Steve L’s Learning Log

[SteveL_G99]

28Dec2025 - Tomorrow I will start the next year of practice schedule. Here is the weekly schedule, starting with a week of just watching the videos and playing along with the guitar, This schedule will be repeated at the end of 8 weeks, except each of the topics will be done for 2 weeks for an additional 16 weeks. That makes a total of 24 weeks (about 6 months): Going to 2 weeks requires less review and will allow adding a day of GarageBand tutorial and learning to use my DAW during the “ Other method tutorials” weeks.

2026 WEEKLY PRACTICE FOCUS SCHEDULE v1

Week Date Practice focus area

0 12/29 Grade 4 IM Foundation 2 prep – watch and play along with videos

1 1/5 Grades 1 and 2 review, Grade 3 review, transcription and consolidation
( as part of Grade 1 and 2 review, I am rewatching all the module lesson videos at 2X speed and getting up to date with all the module discussion community comments and answering any questions in the module discussions that have gone unanswered)

2 1/12 Grade 4 IM Foundation 2, acoustic and electric blues, fingerstyle (1 of 6)

3 1/19 Songs from JG Acoustic, Rock, Vintage and Pop songbooks

4 1/26 Other method tutorials – TruFire Blues Method, M. Schwartz Blues lessons

5 2/2 Grade 4 IM Foundation 2, acoustic and electric blues, fingerstyle (2 of 6)

6 2/9 Classical guitar

7 2/16 Songs from JG Acoustic, Rock, Vintage and Pop songbooks

8 2/23 Other method tutorials – TruFire Rock Method, Alfred Method 2 & Rock Shop 2

at the end of the 6 months of highly focus learning I will spend 6 months on consolidation of grade 3 and the what was learned in grade 4 and finishing recording songs.

For the grade 4 studies, I am continuing from last year and completing all the Grade 4 topics with videos (except for the Blues licks and the major scale pattern 3 videos that I will move to the grade 5 lessons that I will do with IM Foundation 3), plus grade 5 finger style lessons. Here is a sample practice schedule with time boxing for the rest of the grade 4 material:

GRADE 4 PRACTICE LOG
Routine element Time (min.) Day

Day 1 – Barre chords and Blues Lead focus
Barre Chord Grip practice E Shape 7 and Min7 – 5 min.
Barre Chord One Minute Changes, then Song Work (G7, C7, D7 chord song) A/B practices – 1 week each 5x1 or 5 min.
Minor Pentatonic Pattern 2 or blues scale (A/B) – 5 min.
Practice Blues Licks from Pattern 2 or blues scale – 5 min.
Improvisation – practice linking patterns 1 and 2. – 10 min.
Day 2 – Major scale and Acoustic Blues focus
Major Scale Pattern 2 w/ Minimum Movement – 5 min.
Major Scale Improvisation. – 5 min.
Practice acoustic blues studies from D. Hamburger fingerstyle book – 10 min.
Practice 1 of 2 acoustic blues studies – 10 min.
Day 3 – Rhythm guitar and Folk Fingerstyle focus, songs
Rhythm Guitar (Sstrumming rhythms exercises 2 and 3 and accent strumming
JG strumming dynamics and finger strum exercises – 5 min.
Classical studies with Werner or F. Noad – 10 min.
Folk Fingerstyle pattern 2 or Travis pattern from Hamburger fingerstyle book - 5 min.
Songs for IM foundation 2 – 10 min.

This 3 day practice log schedule has all the elements of a 90 minute practice and is repeated to complete two 90 minute practice routines over a 6 day week. It takes 6 weeks to complete the minimum of 12 practice sessions, which is spread over a 6 month period.

The basic Intermediate Method foundation elements and practice framework is taken from Justin’s old Intermediate Method book which is no longer available on the JG website store, but you can still purchase from Amazon Justin Guitar Intermediate Method for Guitar

This is just one way to organize the 2nd half of my Grade 4 practice using what I have available on Justin’s website and I am sure that it will work for me this year with a few modifications along the way. I know that when Justin releases the updated Grade 4 lessons that there will be lots of improvements and new things to learn.

[SteveL_G99]

12Jan2026 - I am finally realizing an impractical part of my lesson plan. You can’t have learn and apply in the same lesson for a 30 minute practice session. I will do 1 week of learning a scale or riff and 1 week of applying from now on. Also I have found that I need to assign different amount of times for learning different things. If I am learning an E shape dominant 7th barre chord, a pattern 2 Am Pentatonic scale and 5 riffs for the pattern 2 scale, then I might start with 10 minutes for each but end up with more time (15 min. ) assigned to learn the 5 riffs and less time (5 min.) to learn the E shape dominant 7th barre chord since i am already familiar with the chord shape.

