For anyone interested Dr. Gebrian has a YT channel where she demonstrates some of the techniques in the book.
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GRADE 2 CONSOLIDATION WEEK 11
Week Ending Friday 15 November 2024
Target: 7 hours of practice. Actual: 6.25 hours
Summary Progress and Observations
Getting back into a regular routine this week after a few weeks disrupted for work. Starting to incorporate ideas from the books I’ve been reading: I’ve split practice up into 2-3 sessions of 30-45 minutes each day (after breakfast, after lunch, and after dinner) and taking time at the start of each session to set targets for that session. Now have the target of completing 3 consecutive repetitions of an item before moving on and if I mess up on the 3rd rep then it gets set back to zero - it MUST be 3 consecutive error free reps to count!
I’ve seen noticeable improvements in most areas this week, which may be because I’m just being more specific or setting more realistic goals, but it feels like progress is being made 
Chords: spent the week focusing on the ‘weak’ G changes and have just 4 of these left at 80bpm. I was reminded from Justins stream this week to split chord practice into getting accurate fingering as well as the speed of the change. I was only doing the speed part and wasn’t really seeing much progress in chord quality. We’ll see if there’s an improvement next week.
Scales: started the week making errors in the Major scale at 70bpm but progressed up to 85bpm by the end of the week with no errors (3 consecutive sets of 3 reps up/down the scale, alternate picking, no mistakes). Minor Pentatonic is up to 120bpm and some reps are now without looking at either fretting or picking hands.
Rhythm: continued with Old Faithfull at 100bpm but have started using the metronome with bar breaks (3 muted bars + 1 sounding out). A bit inconsistent to start with but it’s getting better. Same deal with Accent 2&4 strumming so still some work to do to tighten these up.
Fingerstyle: continued with playing Pattern 1 but introduced chord change C to Am to save being on the same chord for too long. Improved speed to 80bpm but pushed this higher today but w/o metronome, just to see how fast I could go. Will look to increase speed next week and maybe introduce pattern 2.
Alternate Picking: using the chromatic scale and moving it across the neck and back and up the neck between frets 1 and 9. Mostly without error but haven’t managed 3 consecutive reps yet - keep working on this at 80bpm until I get 3 clean reps.
Repertoire: focus on Working Class Hero this week. Had an issue where Am chord was stopping the high E when wrapping thum around to mute the low E. Mostly sorted by the end of the week after a couple of sessions ironing this one out in line with suggestions from the book. By the end of the week the strumming is pretty automated and I’ve started to include the lyrics. Need to learn the words properly now, so that will be focus for next week. Playing Margaritaville from memory as a warmup and this is starting to get comfortable now. I seem to be using the afternoon session mostly for songs - good tips from Justins stream too so I’ll be having a think about Campfire, Developer, and Dreamers.
Griff Hamlin Blues Guitar: continued to work through this and completed the Fast Walking Blues exercise with the alternate picking at full tempo.
Singing: continued to sing major scale whilst playing on the guitar. No specific goals for this, just to practice trying to hit notes and checking them.
Takeaways and Goals for Next Week
- Continue increasing the tempo on the scales exercises but don’t increase tempo until I get 3 consecutive reps of 3 up/down sets. Click up by 5bpm.
- Continue the metronome bar breaks exercises for both strumming patterns. Focus on hitting the ‘1’
- Continue the fingerstyle pattern 1 practice. Try and find a song to work on, rather than just rather bland exercises.
- Alternate Picking: continue 1 more week with this specific exercise. I’m also doing scales with alternate picking so can probably better use this time elsewhere. Can come back to it later if needed.
- Learn the words to Working Class Hero before moving on to the next song. It’s taking longer to get to 10 songs that I can sing and play from memory but I feel I need to focus on them individually until they are playable, rather than rotating them in and out of my routine. Working Class Hero will be the 2nd song I should be able to play and sing at the same time if I can learn the words next week. Will use some time to play these through as a ‘set’ every couple of days and add other songs to them when I’m comfortable with them.
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Use of Flashcards
I tried using a flashcards app this week to help me remember lyrics. I was a bit skeptical it would help much but I’m shocked at the effectiveness of doing this. Previously I really struggled to remember the words to songs beyond the first verse and chorus but a couple of weeks doing this seems to have made a big difference. I also thought I might have to do it for ages for things to stick but I started to notice the difference even after the first couple of tries.
I used an app called “Brainscape” that you can get for Mac, PC, IoS, and Android. Also, it’s a free app and isn’t infested with ads. It’s pretty easy to use to setup your own flashcard decks and I can see uses for testing notes in chords, notes in scales, key signatures etc as well as lyrics. Good way too to always have something on your phone that you can ‘play’ with when you don’t have your guitar handy.
