Steve L’s Learning Log

[dobleA]

Hi Steve, good you set aside some time for recording the Grade 1 riffs. I can see that note duration accuracy is a second nature for you. Leyenda or Asturias is an entertaining piece to play. I can hear clearly the reference to it on the Iron Maiden’s song (by the way one of my favourite bands as a teenager). This song actually I think has multiple references or themes being played in succession.

Everyone can organize his or her practice the best way that works for him or her, but for me I think it works well to have some beforehand planning as you do. Good luck with your consolidation songs.

[SteveL_G99]

29Oct2024 - I am continuing to practice the ten grade 2 songs for consolidation in a systematic way. I have already partially memorized the chord progressions. That is, I can play through the chord progressions without looking if I refresh my memory at the beginning of each song. But I will need a lot more practice to memorize all ten without looking once.

I have organized all the rhythm patterns. I am trying to use the rhythm patterns suggested in the video lessons and in the song books. Here is a list of rhythms I will use roughly organized by complexity. I won’t try to give the rhythm notation. The UD notation gives me what I need to remember the rhythm:

I am using x to represent a percussive strum. I thought the strumming pattern for Redemption Song and Mustang Sally was the same until I looked more closely at the strumming patterns shown in the beginner book. I noticed the rest symbol over the 2nd beat of the strumming pattern for Mustang Sally and thought that a percussive strum would provide a distinct percussive mute after the first chord.

I highly recommend the beginner books for all beginners. I found it very convenient for learning the songs. You can get them on the JG website store or purchase them via Amazon online.

I’ve got a pretty good memory for melody and rhythm, so I find the more complex rhythm of Free Fallin’ fun to play. When I was practicing the rhythm for Free Fallin I thought to myself that the rhythm reminded me of another song. I don’t remember titles or lyrics that well, so I played the song that I remembered in my mind a few times until the word “we just disagree” came to mind. Sure enough that is a song by Dave Mason. The first of the two 16 note rhythm patterns is repeated at the beginning of the song “We Just Disagree” except the strum over beat 4 is left out, which I figured out by listening to the actual song on YouTube. It was the slow “triplet” type of strumming pattern at the beginning that triggered the memory.

[SteveL_G99]

11Nov2024 - I have just completed my one week per month of Classical Guitar, taking a break from learning the ten Grade 2 songs for consolidation. I practiced several songs in the Warner Claasical Method book 1, but mostly focused on the Minuet in G since it had a lot of Major G scale runs which gave good practice in working on clear fingerpicking tone and rhythm. This musical study was arranged as a duet and I practiced both the melody line and the bass accompaniment. I thought that this is a good time to learn how to use a video editor, so I learning how to use iMovie to create a split screen duet with me playing both parts of the duet. (note: old dogs can learn new tricks, even at the age of 69). I only had a week to practice so I am not up to normal performance tempo of around 110 bpm, just 60 bpm. I played both to Justin’s metronome app and carefully aligned the metroname clicks to sound like one click. Here is the result:

Minuet in G Duet w title SteveL 11Nov2024

If you want to hear it played a little faster you can adjust the playback speed, although playing back at the faster tempo can distort the sound some. I need to take off the watch next time before recording, but it does show that I recorded at 6:42 AM during my morning practice time.

One last thing I wanted to document. Each time when I start the one week of classical guitar in the month, I have to plan ahead to have some fingernail on my right hand, then shape and file before I start the lesson. I got an extra emory board from my wife and used to shape the nail after cutting to the approximate shape. I found information on fingernail shape and care on the Werner Guitar Method website:

I found that it is optimal to have a little less nail on the side of the fingernail toards the thumb side of the nail. This is because the hand is at an angle to the strings and the fingernails will pluck the strings at a slight angle. I haven’t mastered the fingernail shaping for best tone but I am still learning. Here is picture of my fingernail appearance prior to playing the Minuet in G piece:

I think that keeping the nails at this length also helps with Fingerstyle acoustic and acoustic blues solo playing.

[Silvia80]

Hi Steve, I’m happy to read and hear your Classical Guitar practice is going well, I found the Minuet to be very accurate…such a good exercise to play both parts and put them together, you certainly did a very good job on it! Have you practiced the Siciliano piece yet? I’m in love with that little piece! I also prefer not too long nails.

