Ziggys Learning Log

[ziggysden]

WEEK 12 - Week Ending Friday 16 August 2024
Target: 7 hours of practice per week (average 1 hour/day). Actual: 11 hours 6 minutes
Played every day except Saturday, Daily Min: 90 mins. Daily max: 193 minutes.

TLDR: Completed Module 13 so will move to Module 14 next week, continued working on note names with the note trainer app. Continued with 12-bar blues pattern in G at full speed now. Replaced Hey Joe in the Campfire set with Teenage Dirtbag. Worked a lot on Crossroads intro.

THIS WEEKS PRACTICE ROUTINE (SCHEDULED 90 MINUTES/DAY)
Technique (20 minutes)
05 mins – Repertoire Revision (Warmup)
02 mins – (Mod 13) Seventh Chords
02 mins – (Mod 13) Blues in G
02 mins – (Mod 13) Blues in E
03 mins – (Mod 13) Beginner Blues Solo
03 mins – (Mod 13) Improv in A
03 mins – (Mod 13) Shuffle Riff in A

Theory (20 minutes)
02 mins – (PMT-3) Major Scale Pattern 1 (Alternate Picking – target 200 bpm)
02 mins – (PMT-3) Minor Pentatonic Pattern 1 (Alternate Picking – target 200 bpm)
06 mins – (PMT-3) JG Note Trainer - Name the Note (2x cycles of 3 min each)
06 mins – (PMT-3) JG Note Trainer - Find the Note (2x cycles of 3 min each)
04 mins – (PMT-3) JG Note Trainer – Memory Quiz 1 (4x cycles of 1 min each)

Repertoire Songs (40 minutes)
10 mins – (Mod 13) Crossroads
10 mins – (Mod 12) Teenage Dirtbag
10 mins – (Campfire) Working Class Hero
10 mins – (Campfire) The First Cut Is The Deepest

Griff Hamlin’s Beginning Blues Guitar (10 minutes)
05 mins - Strumming, Straight feel 12-Bar Blues in G using G7, D7 and C7
05 mins - Strumming, Shuffle feel 12-Bar Blues in G using G7, D7 and C7

PASSING GRADE AND CURRENT STATUS

• [PMT-3] Recalling Major Scale Notes (+ note names out loud) - In Progress
• [PMT-3] Playing major scale pattern 1 at 200 bpm cleanly – In Progress
• [PMT-3] Playing minor pentatonic scale pattern 1 at 200 bpm cleanly – In Progress
• [PMT-3] Notes on the Neck (with App) – In Progress
• [Mod 13] Memorise 7th Chord grips – DONE
• [Mod 13] Explored playing blues in G – DONE
• [Mod 13] Explored playing blues in A – DONE
• [Mod 13] Learned the set Beginner Blues solo – DONE
• [Mod 13] Tried improvising a blues solo – DONE
• [Mod 13] Learned the basic shuffle groove – DONE

DETAILED PROGRESS, THOUGHTS, AND REFLECTION
Experimented a bit with Quicktime and iMovie to see how best to record sessions. Not confident enough to post video of me playing yet. Made a song/lyric sheet for Teenage Dirtbag and copied out the tab for Crossroads so I can work on it without the video – spent a couple of hours on Crossroads.

A lot of the content of Module 13 I’ve already been covering in the Griff Hamlin Beginner Blues Guitar course so I’m going to move on to Module 14 next week (I’m continuing with the Beginning Blues Guitar course in parallel with the JG Module 2 items). When playing the scale patterns my concentration seems to drift after the first few cycles and usually results in an error – need to concentrate more. Will be keeping Crossroads as a ‘Developer’ song.

Module 13 Technique – Week 1 of Module 13.

• 7th Chords: already worked on these grips with the Griff Hamlin course but B7 and C7 are still not 100% clean every time.
• Blues in G: memorised the standard, quick, and slow change patterns and playing chunka-chunka rhythm through repeated cycles of each. It’s quite a stretch though!
• Blues in E: memorised the patterns and cycling through the changes.
• Beginner Blues Solo: have this under the fingers at full tempo of 95 bpm and can play it confidently with the backing track.
• Improv in A: had a go at this by playing around with set solo and making slight changes in either notes played or the rhythm of how it’s played. Key is to listen to the chord changes and play different parts of the minor pentatonic as appropriate.
• Shuffle Riff in A: have the pattern down at various speeds from 60 to 100 bpm. Cycling through the standard, quick, and slow change patterns.

Practical Music Theory – Grade 3

• Name the Note: reached 96 notes named in 3 minutes (one every 1.9 seconds. Last week: 88 notes) as my best score for the week (1 occasion only). Target to get consistently above 90 notes.
• Find the Note: reached 42 sequences correct in 3 minutes (one note every 0.7 seconds. Last week: 39 sequences). Target to get consistently above 40 sequences.
• Memory Quiz 1: reached 17 notes named from memory (Last Week: 15 notes)
• C major scale: continued playing Pattern 1 at 200 bpm with alternate picking playing 2 picks per click at 100 bpm on the metronome – still errors creeping in. Target to play error free for the full 2 minutes – still some way to go with this but getting closer in each session.
• A minor Pentatonic scale: continued playing Pattern 1 at 200 bpm with alternate picking, 2 picks per click at 100 bpm on the metronome. Mostly error free until concentration drifts. Target to play error free for the full 2 minutes.

Mod 13 Song Practice: Crossroads – Cream

• Chords: shuffle pattern blues with melody lines. The shuffle pattern is OK but the transitions in/out of the melody lines aren’t up to speed yet.
• Strumming: quite a fast tempo, at least for me for now. The shuffle is OK
• Lyrics: not worked on lyrics.
• Enhancements: Intro and melody lines still require work. I have the individual parts worked out for the intro but need to put them all together into a coherent whole at speed. Working at a lower speed for now, actual tempo is way too fast for me when trying the turnaround. Trying to count it out slowly to build muscle memory. Introduce a metronome once I can confidently get from one end to the other of all 12 bars in lieu of playing with the recording (it’s too fast for now).
• Overall: not up to speed yet and I don’t have all the parts fully memorised. Copied out the tab so I can work without the video and breaking it into sections. This one might take a while before it sounds anywhere decent and at tempo. Repeated listening to the track helps more than trying to count it as the memory of what it’s supposed to sound like I find is more useful. Need to remember this is blues, clinical precision is not required!

Mod 12 Song Practice: Teenage Dirtbag - Wheatus

• Chords: chords are straightforward. Need to work on consistent changes to C#, B, Asus2 as 3-finger power chords plus muting – working much better this week and more consistent.
• Strumming: mostly figured this out but chord changes to 5th string roots still get messed up occasionally so more practice required. Can get the muted hits consistently now but still some unwanted strings ring out from time to time.
• Lyrics: not working on lyrics until strumming pattern is more sorted.
• Enhancements: have incorporated the riff at the end of sections and can play consistently and cleanly most times at full tempo.
• Overall: really like this song and its distinctive with the strumming pattern. More work needed on the strumming pattern to play comfortably but it’s getting there. Added to repertoire with a full lyric/chord sheet made.

