This week I practiced mostly 1234s and scales. Nothing too special, just was trying to increase the speed and consistency of them. Something went well, something didn’t, but overall I’m gradually improving, which is great.
I kinda stuck with the 1234s. The half of my entire daily routine consists of them. But I can’t just leave them as they are now when there are still some which I haven’t practiced yet 😀 It’s still a long way to go but in 7 weeks I’ll get to the point when I’m satisfied and can play all of them as 8th notes at 150 bpm across the neck consistently-ish. Then finally I’ll let this routine go and use this freed time for something else.
Module 14 gave an idea of circle of fifths but really didn’t tell anything about its application. Hopefully there will be something about this in the future modules but for now I just found one useful way of using it: I noticed that all keys (despite F# and for major scales) with sharps are just notes which open guitar strings in standard tuning have. So I used that knowledge to remember which key has sharps and which has flats for now. In minor scales there are no such simple pattern so I just counted 3 semitones up and referred to the corresponding major scale.
Scales notes pronunciation is an interesting exercise. I underrated myself and set an easy goal for this week, which I managed to achieve on the second or third try. So next week I’ll try some different approaches to improve my fretboard knowledge and scales notes knowledge even more. I’ll be starting at different strings or maybe play each scale on every possible spot of the fretboard. We’ll see.
The goals for this week were:
- [Done] 2341, 2413, 2431 as 8th notes at 150 bpm
- [Done] 34s without moving my middle finger at least as 8th notes at 100 bpm
- [Done] All the scales consistently as 8th notes at 150 bpm across the fretboard
- [Done] All the scales pronouncing notes in less than 8 min [the first attempt was in 13 min]
- Get to the level with 7 intervals on ear training at tonedear.com
My goals for the next week:
- 2134, 2143, 2314, 2341, 2413, 2431 as 8th notes at 150 bpm across the neck
- 12, 13, 14, 23, 24, 34 as 8th notes at 150 bpm across the neck
- Improved consistency of the scales as 8th notes at 150 bpm across the neck
- All the scales pronouncing notes in less than 5 min starting on ADG strings
- Get to the level with 7 intervals on ear training at tonedear.com
As always, here’s the video.
1234 exercise
2341 on the 5th fret – 8th notes @ 110 bpm → 8th notes @ 150 bpm
2413 on the 5th fret – 8th notes @ 110 bpm → 8th notes @ 150 bpm
2431 on the 5th fret – 8th notes @ 110 bpm → 8th notes @ 150 bpm
34 on the 5th fret – Quarter notes @ 100 bpm → 8th notes @ 100 bpm
12-13-14-23-24-34 on the 5th fret – 8th notes at 130 bpm → 8th notes at 150 bpm
Scales
Major scales – 1-12 frets – EADG strings – 8th notes @ 130 bpm → 8th notes @ 150 bpm
Minor scales – 1-12 frets – EA strings – 8th notes @ 130 bpm → 8th notes @ 150 bpm
Major scales – 1-12 frets – Pronouncing notes – 8:35 → 4:00
Minor scales – 1-12 frets – Pronouncing notes – 9:27 → 4:41
Ear training
Intervals – 314 of 400 – 78.50%
Minor 2nd – 61 of 67 – 91.04%
Major 2nd – 36 of 58 – 62.07%
Minor 3rd – 27 of 50 – 54%
Major 3rd – 41 of 73 – 56.16%
Perfect 5th – 73 of 76 – 96.05%
Octave – 76 of 76 – 100%