Happy to read that! Please share some pics in spring of the new family member !
I read your update with great interest. It’s interesting to see, how you’re structuring your guitar time. Interesting to see too, that you seem to go back to former grades from time to time to fix or rework on subjects from the past. I’m sure, that’s a really good thing. Wish you a lot of enjoyment and I’m already curious about your next recording.
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Ah, hopefully that maybe-pup comes. Dogs are a big part of life. One of my border collies passed away last year (at 15) and my other one (now 16) is probably going to go soon. He’s so old he’s now 3/4 blind, 3/4 deaf and has mobility issues. So I’m very familiar with what you’ve been through.
A new pup would be great.
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Yeah its a real Catch 22 though. My wife’s health has not been good for a number of years and an aging dog meant I have hardly got the Harley out in the last 3 years. I am waiting for the weather to turn but a pup will put a kibosh on riding, if the missuses is still crook !
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Hi Toby, you seem to be very structured with your guitar practice! Loved the colourful schedule. Do you tickle items of practice once done? I do that and love to pat my own self on the shoulder at the end of the week going “Oh I did well!” 
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Wow that is a plan and a half! kudos for being so organised though and having the time helps…look forward to seeing how things progress.
2-3 sounds a lot per day but that can soon disappear so it’s still a lot to get through.
Thank you Silvia 
I used to do that in the “old” days but now just tend to replace the entry, as there is always something new following! For Justin’s modules I can keep a track via the Dashboard and have a similar tracker for the Truefire course I have been doing. So at least that way its easy to see what’s been completed and as I create a new Xls worksheet for the current year, the historical stuff is still around for reference.
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Yes but broken down into hour chunks, its not so noticeable (am, pm and evening). But the time can easily slip away. I spent 2 hours plus (of a planned hour!) on melodic pent patterns x 4, melodic legato pent patterns x 4 this morning and was 45 minutes into a 4 x lick exercise for bends, this afternoon, before deciding I needed a string change !!
But its also a good way to cycle round the stable. Yesterday was SG and one of the Washburn HBs in the afternoon, Some MiM Strat in the evening. Today, morning on one of the LPs and then dragged out the old Affinity for this afternoon and found 14mth old strings sound meh ! 
Keeps me sane and out of trouble 
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Go for it Toby
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Worth thinking about getting two sibblings come spring time. The madman’s playbook for 2023 is looking solid and colourful.
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Hey, Toby 
thank you for linking this LL/road case for me 
making my way through it now, a great read 
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Unofficially this is still my Roadcase, so time to announce some new gear.
Some of you may recall me making enquiries about studio monitors, on one of the Open Mic Performer mails. Some of you may also have noticed it was my wedding anniversary yesterday. And when my good wife suggested I treat myself, the two “incidents” were brought together with the acquisition of some Behringer Studio 50USB monitors.
Today’s practice was put on hold due to the imminent delivery of some wall mounted shelves, that match the unit my soundbar has been sitting on. All duly mounted and installed, hooked up to both Xenyx 1204 and the UMC1820 and the sound is incredible, even better than the reviews that convinced me to go for this model. People often put Behringer down for past misdemeanours but I have never been disappointed with their gear over the years (well apart from the U-Phoria UM2 that sucked!!). One happy bunny.
The test drive was courtesy of this interesting little track from way back when.
Some will say “what?”
Some will say “why?”
Others will have a wry smile and head to the outro at 7:30 which is synth stereo heaven.
Those taking in the full track and not familiar with Moogs and what went on 50 odd years ago, prepare to be educated.
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Hi Toby. First of all happy wedding anniversary. Second enjoy your new gear. A lot can come to life with a good music reproduction system. You choice of what to play through your new equipment to test it remembers me of when in the nineties I started to work and was able to treat myself with a boom box with CD player (not very portable, more like a mini hi-fi) and instead of buying one of the rock LPs I already had in CD version, I bought Jean Michel Jarre’s Rendez-Vous album. I also bought Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9. (directed by Karajan)
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Happy anniversary Toby!
This is a very nice looking studio that you have. Love the old phone 
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You are sooo young when you say that
…or I very O…
Greetings…
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Not necessarily Roger, these phones were everywhere when I was in my 20s. Now I rarely see any, therefore the comment.
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Congrats and many more healthy happy years together, Toby.
Enjoy the monitors!
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Thought I had liked and replied to this thread when I first read it weeks ago, guess I didn’t
That Smokehouse Burst Studio LP looks gorgeous Toby, and that restoration job on your Cherry LP was amazing So happy for you that you got it restored to playing condition. I chipped the headstock of my Squier Affinity Strat in my recent upgrade project and my stomach fell out the bottom (managed to fix it with a bit of superglue). So I can’t imagine what you must’ve felt like when your LP headstock snapped off 
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Third Quarter 2023 - Reflect and Assess. Long Read Warning.