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GRADE 2 CONSOLIDATION WEEK 12
Week Ending Friday 22 November 2024
Target: 7 hours of practice. Actual 5.5 hours (+ 7.0 hours of other guitar stuff)
Summary Progress and Observations
I thought I’d done a lot of practice this week but the total hours was fewer than last week. I seem to have spent time doing other guitar stuff so must concentrate on doing the practice items first. Still seeing improvements since I revamped the routine. Introduced flashcards this week which has been really useful for memorising lyrics, super-effective in fact. On the whole it’s been a pretty good week, feels like I’ve achieved a lot
Purchased Guitar Pro 8 as it was 30% off for Black Friday. Just starting but it seems simple enough to operate.
Chords: Completed all the remaining ‘Weak G’ changes up to 80bpm. Need to be mindful of too much tension in fretting hand and shoulder, particularly with F chord variants.
Scales: Major scale started the week at 85bpm and was at 100bpm by the end (3 sets of 3 repetitions w/o error). Min Pentatonic reached 190bpm and switched to playing 2 notes per click once I reached 160bpm on 1 note per click. Both scales are alternate picked.
Rhythm: Both ‘Old Faithful’ and ‘Accent 2/4’ are played with metronome playing 1 bar then muting for 3 bars. I find high tempo (>140bpm) and slow tempo (<90bpm) tricky to keep in time during the muted sections.
Fingerstyle: Picking is more relaxed and consistent this week. Can almost get through 5 minutes at around 100bpm w/o too many errors.
Alternate Picking: I use the chromatic spider exercise between frets 1-9 with the aim of completing it w/o error. This is proving very tricky to get 3 runs in a row w/o error. I can usually manage 2 but then mess up the third. Review next week - is it lack of focus or tiredness?
Repertoire: Worked on Take Me Home Country Roads by John Denver this week. By the end of the week could play and sing from memory at a reasonable tempo. F chord to C chord change in the bridge is a problem spot. F chord is generally OK but have a problem getting to C cleanly at tempo.
Griff Hamlin Blues Guitar: started work on Hideaway Blues. Have most of the notes down so need to put pieces together and play from start to end next week. There are a couple of tricky triplet spots to work through.
Singing: continued singing to the C major scale and intervals. Getting a little more comfortable now but voice still has a limited range.
Takeaways and Goals for Next Week
- Put focus on the major scale as it’s lagging behind the minor pentatonic.
- For strumming focus on slow and fast tempo
- Learn another fingerstyle pattern to complement the one I have to make this section more interesting
- Review the alternate picking exercise and figure out why the errors are creeping in
- Flashcards have been a real help. Think about what else I might use them for
- Continue exploring Guitar Pro 8. Copy out some material from old magazines to get used to how it works
- Make sure I complete the defined ‘practice’ items before I do fun stuff
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GRADE 2 CONSOLIDATION WEEK 13
Week Ending Friday 29 November 2024
Target: 7 hours of practice. Actual 7 hrs 45 mins (+ 4.0 hours of other guitar stuff)
Summary Progress and Observations
Reviewing the takeaways from last week I did focus the scales part of my practice routine on the major scale shape and managed to get the tempo up to 200bpm and be able to play it starting from the top E down rather than from the bottom up as is normal for scales practice. This was tricky to start with, even though I have always played the scales both up and down. I saw somewhere that playing ‘from the top’ is important so you are used to this when soloing.
On the strumming side I focused exclusively on tempo above 140bpm and below 90bpm – this was quite problematic but there was an improvement by the end of the week. I did start to learn the second fingerstyle pattern from Justin’s Grade 4 lesson and by the end of the week managed to combine this with the first pattern at a moderate tempo, although it still needs much work to automate it at anything like a reasonable speed.
I moved away from the alternate picking exercise I was doing as I’m covering it in other exercises, particularly scales. I may go back to it later, we’ll see, but I’ll give it a rest for now. Continued getting to grips with Guitar Pro 8 and have downloaded another couple of blues courses that were on sale. At least one of them won’t be started until 2025 but it was a good deal, so I got them now.
Chords: Working through the remaining chords from Grade 1 to get them up to 80bpm. I have 8 from 94 remaining and hope I can get them done next week. The B7 changes were quite tricky to get to clean changes and took a few sessions to get them done.
Scales: Concentrated all on Maj scales this week. Need to pay attention to tension in fretting hand and shoulder (I tend to grip to hard and it makes fast changes harder). Also need to be conscious of string muting as I play the scale to stop unwanted string noise. Came together well by the end of the week and tempo is up to 200bpm (2 notes per MN click) whilst alternate picking with 3 consecutive repetitions with no mistakes before clicking up the MN. Started playing from the top E and at various starting frets.
Rhythm: Continued both ‘Old Faithful’ and ‘Accent 2/4’ are played with metronome playing 1 bar then muting for 3 bars. Concentrated on tempos >140bpm and <90bpm. These remain tricky to keep in time during the muted sections. Accuracy was better toward the end of the week but I’m still frequently at least slightly ahead or behind the beat when it comes back in. More practice needed.