Campfire Song Practice: Working Class Hero – John Lennon

• Chords: straightforward progression memorised, clean chords, generally OK with this.
• Strumming: simple pattern at a relaxed tempo but 3 beats to the bar not 4
• Lyrics: not worked on lyrics.
• Enhancements: hammer on with the Am. Fancier moving bass note that I’m not up to yet.
• Overall: can play along with the recording. Working on muting low E and A (thumb over) for the Am and D chords. Working on playing through from memory with metronome and introducing dynamics.

Campfire Song Practice: The First Cut Is The Deepest – Cat Stevens / Sheryl Crow

• Chords: only for the chorus. Simple progression, clean chords, generally OK.
• Strumming: need to work on transition from verse riff to the chords in the chorus as I struggle to make the change at the tempo of the song and get muted notes. Rolling the third finger from the barre to play the single note lines is tricky but improving.
• Lyrics: not worked on lyrics.
• Enhancements: Intro riff also used for verse. The slide into the riff needs practice as it messes with accurate fingering of the riff.
• Overall: transposed for the Sheryl Crow version. The riff is still a bit tricky as is the transition into and out of the chorus from the riff. The riff picking is better this week so started to include the slide. There’s a few different things in the Sheryl Crow version and it’s ‘rockier’ than the Cat Stevens version. There seems to be a Dsus4 and A chord sequence at the start.

Beginning Blues Guitar – continued playing along with the full speed examples in both straight and shuffle feel. Changes are mostly OK at full speed, but more practice is needed. Need to get these patterns smooth before moving on. Problem is finger accuracy when moving to C7 and I’m only getting a clean chord about half the time at the moment.

Garageband – Paused for now. Look at again in Grade 2 consolidation.

Songwriting – Paused for now. Look at again in Grade 2 consolidation.

[ziggysden]

WEEK 13 - Week Ending Friday 23 August 2024
Target: 7 hours of practice per week (average 1 hour/day). Actual: 7 hours 45 minutes
Practised every day except Sunday, Daily Min: 15 mins. Daily max: 90 minutes.

TLDR: Started Module 14, continued working on note names with the note trainer app. Continued with 12-bar blues pattern in G at full speed in both straight and shuffle feel now. Crossroads has become a “Developer” song – I can play the intro riff but only at a little over half-speed.

THIS WEEKS PRACTICE ROUTINE (SCHEDULED 90 MINUTES/DAY)
Technique (20 minutes)
05 mins – Repertoire Revision (Warmup)
03 mins – (Mod 14) Slash Chords
02 mins – (Mod 14) Playing Without Looking Ex. 1
02 mins – (Mod 14) Playing Without Looking Ex. 2
03 mins – (Mod 14) Thumb Muting
03 mins – (Mod 14) Percussion Hits on 2 & 4
02 mins – (Mod 14) Playing Standing Up

Theory (20 minutes)
02 mins – (PMT-3) Major Scale Pattern 1 (Alternate Picking – target 200 bpm)
02 mins – (PMT-3) Minor Pentatonic Pattern 1 (Alternate Picking – target 200 bpm)
06 mins – (PMT-3) JG Note Trainer - Name the Note (2x cycles of 3 min each)
06 mins – (PMT-3) JG Note Trainer - Find the Note (2x cycles of 3 min each)
04 mins – (PMT-3) JG Note Trainer – Memory Quiz 1 (4x cycles of 1 min each)

Repertoire Songs (40 minutes)
10 mins – (Mod 13) Crossroads
10 mins – (Mod 14) Norwegian Wood (Slash Chords)
10 mins – (Campfire) Working Class Hero
10 mins – (Campfire) The First Cut Is The Deepest

Griff Hamlin’s Beginning Blues Guitar (10 minutes)
05 mins - Strumming, Straight feel 12-Bar Blues in G using G7, D7 and C7
05 mins - Strumming, Shuffle feel 12-Bar Blues in G using G7, D7 and C7

PASSING GRADE AND CURRENT STATUS
There is no official passing grade for this module as it runs into the Grade 2 consolidation period.

DETAILED PROGRESS, THOUGHTS, AND REFLECTION
Will stick with Module 14 proper for another week before moving to Grade 2 consolidation. Plan is to start consolidation on Saturday 31st August 2024. This will give a minimum of 16 weeks for consolidation (4 months) with aim of completing Grade 2 requirements by Friday 20th December 2024, ahead of the Christmas holidays. The aim is to also complete the Beginner Blues Guitar course by Christmas. Need to work on putting a Consolidation routine together next week.

Still working on Crossroads intro riff but will take some time to get up to full speed. Need to keep this in the routine as a ‘developer’ song and continue to work it through consolidation. Speed is improving week on week. Started working on Norwegian Wood but the stretches are hard for me particularly when keeping some fingers down am getting muted strings and can’t keep pinky out of the way. Perseverance is required and it’s much better at the end of the week. Will replace Campfire songs in routine with Chocolate Jesus and You Never Can Tell.

Module 14 classifies songs differently and asks us to have 5-10 “easy” songs that we can play from memory; 2-3 “open mic” songs that we can play perfectly for strangers; and a 10 song “set” that can be played perfectly along with the recording. I will make this a Grade 2 consolidation goal.

Module 14 Technique – Week 1 of Module 14.

• Slash Chords: working through the various chord grips in each practice session and added them to my chord dictionary. Picked out my favourites.
• Play w/o Look 1: continue to progress with this exercise and have had some success. I can generally get my fingers in the right place on the right strings for basic open chords, but sometimes it takes a while. Easier towards the end of the week and can get reasonable changes now. Reallocate this time to Ex.2 and work on various songs.
• Play w/o Look 2: managing to successfully play through Working Class Hero (3 chords) without looking and with the recording. Trying other songs and noting the problem areas to be worked on in Ex.1. Tried this with the BBG 12-bar progressions in G and good progress made. Seems to be easier to play C7 if I don’t look!
• Thumb Mute: can do this relatively easily – put thumb on the top of the neck and there’s enough to lightly touch the low E without having to force it over. Can also reach over and mute the A for 4th string roots. Reallocate this time for next weeks practice.
• Percussive Hits: just spending time trying to get the hits consistent with hand off the neck. Kept getting a ringing high E string harmonic even when touching the string but seems to be better now. Increase speed from next week and play with a metronome at 80 bpm or higher and incorporate a strumming pattern with hits on 2 and 4.
• Play Standing: standing up for at least 1 song practice per session and will look to increase this for all songs, scales etc. Reallocate this time but remember to practice some things standing up every day.

Practical Music Theory (PMT) – Grade 3

• Name the Note: peaked at 95 notes named in 3 minutes (one every 1.9 seconds. Last week: 96 notes). Target: average above 90 notes. Average this week: 89 notes.
• Find the Note: peaked at 40 sequences correct in 3 minutes (one note every 0.7 seconds. Last week: 42 sequences). Target: average above 40 sequences. Average this week: 39 sequences.
• Memory Quiz 1: reached 16 notes named from memory (Last Week: 17 notes)
• C major scale: continued playing Pattern 1 at 200 bpm with alternate picking playing 2 picks per click at 100 bpm on the metronome – still errors creeping in so backed off to 160 bpm the last couple of days. Much better accuracy at 160 bpm so will stay here for a while.
• A minor Pentatonic scale: continued playing Pattern 1 at 200 bpm with alternate picking, 2 picks per click at 100 bpm on the metronome. Errors at 200 bpm so backed off to 160 bpm, much cleaner results.

