Steve L’s Learning Log

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13Aug2024 - Two year anniversary notes 2024.

I reached the two year anniversary with Justin Guitar on July 4, 2024, but took time to review my progress before posting this progress report. I also waited until I had finished my annual project of replacing the strings on my 5 guitars, which took me a week.

Progress notes;

I am one month away from finishing Grade 3 lessons and practice. I have finally finished grade 2 consolidation, with the exception of recording my set of 10 grade 2 songs. I have been working on the songs in practice and determined to finish the recordings before I start grade 4. I’ll post my updated grade 4 plans when I start grade 4.

Annual Progress Summary:

  1. I took time off to do annual review of basics at the beginning of this second year with Justin Guitar. I had just purchased a years subscription to the JG lesson and song app, so I listened to all the Grade 1 lesson videos in the JG app and did practice routines for a week in the JG app and redid the Strumming Foundations course in the app.

  2. I finally memorized the chords and lyrics from five Grade 1 songs and performed on acoustic guitar while singing from memory, not using chord/lyric song sheet. Here are the songs I posted to the AVOYP section:

Five Grade 1 campfire songs with memorized lyrics and chords

  1. I finally set up my FocusRite / GarageBand DAW and learned how to record my electric playing along with a backing track, using some simple rock guitar studies in different styles from the Rockschool Premiere exam book and posted to my learning log. That’s 11 months after I bought the Scarlett Focusrite 2i2 last December. Here is the post I made of the recording:

Six Rockschool Premier song recordings - SteveL

  1. I made a big push to complete grade 2 review and consolidation by doing grade 2 consolidation and grade 3 on alternating weeks.

  2. As i completed the review of Grade 2 by listening to all the grade 2 lessons again in the JG app. I made recordings of grade 2 exercises and posted in my learning log for a record of completion between February and April of this year.

  3. I made recordings of 5 Rockschool Debut (essentially grade 1) songs and posted in learning log in my continuing quest to strengthen my weak electric guitar skills.

Five Rockschool Debut songs - SteveL

I especially enjoyed playing the lead along to the backing track on the song Hoochie Coochie Man. Of course, these are all simplified versions of the original songs.

  1. I added finger style acoustic fun to my week of fun with non-JG study materials using “Finger-style from Scratch” book and recorded and posted some of the more interesting beginning exercises. Here is a short fingerstyle arrangement I wrote using sus chords that was inspired by my “Fingerstyle from Scratch” exercises:

Sus chord finger-style composition - SteveL

I played on both the Martin acoustic and my classical guitar using my fingertips for fingerstyle playing. You can compare my classical picking technique to my classical fingernail picking in my classical studies entry in no. 9.

  1. I also added practice from the book “Blues from Scratch” to the week of fun with non-JG study materials. I had intended to also use other blues study materials, after following Socio’s Learning Log, but with only 30 to 40 minutes of practice each day, I had to recognize my limitations. I’ll add other blues studies when I get to grade 4.

  2. I decided to go back to my roots and start playing my classical guitar again. I was inspired by @Silvia80 Silvia’s Learning Log to add the Werner Classical Guitar method book 1 and video lessons to my practice schedule for my one fun week with non-JG study materials in each month. On days of that week, I am only practicing classical guitar. Even though I already can sight read everything in the book, my classical technique is extremely rusty and weak, so I can use the lesson videos to focus on picking techniques with fingernails. Here is my last post on my practice:

Classical Guitar - Minuet - Hook - Duet - SteveL - 26July2024

  1. I listened again to all of the grade 3 lessons in the JG app and made a list of all the skills that needed to be worked on during the consolidation that I will do while leaning grade 4 skills.
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