Fingerstyle: Added pattern 2 to pattern 1 and am working the tempo back up. Tempo is currently 80bpm playing 1 bar of p1 then 1 bar of p2 and cycling this around, including a chord change from Am to C.
Repertoire: Worked on Never Can Tell by Chuck Berry this week. By the end of the week could play and sing from memory at a reasonable tempo. Still looking for a more comfortable range to sing this in and capo on 1st or 2nd fret seems to be favourite right now. Move to a new song next week.
Griff Hamlin Blues Guitar: continued work on Hideaway Blues. Still a couple of tricky spots to work through but can play whole thing from memory now.
Singing: continued singing to the C major scale and intervals. Continue to improve but voice still has a limited range. Singing the songs as warmup exercises also seems to be helping.
Takeaways and Goals for Next Week
- Bring back the minor pentatonic scale into the routine now that major scale is at a reasonable tempo. Play the min pent Box 1 in reverse. Perhaps start to learn ‘Box 2’ of the minor pentatonic?
- Continue to pay attention to body posture and tension in hands and shoulders. Make a conscious effort to review posture at the start of each exercise.
- Start to count out loud more for each exercise.
- Remember to ‘slow down’ if you can’t get an exercise right within 3 or 4 goes.
- Need to improve chord changes during the fingerstyle. Remember to get all fingers as close to frets as possible to stop buzzing and to be accurate with fingertip placement. Fretting hand grip is too tight to allow fast changes – need to relax.
- Next song will be Brown Eyed Girl by Van Morrison
- Beginning Blues Guitar move on the next piece, Little Mary’s Lamb. Keep Hideaway as a warmup song.
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Practice Logs
I noted a few weeks ago that I had gone back to doing a written log, so I thought I would share what I’ve done on here. I split my logs into a Weekly and a Daily log.
For the Weekly I have bought a nice A4 notebook with decent paper and will use a 2-page spread for each week. The left side of the spread is a log of the items I’ve practiced and the right side contains my reflections on the week (this is where I get the info to write the Learning Log on here). I bought a nice notebook to encourage me to write in it each week.
For the Daily I just use an ordinary A5 notebook as I don’t intend to keep these. I just record the targets for each session at the start of the session and then note anything significant. The writing is more ‘chicken scratch’ in this book but that’s OK as long as I can read it at the end of the week!
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GRADE 2 CONSOLIDATION WEEK 14
Week Ending Friday 6 December 2024
Target: 7 hours of practice. Actual 6 hrs + 8 hrs 10 mins of other guitar stuff
Summary Progress and Observations
Reviewing the takeaways from last week I did bring back in the minor pentatonic scale but started using different picking patterns rather than learning Box 2. I’m using a pattern that plays 3 notes of the scale, backs up 1 note, then plays the next 3 and so on, up and down the scale and still using alternate picking. This is harder that it sounds but I’m confident with it now and I just need to get back up to speed with the scale.
I still find myself in bad posture so need to make more of an effort with this and not slide back into bad habits. I’ve started to do more counting out loud during practice exercises and have remembered to slow down on things where too many errors creep in and build back up to tempo. This happened mostly in the chord changes and scales exercises.
I finished all 94 of the Grade 1 chord changes and have moved on to the sus chord changes. I now have 5 songs that I can play and sing all the way through from memory (mostly). I still stumble over some of the words and fluff the occasional chord so just need repetitions to get these ‘automated’ and sounding good. I will look to play these as a ‘set’ outside my normal practice routine a couple of times a week.
I’m continuing to explore Guitar Pro and have started to learn Reaper DAW software as I was having considerable trouble with Garageband not recognising my audio interface. At least the interface works with Reaper so I should be able to progress to recording some of my playing next year.
Chords: Finished of all 94 Grade 1 changes and have moved on to sus chords where I have 14 of 61 remaining. Need to stay aware of tension in the hands and shoulders and general posture.
Scales: still working both major scale and minor pentatonic scales with alternate picking. Trying out different picking patterns to break up the linear nature of the scale to improve dexterity and not get into the habit of just playing straight up and down. This requires more subtle movements in the hand/wrist than just straightforward playing the scale to quickly reach notes. Had to slow the tempo down on both scales so next week’s focus is to bring the tempo back up but with the different picking pattern.
Rhythm: still using the muted bars patterns in the metronome app and have focused on slow and fast tempo this week. Most improvement in the faster tempo which seem easier to stay in time to during the muted sections.
Fingerstyle: combined patterns 1 and 2 together and worked up to 100bpm. Learned patterns 3 and 4 this week and have them at 80bpm. Chord changes are cleaner now and picking is more accurate with less involvement with the fingernails.