Mod 14 Song Practice: Norwegian Wood – The Beatles

• Chords: Chords aren’t difficult but the stretches for the melody parts I am finding difficult and am getting lots of muted strings and clicks. Need to review fingering as I don’t think it should be this hard. I have a short pinky so must lift it off otherwise it mutes out strings. I can at least play it now!
• Strumming: apart from muted strings the strumming is simple enough. Need to get a good groove between chords and melody though. Too much strain in the hand, too stiff but the change of fingering has helped enormously.
• Lyrics: not working on lyrics until strumming pattern is more sorted.
• Enhancements: melody lines and fingerings need work. Start working with the metronome next week.
• Overall: The stretches were proving difficult and detracted from relaxed playing. Slowed down the progression and concentrated on how to place fingers for the melody lines – revised fingering to overcome my stumpy pinky. Much improved, now need to concentrate on playing it through.

Mod 13 Song Practice: Crossroads – Cream

• Chords: shuffle pattern blues with melody lines. The shuffle pattern is OK but the transitions in/out of the melody lines still not up to speed but much improved over last week.
• Strumming: quite a fast tempo, at least for me for now. The shuffle is OK at full speed.
• Lyrics: not worked on lyrics.
• Enhancements: Intro and melody lines still require work. I can play the intro through at 60 bpm as a coherent whole as actual tempo is still way too fast for me when I get to the 16th notes in the turnaround. Introduced a metronome this week in lieu of playing with the recording (it’s too fast for now). Getting to the B7 arpeggio is also tricky and needs work.
• Overall: not up to speed yet (playing at 60 bpm, about half speed, to build timing and consistency) and concentrated on the opening 12 bar riff. Noticeable improvement since last week though. This one may take a while before I can play along with the recording so it’s not a Campfire song. Good one to continue with into consolidation.

Campfire Song Practice: Working Class Hero – John Lennon

• Chords: straightforward progression memorised, clean chords, generally OK with this.
• Strumming: simple pattern at a relaxed tempo but 3 beats to the bar not 4. Pattern is memorised.
• Lyrics: not worked on lyrics.
• Enhancements: working on the hammer on with the Am. Fancier moving bass note that I’m not up to yet. Started using the hammer ons into the Am chord.
• Overall: can play along with the recording. Muting low E and A (thumb over) for the Am and D chords mostly OK now. Working on introducing dynamics.

Campfire Song Practice: The First Cut Is The Deepest – Cat Stevens / Sheryl Crow

• Chords: only for the chorus. Simple progression D, A and G, clean chords, generally OK.
• Strumming: need to work on transition from verse riff to the chords in the chorus as I struggle to make the change at the tempo of the song and get muted notes. Rolling the third finger from the barre to play the single note lines is tricky but improving.
• Lyrics: not worked on lyrics.
• Enhancements: Dsus4 and A chords for the intro. Riff also used for verse. The slide into the riff needs practice as it messes with accurate fingering of the riff.
• Overall: transposed for the Sheryl Crow version. The riff is still a bit tricky as is the transition into and out of the chorus from the riff. The riff picking continued to improve this week and can include the slide now (most times). Continued to practice the riff transition in/out of chorus.

Beginning Blues Guitar – continued playing along with the full speed examples in both straight and shuffle feel. Changes are mostly OK at full speed, but more practice is needed. Need to get these patterns smooth before moving on. Problem is finger accuracy when moving to C7 and I’m only getting a clean chord about 75% the time at the moment. Keep going for another week. Tried playing without looking, may be easier not looking at hands!!

Garageband – Paused for now. Look at again in Grade 2 consolidation.

Songwriting – Paused for now. Look at again in Grade 2 consolidation.

[ziggysden]

GRADE 2 CONSOLIDATION PLAN - FEEDBACK REQUESTED
I’m approaching the end of Module 14 and would appreciate any feedback on my proposed routine and any pointers on when you know you’re ready to move on. Is Grade 2 consolidation more just about time spent or are there specific criteria that I should be looking at? For those that have been through Grade 2, what would you do differently if you had to do it again?

There seems to be more flexibility, and the expectation seems to be that we start to ‘self-direct’ our practice from this point forward. Given the suggestions of how to structure a 60-minute routine my first shot at my specific 90-minute routine, based on Justin’s guidance, is as follows:

2 x 5 min slots for each of Chords, Scales, Strumming, and Technique
3 x 10 min slots for Repertoire (3 songs to be worked on in any given week)
2 x 10 min slots for ‘Other’, for me this will notes on the neck and starting blues guitar

For the 5 min slots I’ve listed out the various subject areas highlighted by Justin and intend to rotate through these, changing up at each practice session and just keep cycling through them. For Repertoire I will work on 3 songs for a week before changing them up. I will have at least 1x 60-minute session per week for recording my repertoire in Garageband. I may also start to look at the transcribing lessons if I have time.

My intention is to start consolidation from 1st September and continue until at least the end of the year, 4 months of work. I will assess where I am in December and extend consolidation if there are still areas not quite right.

There isn’t a formal ‘passing grade’ as such so I made my own. These are the things I think I should be competent in before moving on to Grade 3.

• Can comfortably play Grade 1&2 chords and change quickly between them
• Major scale pattern 1, alternate picked at 160 bpm for 2 minutes, no errors
• Minor pentatonic scale pattern 1, alternate picked at 160 bpm for 2 minutes, no errors
• ‘Old Faithfull’ strumming is clean and consistent, no muted strings, with accents
• Blues shuffle strumming is clean and consistent at a good tempo in at least 3 keys, in standard, quick and slow change patterns
• Can employ string muting during scales and strumming, as required
• Have recorded my song repertoire into Garageband
• Can play at least 5 ‘easy’ songs from memory and without looking at hands. Post in AVOYP.
• Can play 2 more complex (Grade 2 level) ‘open mic’ songs from memory
• Can play a 10 song ‘set’ along with the recordings, from memory (play with a Tidal playlist)
• Can play comfortably standing up and sitting down
• Complete Practical Music Theory Grade 2
• Complete Ear Training 1 & 2

[ziggysden]

WEEK 14 - Week Ending Friday 30 August 2024
Target: 7 hours of practice per week (average 1 hour/day). Actual: 9 hours 0 minutes
Practised every day except Sunday, Daily Min: 90 mins. Daily max: 90 minutes.

SUMMARY PROGRESS AND OBSERVATIONS
Started to just record formal practice time rather than itrying to capture ‘extra’ time spent outside of the plan on practice items e.g. additional song work, scales, chord changes etc. to how much time is actually spent. Once the practice time is achieved, anything else is a bonus/fun.

Completed Module 14 this week and will now move into Grade 2 consolidation until at least the end of the year before moving to Grade 3 for 2025. Total of about 9 months will have been spent in Grade 2 at the end of consolidation. I’ve worked out a 90-minute routine, based on Justin’s suggested structure, for consolidation that covers the subjects in Grade 2 as well as plenty of song work. Need to record some reference point video of the various practice items so I have a reference for the starting point of consolidation.

Playing without looking hasn’t been as hard as I thought it might be and I can play through several songs and strumming patterns now. Beneficial to try and not to look when it goes wrong and let the fingers figure out where to go as you continue with the song. Percussive hits with strumming needs more work to get the hits consistent without having too much tension in the hand/arm.

