Hey Silvia. I so much love your study and learning process and your progress. You are doing great. I was excited to hear your “ Oh Baby Baby” song. I used to have it on my Set List, but later replaced it with one of the other songs learned. Anyway, all your videos you have shared have been such a joy to watch and to listen to.
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Hi Britney…!
Well you’ve written down how you go about learning your songs, but I’m guessing you don’t really need to. You’ve found a way of learning them and it’s becoming ingrained in you.
The vocals or melody are obviously important to you and you are building the songs around them.
In the Britney song, when you struggled, you kept the vocals going even though you were focusing hard on the note picking.
Impressive!!
Have a good holiday
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Hi Silvia, Loved the Britney Spears song, you were really into the groove. Great.
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Thank you all so much for your words of encouragment 
Rogier keep that word, I might need it for future struggles 
We’re going stay 2 weeks 
Yesterday dear husband had fun driving through the Passo dello Stelvio…have a look, such a mindblowing place!
Yay! 
Thanks so much James, I really needed to read that!
That need a little bit of work, but I’m almost there 
Hi Gordon, I already had a July avoyp topic, but I love sharing my monthly progress, so I post here and everynow and then in the avoyp section…also I feel that at this stage I should post whole songs and it requires a lot of effort, a little by little…
Thanks for the details and video! @Socio Folk Music is so appealing to me…it’s like getting in touch with the cultures, feeling and views of the different people!
David sometimes I struggle and I see it in my face when I watch the recording, then I think to myself “oh they are not gonna like this!” so I start smiling while playing and in no time the smile becomes true! 
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David I"m afraid I sing also while sleeping But I did digently my homework this time and did more practicing keeping my darn mouth shut!
Oh no…I need to keep doing, it really helps me a lot, ideally it’ll get ingrained, as you say.
Thank you so much Pamela, I must confess…no loneliness with all of you around…I wonder I would be able to do half of this without your support and sharing my learning adventures!
Thank you so much Tony 
…and with this I promise: I’ll stop calling myself “rhythmically challenged”!
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Oooo Two weeks 
Have a blast
and 
Rellllllati… almost 
And the Passo dello Stelvio is beeeuuutiful
I regularly see the pass on television during the Giro d’Italia, and then I always really sit down for this moment
Greetings…
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Most enjoyable update, thank you Silvia! Enjoy your vacation 
.
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HOLIDAYS PRACTICE - update
…writing from up here…
Last day on the mountains today, we’re going to spend a day and night in the Lago di Como area tomorrow to break the long car driving for my husband, and we’ll be back home on Sunday.
Not having a guitar didn’t prevent me from practicing…this is what I’ve been enjoying…
CLASSICAL GUITAR
I brought my Method Book and I’ve been singing the melodies in my mind or aloud, sometimes reading the notes, sometimes tapping the Rhythm on the page with index finger, sometimes trying to remember and play the notes from memory and checking if I was doing correctly at the end of each phrase and trying to hear the pitch going up and down and naming it with do re mi…I love this kind of practice 
I also planned what to practice in the remaining August weeks; I won’t learn anything new but I’ll revisit all the pieces I’ve been learning insofar focusing on one of these 3 aspects at each practice session: fingers placement close to the frets, legato, playing from memory.
SONGS
I related a lot when I read Jk 'struggling to find the “right song” to practice and thought it a good idea to spend some time to find a song to learn when I’ll be back home: I chose this one that I love and that is very short and I think it will be achieveable in a few weeks; I’ve already started practicing the singing while trekking, when no one was around…I feel a bit guilty, thought, for bringing my noise pollution in such beautiful uncontaminated places
TIME FEELING
I took advantage of the consistent pace the mountains slopes require and made my metronome out of it: I did some silent singing keeping time along with my pace (Buonanotte Fiorellino and Wind of Change electric guitar solo included ) and since the 3/4 is fast I adapted one step on beat1 but actually that one step was all 3 beats lenght and gradually I added tapping the 3beats with my fingers on the hiking stick opposite to the foot which landed on ground on beat 1 
easier done than said in this case!