[SteveL_G99]

20Jan2026 - I am adding some songs this week. I had been working on Before You Accuse Me , which is listed as grade 2, although challenging for me. I am also working on Born Under A Bad Sign. I decided to add a couple of blues songs Sweet Home Chicago which is a grade 4 song and Hide Away which is a grade 6 song. I was surprised to find that the intro to Hide Away was easier for me to learn than the intro to Before You Accuse Me. I also find the song Sweet Home Chicago to be easier overall than Before You Accuse Me. They all use an E A and B7 chunka-chunka shuffle rhythm so I will learn all three since they are complimentary, although Hide Away is faster tempo and closer to a boogie in some places. Also since I am an SRV fan, Hide Away is like a gateway song to the SRV tone and rhythm, with the strong first position hammer on riffs and the Texas shuffle tempo.

[SteveL_G99]

28Jan2026 - I am playing exclusively on my Strat this week focusing on basic blues rhythm with the TruFire blues method course I purchased for supplemental lessons. I discovered 2 things:

I have had a sore shoulder the last 2 weeks and find it MUCH easier to play with the Strat in the classical position on the left leg (I’m right handed). The body of the guitar is lower and my shoulder can relax while I am palm muting.

Also I decided to use a heavier pick than the orange 0.60 Tortex. I had a few Dunlop Gator Grip 1.14 mm blue picks and found that they did better with picking notes on the Strat and my Chunka-chunka rhythm sounded cleaner and more on the beat.

[BurnsRhythm]

Hello Steve.

I often experiment with which knee to sit the guitar on. I’ve probably had it on the right knee most of the time but when we started playing higher up the neck in Blim I found it easier fretting when the guitar is sat on the left knee.
Yes, the right shoulder is lower and probably more relaxed in the classical position, although it’s never been a problem for me.

[SteveL_G99]

Hi David and thanks for the comments. Holding the guitar on the right knee is usually not a problem for me, but I injured my shoulder doing some awkward lifting a few weeks ago and lowering the shoulder helps to avoid mild pain.

[SteveL_G99]

30Jan2026 - I made a change to my Weekly Practice Focus plan. I realized that I wouldn’t be able to cover TrueFire Rock Method and Alfred (Belwin) Guitar Method book 2 and the Alfred (Belwin) Rock Shop book in just 6 days of practice at 30 minutes per day. I removed the M. Schwartz Blues lessons from the plan and replaced with the Alfred (Belwin) Guitar Method 2 book (w/ mp3 audio files).

For example:

4 1/26 Other method tutorials – TruFire Blues Method, Alfred Guitar Method 2

8 2/23 Other method tutorials – TruFire Rock Method, Alfred Rock Shop 2

The Alfred (formerly Belwin) Guitar Method 2 book covers sight reading and theory for keys of C, G and D and the notes for those keys on the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th strings to the 12th fret and the chords for those keys. There is also some rock lessons that are preparation for the Rock Shop book. I know there is nothing too difficult in book 2 since I have already covered a lot of that in Justin’s lessons but by book 3 there is a lot more work on the closed major scales and songs using those scales and that will be a good supplement to the Justin grade 4 and 5 studies, especially the multipage performance pieces for Hotel California I2 pages) and Stairway to Heaven ( 4 pages).

[SteveL_G99]

7Feb2026 - I thought that I would put a couple of pictures in my learning log. We have had snow and freezing temps for the last 2 weeks so I thought back on the flowering shrub I was surprised to find the day after Christmas in my front yard:

Here is another picture that I took in my front yard with my new iPhone 16 pro:

I had meant to post these at the beginning of the year as small tribute to @roger_holland and his many learning log pictures, since “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery”

[SteveL_G99]

7Feb2026 - Grade 4 IM book sight reading with classical piece with just 1 day (20 minutes) of practice. This is a good test of my sight reading skills since I had not played this song until the day of practice and there is no video or TAB, but I did listed to the audio that comes with the JG Intermediate Method book. It is a lot easier than the first Bach piece that is highlighted in the book:

also Day 2 played on my Martin acoustic. Day 2 was challenging because I had to pick the open G string, played every other note, with my first finger tip covered in a plastic Band-Aid bandage

Also, anyone who has the book and can read music will notice that I did not follow the repeats, so this is a shortened version.