Repertoire: Worked on Brown Eyed Girl by Van Morrison this week. It’s quite a fast tempo so the chord changes were not clean initially and are still not fully clean even now. Had a real problem singing this with the recording so am using the capo at 2nd fret to make it more comfortable. Need repetitions to get comfortable with this one.
Griff Hamlin Blues Guitar: finished off a couple of exercises this week: Little Mary’s Lamb (based on the Stevie Ray Vaughan song) is a fun tune so will probably keep this around. The other exercises were just chord progression stuff that I’ve covered as part of Justin Guitar modules so passed quickly over them once I was satisfied I could do them adequately.
Takeaways and Goals for Next Week
- Try and get the remaining 14 sus chord changes knocked out
- Pay attention to thumb position. I noticed that it was slipping up the neck and sometimes rests at the knuckle joint rather than on the fleshy pad making me grip harder and making faster changes problematic. Figure out why this is happening.
- Get both the major scale and minor pentatonic scales back up to at least 160bpm with the new picking patterns and maintain at 200bpm for straight picking pattern. Pay attention to hand/wrist position during the transition from low to high strings.
- Continue to pay attention to body posture and tension in hands and shoulders. Make a conscious effort to review posture at the start of each exercise.
- Try to improve consistency in strumming at low tempo below 90bpm using muted metronome beats. Use counting out loud to try and get the feel at slower tempo.
- Combine all 4 fingerstyle patterns (6th and 5th string roots) into a progression with chord changes and bring up to a moderate tempo.
- Next song will be Half The World Away by Oasis
- Next ‘Griff Hamlin’ piece is practice on moving barre chord shapes around and using major, minor and 7th barre chord shapes on the 6th string root.
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GRADE 2 CONSOLIDATION WEEK 15
Week Ending Friday 13 December 2024
Target: 7 hours of practice. Actual 5.5 hrs + 3 hrs 55 mins of other guitar stuff
Summary Progress and Observations
I’m not reaching my full practice target so need to review how I set this weekly goal and whether to substitute a ‘practice’ session for playing sessions if I miss a day or a session.
Reviewing takeaways from last week I almost got through the remaining Sus chord changes (I have 2 left to complete). I’m still working on the issue where my thumb was slipping down the neck and although better this week, it’s still an issue sometimes. I think it may be related to how hard I’m gripping the chords, so will be mindful of that in future.
I managed to get the minor pentatonic back up to 200bpm with the 3 Up/1 down picking pattern, but the major scale is some way off still. There are however too many errors and it’s not “automatic” yet. Worked exclusively on slow tempo strumming, less than 90bpm, with the metronome. This is hard to stay in time and rushing/lagging is obvious when the metronome comes back in. I did manage a couple of sessions where it was very close most of the time. Hopefully it just needs more practice to be able to do it more consistently.
I did successfully combine all 4 fingerstyle patterns and have them up to 100bpm with consistent volume and accuracy. Need to get this automated and be able to play it without looking. Struggled with the E-shape barre chords and getting them to ring out, particularly the minor and 7th shape. The major shape isn’t so bad. More practice needed.
Chords: Worked on sus chords where I now have 2 of 61 remaining. Little finger sometimes slips off the string in the C7 chord.
Scales: still working both major scale and minor pentatonic scales with alternate picking. Can sometimes achieve multiple runs up/down the scale but not consistently error free, either straight or in the 3U/1D pattern. Mostly it’s picking errors rather than fretting errors. I also noticed tension in the shoulder some days that I need to stay aware of. Minor pentatonic is at 200bpm and I can do it w/o looking sometimes. Major scale is at 130bpm but still errors. Maybe need to slow this one down again.
Rhythm: still using the muted bars patterns in the metronome app and have focused on slow tempo this week. It’s really tricky trying to stay in time with slower tempo but it got better toward the end of the week. Still rushing/lagging most times though.
Fingerstyle: combined patterns 1 through 4 together and worked up to 100bpm by the end of the week. Focus on dynamics and trying to relax posture and fretting hand. Playing without looking is the next challenge and I’ll stay at 100bpm for now.
Repertoire: Worked on Half The World Away by Oasis this week. Struggled with getting clean chord changes, particularly to/from the F so mostly I was focused on this and other problem changes rather than trying to learn the whole song. Chords are much better by the end of the week so I’ll focus a bit more on the actual song next week.
Griff Hamlin Blues Guitar: Continued play throughs of Hideaway Blues and Little Mary’s Lamb as fun tunes. Moved on to “Straight Down 6th Avenue” which practices moving E-shape barre chords for major, minor and 7th up and down the neck. Chords are not clean and fretting hand gets tired and cramps up a little so doing this in 5-10 minute bursts.
Takeaways and Goals for Next Week
- Almost completed the remaining Sus chord changes so will move to F chord changes where there are 41 from 96 still to go. Might be here for a while!
- Need a break from the slow tempo strumming so will vary it up with other speeds next week. More focus required on keeping foot tapping in time.
