Socio's Learning Log

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493

@Boris1565 @TheMadman_tobyjenner @DavidP @Helen0609 @sairfingers @roger_holland @Lisa_S @SteveL_G99

Thank you all for taking the time to read my update and for your kind words :smiley:

Pleased to hear that you like it mate. I figured it was time for an update to reflect this wonderful blues path we have taken.

I wouldn’t have had it any other way my friend. Now we’ll need to get another get together planned for the new year.

Thanks Andrea. I can’t wait to get started with all the blues performance pieces I’ve got planned for 2025 to consolidate everything that I’ve learned.

Now there is a thought, maybe we should go onto Dragons Den for some investment unless you want to invest Gordon :thinking:

Don’t worry my friend I will make sure you don’t miss out on anything :wink:

I’m looking forward to getting that one done. It’s one I’ll need to record the vocals and guitar separately as for the life of me I just can’t sing and play this one at the same time. I think it’s one of those one where you write a song but not really for you to sing (if that makes sense - once again different from all the other ones).

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494

Looks like you had a blast on BLIM1, although 10K posts between you in 6 months does sound rather a lot! :slight_smile:

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Great update to your Log James…reflecting your wonderfully busy year with Guitar! Ok the Blues, ok the Blim etc…but what I’m really looking foward is

I wish you all the best for 2025 with a lot of Music and Guitar playing! :blush:

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496

Well it was good to start off 2025 with another original:

Not Really Wired That Way

Now it’s time to get back to the blues. BLIM Class 1 may have finished but the consolidation and learning continues. I enjoyed the format of lessons dropping every month, so pleased to enrol in a 6 week online blues bootcamp starting in February with lessons dropping every week to continue my development :sunglasses: looking forward to starting the bootcamp with my classmates :wink:

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Great update, James. I didn’t do a single cover last year. I really need to get back to that.

Good luck continuing your Blues journey. I hope I am confident enough to take a BLIM course someday…

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498

Nice original James. I particularly like the intro and the lyrics, it’s a cool progression. :slight_smile:

That looks like Jeff Mccerlain email I received ? Looking forward to see your feedback and how it complements blim

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@LunaRocket

Thank’s Rebecca. It’s been a year since I’ve done a cover song too, I’ve been so distracted with learning to play the blues. I wouldn’t worry so much about confidence to do BLIM. I wasn’t that confident when I enrolled in the course but I’ve found my confidence actually increasing through the course. As long as your comfortable with the blues material in Grade 2 and made some strides in Grade 3 you’ll be fine.

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@math07

Thanks Mathieu. Yup, you’ve guess right. I’ll be sure to keep you posted on how the course was and how it compliments BLIM. Not long now to the first lesson drops. That was always an exciting bit of BLIM.

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501

What are your first impressions after 2 weeks in ?

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@math07

The blues bootcamp has been good. As you would expect it overlaps with BLIM but taught with a different angle and has plenty of new material to work on each week. There are fewer licks taught each week as the emphasis is more on development and milking the most out of them rather than playing them as taught in a lick medley. The repertoire is more focused on being able to play blues standards at a jam session with a lot of focus on dynamics. Just like BLIM there is a lot of goodness that can be worked on and developed beyond the duration of the course. And it’s good that the each week starts on a Friday rather than a Monday.

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503

Thanks for the update. It indeed looks fun. :slight_smile:

Viewing similar things with a different angle will probably make it easier to remember and apply in your playing. :slight_smile:

Milking the most out of each lick, being creative and make slight variations is definitely something I want to work on.

Like you, I’m looking for some material to keep things interesting during my revision. But, my search on TrueFire was not successfull yet. Either, the courses were too advanced (I don’t feel like starting another 6 months course right now) or the opposite (starting from scratch/beginner level).

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I’ve got enough blues material lined up to keep me busy for the next 12-18 months. Yeah, preferably you want a course that covers the spectrum of beginner to advanced level. You can quickly work your way through the beginner stuff and you may pick up a few things along the way that you have not covered. As for course durations you can always cover the material at your own pace and even apply an approach based on BLIM (i.e. tackle the material in set time blocks) that way you can continue to work on other things.

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505

Got to blame them squirrels !! :wink:
@math07 JMs Bootcamp, certainly help cement some of the BLIM content and a different angle does help bed thing into the memory and fingers !

