Week 1

 I managed 6 days of practice and averaged  60 minutes a day.

A little flattering as I had a couple of 2 hour sessions in there too.

I'm really happy at my decision to stick to just songs.

I have mastered slowing down and looping videos on VLC so I can play along and repeat challenging sections.

I have also managed to import the video into Ableton and then slow it down so that I can record my play along.

It sounds horrible in insolation !! But it also highlights the sections I'm struggling with - back to VLC slow down and loop - repeat..

Am I improving ?   I think so but I am definitely happy and eager to start the next session.  I hope I can keep this up.

Sticking at it !

 2016 !!  

Thats when I started trying to juggle a full time job, a full home life and trying to learn the guitar.

Alot has happened and many things have changed. One thing hasn't -  I still cant really play the guitar.

2025 is the year that changes.  For the last couple of years whilst the guitar has always been around and I have picked it up  and tinkered I have had no real plan which means I have made no real progress.

Where I'm at -

Tone chasing  -  I found the Katana to be a distraction and actually got in the way of practice.  If I  wasn't tinkering  tweeking my pedal to do more, I was playing with preset options.  Finally the  faff of getting the amp out and setting it up  actually made me think twice about playing.

Clearly that's not helpful so  I bought a small Scarlett Solo interface and now use a simple amp sim plugin.  The PC I use to stream YT lessons is also my amp ! It doesn't get much easier than that.  I can still use the footpedal both to switch tones but also pause/play songs so it really is a win / win.

With my new setup I also got a copy of Ableton 12 DAW.  This runs the amp sim plugins but can also function as a Tuner , Metronome and even a looper though thats a step too far for my just now I have everything I can possibly need right there on the desktop.  A final investment in a pair of Studio headphones and I'm good to go.

A week into my practice regime and so far I'm really happy.  My finger tip calluses have returned and I'm enjoying the process again. Over the last year I focussed on leaning the fretboard (Don't need the guitar for alot of this) and the 5 pentatonic positions.  Whilst all this "theory" will undoubtedly be useful I cant for the life of me make it musical! Something had to change. Taking a little inspiration from JustinGuitars beginner  course - he always puts songs into the sections  I have  decided to focus on songs for now. My first goal is to have 5 - 10 songs I can play along to a record with decent quality. They dont have to be perfect and I'm not looking to play any "solo" sections.

Back in September '24 I found a really nice Bon Jovi- Its My Life tutorial on YT. Its a simple song but sounds great.  I can play along to that at full speed and to my ears it doesn't sound too bad !!  Buoyed by this I went looking for more  and my repertoire is now -

• Its My Life  -  Full speed playthrough for th e Rhythm Guitar part.  
• Next Step look at the Solo  (Not imminent yet)
• Rolling in the Deep -  Another "Simple song"  chord wise but  this has taught me the need for counting to get the changes correct. Again I can play along to the song at full speed (Except the "solo").
• 7 Nation Army -  A fun simple song to play along to.

All the above I have found are good to build Fretting hand strength and muscle memory for quickly shifting up and down the fretboard.

I'm now working on 3 more songs -

• Powerslave by Maiden -  I can play along to the whole first section (Intro , Verse , Bridge etc) at 65% 
• Since You've Been Gone - Another great tune with simple chords  - the challenge here is the speed changes in the bridges
• Whiskey in the Jar - Metallica's rocked up version

I'm focussing 2 days on these songs and 1 day on new stuff and I'm enjoying (even looking forwards to ) playing. My goal is 30 minutes at least 5 days every week  -  lets see how I get on.

Nooodles

 Not posted recently  - I am still playing though.

I've hit a level where I am actually comfortable just sitting noodling around and it sounds good.

Also playing with a couple of songs - Phantom of the Opera (Classical version) and The Trooper intro

Happy times

Plucking Away

 Not a lot of news in practice land.

I am still plugging away  there are a couple of pieces that I am struggling to master so I have made myself play these  at the beginning of each session.

I went through the frustrated , never going to get this.  The chord death grip approach and then  relaxed into the tune and guess what - about a month after setting myself the challenge, I was note perfect on the first piece last week and today  I hit the second piece on the first attempt this morning.