I also did some planning for my strumming practice in the following weeks, and some refining of Wind of Change mental picture based on listening
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I like the visualising yourself playing guitar Silvia, and hearing in your mind what you’re ‘playing’.
I often find myself doing that too.
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I too often visualise and play guitar and sing in my head. When I do this I’m a rock god!..… and then unfortunately I wake up.
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Che belle vacanze! Sounds like a wonderful time!
I did my first backpacking trip of the year this past weekend and also spent some time singing while hiking, with my “footstep metronome” on the flatter parts of the trail. It’s great fun when nobody is around!
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I find it to be a very effective stategy…and it’s actually fun…and it always sound so great 
I don’t know why I often feel more confident on the slopes…better if slight slopes though I find it very relaxing! I think Time feeling is something I need to work on constantly, and in this case it was more fun than working with the real metronome 
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Today I improvesed on the C Major scale, only on the 3 thinnest strings, long, endless smooth melodies…for the first time in my life…
This is my 3rd attempt in all these years to tell the truth, but the only successful one. Honestly I didn’t think this would be achievable for me, it was never a matter of hitting the right strings or notes but a matter to play them through a smooth, nice relaxed Rhythm…and that was just really something I wasn’t able to do!
This week I also worked out the first verse of Hey Jude and that of Let it be by ear, on the first position. Today I tried with Obladi Oblada, which I already successfully did a while ago, but couldn’t re-do it this time! Then while thinking which easy tunes I could work out I thought that, in order to play them on the Uke, I had transposed most of the children’s tunes we sing at school in the key of…C…G (…? oops 
I need to restart studying some theory at this point!)…anyway I thought I would be very lucky with the C Major Scale: in fact I found there a little spider who eventually comes back to his mom after a wicked witch scared the hell out of him, and some improbable pirates in search of a big treasure…and a little red fish running away from home but eventually falling safely asleep with mummy fish after some most terrible adventures in the open sea…now so many stories one can find in the C Major Scale!
Super happy with my guitar today 
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I must admit I have enjoyed the improvisation lesson. I generally only like 1 in 4 attempts as the other 3 sound very stilted. Still with a bit of practice it will get melodic. So well done on the smooth, relaxed rhythm.
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All sounds so wonderful, Silvia, bravo bravo.
Hope we’ll enjoy a video of you improvising soon.
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Thanks Tony, I get what you mean when you say they sounded stilted, that’s why I never wanted to insist, because it also felt like a struggle, it didn’t make me feel any good, it was supposed to be expressing myself and whatever run into my musical mind but I found it all soo difficult! Yesterday it was completely different: I could imagine where I wanted to bring the melody, up or down and how much high or low, and the notes came in a flow…I’m so happy this finally clicked!
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Oh David! Now I’m not sure if I’ll try to improvise again soon…there was something magic there, what if it won’t happen next time?! I need to wait until I feel the magic in the air …
Thanks so much for your words of support!
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Hi Silvia,
You have a fabulous learning log. Very interesting and informative. Full of admiration for your organised and methodical approach to learning. It’s shows in your playing and singing progress. Classical guitar looks very tricky, easy to get disheartened I imagine.
Good luck with the improv, my attempts in this area have been very non musical. Something I am revisiting with the intention trying to make some progress.
Best wishes,
Alan
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Thanks a lot Alan, for your very kind reply. I’ve never got disheartened with Classical Guitar insofar, as I go so ridiculously slow and face little challenges one at the time…it’s also true that insofar I’ve worked on very easy materials to build skills and only in the past couple of months things are getting more complex. On the contrary I used to get so easily discouraged with my strumming, but with Justin I’m learning to be more happier with myself, I try to be more objective and just try my best! I think it’s all about being musical, and when you feel you are in someway it’s when you learn the most.
Enjoy your improv practice, don’t put pressure on yourself, I’m sure with time progress will come
Sounds like an amazing experience. I hope to start properly learning improvisation at some point, I always pushing it away telling myself I need to get better covers first.
What a wonderful story, glad you find your way with ukulele. I had few attempts with my son’s instrument but I always fail do to it’s miniature size, I should learn how to properly hold it first .
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