Time for a subtle change of direction after a month’s break with very little playing.
So as some of you may know I have spent most of this year alternating daily, between Solo Acoustic Blues (Steady Thumb, Dead Thumb etc using Justin’s premium Solo Blues course and Dave Hamburger’s Fingerstyle Blues Handbook) and Blues Rock Soloing with Jeff McErlain and dipping into Justin’s Blues Lead modules once more. Plus learning a few songs, especially for the odd JGC OM.
I have been fairly happy with the slow steady progress. I now have around 14 fingerstyle Blues pieces under my fingers, some presented in the last Madman’s diary HERE and of the 4 Blues Rock Lead solos I have been learning, there are 2 that I play comfortably, (one Gilmouresque, one Knopfleresque ) and a Southern Rock Allmansesque style that I can now play around 70% full tempo and an ACDC style piece I am struggling with, so work in progress. Fast full bends then double stop loops and double stop bends eek !! 
Oh and work in progress Lynyrd Skynyrd’s I Need You solos, currently below tempo and a few country bends (think they’re called that) which are being stubborn but helped by the some of acoustic blues techniques !
The plan for the rest of the year was to continue in the same vein and moving on to another Truefire course, teaching longer electric solos, alongside the acoustic work. But …
Although happy with the year so far, things slowed up in June, when I picked up some bug that wiped me out and made enthusiastic practice a chore as I had no energy and it rolled on into early July. I kept on playing but stagnated a little. Then mid July was prepping for the family to arrive for a 4.5 week holiday and things got put on hold bar the odd random pick up. The next 4 weeks continued in a similar fashion, while focusing on family time and doing loads of “yard” work with my daughter, a thing she loves but also a distraction for her day job.
By the time they went back I was left with the PIP joints knackered on 4 fingers (pinkie on fretting hand and Index, Middle and Ring on the other!!). So as I eased back into very gentle playing 8 days ago, I found keeping the fingers still and holding a pick not conducive to their recovery but the constant movement of finger picking the Blues pieces seem to improve the stiffness and swelling.
I’d dabbled with one of the lead lines to Black Sabbath’s Fluff, on one of the odd days I had picked up, while the family was here – it was sitting in GP8 saying “play me” but I ended up messing with the underlying fingerstyle pattern ala PIMAMI, with plenty of chord change snafus. I’d not really done much Folk FS since Every Body Hurts and Elvis back in the old BC and IM days. But it felt quite therapeutic,
If you put all that together and dropping on a few recent comments about focusing on one thing, which I recall @stitch posted somewhere, the plan is to focus mainly on Fingerstyle for the rest of the year.
I’ll continue working on the Fingerstyle Handbook pieces but I have just restarted Justin’s Grade 5 Folk Fingerstyle course, which I dabbled with some year back before the new site redesign. I’d been starting to learn Dust In The Wind last week and the pattern seemed familiar. Dug out some of Justin old course patterns I’d saved years ago and 10 common fingerstyle patterns from GuitarGear (I think ?). So having found DITW was just one note extra to Justin’s intro pattern, it seemed like a good idea to crack on with the course once again.
I’ve mentioned a few times in my singing and playing journey, that I always wanted to move on and be able to sing while playing fingerstyle. And I guess the biggest hurdle to that was not actually playing fingerstyle, doh! So, hopefully this will help address this but I expect to be in for a long haul.
There are a few songs lined up that I’d like to sing and play, plus James @socio sent me some suggestions of “easy” songs that should help the process but always willing to consider other suggestions, as long as its not John Denver ! Especially if you know what floats my boat musically.
As to the electric Blues soloing, it won’t be put completely on ice but I hope to spend a little more time on the tracks individually once or twice a week, until they are recordable.
But the main focus will be Fingerstyle for now.
However, a little teaser for those who have been here since the old forum days. In my JG Fingerstyle Pattern folder I found the original TE-021 and TE-022 Folkfingerstyle from the old course but also found these :
They are labelled TE-310-fingerstyle-ex1 to ex5
And I was hoping someone could match these up to the current lesson that covers the material, assuming it still exists. Any pointers would be gratefully received, as I haven’t got a Scooby what these related after all these years !
Madman Over and Out.
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Great update, Toby. You have made a lot of progress this year especially with the fingerstyle blues. If your still looking for some blues material to bounce about with in the background whilst you focus on fingerstyle I think you would enjoy the blues courses Justin was involved in for ICMP Elevate particularly the blues guitar styles course presented by Justin.
As for your fingerstyle pattern conundrum:
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That will be the one ! Hidden in plain “site” but I sure it wasn’t called that back in the day. Hey, as Staind said, its been a while. Just taking a peek. Could have just searched for TE-310 but assumed all the tags had been revised in the rewrite. Live and learn.
And thanks for the comments and shared material throughout the year. Top man.
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