[SteveL_G99]

Silvia, thanks for reading and listening and your kind comments. I have practiced the Siciliano and the Farewell piece once as well as Malagueña piece a few times but I will need to wait until next month to get to know the songs better. I expect that I will spend a few months consolidating the techniques and getting my performance speed up to normal tempo.

[SteveL_G99]

30Nov2024 - I finally have finished the recordings of my ten grade 2 songs to complete the grade 2 consolidation. I had started the push to finish the songs back at the beginning of October and finished the recordings the last two weeks of November. Here is the link to my AVOYP post:

Finished recording ten songs for Grade 2 consolidation - SteveL - (added 9 and 10) Nov2024

19Nov2024 - This is the start of my Grade 2 ten songs project for Grade 2 consolidation. I decided to go ahead and add some initial recordings to get started. NOTE - I added consolidation to the title since half of the first six songs are technically listed at grade 3 on the JG website (stage 8 or 9 in the classic course). All of the songs were listed as suggested songs in the current grade 2 lessons or are grade 2 songs in the two Beginner Books. Hallelujah [Hallelujah SteverL 18N…

[SteveL_G99]

1Dec2024 - AFter two months of practicing and recording my ten grade 2 consolidation songs, I am ready for a break in the routine. In December I will work on Christmas songs from Justin’s Christmas Songbook and from song lessons on the website and from other sources. I started with the website song lesson for “We Wish You A Merry Christmas” easy version of chord melody Fingerstyle. The website song lesson has a free TAB PDF and a GuitarPro file download. This song is also in the Christmas Songbook with TAB in the TAB Arrangements section with better rhythmic TAB notation.

For the dreamer end of the Christmas song list I have looked on YouTube for different versions of the Ukrainian Carol of the Bells. I may try to learn this relatively straightforward classical guitar version, which also is a good hammer-on legato practice:

YouTube - Classical Guitar arrangement for Carol of the Bells with TAB

Next there is a more advanced version with harmonics (similar to Antonella’s Birthday by Tommy Emmanuel) and key changes but with good on screen graphics and slow version tutorial:

YouTube- Carol of the Bells - classical guitar arrangement with harmonics -TAB

Then in the uber dreamer category I found a demo with TAB of the Trans-Siberian Orchestra version of Carol of the Bells (soinetimes wrongly attributed to Metallica in YouTube) that goes from relatively easy picked arpeggiated chords and Power Chords and advances to a ridiculously advanced metal shred workout:

YouTube - Carol of the Bells - Trans-Siberian Orchestra version with TAB

The Carol of the Bells can be a rich source of guitar learning on acoustic, classical and electric guitar.

I have also added the tab version of Silent Night to my practice routine, inspired by the AVOYP by @roger_holland and the Justin Guitar Christmas Songbook.

[SteveL_G99]

7Dec2024 - I learned Silent Night - chord melody version from Justin’s Christmas Songbook TAB section and the website song lesson. NOTE - there is PDF and GuitarPro file for the chord melody version in the Learn More section of the website lesson.

I have only spent a couple of hours practice learning and memorizing this song, so I don’t think it is ready for AVOYP, but I wanted to record a version and go to some other songs. The rolling chords sound pretty good though.

Here is the version I recorded today, with an added intro using the chord progression from the last stanza but changing the last chord to a weak fingered G because it sounded better in the intro::

Silent Night chord melody SteveL 7Dec2024

Since I can sing the first verse of Silent Night in my sleep, I decided to add singing. You can see my increased concentration and I slowed down the tempo some, but amazingly I got the harmonics better at the end.

Here is the version with singing:

Silent Night chord melody w singing SteveL 7Dec2024

While I was practicing this song I was noticing how fluid and relaxed Justin’s hand positions and chord grips looked, so I decided to use a tip that I had given previously to some beginners to avoid looking down at their hands. In this case I used the mirror to compare to Justin’s video lesson:

Notice the position and angle of Justin’s thumb for the C chord and how my normal C chord mostly matches up.

[Socio]

You just need to get a broken arrow tattoo to match

[SteveL_G99]

@socio The one problem that I readily see now is that my little finger or pinky is extended and it needs to be curled in to be ready to play the G on the first string.