[SteveL_G99]

8Feb2026 - The Carcassi sight reading study from Justin’s Intermediate Method book made me remember another piece that I had played a few years ago and it was an ear worm all morning so I had to try to see if I could still sight read the piece even though it is more difficult. This is from the same chapter 8 of Frederick Noad’s Solo Guitar as the Maleguena and has the same title Andantino as the Carcassi. I looked it up and Andantino is an Italian musical term or tempo marking that is slightly faster than andante and suggests a relaxed and graceful pace, which is suitable for my level of sight reading

This was the fourth take today and you can see the steam rising from my head as I try to sight read some of the rapid chord changes in the middle. Also there are three distinct finger style patterns used in the piece. Also I found that one of the limitations to my sight reading is my sight. I am reading from my right side and I just had an injection in my right eye for wet Macular Degeneration. I also have a small region of reduced vision in my right eye from Glaucoma, Sometimes I had trouble seeing whether the dotes were on the line or between the lines. I think I did better in the fourth take because I had partially memorized the piece. So I think long term I just need to focus on memorization as much as possible.

I also found this in the Werner Method Classical Guitar Repertoire Lessons Grader 1 and 2 on pages 24-26, but that version is in 2/4 time instead of 4/4 and annotates with 16th notes and is a little harder to read, but I can still play from it knowing the Noad version.

[sairfingers]

Some lovely playing there Steven. You mention some vision problems. Why do you read off to your right? Could you not put your music in front of you and put your phone/camera onto your music stand?
Just a thought.

[SteveL_G99]

Hi Gordon, thanks for viewing and listening and for the kind comments. As far as the music and camera position, I just knew that someone would ask that
Actually, I had considered some other ways of positioning both. I have my music stand a few feet closer than my camera tripod so that I can read it better and the music is just off to the right. I considered putting the stand to the left but the neck of the guitar gets in the way. With more time I could enlarge the music and make it easier to read. I have also thought about typing into GuitarPro and viewing on my 27” monitor. I have already done that for the Carcassi.

[roger_holland]

@SteveL_G99

since “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery”

So true Steven

Nice to see the first progress video too

Greetings

[SteveL_G99]

15Feb2026 - This has been my one week of classical every 2 months, in addition to the classical sightreading from the JG Intermediate book option material. I had practiced the Andantino by Carulli from a couple of books and used it as a good example to put into GuitarPro, entering as TAB and adjusting the standard notation to my satisfaction. The thing I found interesting is the differences between different publishers:
from Frederick Noad Solo Guitar book:

I am only including a fragment of the page to avoid copyright infringement by the publisher, even though the actual song is not copyrighted.

Here is a completely different layout from the Werner Grade 1 and 2 Repetoire book for the exact same notes. It is in 2:4 time instead of 4:4

Finally I entered into GuitarPro and created a version in 4:4 and with the bass notes with the down stems using 2 voices in GuitarPro:

Here is a Sound Cloud audio of the GuitarPro generated mp3:

Andantino by Carulli - GP audio

I think my version will be easier for me to read and this made a good project for both improving my sight-reading skills and my GuitarPro skills. You can look at the TAB and see a lot of different type of fingerpicking patterns in the same song. Sometimes the patterns change every bar of music

[Silvia80]

That was some lovely playing Steve, I can’t wait to start working on the Intermediate Method, although I already did some work on the first 16th notes strumming section of the book.

@SteveL_G99

So I think long term I just need to focus on memorization as much as possible.

I suggest you start recognising the structure of a piece and memorise that first of all. Also recognising and writing down the chords is very useful for memorising…the notes will come easier to your ear and fingers if you have these “boxes” in your mind to take them from. No need to say, you need to practice without the musicsheet…it’s not super easy at the beginning but very far from being super difficult too…and you’ll find it really fullfilling I’m sure.

[SteveL_G99]

HI Silvia, thanks for looking at my learning log, listening to my videos and for your encouraging comments. I enjoy having a book like the intermediate method to summarize some of the techniques, but I had to supplement it to provide a more complete method, since it doesn’t have info on things like the major scale maestro scales 2 and higher and some other topics. It does match up or align with the classic intermediate lessons, so I look at both versions of some lessons Also the classic intermediate lessons have more advanced rhythm lessons than in the current grade 4 video lessons.

