December 2022
The past month has been a musical blast. I’ve dipped my toes into some of the Grade 3 material but still have not jumped into the grade head first.
I think this is the first grade that I won’t follow in a systematic manner and will develop my own practice routines incorporating the lessons in no set order as I work my way towards intermediary level.
For example my current practice routine incorporates the finger gym exercise and the double strumming technique (as I require it for a song I’m learning).
Fingerstyle
I’ve reached the 70% mark on the beginner’s fingerstyle course that I have been working on. I feel that I have learned a lot so far and have been making good progress.
I’ve really enjoyed learning to strum without a pick (the different techniques to change dynamics) and to strum and pick at the same time.
This was something that felt completely alien to me as I was so used to strumming with a pick. Now it feels more natural, though, I’ve still got a lot of work to do on it to really embed the various techniques.
I’ve enjoyed learning to play solo fingerstyle guitar and finding it to really help with the development of the little finger which I now have a bit more control over. It’s also helped with playing the weak finger G chord.
Though the one chord that really needs more focus on is the Asus4 using fingers 2, 3 and 4. I find this fingering to be a bit challenging.
Blues
I’ve really enjoyed the introduction to playing the blues in Grade 2. Therefore, it is something that I want to explore and develop further.
Therefore, I’m now progressing with developing my knowledge and playing of blues rhythm guitar and blues/blues-rock soloing. All at a beginners level of course.
The blues also ties in quite nicely with the beginner’s fingerstyle course as I’ll be covering fingerstyle blues in the next module.
This should develop my skills and knowledge nicely for when I reach the blues material in the intermediary grades.
Acoustic
With all the work that I have been doing learning fingerstyle recently I felt that I was neglecting my strumming techniques using a pick. I feel that my strumming is OK but I would like to take it up a level. Therefore, I plan on investing further work on strumming techniques over the next few months.
Practical Music Theory
I’ve still not progressed further than Grade 2. Now that I’m back working in the office a couple of days a week the plan is to progress with the music theory course on the commute. This way I’m making best use of my time.
Ear Training and Transcribing
This is something that I’ll spend a few hours every fortnight on the weekends working on when I’ve got no distractions and can really focus. During the working week I just want to enjoy every minute of my practice sessions with guitar in my hands learning techniques and songs.
Discover Your Voice
I’ve still to get around to progressing with this course with all my free music time being focused on learning guitar and consolidating grade 2. Now that I’ve decided to develop my own structured practice routines as I work towards intermediary level this is something that will be incorporated.
AVoYPs
Last month I did two more cover songs which I learned a lot from both learning the songs but also from the feedback from the community:
https://community.justinguitar.com/t/lost-in-fingerstyle/154472
Socio - November 2022 - Writing To Reach You & Lost (Anouk)
Songs and Melodies
I’m currently working on two songs and a couple of melodies. One of the songs I plan on playing on the electric but having practiced it also on the acoustic, I’m thinking I may actually record both an electric (with backing track) and a stripped-back acoustic version.
For the melodies that I will be learning as part of my beginner fingerstyle consolidation I will likely post them on my learning log rather than individual topics on the AVoYP section depending yon the complexity.
For the blues studies that I will be working on soon I’m thinking of just creating a single topic on the AVoYP section ‘Socio’s Blues Studies’ and then anyone interested can follow that topic.