- I have all 4 fingerstyle patterns memorised and combined. I’ve started to run the combined pattern across the C, G, and Am chords in a progression. Next challenge is to see if I can play this without looking at either fretting or picking hands. This should ease the posture issues.
- Continue with Half The World Away and try to get to be able to do a passable run through of the chord progression before learning the words.
- The E-shape barre chord variants need a lot of work to play them relaxed so that my hands don’t cramp after a few minutes. The shapes are memorised, and I know the notes on the 6th string so just need to practice.
- Next week will be the final week of Grade 2 consolidation before I take a break from practice over Christmas. Start to think about planning for Module 3 and defining some goals for 2025.
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GUITAR GOALS FOR 2025
These are my thoughts for what I want to achieve in 2025. I will edit this post through the remaining weeks of 2024 but will ‘freeze’ the goals at the start of January 2025.
General Goals for 2025
- Complete Grade 3 of the Justin Guitar Beginner course (focus for 2025)
- Complete up to Grade 4 of the JG Music Theory course
- Complete the JG Transcribing course and start to transcribe songs on my own
- Complete the Griff Hamlin Beginning Blues Soloing course and be able to play simple solos over a 12-bar progression in various keys
- Complete the first 15 lessons of the Griff Hamlin Blues Guitar Unleashed course
- Complete the Hal Leonard Rhythm & Counting workbook
- Record the 5 Grade 1 songs I have learned to play in full this year
- Learn and record 10 Grade 2 songs for repertoire development
- Learn and record 10 Grade 3 songs for repertoire development
- Listen to 50 new albums that I’ve not heard before
- Listen to 50 of the albums listed in the Blues Guitar Handbook
The above goals are further defined on a quarter-by-quarter basis below to keep a measure on progress being made (or not). Quarterly goals will be further detailed in the goals I use to set up my daily and weekly practice routines throughout the year.
Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar)
- JG GRADE 3 MODULES: Have completed Justin Guitar Grade 3 Modules 15 through 18
- JG GRADE 3 MODULES: Have worked on 4 Grade 3 songs as part of Module study (1 song per Module). NOTE, this is not repertoire development but for technique development associated with the Module.
- BLUES: Have completed the Griff Hamlin Beginning Blues Soloing course
- TRANSCRIBING: Have started transcribing practice by completing the JG transcribing course and transcribing exercises in Modules 15-18. Have attempted to transcribe at least 1 song on my own.
- REPERTOIRE: Have recorded the 5 Grade 1 songs into Reaper. Possibly post to AVOYP?
- REPERTOIRE: Have learned 5 Grade 2 songs and can play them from memory
- NEW MUSIC: Have listened to 1 new (to me) album per week. Make a running playlist of favourite tracks.
- NEW MUSIC: Have listened to 1 blues album per week from the list recommended in the Blues Guitar Handbook. Make a running playlist of Blues favourites.
Quarter 2 (Apr to Jun)
- JG GRADE 3 MODULES: Have completed Justin Guitar Grade 3 Modules 19 through 22
- JG GRADE 3 MODULES: Have worked on 4 Grade 3 songs as part of Module study (1 song per Module). NOTE, this is not repertoire development but for technique development associated with the Module.
- BLUES: Have completed the first five lessons in Griff Hamlin Blues Guitar Unleashed course
- TRANSCRIBING: Have continued transcribing practice by completing transcribing exercises in Modules 19-22. Have attempted to transcribe at least 3 additional songs on my own.
- REPERTOIRE: Have recorded first 5 Grade 2 songs into Reaper. Possibly post to AVOYP?
- REPERTOIRE: Have learned next 5 Grade 2 songs and can play them from memory
- THEORY: Have refreshed Grades 1 to 3 of the JG Music Theory course
- NEW MUSIC: Have listened to 1 new (to me) album per week. Added to running playlist of favourite tracks.
- NEW MUSIC: Have listened to 1 blues album per week from the list recommended in the Blues Guitar Handbook. Added to running playlist of Blues favourites.
Quarter 3 (Jul to Sep)
- JG GRADE 3 MODULES: Have completed Module 3 Consolidation
- BLUES: Have completed the first ten lessons in Griff Hamlin Blues Guitar Unleashed course
- TRANSCRIBING: Have continued transcribing practice by transcribing at least 3 additional songs on my own.
- REPERTOIRE: Have recorded remaining 5 Grade 2 songs into Reaper. Possibly post to AVOYP?
- REPERTOIRE: Have learned first 5 Grade 3 songs and can play them from memory
- THEORY: Have completed half of Grade 4 of the JG Music Theory course
- NEW MUSIC: Have listened to 1 new (to me) album per week. Added to running playlist of favourite tracks.
- NEW MUSIC: Have listened to 1 blues album per week from the list recommended in the Blues Guitar Handbook. Added to running playlist of Blues favourites.