Chuffed to bits !!

Oh and the secret ?  Always finish your session with a fun play along piece !!

A Tune a Day

 So  the holidays have come and gone.

With COVID this years were a little flat but that still didnt stop the usual family chaos and games. It did make it really hard to find time to pick up the guitar though I wanted to most days.

After a 10 day break it was a little hard to pick it up but soo glad I did.  I found a fun easy tune (7 Nation Army) and had a blast.  The following day I  had no such struggle to get stuck in.

A week later and I'm practicing hard again on a challenging chord progression (horrible F!! ) and finishing with 20 minutes of fun.

Its true what they say - play every day - it makes progress so much easier.  

Double whammy !

I am really enjoying playing at the minute.

Something seems to click every time I pick up my guitar.  Granted they are only small things but sooo satisfying.

Last week Yousician threw me a curve ball - Fingerpicking.  Ah I want to play metal I dont want to mess with that rubbish..... Then I thought then I went back and tried.

It takes a little time but once you get the "dance" steps in your fingers it is really quite fun and sounds awesome.  I will be doing more of this.

I'm also working on Steve Steins Fretboard Mastery stage 1 and its going well.  I wasnt really happy with the meandering - I use Hydrogen for an interesting drum beat over a click metronome but YAWN!

Then I discovered a couple of backing tracks in the right key and tempo - Instant music - really happy and really tempts you to do more than just wander up and down scales.

Soo then I get to thinking and researching and today my pedalboard got another upgrade.  Now it will loop too.  I can lay down layers to noodle and play with.  Its going to take a little learning to really get used to the software but another fun musical event.

I'm using Mobius from CircleLabs as the brain of my Looper.  This little app runs on my laptop for now with all the control mapped to my pedalboard.   Happy Christmas to me !!

And Relax

 Following on from my theme of  trying not to play too fast and enjoy the journey I have been watching  back and catching up on JustinGuitars new beginner course.

I came across this video today - Exploring Strumming

It really echos my observations about relax and enjoy = better feel and better sound.

(A)Tension to tone !

 So  a month into my new setup and I'm really having fun.

Making the transition to standing has had side effects I wasn't expecting  its so much more immersive when playing along to tunes. 

I have also progressed through another little glass ceiling. 

I now have 2 or 3 tone patches on my  GT-001 that I am really happy with.  For a while I was a touch disappointed that everything I tried sounded muddy and indistinct. Not any more I finally figured it out and surprise surprise its not the kit - it was my fingers!

I have said in the past that I have a tendency to play a little to fast - well admitting it is the first step in fixing it.  I am consciously playing a lot slower than I used to and critiquing my technique.  This has 2 side effects.

• Muscle memory - This develops fairly quickly at low speeds but is fragile - it can get confused or muddied if you speed up too fast.  Trust your fingers they know what to do but dont force them to play fast.
• Tone - Not forcing your fingers means your hand is far less tense. This means your  playing is cleaner and even allows a half second here or there for a little slide or vibrato - actually even having  that time to think about it really elevates your sound.

Ok so I have to slow down tracks a way to play long but its really (REALLY) encouraging to actually play along to something familiar and its definitely an huge boost to listen to yourself actually sounding musical !!

Still a long way to go but  I am now consciously relaxing and enjoying the journey rather than working on it! 

Christmas Cheer

 Well I'm nicely settled in to my own little space.

Cant quite understand why  I struggled in the past to play standing but I must say I'm really enjoying it now.

My pedalboard has come on in leaps and bounds I'll be updating the project page with the details too.

I've gone back to basics a bit with playing and am working out a few simple songs like 7 Nation Army just to really get into the groove again.

Keep Strumming !

2020 What a year !!

The new year started well enough - A new job closer to home so more free time - well that was the plan.

Then we had a family health scare closely followed by Covid and the lockdowns.  Pretty much normal family life and normal working life ceased and we entered a limbo state of trying to care for our families and ourselves.

Lots of household jobs that had been put off suddenly we had time to do them all.