[ConstanceClaire]

I’m working on the fingerstyle version too, now. Had a crack at it the yesterday. That D over F# chord at the end gives me pause as well. My pinky and ring finger are still a bit codependent, it seems! I’m also working on having a less tense fretting hand. It’s tough going. I will say, it doesn’t look like you’re tensing, so maybe just not looking at your hand will solve that issue for you. Personally when I don’t look I get whole frets wrong.

I’ve embellished it a bit because apparently I can’t just do a simple thing when there’s something more complicated available, but I figure it’s good for the musical mind, so why not! I think I’ll add your intro to it, I was also thinking it could do with an intro. That gives folks a moment to ready themselves to sing along. Great minds and all that!

Anyway, thoroughly enjoyable performances.

[SteveL_G99]

Hi Constance, thanks for looking at my learning log and listening to my latest post. I think that my ring and pinkie finger will always be somewhat codependent. I can’t bend my pinkie into my palm without my ring finger following. My problem with the D/F# chord is that I never learned that fingering of the chord. I checked back with the notes for module 14 and found there were four options for the D/F# chord. I learned option 1 and 3 but never tried option 4.which is the fingering for the chord in this song. I have to pause a second to fight the urge to use my normal fingering of the chord with fingers 1, 2 and 3.

[SteveL_G99]

9Dec2024 - This week I am focusing on classical guitar by trying to learn Carol of the Bells. I wasn’t too impressed with any of the YouTube lessons that I listed on Dec. 1. All are a little difficult for my skill level and the first that I listed in my Dec. 1 post has no tutorial and not the best view of the fretting hand. The first link listed for Carol of the Bells does have a version of the song that I probably can learn and does list the TAB in the video one line at a time. so I decided that today would be a good day to better learn to use GuitarPro. I used my phone to copy each of the lines of tab from the YouTube video and entered into Guitar Pro. Previously I have only used Guitar Pro to enter a transcribed solo by typing the note numbers into TAB and selecting the note rhythm values. I found out straight away that you can copy and paste repeated passages, phrases or licks, which helps a lot for this song. I was able to get about halfway through transcribing to Guitar Pro today and practice the opening lick or phrase of the carol.

I had problems with notating the different time values for the melody and bass notes. I wasn’t able to find the info in a popular YouTube Guitar Pro 8 tutorial, but I searched and found that I need to use the Edit>Voices feature to be able to edit 2 separate voices simultaneously, which is very important in notating classical music, or acoustic blues or Travis picking or any other fingerpicking method where the thumb bass an the fingers need to be completely independent with independent notation. I later found that function is also the 1:2:3:4 menu in the upper left corner. Overall a good day of learning. I also learned that multiple voice feature was added after version 6 and was considered a new feature in version 7.

10Dec2024 - Here is a SoundCloud audio of the GuitarPro TAB song sheet I created for Carol of the Bells practice and for learning GuitarPro. This is the first time I have done this so I am putting this here to remind me of the power of creating practice song TAB in GuitarPro:

Carol of the Bells - GuitarPro audio of GP song sheet by SteveL

This was after I learned today from YouTube videos how to notate hammer on’s using the H/p menu icon and create a second ending after a repeat, to set up the dynamics of the song including a decrescendo.

[Silvia80]

@SteveL_G99

my little finger or pinky is extended and it needs to be curled in to be ready to play the G on the first string.

This I noticed immediately from the picture, and it’s still way better than my pinky at the beginning which was really “glued” to ring finger. It took me ages to bring it down in order to reach the C maj scale notes, I hope it’ll come easier to you!
Good job on the Chord Melody, the rolling chords sound pretty good.

[SteveL_G99]

11Dec2024 - Today I also learned that you can set the number of bars per line by using the Design Mode button that is to the right of the voice selection buttons in upper left of screen. Additionally, I learned that you need to select the adjacent “Multi-Voice” button to see both voices at the same time when playing for practice. Here is an image of the GuitarPro song sheet I created running during practice today:

This song arrangement is a great exercise for practicing pinkie finger hammer-ons since there is a pinkie hammer-on in every bar of this song. The intro main riff or motif is a four note pattern of 1 quarter, 2 eighth and 1 quarter note pattern with fingering of 4, 2, 4 hammer-on and open string, which is the open form of the riff. You have to use your first finger for the closed form of the riff higher up on the neck of the guitar.