Quarter 4 (Oct to Dec)
- JG GRADE 4 MODULES: Started Grade 4 (dependent on progress through Grade 3)
- BLUES: Have completed the first fifteen lessons in Griff Hamlin Blues Guitar Unleashed course
- TRANSCRIBING: Have continued transcribing practice by transcribing at least 3 additional songs on my own.
- REPERTOIRE: Have recorded first 5 Grade 3 songs into Reaper. Possibly post to AVOYP?
- REPERTOIRE: Have learned next 5 Grade 3 songs and can play them from memory
- THEORY: Have completed Grade 4 of the JG Music Theory course
- NEW MUSIC: Have listened to 1 new (to me) album per week. Added to running playlist of favourite tracks.
- NEW MUSIC: Have listened to 1 blues album per week from the list recommended in the Blues Guitar Handbook. Added to running playlist of Blues favourites.
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wow you really know what you want Oo
so far my only goal would be to play guitar 
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It’s just a plan, and the more specific you are the better you are able to see how you’re doing as you go along. The key point is “it’s just a plan” and not to stick too rigidly to it and be ready to adapt as things change
I’m a bit concerned at the amount of stuff I’m trying to get done but I’ll review the goals at least quarterly and trim back if I need to.
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I think its essential if you want to keep it fun and not get frustrated 
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Stuart, You have certainly made a lot of detailed plans for 2025. I hope that you will achieve most of your goals. I’m still working on my plan for 2025, but it will be starting on Grade 4 using the old Intermediate Guitar book and Intermediate practice plans and the website blues lessons and some blues lessons I have purchased. I didn’t do a lot of the grade 3 transcription exercises in grade 3 so I’ll be trying to do some of those in 2025. I wish you the best for the new year and a lot of fun learning grade 3 level songs.
Thanks @SteveL_G99. Good luck for your 2025 practice too. I like to have a detailed plan as it helps to keep me motivated when I see progress being made. I think it’s my engineering backgound! I wouldn’t start a work project without a plan and some idea of what needs to be achieved, so I just apply the same thought process to my practice. The key, I think, is to figure out what works for you and stick with that, at least for a while.
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GRADE 2 CONSOLIDATION WEEK 16
Week Ending Friday 20 December 2024
Target: 7 hours of practice. Actual 3.0 hrs + 50 mins of other guitar stuff
Summary Progress and Observations
At the end of Grade 2 Consolidation, I can confidently reproduce the various techniques but where I still have an issue is in consistency and reproducing them without error over extended periods of time. I will need to continue to come back to these techniques periodically throughout next year but I am ready for new challenges.
I haven’t ‘passed’ Grade 2 yet as I haven’t achieved the pass criteria in all areas. My current status against the criteria is as follows at the end of 2024:
- Chord Changes. All the Grade 1 changes were successfully completed up to 80bpm but there remain several others that are still not up to speed and require more work. Not Complete
- Maj Scale Patt 1. I can play the scale for 2 minutes w/o error at 160bpm with alternate picking. COMPLETE
- Min Pent Scale Patt 1. I can play the scale comfortably w/o error at 160bpm with alternate picking. COMPLETE
- Strumming. Can consistently play Old Faithful, Accent 2_4, and the various blues shuffle patterns. Some more work is required to refine timing with the metronome to really lock them in. COMPLETE
- String Muting. Mostly OK and don’t get too much string noise. COMPLETE
- Recording. Haven’t recorded any songs yet. Not Complete
- Five Grade 1 Songs. Can play 5 songs from memory and sing. Not fully comfortable with the singing yet and occasionally get words muddled. Not posted AVOYP yet. Not Complete
- Ten Grade 2 Songs. Still working on these and haven’t got any of them memorised to the point where I can play and sing. I can play along to a few though. Not Complete
- Practical Music Theory Grade 2. COMPLETE
- Ear Training 1&2. Not Complete
Spent some time thinking about 2025 Goals and how to break them down into achievable steps. I’ve put quite a lot on the routine for 2025 and may have to review it if it turns out it’s too much. My ‘core’ practice will be the Grade 3 modules and I am aiming for 60 minutes per day on these. I plan to have two 1 hour sessions per day, each one covering 30 minutes of Grade 3 and 30 minutes of other stuff. There will be separate 1 hour sessions each week for Transcribing and recording songs. Guitar practice time will be scheduled for 12 hours per week.
Chords: Completed all 61 sus chords changes and moved on to F chords. Pressing too hard for minor and 7th variants so need to work on relaxing. F changes will take some work getting them up to speed and avoiding muting strings.
Scales: still working both major scale and minor pentatonic scales with alternate picking. Implemented Justin’s suggestion of the 5 steps to scale practice with the aim of getting both to 160bpm for all steps. For major and minor pentatonic scales I’m playing random direction changes but contiguous notes. Maj scale is at 130bpm, min pent is at 160bpm but with some mistakes.