Continued working with the note trainer app and speed of recognition appears to be plateauing out a little now – not much improvement this week anyhow. Lost the daily stats in the dashboard so had to estimate scores based on the graph, will make a table in this log to record them in future.

Continued working on Crossroads, Norwegian Wood, Chocolate Jesus, and You Never Can Tell. All songs continue to improve and Crossroads, whilst still slow, is at least at a reasonable tempo and recognisable now. Started trying to introduce singing by playing 1 strum per bar to see how the lyrics fit with the changes and just singing off the song sheets. Picking accuracy/speed needs work for Crossroads and Norwegian Wood.

Completed at least a ‘first pass’ through all 10 Campfire songs and have the progressions and basic strumming in place for all 10. Work in consolidation period will be refinement and perhaps including some of the embellishments and dynamics to make the songs more interesting. Need to work on getting lyrics included in the songs too. Need to do much more listening to the tracks to get a better ‘feel’ of each song and how the words fit the progression.

Will also move forward to the next lesson in the Beginning Blues Guitar course. The 12-Bar in G patterns aren’t fully solid yet but are mostly there and I need a new challenge after 6-7 weeks of this.

The sections below are for my own future reference rather than public consumption, but you might get something out of it. There’s a lot though, so be warned!

THIS WEEKS PRACTICE ROUTINE (SCHEDULED 90 MINUTES/DAY)
Technique (20 minutes)
05 mins – Repertoire Revision (Warmup)
05 mins – (Mod 14) Slash Chords
07 mins – (Mod 14) Playing Without Looking Ex. 2
03 mins – (Mod 14) Percussion Hits on 2 & 4

Theory (20 minutes)
02 mins – (PMT-3) Major Scale Pattern 1 (Alternate Picking – target 200 bpm)
02 mins – (PMT-3) Minor Pentatonic Pattern 1 (Alternate Picking – target 200 bpm)
06 mins – (PMT-3) JG Note Trainer - Name the Note (2x cycles of 3 min each)
06 mins – (PMT-3) JG Note Trainer - Find the Note (2x cycles of 3 min each)
04 mins – (PMT-3) JG Note Trainer – Memory Quiz 1 (4x cycles of 1 min each)

Repertoire Songs (40 minutes)
10 mins – (Mod 13) Crossroads
10 mins – (Mod 14) Norwegian Wood (Slash Chords)
10 mins – (Campfire) Chocolate Jesus
10 mins – (Campfire) Never Can Tell

Griff Hamlin’s Beginning Blues Guitar (10 minutes)
05 mins - Strumming, Straight feel 12-Bar Blues in G using G7, D7 and C7
05 mins - Strumming, Shuffle feel 12-Bar Blues in G using G7, D7 and C7

PASSING GRADE AND CURRENT STATUS
There is no passing grade for this module as it runs into the Grade 2 consolidation period.

DETAILED PROGRESS AND PRACTICE NOTES
Module 14 Technique – Week 2 of Module 14.

• Slash Chords: worked through the various chord grips in each practice session.
• Play w/o Looking: can play through several simple songs without looking and have continued with the BBG 12-bar progressions in G. Feels comfortable now and am also trying to move fingers into place without looking when I get a bum note.
• Percussive Hits: just spending time trying to get the hits consistent with simple strumming, including the up-strum, with the metronome.

Practical Music Theory (PMT) – Grade 3

• Name the Note: peaked at 94 notes named in 3 minutes (one every 1.9 seconds. Last week: 95 notes). Target: average above 90 notes. Average this week: 89 notes.
• Find the Note: peaked at 41 sequences correct in 3 minutes (one note every 0.7 seconds. Last week: 40 sequences). Target: average above 40 sequences. Average this week: 39 sequences.
• Memory Quiz 1: reached 16 notes named from memory (Last Week: 16 notes)
• C major scale: played Pattern 1 at 160 bpm with alternate picking playing 2 picks per click at 80 bpm on the metronome. Now getting to 2 minutes with only a couple of errors at 160 bpm.
• A minor Pentatonic scale: played Pattern 1 at 160 bpm with alternate picking, 2 picks per click at 80 bpm on the metronome. Managed a couple of 2-minute sessions with no errors at 160 bpm.

Mod 14 Song Practice: Norwegian Wood – The Beatles

• Chords: melody parts are much smoother this week and I can play through the song at tempo (with a few duff notes).
• Strumming: getting the strumming and the accurate picked notes is the problematic part but it’s much improved from where it was last week.
• Lyrics: not working on lyrics until strumming pattern is more sorted.
• Enhancements: melody lines and accurate picked notes still need work.
• Overall: Once I stopped trying to hold down the pinky I was able to play the song well enough for it to at least be recognisable. Worked on speeding up the tempo this week and can play at approximately the full speed but quality and dynamics needs to be worked on. Need to make a chord/lyric sheet for this to flesh out to the full song structure. Put on the Developer list.

Mod 13 Song Practice: Crossroads – Cream

• Chords: shuffle pattern blues with melody lines. The shuffle pattern is OK but the transitions in/out of the melody lines still not up to full speed but continues to improve.
• Strumming: quite a fast tempo, at least for me for now. The shuffle is OK at full speed.
• Lyrics: not worked on lyrics.
• Enhancements: Intro and melody lines still require work. I can play the intro through at about 75-80% speed as actual tempo is still way too fast for me when I get to the 16th notes in the turnaround. Getting to the B7 arpeggio from the riff continues to be a tricky part and needs work.
• Overall: not up to speed yet and playing at 75% speed to build timing and consistency). Now able to combine the shuffle pattern and the intro riff relatively easily now. Need to have a close listen to the recording to work out the structure and lyrics before I can attempt a full play through.

Campfire Song Practice: Chocolate Jesus – Tom Waits

• Chords: simple chord progression with chords I already know.
• Strumming: simple strumming pattern, down-down-down/up-down, works.
• Lyrics: not worked on lyrics.
• Enhancements: need to find a key that I can sing – use capo for now.
• Overall: simple enough in theory but much work still to do in memorising the song and dynamics. Can play along with recording but not solo from memory yet.

Campfire Song Practice: You Never Can Tell – Chuck Berry

• Chords: simple, only 2 chords
• Strumming: trying to use accented strums. Needs more work to get it automated.
• Lyrics: started working on lyrics by talk-singing and just strumming 4 beats to understand where the words fall in relation to the chord progression.
• Enhancements: no real enhancement. Same pattern throughout
• Overall: this should be a nice, easy, song except strumming goes awry when trying to sing. Maybe try singing with the recording?

Beginning Blues Guitar – continued playing along with the full speed examples in both straight and shuffle feel. Changes are mostly OK at full speed, but more practice is needed to really lock them in. Changes to/from C7 remains a little problematic but is improving. Will move forward to the next lesson and return to this periodically.

Garageband – Paused for now. Look at again in Grade 2 consolidation.

Songwriting – Paused for now. Look at again in Grade 2 consolidation.

[ziggysden]

GRADE 2 CONSOLIDATION ROUTINE
My Grade 2 Consolidation period is about to begin and the practice routine will be essentially unchanged for the next few months. The routine below is the framework 90-minute core routine that I’ve settled on to start. This is for reference so I don’t have to reproduce it in each weekly log and so that I have a record of what I started with.