I now have a dedicated hobby room and permanent Guitar setup and for the last month I have been making the most of it again.

My Pedalboard has been updated with full MIDI capability so it not only controls Youtube  but also switches patches on my GT-001 and even has 2 Expression pedal slots.

Speaker wise I'm running 2 Alesis Active Monitors which sound really nice.

I finally graduated to playing standing up. It took 2 or 3 sessions to get comfy but now I actually find it comfier than sat down.

Next goal - to records myself playing a real song all the way through!  No idea how long it will take but its a goal.

Happy New Year !!

Well the holidays have come and gone.

Friends , Family and far too much food and drink  really made it hard to pick up my guitar.

I did manage a few unplugged sessions and during those 10 - 15 minute periods I stuck to practicing my chords and some slow accurate changes and the odd run through of the Minor Pentatonic shapes.

My 12 Riffs of Christmas is finished and this is where I got to -

1)   The Trooper - Into    pretty slow but recognisable
2)   Crazy Train - Inro     This one is quite good on a good day and my fingers behave.

3)   He's a Pirate  I can play it through from the sheet but not yet from memory
4)   Star Wars Main theme - Again I can play it from sheet but not from memory

5)   I Walk The Line -  Base and Strum - This too is coming along nicely
6)   Common People - Pumping 8ths This one I can play to the record
8)   Bad Moon Rising -  Chord changes ok but so far I cant get the strumming right

9)   Seven Nation Army - Co-ordination test but very fun to play
10) Three Little Birds - Another play-along song. Fun but Reggae rhythm is off still

11) You Give Love a Bad Name - Riff and Rythm   Another recognisable tune - Bending practice !
12) Powerslave - Intro Riff  - Slow - practice for string damping

In all I'm quite chuffed - I have a long way to go with all these but I set out to dust off and learn 12 tunes and I managed them. Now I need to level them all up !! 

Finish what you started!

So  its been a harder week this week.  Family got in the way of daily practice, though after 24 hours I really wanted to pick up my guitar and just strum!


Still working on  my 12 riffs challenge and so far I have -

The Trooper (Intro)
Crazy Train (Intro)

He's a Pirate
Star Wars (Main Theme)
You Give Love a Bad Name
I Walk the Line
Common People
Bad Moon Rising
Seven Nation Army
Three Little Birds

I'm working on these and most sound familiar now which is pleasing.

In doing this challenge I'm very aware that I am only playing fragments, which for a beginner I'm told is normal and good.  I really want to start building my repertoire with some complete pieces so I've been really concentrating on three songs -

Common People and I Walk the line which I'm playing along to the originals at about 80% speed which is fun. 

He's a Pirate this is going to be my first real peice and so far I have about 60% of the tune under my fingers and at a decent speed.

Fun times !!

Another Day Another Tune

ChordPulse is great - I'm finding it really useful to get my rhythm going.

Because it plays to a tempo I find it is stopping me from racing, which in turn lets me focus on the musicality (I use this term loosely !!)

12 Riffs of Christmas is going well as a plus.

The Trooper Intro
Crazy Train
He's a Pirate

You Give Love a Bad Name
I Walk The Line
Common People


I'm working on Justins version of Walk of life but This is Capo'd at 7 and I just cant get my fingers in there yet !!

Feeling really strong today !

Your very own backing band

Well I wasnt expecting that !

As I said in my last post I am running through Justin Guitars online course.

I have his song book from a couple of years ago so It made sense to follow his advice and play his song arrangements.

Unfortunately his revised course now guides you to his play along app which is free to try buy requires a paid subscription to go past the 30 second sample tracks. So trying to learn a song in 30 second bites isnt going to work!!

This is where things started coming together -

• I can use Justins Youtube videos and my foot pedal to loop the playalong bits  and that really works well but still means  playing only segments.
• In the comments to one of the songs I picked one of Justins contributors mentions ChordPulse Lite as a playalong option

ChordPulse   allows you to build a Chord progression and even provides a backing track of sorts at any given tempo. The free version has 20 odd "styles" which seem to be useful enough for now.