Rhythm: still using the muted bars patterns in the metronome app at various tempo. Still not fully consistent, and some days are better than others. It’s improving but only slowly.
Fingerstyle: combined patterns 1 through 4 together and continued at 100bpm this week. Focus again was on dynamics and trying to relax posture and fretting hand. Tried playing without looking but this is a challenge to maintain consistency and accuracy.
Repertoire: Worked on Half The World Away by Oasis this week. Chord changes, particularly to/from the F, were better this week. Played along with the song a few times on various days to get the feel. Still can’t play accurately all the way through so more work is needed.
Griff Hamlin Blues Guitar: Continued play throughs of Hideaway Blues and Little Mary’s Lamb as fun tunes. Moved on to “Straight Down 6th Avenue” which practices moving E-shape barre chords for major, minor and 7th up and down the neck. The major shape is generally OK now, but I still have issues with the minor and 7th shapes. Chords are not clean, and fretting hand gets tired and cramps up a little so continued doing this in 5 minute bursts.
Takeaways and Goals for Next Week
- The final week of Grade 2 Consolidation and break for Christmas
- Developed goals for 2025 and a new practice routine structure for Grade 3
- There are still things from Grade 2 that I’ll need to take forward and continue to practice. Need to make a list of these so I can select items each week to fill vacant slots in the routine.
- Finished with Beginning Blues Guitar and will move on to Beginning Blues Soloing in January
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Module 15 Week 1: Week Ending Friday 10 January 2025
Target: 7 hours of practice. Actual 1.5 hrs + 0 hrs of other guitar stuff
Summary Progress and Observations
A slow restart after the Christmas break. Spent the time going through the Module 15 videos and getting the exercises down. Got the Rhythm and Counting workbook (Hal Leonard) that I will use to formalise practice of rhythm in the early part of 2025. I also got a Blues Driver pedal as a Christmas present that I’ve put on my pedalboard. I’ve downloaded the Transcribe software and will start the transcribing lessons at the weekend.
Technique: Started the exercise at 60bpm and just run the pattern for the full 5 mins. Had some issues with pick accuracy and the hammer-ons not being clean and needing work. Tried the link chords exercise which is trickier than it looks but should help chord accuracy as well as being interesting musically. Continued the 4 fingerstyle patterns at 120bpm and is mostly error-free now.
Knowledge: Did a couple of sessions of D-shape explorer. Not sure I’m getting much out of this exercise so might replace it after a few sessions. Worked on Major scale in random directions at 120bpm.
Time: No exercises completed this week
Repertoire: Explored the ‘Capo for Two’ exercise and this may be a better one for the looper rather than the video.
Other: No exercises completed this week.
Listening: No focused listening sessions completed this week.
Takeaways and Goals for Next Week
- Work up to the full practice time of 7 hours
- Take the time to refresh memory of the songs I learned already. Have 1 session where song revision is the main subject
- Start transcribing lessons
- Start working on recording covers of the songs I know. Just do ‘scratch’ tracks for now and then learn the recording skills to turn these into full covers over the coming months
- Start Beginning Blues Soloing course
- Pick a Grade 3 song to work on
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slow start is accurate
Module 15 Week 2: Week Ending Friday 17 January 2025
Target: 7 hours of practice. Actual 8.0 hrs + 1.8 hrs of other guitar related stuff
Summary Progress and Observations
Increased practice time. Have decided to drop link chords, chord explorer, and Capo for Two from the routine as wasn’t getting much out of them. Happy to know they exist but will use time on other items. Started the first transcribing lessons (TR-100) this week and am about halfway through. Started the Hal Leonard Counting workbook, mostly basic counting in the early chapters. Didn’t start with recording this week (spent time on transcribing instead) but did start the Griff Hamlin Blues Soloing course.
Technique: Continued finger-gym at 60bpm and is much cleaner/accurate now. Continued the 4 fingerstyle patterns as a cycle at 120bpm and is mostly error-free now.
Knowledge: Worked on Major & Minor Pentatonic scales at 60bpm for 1/8, 1/8 triplets, and 1/16 notes and getting used to counting out loud whilst staying with metronome and tapping foot! 16th notes not quite there yet. Need another week at 60bpm before clicking up. Much better by end of week though.
Time: Completed chap 1&2 in the Hal Leonard workbook. Strummed and played along with songs in most sessions to get into the ‘feel’ of rhythm.
Repertoire: Started working on I’ll Follow You Into The Dark by Death Cab for Cutie as my Module 15 song. Can be strummed but also has fingerstyle pattern to learn. Progression is simple enough but does have F and Fm chords, which are mostly OK but I do mess them up sometimes. Working on fingerstyle pattern and have the basic mechanics at slow speed, just need to integrate with changes – takes all my concentration though!