05 mins: Chords. -------- Rotate through the list of required skills. Change each day
05 mins: Chords. -------- Rotate through the list of required skills. Change each day
05 mins: Scales. ---------- Major Scale Pattern 1 (incl open C position), incl alt picking
05 mins: Scales. ---------- Minor Pentatonic Pattern 1 (incl open E position), incl alt picking
05 mins: Strumming. — ‘Old Faithfull’ pattern, straight with metronome at various speeds
05 mins: Strumming. — 12-Bar Blues forms – Standard, Quick Change, Slow Change
05 mins: Technique. ---- Rotate through the list of required skills. Change each day
05 mins: Technique. ---- Rotate through the list of required skills. Change each day

10 mins: Repertoire. ---- Easy Campfire song (with recording and metronome)
10 mins: Repertoire. ---- Easy Campfire song (with recording and metronome)
10 mins: Repertoire. ---- Open Mic song (with recording and metronome)

10 mins: Other. ----------- Griff Hamlin Beginning Blues Guitar
10 mins: Other. ----------- Notes on the Neck (using the App)

[ziggysden]

Cross post with “Just Chatting” for new Sue Foley album “One Guitar Woman”. Worth checking out if you like a stripped back acoustic blues:

What are you currently listening to? 2024

This came up in my Tidal feed, so I put a Spotify link here. Ms Foley is a blues guitarist and this album is just her and her guitar. There’s a mix of styles including blues, country/bluegrass, Spanish/classical with a hint of jazz here. The record is covers of tracks by female guitar players such as Maybelle Carter, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Elizabeth Cotton, and Minnie Lawlers. Worth checking out but don’t neglect her other albums if you’re more into electric blues similar to Samantha Fish or…

[ziggysden]

GRADE 2 CONSOLIDATION WEEK 1
Week Ending Friday 6 September 2024
Target: 7 hours of practice per week (average 1 hour/day). Actual: 10 hours 30 minutes
Practised every day, Daily Min: 90 mins. Daily max: 90 minutes.

The format of this log has changed to reflect the move into Grade 2 consolidation. The focus for the next few months is improvement rather than learning new things so there may not be quite as much detail as previously. I have an offline Learning Log where I will keep up that detail but will likely limit the length of posts here to the key points each week.

Summary Progress and Observations
I’ve set a 90-minute daily practice routine, mapped out in a spreadsheet, with supplementary sessions for Garageband, Ear Training, Singing, and Jam Track play-along (to cover reactive listening). I have recorded the beginning states for each of the practice items in the first week, so I have a basis to refer to and hopefully see improvement as the weeks of consolidation pass. My intention is to compare progress at the end of each month, any more frequent than this probably won’t show up any meaningful progress. The aim is to upload AVOYP at the end of consolidation as part of “graduation”.

I started with the basic categories and subjects suggested by Justin but have already changed some of the items that I can already do quite easily and use the time to work more on things I find harder.

Chords: made a chord pairs chart categorised by the different types. Aim by the end of consolidation is to have 90% above 60/min and 75% above 80/min. Working through assessing my current speeds outside of regular practice as there are 495 chord pair changes to get through. The idea is to whittle the list down to the ‘problem’ children and work on those in consolidation. Progress this week is: 66% above 60/min and 32% above 80/min, so a long way to go yet.

Scales: working on the major and minor pentatonic scales, with alternate picking. Playing each pattern up and down the neck between 1st and 12th frets (1st finger in 9th fret). Tried the tempo at 120 bpm (metronome: 60 bpm) to try and get through 5 minutes error free. Continued to make errors so slowed down to 100 bpm where I can get it right most of the time. Will stick here for a while until comfortable. Minor pentatonic is easier than the major scale so I may up the tempo here first.

Strumming: just working on repetition of the patterns (Old Faithfull, Accent 2&4, Muted Hits, and 12-Bar Blues) along with a metronome at 90 bpm. Focus is on dynamics and consistency and am mostly using muted strings apart from the blues patterns where I use chunka-chunka. The blues in G is a stretch and is challenging to keep up for 5 minutes.

Technique: after initial assessment I’ve dropped some items that I find easy and have reallocated the time to additional sessions for the 4 items that remain (Hammer Ons, String Muting, Alternate Picking, and Fingerstyle Patterns). Starting with the basic fingerstyle patterns from my old JG Intermediate course book (p.158) and taking it slowly. They’re not complicated patterns so just need to practice. Based on what Justin says in his video I may drop the string muting so as not to over-focus on it, and just try to be aware of muting during other practice items. Re-visited the pick angle exercises again and will try this with a simple exercise going up/down the chromatic scale with alternate picking. For the Hammer-Ons I’m just re-visiting the exercise from lesson (Crossroads also requires hammer-ons).

Repertoire: revised these practice slots to be in line with the “10-Step” process. Working on Lay Down Sally, Teenage Dirtbag, and Crossroads (Developer) this week. Mostly tried to get the strumming automated whilst trying to distract myself during practice, and it’s not there yet for any of the songs. Played along to the recordings as fun time as it seems this is going to be a battle for me.

Note Recognition: continued with the Note Trainer app. Average speeds this week for a 3-minute test were: Name the Note: Average of 92 notes this week (Last Week: 89) and Find the Note: Average of 40 sequences of 6 notes this week (Last Week: 39). Started doing both memory quizzes but man, are they hard! I suppose it’s doing some good and reinforcing what I’m learning in the other exercises, so I’ll keep going in the hope it gets better. This is the first week where Name the Note has been above 90 every day.

Beginning Blues Guitar: moved on to learning the song “Muddy A Blues” in a chord/melody style. Working on counting out the rhythm whilst playing. Have each of the 4-bar sections playable and working on stringing the whole thing together whilst counting it.

Garageband: having connectivity issues that are not sorted yet. Can hear the guitar in the interface but can’t get GB to pick up any signal in the software. GB recognises my interface, and I have the channels correctly set, so it’s a bit of a mystery for now.

Singing: I watched the lessons on singing and have included some additional practice to improve my singing – just trying to hit pitch of the C major scale for now.

Other: I’ve downloaded the Blues Jam Tracks volume 1 and will use these outside the formal practice routine to play along to. Had to convert the mp3 files to wav files so the Ditto+ looper can read them but this severely reduces the storage available in the looper as wav files are about 5x the size of mp3’s.

[ziggysden]

GRADE 2 CONSOLIDATION WEEK 2
Week Ending Friday 13 September 2024

Target: 7 hours of practice per week (average 1 hour/day). Actual: 9 hours 50 minutes
Scheduled 90-Minute Daily Practice Routine
Practised every day, Daily Min: 50 mins. Daily max: 90 minutes.

Summary Progress and Observations
Chords: Total of 495 chord pairings. Target is to have 90% above 60/min and 75% above 80/min by the end of Consolidation. Progress this week is: 84% above 60/min and 33% above 80/min.

Scales: continued working on the major and minor pentatonic scales, with alternate picking, at 100 bpm. Pushed up to 110 bpm at the end of the week and was able to play still, so will try push up to 120 bpm next week but be prepared to come back down if there are too many mistakes.

Strumming: continued working on repetition of the patterns (Old Faithfull, Accent 2&4, Muted Hits, and 12-Bar Blues) along with a metronome at 90 bpm. Focus now is on dynamics and consistency and am mostly using muted strings apart from the blues patterns where I use chunka-chunka. Accuracy starts to drift towards the end of the 5 minutes due to arm getting tired. Need to review posture and relax the arm and shoulder more.