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506

I blame Justin as he introduced me to one of them!! :wink:

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I will try that approach :slight_smile: It’s true that I can take the first 2-3 videos from the Kirk Fletcher mastercall at TrueFire, study it for one month and have fun. I don’t have to work on the whole course or try to complete it. Next month, I can do a similar thing with Seth Rosenbloom or JM.

@TheMadman_tobyjenner Cool, I did not know you were doing it with Socio :slight_smile: Have fun ! :slight_smile: I will look for the next opening.

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508

Yeah bit of a #BBP over spill for 3 of the 6. :wink:

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509

What’s the boot camp you are referring to?

510

May be I’ve missed this but what’s True fire?

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@Stuartw

Hi Stuart, the bootcamp is a 6 weeks blues bootcamp being run by Jeff McErlain. It’s not as extensive as the BLIM course but I’ve found it to be a good way for me to continue consolidating and developing my blues playing following completion of the BLIM course.

Truefire is another online learning platform.

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512

4th Guitar’versary

This week marks the end of another year of this guitar adventure. It’s been an exhilarating year full of enlightenment and enjoyment. I’ve moved from predominantly playing acoustic guitar to electric guitar.

Blues Guitar

The first half of the year was solely focused on the BLIM course with a few squirrels on the side. The BLIM course was a great learning experience and laid down some solid foundations to build upon.

I continued my blues adventure through enrolling in a Blues Bootcamp with some fellow BBPers. The bootcamp was another great learning experience, a bit like a mini BLIM course with lessons dropped every week.

Since then to further elevate my guitar skills and knowledge of the blues I have enrolled in another extensive blues course which includes personal feedback from the instructor. So far the guidance received has been very positive and constructive.

For the next 12 months the blues guitar course will be the main focus of my learning. Who would have thought that I would end up being a bluesman, it never crossed my mind when I started out learning to play guitar.

CAGED

Following the completion of the BLIM, I decided to deep dive into the CAGED system and have been working my way through a CAGED course. I have gained a lot from the course from being able to visualise the shapes, the root notes, chord tones and scales etc. Over the next 12 months I plan on completing the courses and incorporating what I have learned into my playing.

Triads

For the past few months I have also been working my way slowly through a series of triad courses covering rhythm and soloing which I’m enjoying very much and learning a lot. Over the next 12 months I plan on completing these courses and recording the musical performances for each of the example pieces taught as a reminder of my progress working through them.

Intermediate (General)

BLIM covered a vast majority of the Grade 4 to 6 lessons. Over the next 12 months I plan on using other resources and songs to consolidate and develop further in bite size chunks everything that I have learned so far. I will also review Justin’s lessons that I’ve not done but have covered in my deep dives for completeness and to see things from a different perspective.

Acoustic Guitar

As mentioned the past year I’ve went from mainly playing acoustic guitar to mainly playing electric guitar. I have decided to set some time aside this year to work on taking my acoustic guitar playing up a level. I plan on working slowly through some intermediate acoustic guitar material over the next 12 months and apply what I’ve learned to both covers and originals (if the inspiration comes to me)

Recordings

I’ve not really recorded much over the last 12 months. I think the last recording I posted was about 7 months ago. I have shared a couple of work in progress recordings recently with a few folk to get some initial feedback as I continue to develop them. Hopefully, that will give me the motivation again for recording AVoYPs.

Below is an updated list of everything I’ve recorded since starting out on this guitar adventure 4 years ago:

Covers:
Bad Moon Rising Cover
Sweet Home Alabama Beginner Cover
Three Little Birds Cover
The Circle - OCS Cover
Don’t Look Back in Anger - Oasis Cover
Lost - Anouk Cover
Writing to Reach You - Travis Cover
The Humpty Dumpty Love Song - Travis Cover
I Should Have Known Better
Why Does It Always Rain on Me?
Perfect Day

Blues Studies:
JustinGuitar Acoustic Solo Blues
Beginner Fingerstyle Blues Piece No. 1
Beginner Fingerstyle Blues Piece No. 2
Beginner Fingerstyle Blues Piece No. 3
Beginner Blues Rhythm Piece No. 1
Beginner Fingerstyle Blues Piece No. 4
July Blues Studies

Originals:
Living Your Life In Your Head
Shadows Of Our Former Selves
Hold On
Soul Shaker
Not Really Wired That Way

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