Socio's Learning Log

My Learning Journey

The intention of this section is to document my progress through the various courses.

Beginners Guitar Course - Classic:

Modules Completed
  • Beginner 1: First Steps
  • Beginner 2: Getting Minor
  • Beginner 3: G, C & Technique
  • Beginner 4: 7th Chords & Changes
  • Beginner 5: More 7’s & Rhythms
  • Beginner 7: Power & Sus Chords
  • Beginner 8: Blues & Fingerstyle
  • Beginner 9: Last Beginner Steps

Beginners Guitar Course - Grade 1:

Modules Completed
  • Module 0 - Before You Begin…
  • Module 1 - A & D Chords + Your First Song
  • Module 2 - Learn your first guitar riff + more
  • Module 3 - Minor Chords and Up Strums!
  • Module 4 - Using a Metronome, Riffs and Tab
  • Module 5 - C Chord, Music Notes & More!
  • Module 6 - G Chord Hacked + 6:8 Strumming
  • Module 7 - Dynamics, Grooving + Consolidation

Beginners Guitar Course - Grade 2:

Modules Completed
  • Module 8 - Cool Chords, Fast Changes & Scales
  • Module 9 - Time to Learn the F Chord
  • Module 10 - Alternate G’s & Making Up Solos!
  • Module 11 - Fingerstyle, Sus Chords & Songwriting
  • Module 12 - Rock Power Chords for Beginners
  • Module 13 - 12 Bar Blues, Chords, Riffs & Solos!
  • Module 14 - Slash, Percussive Hit & Consolidate!

Beginners Guitar Course - Grade 3:

Modules Completed
Modules In Progress
  • Module 15 - Practice Exploring & Gym

Strumming Techniques 1:

Strumming Patterns Learned
  • RUST Pattern 1
  • RUST Pattern 2
  • RUST Pattern 3
  • RUST Pattern 4
  • RUST Pattern 5
  • RUST Pattern 6
  • RUST Pattern 7
  • RUST Pattern 8
  • RUST Pattern 9
  • RUST Pattern 10
  • RUST Pattern 11
  • RUST Pattern 12
  • RUST Pattern 13
  • RUST Pattern 14
  • RUST Pattern 15
  • RUST Pattern 16
  • RUST Pattern 17
  • RUST Pattern 18
Strumming Patterns In Progress
  • RUST Pattern 19
  • RUST Pattern 20

Complete Guide to Fingerstyle Guitar - Beginner Level:

Modules Completed
  • Module 1 - How to Get the Most Out of This Course
  • Module 2 - Tabs
  • Module 3 - Foundations
  • Module 4 - Alternating the Bass
  • Module 5 - Ten Exercises to Build Speed, Strength & Dexterity
  • Module 6 - Multiple Notes at the Same Time
  • Module 7 - Muting the Bass
  • Module 8 - Solo Fingerstyle Guitar (Melody)
  • Module 9 - Strumming Without a Pick
  • Module 10 - Picking Without a Pick
  • Module 11 - Strumming and Picking at the Same Time
Modules In Progress
  • Module 12 - Blues

Practical, Fast & Fun Music Theory:

Modules Completed
  • Module 1.0 - Introducing Music Theory
  • Module 1.1 - Notes, Sharps & Flats & Octaves!
  • Module 2.1 - Neck Notes, Tab, Chord & Scale Diagrams
Modules In Progress
  • Module 3.1 - Major Scale Theory & Key Signatures

Ear Training:

Modules Completed
Modules In Progress

My Song Repertoire

The intention of this section is to document the songs I am learning as I develop my song repertoire.

Songs Learned
  • A Girl Like You - Edwin Collins
  • Back to December - Taylor Swift
  • Bad Moon Rising - Creedence Clearwater Revival
  • Brown Eyed Girl - Van Morrison
  • Don’t Look Back In Anger - Oasis
  • Last Christmas - Wham
  • Last Kiss - Pearl Jam
  • Mad World - Gary Jules
  • Made of Stone - The Stone Roses
  • Stand By Me - Ben E. King
  • Supersonic - Oasis
  • The Circle - Ocean Colour Scene
  • Three Little Birds - Bob Marley
  • Why Does it Always Rain on Me - Travis
  • Wonderwall - Oasis
  • Wonderful Tonight - Eric Clapton
Songs Currently Learning
  • Don’t Fear the Reaper - Blue Oyster Cult
  • Sweet Home Chicago - Robert Johnson
  • Wish You Were Here - Pink Floyd
  • Wonderwall - Ryan Adams
  • Writing to Reach You - Travis

My AVoYPs

The intention of this section is to document the AVoYPs that I have posted.

Bad Moon Rising Cover
Sweet Home Alabama Beginner Cover
Three Little Birds Cover
The Circle - Ocean Colour Scene Cover
Justin’s Acoustic Solo Blues
Don’t Look Back In Anger Cover
Justin’s Blues Lead
First Blues Improv
Lost in Fingerstyle
Writing To Reach You

My Gear

Westfield VSS907E-BLS:

Epiphone Hummingbird:

Cort Gold A6:

Epiphone ES-335:

Boss Katana 100 MkII:

Boss DB-90:

Boss RC-500 and FS-7 Footswitch:

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Digitech Trio Plus and FS3X Footswitch:

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Boss WL-20 Wireless Guitar System:

Summary of my Progress

So far my progress has been going well. I have completed the Beginners Course - Classic, Beginner’s Course Grade 1 and Beginner’s Course Grade 2. I am currently consolidating the final aspects of the Beginner Grade 2 Course whilst undertaking the supplementary Beginners Fingerstyle and Discover Your Voice courses that I have enrolled in. I have also recently commenced the Blues Solo Course.