Technique: Continued with the basic fingerstyle pattern 1, can now play at a reasonable tempo so will move to pattern 2 next week. I will drop the string muting from this point so as not to over-focus on it, and just try to be aware of muting during other practice items. For alternate picking practice I continued with going up/down the chromatic scale at 60bpm. For the Hammer-Ons I’m playing the minor pentatonic scale in various places on the neck, up and down across the frets, picking then hammering on for the next note at 80bpm.

Repertoire: Rotated songs to Brown Eyed Girl, Everybody Hurts, and Crossroads (Developer) for this week (last week’s songs will re-appear a couple of times before the end of consolidation, so I’m not finished with them yet). Focus on getting the strumming automated whilst trying to distract myself during practice, and it’s not there yet for any of the songs but I can at least play them without looking. Started singing along with the recordings to get familiar with lyrics and phrasing.

Note Recognition: continued with the Note Trainer app. Average scores this week for a 3-minute test were: Name the Note: Average of 94 notes this week (Last Week: 92) and Find the Note: Average of 40 sequences of 6 notes this week (Last Week: 40). Continued doing both memory quizzes.

Beginning Blues Guitar: continued with “Muddy A Blues” in a chord/melody style. Can play it through at the slow tempo along with the video. Need at least 1 more week on this to get up to tempo before moving on to the next song. Remember to count out loud when practicing this.

Garageband: continuing connectivity issues that are not sorted yet. Research appears to indicate that my USB hub may be interfering with signal path and recommends going direct into the Mac so have ordered a cable to allow this that hopefully will resolve the issue.

Singing: didn’t do singing practice this week.

[ziggysden]

GRADE 2 CONSOLIDATION WEEK 3
Week Ending Friday 20 September 2024

Target: 7 hours of practice per week (average 1 hour/day). Actual: 9 hours 0 minutes
Scheduled 90-Minute Daily Practice Routine
Practised every day except Wednesday, Daily Min: 90 mins. Daily max: 90 minutes.

Summary Progress and Observations
I introduced more measurable weekly goals based on reflection of the previous weeks practice. The hope is this will help to focus on problems rather than just playing through the exercises without really thinking about them too much and without knowing if I achieved anything other than completing the exercise.

Chords: Total of 495 chord pairings. Target is to have 90% above 60/min and 75% above 80/min by the end of Consolidation. Progress this week is: 88% above 60/min (Last Week: 84%) and 36% above 80/min (Last Week: 33%).

Scales: First goal this week was to play the major scale 4 times up/down with alternate picking at 110bpm and zero errors. Goal was achieved and I’ve pushed on to 140bpm by the end of the week. Second goal was to play the minor pentatonic pattern 1 scale 4 times up/down with alternate picking at 120bpm and zero errors. Goal was achieved and I’ve pushed on to 200bpm.

Strumming: First goal this week was to play ‘Old Faithful’ pattern for 2 minutes at 90bpm with consistent volume and the goal was achieved. Second goal was to play ‘Accented 2&4’ pattern for 2 minutes at 90bpm with consistent volume. This goal was not achieved: the strumming remains uneven with inconsistent volume. Third goal was to play ‘Muted Hits’ for 2 minutes at 90bpm consistently with no strings ringing out and this goal was achieved (remove from routine next week). Fourth goal was to play a variety of 12-bar blues patterns from memory for 2 minutes at 90bpm. This goal was not achieved: the changes between chords is inconsistent and not in time, palm muting is variable, and results in tired shoulder. Need to work on posture as tiredness affects timing and rhythm gets sloppy towards the end.

Technique: First goal this week was to play the minor pentatonic for 2 minutes at 80bpm using alternating picks and hammer-ons. This goal was not achieved: inconsistent volume between picked and hammered notes, and inaccuracy in finger position for the hammer-on. Second goal was to alternate pick chromatically across the fretboard and advancing 1 fret at a time to the 12th fret at 60bpm with no errors. This goal was not achieved: best achieved was 2 errors. Third goal was playing basic fingerstyle pattern 1 (C chord) at 50bpm for 2 minutes. This goal was not achieved: fingernails hitting and muting strings, inconsistent volume, problems holding the chord down for 2 minutes straight.

Repertoire: Working on Margaritaville, Take Me Home Country Roads, and Crossroads (Developer) this week. Goal for Margaritaville and Country Roads was to be able to play the song from memory at full tempo, without looking at chord changes, whilst reading the lyrics. This goal was achieved for both songs. For Crossroads the goal was to be able to play the intro riff at 80bpm. This was a ‘partial’ achievement in that I can play it through, just about, but I still get duff notes in the 16th note passage at the end.

Note Recognition: continued with the Note Trainer app. Average scores this week for a 3-minute test were: Name the Note: Average of 96 notes this week (Last Week: 94) and Find the Note: Average of 40 sequences of 6 notes this week (Last Week: 40). Continued doing both memory quizzes.

Beginning Blues Guitar: goal this week was to play ‘Muddy A Blues’ piece through with the video at full speed with no errors. This was not achieved: still a little too fast at the triplets section. The rest is OK though. A couple more sessions should see this achieved and I can move on to the next song sometime next week I hope.

Garageband: continuing connectivity issues that are not sorted yet. Bought a new USB cable but still had problems. I tried with my old 2009 Macbook and it all seems to work fine, so maybe there’s a defect on the new laptop? It’s an old version of GB but at least it works well enough to record practice materials.

Singing: didn’t do singing practice this week.

[ziggysden]

GRADE 2 CONSOLIDATION WEEK 4
Week Ending Friday 27 September 2024

Target: min 7 hours of practice per week (average 1 hour/day). Actual: 7 hours 30 minutes
90-Minute Daily Practice Routine
Practised every day except Wednesday and Thursday, Daily Min: 90 mins. Daily max: 90 minutes.

Summary Progress and Observations
Work caused me to miss a couple of days this week and work commitments mean that playing time is going to be restricted over the next 5-6 weeks or so. My aim is to use the time available to try and complete the practice items each day as a minimum.

I had 12 measurable goals for the week. Achieved only 4, not great. May be being too aggressive in what I think I can achieve so will keep monitoring for a couple of weeks and then review. Ideally I would like to achieve >70% of goals each week.

Chords: Total of 495 chord pairings. Target is to have 90% above 60/min and 75% above 80/min by the end of Consolidation. Cumulative progress this week is: 91% above 60/min (Last Week: 88%) and 40% above 80/min (Last Week: 36%).

Scales:
• Goal 1: play the major scale 4 times up/down with alternate picking at 160bpm and zero errors. Achieved.
• Goal 2: play the minor pentatonic pattern 1 scale 4 times up/down with alternate picking at 200bpm and zero errors. Achieved.

Strumming:
• Goal 1: play ‘Old Faithful’ pattern for 2 minutes at 100bpm with consistent volume. Achieved.
• Goal 2: play ‘Accented 2&4’ pattern for 2 minutes at 90bpm with consistent volume. Not achieved: the strumming remains uneven tempo with inconsistent volume.
• Goal 3: play a variety of 12-bar blues patterns from memory for 2 minutes at 90bpm. Achieved.