[SteveL_G99]

21Mar2026 - I am practicing Sweet Home Chicago this week for a grade 4 song. I can play the intro and the turnaround and the shuffle rhythm is easy. What I have found extremely challenging is adding the subtle embellishment to the E shuffle in bars 3 and 4 and 7 and 8. I have the TAB and the extra notes are easy enough to play alone, but combining with the shuffle has eluded me so far

I have trouble with thumb and finger independence when the rhythms are different for the thumb and finger and I am still trying to learn steady thumb blues with some easy examples. An example of something that is easy to describe but hard to do - try tapping a 4:4 rhythm with your right hand and 3:4 rhythm with your left hand There is also a quick hand shift with moving the first finger from the 5th string playing the E shuffle to the 3rd string to play the hammer on and back again and remembering to keep playing the steady shuffle rhythm while playing the open G and hammer on and the high open E. I know that the embellishment is optional at this point in my studies, but I would like to master this very pleasing embellishment.

In addition to studying the TAB, I have slowed the song lesson to 50% and played the same 2 minutes more than 50 to 100 times. I know that I will get it eventually. I can limp through it at about 20 bpm (my guess since i am not using a metronome yet) so with more practice I will get it. Also, I don’t feel too bad having such a difficult time with the original Robert Johnson shuffle with embellishments. At 12:48, during the explanation of the original shuffle, Justin says “trying to describe what I’m doing while keeping the shuffle going and picking out the notes - ha ha - that is super tricky”

[SteveL_G99]

22Mar2026 - I spent an hour today listening to the original recording of Sweet Home Chicago. I also looked at 3 other lessons for acoustic Sweet Home Chicago (most were electric and based on Blues Brothers version). The most interesting thing I found was a performance by someone who toured and played with Robert Johnson Johnny Shines “Sweet Home Chicago” It was interesting to see the way the shuffle rhythm was played with thumb pick near the neck, creating a darker sound similar to Robert Johnson’s tone and I presume using some type of full stop mute between picks, instead of palm muting. He also adds a lot more riffs and embellishments to the rhyhum before he started singing.

[SteveL_G99]

11April2026 - I am continuing to finish up my final consolidation of Grade 3 lessons, with review, but mostly focusing on completing all the transcription lessons. I will admit that I find it ironic that I have the easiest time transcribing the power chord progressions in the rock songs and yet most of the songs are not ones that I would normally listen to in my spare time. My talent is greatest where my interest is the smallest

Anyway, I finished up the transcription of the 5 songs in Module 19 transcription lesson early and used the last two lessons of the week to focus on a song that has been playing in my head. I have been doing an overview of all the song lessons in grades 4 (98 songs), grade 5 (160 songs) and grade 6 (85 songs), listening to the intros or demos in the song lessons for about 6 songs a day (outside of my practice time of 30 minutes a day) and making notes in a spreadsheet about first impressions and techniques used and songs that could be added to my must play list.

When I heard the lesson for Sweet Baby James in the Grade 5 song lessons, I remembered that I had learned to play this back in 1978 from a Hal Leonard song book that I still have. That version was an easy grade 1 level song in the key of C (Edit: early grade 2, since it had an F chord). The Justin song lesson is in the original key of D (the James Taylor key? ). It has a lot of quick changes between G and D to F#m and Bm, as well as some passing chords and an interesting Bm7 chord fragment. It also uses a thumb and finger strum with bass notes picked which will complement the finger strum course.

What I discovered is that while working on the grade 4 blues lessons and scales on the electric and doing all my barre chord practice on the electric, my calluses have regressed and I had more difficulty with the F#m barre chord. I’ll need to do some one minute perfect fast changes exercises with the F#m and Bm chords along with the chords in the song chord progression to quickly build up my calluses and hand strength to play and sing this song on my acoustic at a reasonable tempo. If I add just 5 minutes of One Minute Perfect Fast Changes each day with barre chords on my acoustic, I can maintain the calluses and hand strength that I need.

[SteveL_G99]

18April2026 - I have been practicing the intermediate songs - Sweet Baby James, Father and Son and especially the fingerstyle Landslide. I was trying to add the flick-offs in the fretting hand but had difficulty with the C chord E note flickoff. I kept muting the D string with my ring finger that is playing the low C. I didn’t have a problem with the A7 and the E flick-off. I finally realized that I didn’t have to hold down the low C after it is played and when I lifted off the ring finger, it was easy to do ther flickoff. Fingerstyle does give you more flexibility to solve fretting problems