Notice that I set the tempo to 60 bpm (standard tempo is 120 bpm). What I like about the GuitarPro slow playback is that the tone is exactly like the full speed version with no distortion of the tone that you get in YouTube slow playbacks. I can also loop one line at a time with the active bar highlighted. I think that I have made great progress in creating my first Guitar Pro TAB song sheet in 3 practice sessions that involved a lot of great learning.

[TheMadman_tobyjenner]

@SteveL_G99

Guitar Pro

The gift that keeps on giving. The more you use it the more you discover !

[SteveL_G99]

@TheMadman_tobyjenner

The more you use it the more you discover !

I definitely agree. I feel like I have barely scratched the surface and yet I have already learned a lot that is not in the most popular YouTube Guitar Pro 8 tutorial. I need to also go back now and listen to Justin’s Guitar Pro lesson in Grade 3 Module 19 again and follow up on the recommended learning resources.

[SteveL_G99]

14Dec2024 - The Carol of the Bells was too difficult to learn in a week, but I made some video notes of the steps that I took to learn the song. This is because the YouTube video only has a playing demo with TAB, but no tutorial:

YouTube - Classical Guitar arrangement for Carol of the Bells with TAB

I have made a short video with notes for each line of the song:

Notes for first line or phrase of the carol:

COTB notes line 1

Notes for line 2 of the Carol of the Bells

Notes for line 3 of the Carol of the Bells

Notes for line 4 of the Carol of the Bells

Additional notes for line 4 of Carol of the Bells

Notes for line 5 of Carol of the Bells

Notes for line 6 of Carol of the Bells

This will give me a head start next year when I try to learn the Carol of the Bells with better playing.

I organized this way because the Carol of the Bells is essentially 6 lines of music with repeats.

1 - The first line is the simple 4 note riff or motif repeated 4 times on the 1st string in the first position.
(NOTE: for those who know Morse code, the riff quarter-eighth-eighth-quarter note rhythm sounds like X which is _ . . _ or Dah-Di-Di-Dah).

2 - The second line repeats but adds a single bass note to each bar for a simple chord melody like the Happy Birthday lesson

3 - The third line add multiple open string chords to the beginning of each bar with a couple of added notes

4 - The fourth line moves the riff up the neck 4 frets to start on the seventh fret

4B - I also had to add the note to add open string chords with a couple of added notes like in line 3

5 - The fifth line is a descending phrase starting a the 12th fret with a series of riffs or motifs that include a pull-off and also includes the open string chords with a couple of added notes. There is also a mini-barre in the 5th fret position like I did in the Silent Night chord melody song.

6 - the sixth line is an ascending phrase going from the first position to the seventh fret and adds chord melody style single bass notes. This half line phrase repeats.

To finish the song, play the 3rd line again while gradually reducing the volume (decrescendo) and then repeat the entire song. When you get to the end of this seventh line again finish by playing the first line softly.

I notice that this song structure follows a pattern also used by a few classic rock songs like Stairway to Heaven. That is - start with soft volume and simple theme, then gradually increase in complexity, intensity and volume and then reverse at the end to play softly and simply.

[SteveL_G99]

16Dec2024

2025 Practice Planning

I had posted a list of all the Grade 4 website video lessons and the Intermediate Method Foundation 1 to 5 DVD lessons back in June 2023, when I first started planning for lessons and practice for Grade 4.

Grade 4 video lessons or tutorials

Now it is time to start Grade 4 next month. Back in June 2023, I organized the lessons into 10 modules, splitting each IM Foundation level lessons into two modules.

Since then I have done a lot of thinking and planning. I have decided to use the old Intermediate Method book Foundation 1 to 5 stages lessons and practice sessions as a framework for adding grade 4 suggested practice activities. It didn’t make sense, from a musical perspective, to split up the rhythm/barre chord practice and the major scale practice. Since I wanted to add Folk Fingerstyle earlier, I am combining Grades 4 and 5 in the overall planning process.

I am only going to plan for the first of the five units or stages from the Intermediate Method book. I realize that my plans will change continuously as I learn more. Here is what I get when I combine the Modules 4-1A and 4-1B into a Grade 4 IM-1 unit:

90 minute practice session divided into 3 days of 30 min.