Technique:
• Goal 1: play the minor pentatonic for 2 minutes at 80bpm using alternating picks and hammer-ons. Not achieved: inconsistent volume between picked and hammered notes, and inconsistent tempo.
• Goal 2: alternate pick chromatically across the fretboard and advancing 1 fret at a time to the 12th fret at 60bpm with no errors. Not achieved: best achieved was 1 error.
• Goal 3: playing basic fingerstyle pattern 1 (C chord) at 50bpm for 2 minutes. Not achieved: fingernails hitting and muting strings, inconsistent volume, buzzing strings.

Repertoire: Working on Working Class Hero, The First Cut Is The Deepest, and Crossroads (Developer) this week.
• Goal 1 for Working Class Hero: play the song with simple chords whilst talk-singing. Achieved.
• Goal 2 for First Cut: be able to play the riff at full tempo. Not Achieved: problem with the finger roll at the start of the riff muting strings, slide up into notes is only working some of the time.
• Goal 3 for Crossroads: Play intro riff at 80bpm and cleanly transition to verse 1, no errors. Not Achieved: still getting muted notes but the finger speed is feeling more comfortable now.

Note Recognition: continued with the Note Trainer app. Average scores this week for a 3-minute test were: Name the Note: Average of 95 notes this week (Last Week: 96) and Find the Note: Average of 40 sequences of 6 notes this week (Last Week: 40). Continued doing both memory quizzes.

Beginning Blues Guitar: goal this week was to play ‘Muddy A Blues’ piece through with the video at full speed and to start ‘Deep Sea Blues’. Achieved.

Garageband: no GB work this week.

Singing: didn’t do singing practice this week.

[ziggysden]

GRADE 2 CONSOLIDATION WEEK 5
Week Ending Friday 4 October 2024

Target: min 7 hours of practice per week (average 1 hour/day). Actual: 4 hours 30 minutes
90-Minute Daily Practice Routine
Missed practice Tuesday to Friday, Daily Min: 90 mins. Daily max: 90 minutes.

Summary Progress and Observations
Work caused me to miss a few of days at the end of this week and work commitments mean that playing time is going to be restricted over the next week or two. My aim is to use the time available to try and complete the practice items each day as a minimum.

I had 12 measurable goals this. Achieved 9 of these, a 75% success rate. I would like to achieve >70% of goals each week.

Chords: Total of 495 chord pairings. Goal 1 is to have 90% above 60/min and Goal 2 is 75% above 80/min by the end of Consolidation. Cumulative progress this week is: 95% above 60/min (Last Week: 91%) and 42% above 80/min (Last Week: 40%). Goal 1 is achieved but I’ll keep going to see if I can knock off the last 23 changes of the 60bpm ones (all stuck 3&4 types).

Scales:

• Goal 1: play the major scale 4 times up/down, starting anywhere frets 1-12, with alternate picking at 180bpm and zero errors. Achieved.
• Goal 2: play the minor pentatonic pattern 1 scale 4 times up/down, starting anywhere frets 1-12, with alternate picking at 200bpm, 1 run/day w/o looking, and zero errors. Achieved.

Strumming:

• Goal 1: play ‘Old Faithful’ pattern for 2 minutes at 100bpm with consistent volume. Achieved.
• Goal 2: play ‘Accented 2&4’ pattern for 2 minutes at 90bpm with consistent volume. Not achieved: still too tense in the shoulder leading to inconsistent tempo and volume. It is improving though.
• Goal 3: play a variety of 12-bar blues patterns from memory for 2 minutes at 90bpm, with consistent volume and palm muting. Achieved.

Technique:

• Goal 1: play the minor pentatonic for 2 minutes at 80bpm using alternating picks and hammer-ons. Achieved.
• Goal 2: alternate pick chromatically across the fretboard and advancing 1 fret at a time to the 12th fret at 60bpm with no errors. Not achieved: best achieved was 3 errors.
• Goal 3: playing basic fingerstyle pattern 1 (C chord) at 60bpm for 2 minutes. Achieved.

Repertoire: Working on Chocolate Jesus, You Never Can Tell, and If It Makes You Happy (Developer) this week.

• Goal 1 for Chocolate Jesus: play from memory, simply, whilst singing. Achieved.
• Goal 2 for Never Can Tell: play from memory, simply, whilst singing. Achieved.
• Goal 3 for Happy: Play from memory with recording using the Gsus riff. Achieved.

Note Recognition: continued with the Note Trainer app. Average scores this week for a 3-minute test were: Name the Note: Average of 94 notes this week (Last Week: 95) and Find the Note: Average of 41 sequences of 6 notes this week (Last Week: 40). Continued doing both memory quizzes.

Beginning Blues Guitar: goal this week was to learn the remaining parts of ‘Deep Sea Blues’ and be able to play through with the slow tempo video. Not Achieved: not enough practice sessions in the week. I only got as far as the first 9 of 12 bars learned, and not yet memorised.

Garageband: no GB work this week, no time available due to work.

Singing: practised 3x sessions just singing scales along with the guitar

[ziggysden]

GRADE 2 CONSOLIDATION WEEK 6
Week Ending Friday 11 October 2024

Target: min 7 hours of practice per week (average 1 hour/day). Actual: 4 hours 30 minutes
90-Minute Daily Practice Routine
Only managed 3 sessions this week, Daily Min: 90 mins. Daily max: 90 minutes.

Summary Progress and Observations
Work caused me to miss most of this week and work commitments mean that playing time is going to continue to be restricted. My aim is to use any time available to try and complete some practice items each day as a minimum.

I had 12 measurable goals this. Again achieved 9 of these, a 75% success rate (Last Week: 75%). I would like to achieve >70% of goals each week.

Chords: Total of 495 chord pairings. Goal 1 is to have 90% above 60/min and Goal 2 is 75% above 80/min by the end of Consolidation. Cumulative progress this week is: 96% above 60/min (Last Week: 95%) and 44% above 80/min (Last Week: 42%). Goal 1 is achieved: there are now 20 changes remaining to be accomplished of the 60bpm ones (all stuck 3&4 types).

Scales:

• Goal 1: play the major scale 4 times up/down, starting anywhere frets 1-12, with alternate picking at 180bpm and zero errors. Achieved.
• Goal 2: play the minor pentatonic pattern 1 scale 4 times up/down, starting anywhere frets 1-12, with alternate picking at 200bpm, 1 run/day w/o looking, and zero errors. Achieved.

Strumming:

• Goal 1: play ‘Old Faithful’ pattern for 2 minutes at 100bpm with consistent volume. Achieved.
• Goal 2: play ‘Accented 2&4’ pattern for 2 minutes at 90bpm with consistent volume. Not achieved: improving consistency of tempo and volume but still not relaxed enough.
• Goal 3: play a variety of 12-bar blues patterns from memory for 2 minutes at 90bpm, with consistent volume and palm muting. Achieved.

Technique:

• Goal 1: play the minor pentatonic for 2 minutes at 80bpm using alternating picks and hammer-ons. Achieved.
• Goal 2: alternate pick chromatically across the fretboard and advancing 1 fret at a time to the 12th fret at 60bpm with no errors. Not achieved: best achieved was 1 error.
• Goal 3: playing basic fingerstyle pattern 1 (C chord) at 60bpm for 2 minutes. Achieved.

Repertoire: Lay Down Sally, Teenage Dirtbag, and If It Makes You Happy (Developer) this week.

