Tunes !

No - I dont have a cold : )

A week after I  changed my practice regime and I can play real tunes.

Granted I still have tempo issues I'm only playing at about 90% but still I can play Deep Purples Black Knight and also the Pirates of the Caribbean theme "He's a Pirate" recognisably.

I'm practicing in 30 minute blocks to keep things fresh and stress free and mixing in the Scale positions too.

Currently the segments are :

Black Knight / He's a Pirate   :  30 - 40 Minutes

Scale shapes / Meandering from Steve Stines   Fretboard Course  : 30 Minutes

Crazy Train (Finger Stretch!! ) : 20 Minutes

Yousician :   Treat Time !!

This gives me a good hour and a half of meaningful things to work on.

I still rush a little - I'm working on getting used to a metronome Easy with a tune you know not so easy when you are concentrating on reading notes from tabs !!

Finally in addition to keeping my practice diary I am now recording myself on a full lay through every couple of days. There are mistakes and faulters but you can actually hear progress which I have found useful.

Lightbulb Moment !!

Ok so maybe this is obvious but it passed me by.


When you learn the Scale shapes - DONT FORGET to learn the Root Note Positions.

So I'm working on part one of Steve Stines Absolute Fretboard Mastery course.  The topic of the month is notes on the Low E string and the 5 Minor Pentatonic shapes.

1 3 5 7 8 & 10  =  F G A B C & D Sort of got that  but the "absolute" part is about not counting so I'm working on that

I also know Positions 1 - 3  so today starts 4 and that's when it hit me I know the shapes for 1 - 3 but not the notes and specifically the roots ( That's the "absolute" bit I guess) .

For noodling and nice sounding licks you should centre (resolve ?) on the root notes so wouldn't it be really useful to know where they are !!  Duh.

Back to revision for me then.

Review and Reload

Learning is about honesty.

Its also about setting goals and working towards them.

Part of the process is reviewing what you have achieved and resetting your plan / expectations accordingly.

I have been really pleased over the last 8 weeks with how I have been able to both dedicate time to my goal and that I have been able to progress.

Recently a couple of step changes have really boosted me and motivated me to move on.

To help me track my progress I keep a diary - how long I play and what I play.

Over the last day or two I have been reviewing this and have made some interesting discoveries.

I have, for example been able to average well over an hour a night on the guitar over a seven day week - on some days achieving up to 3 hours.

I have spent the majority of this time on Yousician - a great motivational challenge tool and I have dedicated whole nights to getting a clean run on just one challenge.

Great so where's the problem ?

I have spent less than a quarter of my practice time learning songs etc.

I have also taken to recording my playing to help me review but also for a little ego boost.  The problem is this has highlighted a bit of an issue.

Yousician is a computer program and measures accuracy  - It also provides a bit of a backing track.  I have noticed in listening back to my playing without the backing track that it is very clinical and flat.  Most motes and chords are damped  ready to play the next note perfectly (to aid recognition and high scores) - so it seems that the cost of motivation for me has been 'feel' and musicality.

Finally - Honestly I want to be able to play along to songs - after two months I'm still struggling with that so it's time to change it up.

As my subscription is up in two weeks I am going to try a different tactic.

I'm going to continue to devote the practice time but I'm going to go  60:40 the opposite way and concentrate on songs rather than Yousician.

I have got a copy of Audacity and a trial of RiffStation so I can slow and loop tracks nicely.

I have some cool Youtubes from GuitarJams / Justin Guitar and Steve Stine. So this weekend I'm going to make some practice loops for the tunes I'm learning and see where that leads me.

Lets see what a two week change of focus brings.

My personal goal is to be able to record a full recognisable tune within that two weeks.

Practice makes Perfect

Well it does if you practice perfectly.

The saying is really "Practice makes Permanent" therefore take care in what you practice.

I have been  running through some augmented chords and with JustinGuitar's minute changes I thought I was doing ok.

Em7  I can play with all the strings ringing so all good.  But now I'm trying to play tunes with it in Yousician and the chord isn't recognised so whats gone wrong?

I have managed to learn the chord with two fingers transposed - played  slowly its fine but in the heat of the tune the inverted 1 & 2 fingering dampens strings if the finger tips position is not spot on

Chord   Correct           My
             Fingers           Fingers

3            4                    4
3            3                    3
0
2            2                    1
2            1                    2
0

My fingering is good for the changes to C7  and G  but less tolerant of poor technique so  I guess even more practice is in order lol !!

Still Plucking Away

More real life stuff but still averaging an hour a day over a week so really chuffed with myself.

Things are starting to slot together quite well  so even my random noodlings are sounding good.

Yousician practice is going ok - the new level has really ramped up the complexity but equally the passages are now sounding much nicer too.

My goal to learn Flight of Icarus isnt progressing quite so well.  Although simple (ish) in its segments the changes and tweeks at tempo are still a little beyond me just yet. I'll keep at it.