PRACTICE SCHEDULE		F1 - Intermediate (IM) Foundation 1 website and DVD
Practice ‘Element	Time	IM Foundations 1 video lessons (old)	Website Video Lessons
Day 1
Barre Chord Grip practice - E Shape major and minor	5 mins	E Shape Barre Chord Grips (F1)	E Shape Major Barre Chords
			E Shape Minor Barre Chords
One Minute Changes, then Song Work (G, C, D chord song) A/B practices	5 min	One Minute Changes (F1)
Blues Lead Guitar (Electric)		Basics (Blues Lead (BL) DVD)	The Blues Language
Minor Pentatonic Pattern 1	5 min	Scales (BL DVD)	Minor Pentatonic Pattern 1
		Bending Skills (BL DVD)	Bending Technique In Blues
Practrice 1 of 5 Blues Licks	5 min	Five Blues Licks (B L DVD)	5 Blues Licks from Pattern 1
			Blues Vibrato
Improvisation, start with the solo improvisation tabbed by Justin in website lesson link	10 min	Using Licks (BL DVD)	Using Blues Licks Effectively
		DVD 1 extra 1C - Jam Session Secrets
Day 2
Major Scale Practice w/ Minimum Movement	5 mins	Major Scale Pattern 1 (F1) E Shape (Mastering the Major Scale (MMS) DVD	Major Scale Pattern 1
		Minimum Movement Exercise (F1)	Technique: How and why to practice scales
		Tips (MMS DVD)
Major Scale Improvisation	5 mins	Music Theory (MMS DVD)	Chords In Keys - For Jamming
		Alternate Picking (MMS DVD)
		Exploring Position 1 (MMS DVD)
		DVD 1 extra 1B - Major Scale Jam
Acoustic Blues			Boom Bass With Licks
Practice 1 of 2 acoustic blues primers	10 min		Steady Thumb Primer
Practice 1 of 2 acoustic blues studies	10 mins		Vari-Shuffle Climb
			Tore Up A Sidestep
Day 3
Rhythm Guitar (Patterns and application) clapping and strumming rhythms	5 mins	Introducing 16th Note Strumming - IM Rhythm 1 (F1)	Rhythm Essentials - writing and transcribing rhythms
Notes On Neck Using Octaves	5 mins	Using Octaves To Find Notes (F1)
		DVD 1 - Finding the Notes on the Neck	Start learning PMT 4 lessons
		DVD 1 extra 1A - Know where the notes are
Acoustic Folk Fingerpicking		Folk Fingerstyle Introduction (Folk Fingerstyle Module DVD)	Folk Fingerstyle Module Intro
Folk Fingerstyle Patterns Part 1	5 min	Folk Fingerstyle Patterns Pt 1 (FFM DVD)	Folk Fingerstyle Patterns Part 1
Songs and Repertoire	15 mins	Songs for Foundation 1 (F1) - also list in JG IM book

When I compress this into a 1 page practice log I get:

I expanded the old 50 minute Foundation 1 practice schedule to 90 minutes so that I could add the interesting practice on blues and folk fingerstyle. Since the 90 minute routine takes 3 days, I only get 2 complete practice sessions per week. So 12 days of practice sessions will take 6 weeks. Since I will only do 1 week of practice sessions per month, it will take 6 months to complete this practice log page. The other 3 weeks will be song practice from the 4 Intermediate song books, grade 3 review and consolidation focusing on transcribing and outside lessons on acoustic and electric blues and finger style.

I will create another practice page for IM foundation 2 which will complete the grade 4 studies at the end of the 2025. I will then do the same for each of the other three foundation units for grade 5 and the entire Grade 4/5 process will require at least 2 1/2 years, but probably more. This loose but complete schedule allows variety, flexibility, but a constant sense of progress. It reflects what I have learned in Grade 3. I left out the grade 4 transcription practice session at first and will add back when I finish the grade 3 transcription that I didn’t finish earlier. I will also try to complete the Grade 4 theory lessons in 2025. Later on in 2026, the grade 5 transcription will be blues solos from the Transcribing Blues Solos course.

[Enky08]

This chord melody arrangement is really good, I enjoyed, well played!

I want to get into this myself eventually, maybe for next Xmas