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Guitars look good and plan sounds sensible, James. Look forward to hearing you play.

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Very edgy at the bottom the first guitar, interesting didn’t see this type ever before! :slight_smile: good summary there Socio hopefully you’ll achieve what you hope to in 2022 :slight_smile:

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What is the first guitar? I really like that green color, and it looks like a really nice guitar, not a cheapo first guitar. That cutaway shape is really eye catching, too.

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The first guitar was a Westfield VSS907E-BLS. I got it in the mid 90s. It was the colour that stood out to me in the music store. It was about £250 which was a lot of money at the time. Its a relic these days. Westfield were a Scottish Guitar Brand that produced copies of Fenders and Gibsons. They went out of business back in 2013. I’ve been debating whether to take it to a Luthier as action is far to high, its still in good condition but probably not worth much these days.

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I’ve had my eye on adding a non-cutaway acoustic guitar to the collection along with an electric guitar. The electric I’ve had my eye on is not available at the moment. However, I ended up yesterday placing an order for the non-cutaway acoustic. Delivery tomorrow :smiley:

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Well come on, man, you gotta tell us what it is!! Pictures upon unboxing or I don’t believe it. :wink:

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The new addition to the collection:

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Happy NGD! I was expecting Les Paul sneaking out of the box but your choice is also fantastic, love the finish!

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Thanks @adi_mrok it was a choice between the J200 and Hummingbird. For me the Hummingbird sounded closer to the Gibson. I have thought about a Les Paul but I have had my eye on a ES-335 Figured Raspberry Tea for a while but with the pandemic it’s been a bit more difficult to get.

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Now I’ve got the new acoustic that put me into a bit of a predicament. I told myself when I get a new guitar I’d post a video. Well the clock is now ticking. I was originally planning on doing an instrumental but having watched @sairfingers and @ChasetheDream posts recently I’ve been challenging myself to do the impossible and learn how to sing :flushed:

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Happy NGD James. Looks great, good choice. I always think the J200 looks enormous. Looking forward to hearing it with or without a vocal.

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A trio of acoustics - and some AVOYP to come. All good stuff James. :slight_smile: re: the Westfield - they were built to a price point and you are right to question whether it is worth spending on a luthier to have work done. Apart from sentimental reasons, I would say no, the guitar isn’t. Concentrate more on the other two.

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Beautiful looking guitar, James. Enjoy it and do look forward to hearing you play.

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Well, it’s been 26 days since my last learning log, so I thought I’d give the log a bit of an update. I’ve spent the past few weeks consolidating Modules 1 to 8 whilst learning songs. For the songs I’ve been trying to take myself out of my comfort zone and doing a variety of genre.

I’ve been learning:

  • Why Does It Always Rain On Me by Travis. Although it’s not a grade 1 song, it’s one of those songs I’ve always wanted to play. I’ve pretty much nailed it, but I’m still finding the transitions to the Bm hit and miss. No issues with PFC, just when I’m playing. So wash-rinse-repeat. On the plus side, I’ve found out that I can sing rather badly to it.

  • Bad Moon Rising and applying the boom-chicka strumming pattern. I’ve more or less got that down. I’m just trying to learn the lyrics now to be able to sing along whilst I play.

  • Sweet Home Alabama which is coming along nicely and I’m enjoying playing. Though where I’m going to find the vocals to accompany that song I do not know.

I’ve also been getting used to playing the Hummingbird. The Yamaha APX600 feels like a toy in comparison but the tones that come out of the Hummingbird are fantastic. Looking forward to getting my first electric. The one I want it still not available though the GC said they will do me a deal for what I want and will let me know as soon as they receive stock.

In terms of Module 9 which I’m working on the F Chord is coming along well. Much easier on the Hummingbird but that was set up by the GC. Still work to be done on that pesky mini F Chord.

I’ve been watching with interest the discussions regarding the Scarlett 2i2. That’s something that I will look at in the future. I’d also like to get a looper as I would like to be able to play some of Gerry Cinnamon’s songs.

Amongst all the learning I’ve actually developed the music to my own song which I quite like, I just don’t know the lyrics yet :rofl: It might just end up as an instrumental.

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Thanks for the update, James, sounds like excellent progress.

Looking forward to hear you play and sing those songs.

Hope GC come through with the electric soon.

As for lyrics, I know just how you feel. I find writing originals challenging but writing the lyrics is always the biggest hurdle for me (without minimising all the rest that goes into an original song).

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Good update James. The Hummingbird looks great. Looking forward to hearing it either on a cover or an original.

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Thanks @DavidP that means a lot. Yes, progress is coming along. I wouldn’t say excellent but slow and reasonably well. I would be very grateful if you could give me some pointers to getting that Bm transitions down. I’m doing the PFC every day and not really having any difficulties. It seems to be only when I want to apply it to the song. As for the original that just came about by accident, I thought I’d just apply everything Justin has taught me through the beginners course and RUST course and experiment just making music as an exercise to drill what I have learned.

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Sorry James. Don’t know how Dave got in there :smiley:
The Community is just so big now!!

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Hahaha no worries @sairfingers … I was going to reply to you calling you trigger but not sure every one would have got the reference to only fools and horses :rofl:

Thanks, the Hummingbird was a very good purchase, it’s taking a wee bit of time getting used to it as the Yamaha is a toy in comparison. The funny thing was I could play the F Chord reasonably well on the Hummingbird and when I went back to the Yamaha I could suddenly play it reasonably well on that too.

Once I get this Bm transitions sorted I will be taking the plunge and posting my first AVoYP. I read that you just use your phone to record, any recommendations on set up to get best vocal/guitar recording?

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