Finally I have dusted off an old set of videos from Steve Stine - Absolute Fretboard Mastery.  Steve is a really good teacher and his approach is well pitched - I'm at a level now where I feel I can take on some of this practice so this week I''ve started on part 1 which covers 6th String Notes  ,  5 Pentatonic shapes and his meandering challenge.

Achieving Absolute Fretboard Mastery Part1

Practice Practice

Its been a busy few weeks.

Real life got in the way and I have had to take a few days off guitar playing.

The good news is I still averaged an hour a day over the week and I even managed to complete the Yousician Level Six skill tests.

I am still picking up simple songs and riffs and working my fingers round them. I really do need to simplify my practice setup as I am slipping back to playing acoustically and that path leads to mistakes I should avoid.

I read an interesting post about filming yourself playing. I know it makes sense for coaching paddling so I'm going to give it a go.

Into the Danger Zone

Well after my little "level up" last week things seem to have really clicked.

I can pick up some of my old tab sheets and strum them through and they actually sound like they should! (Well mostly).

Cool so wheres the danger ?

I got to this stage  last year and that's where things started to unravel.  I thought I had it cracked, downloaded lots of interesting music and failed to master any of it.  I got frustrated, then demotivated and lost.

Clearly I didn't give up and I'm back now where I was six months ago , a little older, a little wiser and alot more determined.  If anything the fact that I have  rediscovered the skills I 'lost' in just three weeks proves I learned something.

Going forwards I plan to stick with the course.

Simple practice regimes and  only a few  simple songs.

My basic repertoire is -

Strumming
- Knockin On Heavens Door
- Whiskey in the Jar

Picking
- Starwars Theme
- Hes a Pirate (Pirates of the Caribbean)

Learning Challenges
- Black Knight
- Run to the Hills
- Flight of Icarus
- Worlds Falling Down - Ozzy

Progress and Glass Ceilings

I'm feeling quite proud of myself this week.

Blue Monday is apparently the time when most peoples new years resolutions bite the dust.

Not here - I'm still practicing most days and today I feel like I've had a breakthrough.

Learning guitar isn't a linear thing. You can spent quite some time practicing the same pieces before you develop the muscle memory needed to take the next step.  This can be a source of frustration and be very demotivating.

The answer ?  For me this is where Yousician comes in to its own. It throws up little step challenges that keeps you interested and playing. Alongside JustinGuitars' beginners course and a couple of simple tunes to learn I have been able to vary my daily practicing fresh.

Today  two of the practice tunes I have been working on came together - I can play them all through at full tempo.

Now for the next challenge.

Another week still practicing

A good week this week.


I have managed to push my average practice time over 1 hour a day !!

Finger tips toughening up well and after a friend suggested a change of pick type I have improved the "musicality" of some of my exercises.

Music isn't just about playing the right notes its about the feel and intonation you put into them too.

In other news a small recode on my USB pedalboard has worked wonders and it now performs really smoothly without glitches.

On the downside I'm still not really progressing with my chosen song - I still play the broken up parts but I cant seem to get anywhere close to stringing them together recognizably. Keep at it I guess.

Pedalboard Update

Tests are going well on the mockup.

Its a little sensitive so I have turned down the sensitivity a little and found  some slightly cleaner code to use.

Really happy with the developments so far and for less than £30 its a dream.

Some decent connectors on order so hopefully I will be able to build a properly finished casing soon.

Programmable Pedalboard Mk1

What a satisfying day !

I now have a fully working USB Pedalboard !

3 hours squinting at tiny solder joints and it lives !!

Check out the build page from more info.

If only playing the guitar was this easy : }

A Song !!

Well everyone should have a goal!


Of course all the online materials lead you into basic beginner songs but motivationally I think its good to set a personal goal , an achievable reason to play daily.

And thats one of the first hurdles - There is so much good music out there and so many "How To " videos that you can almost have too much choice. Narrowing down the list to one or two challenge pieces takes discipline.

I have found to my cost that skipping from one shiny  riff to the next is counter productive - I can play many intro's and riffs but no complete songs...


I love 80's rock music and back in that era Iron Maiden were my inspiration.

I was (and still am) mad on all things aviation. For ten years I even had my own light aircraft.

There was only really one choice for me

"The Flight of Icarus"

There are more iconic Maiden tracks but this is a relatively simple one and one personal to me.

Good practice for Power Chords and  the classic Maiden Gallop.

An hour of practice and I can make most of the right noises now all I need to do is stitch it all together and build up the tempo.

One Week In !

1 Week in to my new regime and its going well !  I have managed to average 45 minutes a day and my confidence is returning. I am taking the time to be critical of my playing techniques too.

I tend to try and play too fast - More practice with a metronome ??

I tend to be lazy and not use my pinky - Watch it carefully.

Watch your fretting hand position - Low / forward wrist releases your fingers to curve better and actually generates a more relaxed hand.

Welcome

Welcome to my Blog.

It is a record of my attempts to learn the guitar.

It contains my views and opinions of the tools and available material to help the guitarist beginners like me progress.

It will document my progress , trials and successes.