Once the sequence is added you can save it and loop it - even add a count in. I have been playing with it for a couple of hours now and I really think this is the missing link between the Yousician song interface and jamming with the real song.

My optimism just leapt another notch !! 

Time to up my game

Progress is going well.

I really want to keep this momentum up.

I'm going to start seriously working through Justin Guitars course and songs. there are two things driving me this way.

I've reached a bit of a plateau in Yousician and although it has re-ignited my drive to play, the last two days have seen me repetitively playing the same short passage just to get the stars - musically the passages are somewhat meaningless thought the technical (and gamer) challenge has driven me on.

Looking at Justins new 'My Practice Assistant' tool on his site has let me set up some more structured routines that I can still log (and track) accomplishments on.

So I lose the direct feedback of the Yousician app telling me I missed a note but with my new monitors I can actually hear that. I gain a more detailed course plan and practice routines.

I spent the evening setting up routines for Scales and Fretboard sessions as well as 1 minute changes for all the "Cowboy" chords. Now all I need to do is stick to them !!

Lets see how we get on.

The more you play the more you want to play.

Its true, after a month of playing at least an hour  almost everyday I now find myself making excuses to go and have another session.

Family ties mean this isnt always possible  (otherwise I'd probably be a guitar hermit by now !!) but even so Youtube inspiration is never far away.

I'm now right back at the stage I was when I left off three years ago but this time I'm still very optimistic.

I've hit the stage on Yousician where I cannot  get gold stars at every exercise without serious practice - I'm just shy of level 7 on both Lead and Rhythm paths so its not too great a surprise.

Musically I'm feeling better - there are far fewer unexpected twanged notes and most times I can get a bit of a groove going.

The 12 riffs of Christmas are coming on - now have recognisable (to me) sections of -

The Trooper Intro (pt 1)

You Give Love a Bad Name

Crazy Train Intro

Still way off speed but I can work on that.

Sounds Great

Sadly not my playing though !

I was lucky on eBay over the weekend and have now replaced my 2.1 PC speakers with a dedicated set of Monitor Speakers.

What a difference ! It sounds even better than my headphones.

I need to fiddle a little wit the levels  - I want to hear my guitar over the Youtube or backing track.

I can now really start to refine my tones.  I have a really nice  clean / acoustic sound already but I want a nice crunchy distortion that is not too overboard for my scale runs etc. Sereral tutors recommend practicing with distortion on as it amplifies your mistakes and encourages good muting which makes good sense to me.

12 Riffs of Christmas update

The Trooper intro pt 1 is coming on nicely.

Still strumming

Three weeks in - I cant feel my fingertips - must be doing something right ?!

Andy guitars 10 day bootcamp was great and gave me lots of hope I could get back into this.

So far I have managed at least an hour every single day and I can feel my hands progressing. Muscle memory is a strange thing - relax and trust your fingers they know what they are doing - try and force them and they rebel horribly !!

I hit the old problem that Yousician teaches accuracy over musicality so I have been working to improve my touch and feel as I work through the exercises.

I'm have stopped using the headphones and set up some old  PC speakers. The sound isn't so good but the playing experience is much better.

I did consider swapping the GT-001 for one of the Katana amps everyone is raving about. In the end for now I'm sticking with the GT-001 but have just acquired some studio monitor speakers, hopefully that will resolve the sound issues.

I've decided to challenge myself as its Christmas. I'm going to try and learn 12 recognisable riffs or pieces for Christmas. The aim is not to get them record perfect but to get them accurate and recognisable. Lets see how that goes.

Resurrection

Well that was a very  quick 3 years !!

Kids left home , moved flats and I got a new job complete with mega commute.

In other words life got very busy very quickly and my trusty guitar got dusty....

Arrgh !!   all that progress and I let it go.

Well I'm back and even more serious than before.

I now have a dedicated room with my guitar setup in.

In the last 2 weeks I have rerun Yousician level 5 and followed AndyGuitar's 10 day Quickstart course.

My fingers are starting to remember and I'm ready to start looking at song / tunes again.

I have also invested in a Boss GT-001 which sounds awesome in my headphones.

I have 4 weeks to learn some Christmas songs !!

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.