• Goal 1 for Lay Down Sally: sing with recording. Play simple & sing. Achieved.
• Goal 2 for Teenage Dirtbag: sing with recording. Play simple & sing. Achieved.
• Goal 3 for Happy: memorise progression using the Gsus riff. Not Achieved. Didn’t get enough sessions in to fully memorise the progression.

Note Recognition: continued with the Note Trainer app. Average scores this week for a 3-minute test were: Name the Note: Average of 87 notes this week (Last Week: 94) and Find the Note: Average of 39 sequences of 6 notes this week (Last Week: 41). Continued doing both memory quizzes. Performance dropped off a bit, which may be from tiredness after a long workday. Hopefully will get back above 90 and 40 when I get back to practising every day.

Beginning Blues Guitar: goal this week was to learn the remaining parts of ‘Deep Sea Blues’ and be able to play through with the slow tempo video. Achieved: can play from memory and at the slow tempo.

Garageband: no GB work this week, no time available due to work.

Singing: practised 3x sessions just singing scales along with the guitar

[ziggysden]

GRADE 2 CONSOLIDATION WEEK 7
Week Ending Friday 18 October 2024

No practice this week due to work commitments

[MacOneill]

that must be your shortest update

[ziggysden]

It’s a fairly easy update if you haven’t done anything

Back to it today. Fingers are a bit slow and a bit sore after 2 weeks off

[ziggysden]

GRADE 2 CONSOLIDATION WEEK 8
Week Ending Friday 25 October 2024

Only managed to get 1 practice session in this week. I think the work commitments should ease off next week and let me get back to more regular practice. Fingers are going to be sore after 2 weeks away!

@MacOneill That’s the second shortest update ever

[MacOneill]

I hope for you there wont be a third

[ziggysden]

Practice Routine Changes

The last couple of weeks of very little practice has given me the opportunity to review how I’m structuring the sessions. The most recent ones were a bit ‘just going through the motions’ simply to get it done and I don’t feel like I made much real visible progress. I’ve decided to change things up a little

I have cut down my ‘official’ practice time down to 60 minutes (was previously 90) and will split into two 30 minute sessions, morning and afternoon. I’ll still have the other 30 minutes identified but they will be electives. I still want to do most of them every day but the key is to get the 60 minutes done first. Having the 90 minutes all in one block just became a chore and I was losing motivation to sit down and get started - 90 minutes of scheduled practice is about 2 hours sat in the chair in reality with breaks and futzing about. I was OK once I actually sat down and started.

I watched a YT video by a piano teacher for how she structures practice for her students. She recommends sessions to be 30 minutes or less before you take a break and I’ve seen other psychology papers recommending to split up practice across the day (spaced practice). I’ll give it a go and see if it helps me to focus better.

I’ve also gone back to pen and paper for my practice log. It helps to keep the extraneous stuff out of the log if you have to write it by hand. Each 30 minute session is only 5 lines in the notebook (1 item per line). My Word document was recording too much information to be able to make sense out of it

If anyone is interested in the psychology of practice you should check out https://bulletproofmusician.com/ and this YT channel by a Classical/Flamenco teacher has some science-based practice advice https://www.youtube.com/@DiegoAlonsoMusic

[ziggysden]

GRADE 2 CONSOLIDATION WEEK 9
Week Ending Friday 1 November 2024

Target: min 7 hours of practice. Actual: 5 hours
60 minutes/day routine, 2 sessions of 30 mins each.

Summary Progress and Observations
Managed to get significantly more practice done this week and managed at least some practice every day except Friday (I was away all day and overnight). As noted above I changed up my practice routine as I felt it wasn’t really sticking. This week seems to have gone better, once I got back into the regular sessions.

Splitting practice up into 2x 30 min sessions seems to work better for me as it doesn’t seem like such a chore half way through. Most days I continue to play after the 30 minutes, mostly keeping songs fresh and some playing along with recordings.

I’m reading a couple of books on how to structure practice sessions and have started to incorporate some of the suggestions. It’s early days so we’ll see if they stick around! When I finish the books I plan to do a review post here with the main points.

Going back to pen and paper for my daily practice log has helped I think in that I don’t spend as much time collecting data and spend more time actually playing! Having the paper notebook open during the session is less distracting than having the computer on. I spend a few minutes at the start and end of each session to think about what I’ve done and to record one thing that went well and one thing that needs more work. These end of session thoughts will start to become the goals for future sessions and should direct the sessions to the things that need work rather than trying to play through everything every time. I’ve done 2 months of this bulk practice and the final 2 months of consolidation will be more targeted on the things that need the most work.

Chords: Still working my way through the various changes and trying to get as many of them at 80bpm as possible. Looks like I’m left with the more difficult ones now as I’m only really completing 1 chord per session. The Stuck 3/4 continue to be the most problematic.

Scales: continuing to work on the major scale and minor pentatonic scales. I was running these at around 200bpm but have slowed them right back down to 70-80bpm as I was getting too many errors. I’m focusing more on getting good quality clean notes rather than calling it done if I just manage to hit it. Also trying to concentrate on producing a consistent volume.

Fingerstyle: continuing to learn the 4 beginner patterns from the Intermediate course, mostly concentrating on pattern 1. Still trying to work out position of right hand so that I can cleanly pluck the string without catching it with the fingernails. Working at 70bpm I can mostly do it cleanly with consistent volume for a couple of minutes but any longer than that and it’s a problem. I plan to start with the other patterns at a slow tempo for variety.

Alternate Picking: continue to run chromatic scales from the 1st to the 12th frets and have started to be able to this error free at 80bpm. Will look to increase tempo now. I’m also alternate picking the scales exercises.

Hammer Ons: using the minor pentatonic scale and running at 160bpm. Getting more consistent notes ringing out with decent volume for the most part and it feels more relaxed than it did previously.

Strumming: running ‘Old Faithful’ and ‘Accent 2/4’ patterns at around 100bpm. Generally have both down with consistent volume but occasionally miss an up-strum. I’ve also been going through 12 bar blues patters in A, E, and G. The G pattern continues to be a stretch.

Repertoire: working on ‘Margaritaville’ and ‘Take Me Home Country Roads’ and can play both from memory and have started talk-singing with the chord progression. It’s starting to come together but need to start isolating the problem parts and just working these in the practice slots. Leave the playing through until after the initial 30 minute period. Synchronising the lyrics for Margaritaville as the verse changes into the chorus was problematic but I think I’ve managed to sort out where I was going wrong and it’s been a lot better the last couple of days.

Next Week: I want to finish the books and start to put into practice more of what I’ve learned. I still have a couple of days work to finish but will try to get the 7 hours of practice done in the week.

For those interested the books are

Learn Faster, Perform Better: A Musicians Guide to the Neuroscience of Practicing, by Dr. Molly Gebrian, Oxford University Press

Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning, by Peter Brown, Belknap Press

The Musicians Way: A Guide to Practice, Performance, and Wellness, by Gerald Klickstein, Oxford University Press

[ziggysden]

GRADE 2 CONSOLIDATION WEEK 10
Week Ending Friday 8 November 2024

Another hit and miss week for practice due to other commitments. Only managed 2 sessions this week but I did take the time to finish the first of the books I am reading whilst away from the guitar. I’ll make a separate post reviewing the book below.