As I find myself at the halfway point of Grade 2 I have had a sneak peak at the Grade 2 consolidation to start thinking about how I want to approach my consolidation and to set myself some goals for the four elements recommended by Justin that I need to explore before moving onto Grade 3.
Chords
For consolidation it will be a case of learning and recording songs that use those chord grips. Then analyzing the recordings to ensure that I have applied the chords correctly and that the notes are ringing out true and clear, and chord changes are smooth and on time. This is something that I believe that I have already started doing as I progress through Grade 2.
Scales
For consolidation of the 3 scales to explore I am thinking of using the looper on the Trio Plus to generate some backing tracks to spend time improvising scales. I feel this will benefit me with exploring the chord progressions and gaining experience in creating my own riffs. I may also purchase one of Justin’s Backing Track to improvise scales and work on reactive listening.
Strumming
I’m at the very end of Part 1 of the RUST Course and feel that have made some good progress on rhythm and strumming. For the Grade 2 consolidation period I plan on completing Part 2 of the course and practice applying the strumming techniques to songs.
Techniques
I know Justin says “don’t waste time on techniques you’ll never use!”. Thinking about what type of guitar player I want to become I feel its worthwhile consolidating all of the techniques covered in Grade 2. To consolidate the techniques I will apply them to songs, riffs and scale improvisation. I will record the performances to ensure that I am applying the techniques correctly.
During the consolidation period I am also going to start slowly working through Tommy Emmanuel’s Fingerstyle Milestones Course. Right now he has me working on palm muting to get that boom chick boom chick sound which I like and developing independence between the thumb and the fingers. I’ve incorporated the first of his exercises into my current practice session which ties in quite nicely with Justin’s finger picking exercise in Module 11.
I’m looking forward to learning the rock power chords in Module 12 and the blues material in Module 13. I’m open to some suggestions of taking these aspects to another level during my consolidation period for Grade 2.
Progress
I started Module 11 this week and so far it is going well.
I don’t think that I am going to have any issues with the sus chords as I have been learning a couple of songs prior to this module which use them.
My first steps in fingerstyle have been good, I have been learning one of my favorite songs Hallelujah. Surprisingly, I have been doing reasonably well with getting the F Chord to ring out but it’s going to take practice to get consistency. I need to keep working on F Chord Changes.
For the Happy Birthday Finger Style lesson I’ve been taking this slowly, breaking it down to learning two bars at a time. So far still working on memorizing the first two bars.
As for the dice song writing. I actually found some lyrics in an old notebook that I had written down decades ago. Back then when words/ideas came to me I’d write them down. I might just role a dice and see what comes out of it for a laugh.
but seriously, I think there is a place for work-in-progress videos in Learning Logs, that would not be moved to AVOYP 
So don’t let me be the reason for not posting a progress update.
would love to hear the result further down the road.
That’s an excellent suggestion and a project that I will definitely undertake.
has been thrown and fate has decided the chord progression.