Transcribing: Learning Transcribe! software. Completed TR-100 course exercises up through TR-106. Will try to complete TR-107 & 108 over the weekend and move to the suggested Mod15 songs next week.
Beginning Blues Soloing: Completed Lesson 1 trading simple licks with the instructor and improv videos. Learning to count and copying the licks in time will take some work but should start Lesson 2 next week. Instructor suggests revisiting the trading video periodically. Can do a very simple solo over the jam track and am just getting used to which beats to start the licks from – NOT beat 1!
Listening: No focused listening sessions completed this week.
Takeaways and Goals for Next Week
- Increase tempo for the basic fingerstyle patterns
- Make a song sheet for I’ll Follow You Into The Dark
- Make sure I refresh memory of the songs I learned already at least once per week
- Complete Chapter 3 of Rhythm & Counting workbook
- Start working on recording covers of the songs I know.
- Start lesson 2 of the Blues Soloing course
- Focused listening of 1 blues album. Write a short review and post it to the forum
- Think about making a permanent ‘music space’ in the spare bedroom
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Module 15: Week Ending Friday 24 January 2025
Target: 7 hours of practice. Actual 3.6 hrs + 0.4 hrs of other guitar related stuff
Summary Progress and Observations
Not much practice time this week due to work and other commitments. From last week’s goals I did manage to start Lesson 2 of the Blues Soloing course and did get through Chapter 3 of the Rhythm and Counting book. No progress made on the other goals so will carry those over to next week. Transcribing continues to go well and am at the point where it’s starting to get more difficult to hear what’s going on as more instrument parts are introduced. It’s also speeding up!
Technique: Continued finger-gym at 60bpm (1/8th notes) and is much cleaner/accurate now. Continued the 4 fingerstyle patterns as a cycle at 120bpm and is mostly error-free now. Click up to 65bpm.
Knowledge: Worked on Major & Minor Pentatonic scales at 60bpm for 1/8, 1/8 triplets, and 1/16 notes. Comfortable except 16th notes not quite there yet. Need another week on 1/16th notes at 60bpm before clicking up. Continuing to see improvement through the week though.
Time: Completed chap 3 in the Hal Leonard workbook. Continued to muted strum and play-along with songs to get into the ‘feel’ of rhythm. Becoming more consistent in timing.
Repertoire: Didn’t do much on I’ll Follow You Into The Dark by Death Cab for Cutie. A little more comfortable with the fingerstyle pattern at a very slow tempo. Still an issue getting to F chord.
Transcribing: Completed TR-100 course exercises up through TR-106 but didn’t get through TR-107 & 108 so will target this next week.
Beginning Blues Soloing: Watched Lesson 2 video and am working on the 5new licks to get them familiar before trying the trading licks with the instructor and improv videos. Continuing to count out loud to get the lick timing down.
Listening: No focused listening sessions completed this week. Need to fix a time to focus on this and find an hour a day somewhere to set aside.
Goals for Next Week (Max 10)
- Increase tempo for the basic fingerstyle patterns
- Make a song sheet for I’ll Follow You Into The Dark
- Make sure I refresh memory of the songs I learned already at least once per week
- Start Chapter 4 of Rhythm & Counting workbook
- Start working on recording covers of the songs I know.
- Memorised the licks from lesson 2 of the Blues Soloing course
- Focused listening of 1 blues album. Write a short review and post it to the forum
- Think about making a permanent ‘music space’ in the spare bedroom
- Module 16 preparation by watching the lesson videos
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SCALES PRACTICE
I’ve changed the way I practice scales this week after something I picked up on another course that made sense to me and I thought I would share. I now ‘sub-divide’ the beats so I get used to not playing strictly in line with drums/bass.
What this means is that I initially set the metronome to 60bpm quarter notes. I then play the scale as quarter notes i.e. 1 note per beat. I then play the same scale using eighth notes BUT the metronome stays at quarter notes i.e. 2 notes per beat. This is then repeated for eighth note triplets, or 3 notes per beat, and sixteenth notes or 4 notes per beat. The metronome stays at 60bpm quarter notes throughout.
It takes a little getting used to but I think it has already tightened up and made my playing more even.
The idea is to then click up the metronome once the sixteenth notes are comfortable. The recommendation is to click up in 5bpm intervals BUT to stretch to 10bpm initially and then back off. In other words, starting with the metronome at 60bpm you would set it to 70bpm for a couple of tries, then back it off to 65bpm. You’re expected to mess up at the higher tempo but when you back off it will feel a little easier than just moving up one step at a time.
I think I’ve seen similar advice on Justin’s site somewhere but I’ve seen something similar with 2 or 3 instructors now. Don’t just incrementally click up by small amounts otherwise, they say, it will take an inordinately long time to reach your goal.
60bpm might seem slow but with sixteenth notes your playing the equivalent of 240bpm at quarter notes! It’s quite a challenge!
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