goal.

A bit nuanced, the advice would be:
If it is not doing anything for your journey now, make sure your logs actually serve A purpose some day. Otherwise it is a waste of time.
If they have value for you later, as sentimental value or you use them to recap your progress, detect inefficient paths or strange jumps, then they serve a purpose

If you approach it like my 14yo son currently think heā€™s ā€œdoing 10 minutes of homeworkā€ by logging it and taking 10 minutes to log it, youā€™re only wasting time :smiley:

2 Likes

Now guysā€¦what an interesting discussion over here, with very different points of view! In the end @metramaks WHY should you start a Learning Log?

Ask why, find your good reasons and if theyā€™re good enough start one! Never stop questioning!

Personally the LL is an amazing Learning tool and having one is very beneficial to me and my progressā€¦onlyā€¦it needs time and dedication to be an effective tool; nevertheless I understand someone can do well enough without it, weā€™re all different after all.

2 Likes

I use My Learning log sparingly and as a free space. Live your best lives, my friends! :heart_hands:

I like updating mine when I can, oft times Iā€™m venting my frustration about some guitar thing thatā€™s bugging me and others step in to help. So I will keep doing it.

1 Like

Mine started off in the old forum in the ā€œRoad Casesā€ section which was a dumping ground for any personal learning, performance, gear, or other guitar journey related stuff.

When the new forum was created, this was renamed to ā€œLearning Logsā€ which really didnā€™t fit the content I had in my Road Case, which was more about my gear journey than my guitar learning log.

But I had a lot of content in there which some people seemed to like, so I cut and pasted it across anyway. I couldnā€™t see anywhere else to put it, so it ended up as a Learning Log, even though itā€™s not really that at all.

I donā€™t, personally, have a desire to log my learning journey. Frankly, these days, itā€™s too disjointed and unfocused to be easy to write something useful or interesting.

I can see that it would be more useful for someone near the beginning of their journey, where the course direction is more linear.

Cheers

Keith

Same thing here Keith and I still use my ā€œLearning Logā€ in the way I used the old Road Case and still refer to it as such. Iā€™ll drop a end of year review and planner, along with posts on the gear side of things but donā€™t use it as ā€œlearning logā€ and just rely on my spreadsheet. I did drop a couple of work in progress recording but didnā€™t think it served much of a purpose.

Still never clear why the Road Case were rebranded, as they were all of similar content on the old Forum. It would have been better just to create a Learning Log area for those that wanted it, which wasnā€™t a common thing back in the day. But as Mr Larsen often quotes ā€œif you build it they will comeā€ but rather than a new build, it was just a renaming exercise and the rest is history.

As to the OP, the simple answer to starting a log is, itā€™s a personal choice at the end of the day.

:sunglasses:

1 Like

I agree with @jkahn on this (and much of what everyone else said above too). If you want to, give it a crack, canā€™t hurt :wink: Maybe you only post once every 6 months, but if it seems worthwhile at the time, why not?! For me it has evolved a little and I feel like now it is more a living document I will come back over time to revisit my journey and give perspective on where I am, where Iā€™ve come from and how I got there. Not really in terms of practice as such, but more perhaps in terms of life and how my guitar journey has helped shaped that :thinking: Still unsure exactly, but often I feel inspired to add another chapter and I have no doubt I will look back on them in time and find meaning :slight_smile:

PS checked out that link you posted above in response to @SILVIA and cracked up, thatā€™s me in a nutshell! :rofl: There were even videos in there Iā€™m sure Iā€™ve watched, including the Cannibal Corpse H.S.F. tute which surprised me that it made the cut! Clearly put together by someone with good taste :metal::stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: :joy:

1 Like

I think we all see them as our own personal space for all sorts of guitar related stuffā€¦and more.
I think we all respect each otherā€™s personal space too.

Most of us have used the words ā€œLearning Logā€ in the title. Not very creative eh!
Iā€™d change mine if I could!

4 Likes