Author: vskolos

Day 28. Finishing them up

It’s the last day of the week 4, so I wanted to conclude as much routines as I could to start the new ones and proceed further into the course. I will repeat most of today’s routines for a day or two still to make them sound cleaner and more consistent but the goal was to get all of them so the speed I wanted them to be played at.

1234 exercise

Today I started with the newest combinations not to get tired when I finally get to them 🙂

1342 at the 5th fret

My goal was to get it to 300 bpm this week. Today I started with 280 bpm as a warmup.

Then I played it in 300 bpm as well. It was far from perfect but still I kind of managed to play it so it counts 🙂

1324 at the 5th fret

I got this combination to the 300 bpm a few days ago so I just repeated it at the same speed to develop consistency.

1243 at the 5th fret

At the end of today’s practice I had some time to play this combination, but my fingers were tired already so I messed it up significantly.

Chord transitions

Today was the day I finished all my chord transitions routines. It means that I played all of them at 120 bpm pretty consistently to count it as a success.

B7/E transition

B7/C transition

Am G/B C G/B transition

Em D/F# G D/F# transition

Strumming

The strumming patterns went the same way – played them at 120 bpm to finish up those.

Module 7 pattern

Module 9 pattern

Let It Be

I played it pretty well at the first place, but after a few days of practice I got better at F C Dm C fast chord transitions part.

Summary

I’m not sure what to do next. Part of me wants to go deeper into the course to find out something new and my other part tells to just continue the 1234 practice with other finger combinations and to master and record full versions of Green Day’s songs. We’ll see what I choose to do next week soon.

Day 27. Too many routines

This week’s conclusion is near, so I want to reach the number I wanted to on the most number of routines I possibly can to proceed to the next modules and some new exercises.

1234 exercise

1234 on the 5th fret

I used this routine as a warmup to get my hands warmer as there was quite cold in the room already. It want’s perfect, and it was at 340 bpm.

1234 on the 1-12 frets

I held my hands in the hot water, so that’s why they’re a bit red in this video. It helped, but not with this routine, because they were too relaxed to play at that speed which was set to 320 bpm.

1243 on the 5th fret

At this point I don’t really know if I’ll be able to play this one consistently without muscle pain. Guess I’ll just continue practicing. This combination was played at 300 bpm.

1324 on the 5th fret

I really needed to get some rest after the previous one… I didn’t take a break and playing this combination, I felt the tension and burn in the hand halfway through. So the second half wasn’t played well at all. Tomorrow I’ll start with the newer combinations to play them when I’m not tired yet.

1342 on the 5th fret

After other routines I returned back to this one. Tomorrow is the last day of this week so I really want to end it with this combination being played at 300 bpm. So today I sped up the metronome twice. First try was at 260 bpm.

Then I set the speed to 280 bpm and failed almost completely. I mean, it was really bad… My hand was exhausted after previous routines so I did so many mistakes I wouldn’t even think about being able to make. Tomorrow I’ll start at 280 bpm again and hopefully will be able to play it at 300 bpm as well.

Chord transitions

B7/E transition

B7 chord had become my second nature. There is no issues with quick transitions to it at all. In 2 minutes I played something wrong just a few times. And it wasn’t something very crucial, just 1-2 dead notes. So I’m happy with this result at 110 bpm.

B7/C transition

Unlike B7/E transition this one have no fingers left in the same positions, but despite this fact I managed to play 80-85% of the routine correctly at 110 bpm.

Am G/B C G/B transition

Again there is some kind of mind games I have with myself – Am G/B Am G/B or C G/B C G/B were played several times during the video. But overall it went great – the transitions are not tricky at all. Today’s speed was 100 bpm.

Em D/F# G D/F# transition

Didn’t touch the second D/F# shape today (with my index finger on the E string). Using the version with my thumb this chord progression was successfully played at 100 bpm as well.

Strumming

Module 7 pattern

After some struggle I managed to pull it off at 110 bpm. Need 120 bpm for tomorrow.

Module 9 pattern

Considering there’s no chord written I used the ones from Let It Be – C G Am F C for the corresponding lines. Managed to play it at 120 bpm but tomorrow I’ll repeat this one to make a shorter video and to confirm my result.

Let It Be

I ran out of phone memory again so decided to play this routine off-camera at the same original speed – 143 bpm. Nothing special here. Practiced this fast F C Dm C transition a few times to play the right notes.

Summary

The number of routines increases so I really want to finish some of them tomorrow. Hopefully I will be able to do it.

Day 26. Through beginner modules

I watched through modules 9-11 which concluded Part 1 of the course. I will pick songs with I-V-vi-IV and vi-IV-I-V and probably make full cover of them after the two songs I started to play before.

1234 exercise

I decided to change the structure of this part to differentiate all finger combinations and make it easier to look through.

1234 on the 5th fret

Today I used this as a warmup to play other stuff more consistently. The metronome is at 320 bpm.

1234 on the 1-12 frets

Then I played the same 1234 on the whole fretboard at the same 320 bpm.

1243 on the 5th fret

My pinky still got tired after just 2 minutes of playing, will practice more. 300 bpm.

1324 on the 5th fret

It would be better for my performance to take a break after the previous exercise but I started this one without it, so it wasn’t perfect and after a few minutes I started to make mistakes. 300 bpm.

1342 on the 5th fret

Here comes the new combination. Started to increase the speed I did it at a week or so ago – 240 bpm. I really want to get to 300 bpm till the end of the week.

Chord transitions

B7/E transition

I felt really comfortable with B7 today at the same 100 bpm. Tomorrow I’ll increase it even more.

B7/C transition

Again, B7 feels more natural here now. 100 bpm.

Am G/B C G/B transition

Still don’t know why my brain mixes up these three chords and plays C G/B C or Am G/B Am from time to time. Anyway, I almost nailed it at 90 bpm. And the transitions themselves are not the main issue here.

Em D/F# G D/F# transition

As always the shape with my thumb feels easy, so 90 bpm is okay. Using the other shape with the index finder at the E string I managed to do it at 60 bpm today.

Strumming

Module 7 pattern

Last time I haven’t played it perfectly at 100 bpm, so today it was time to nail this speed.

Module 9 pattern

These patterns are not so hard, maybe tomorrow I’ll repeat them at the same 120 bpm all at once.

Let It Be

As in the Am G/B C G/B chord progression, the main issue here was not the chord transitions themselves. Somehow I kept struggling with realizing which chord needs to be played next. Anyway I have been playing it for 5 minutes at the original speed – 143 bpm.

Summary

I want to practice as much as possible by the end of the week to start the new one with new “post-beginner” modules. At the same time it will be great to finally record When I Come Around with the bass part. We’ll see how it goes.

Day 25. Welcome to Paradise

Today I accidentally played the chord progression which sounded very familiar. Turned out it was from Welcome to Paradise by Green Day. So I remembered this song, played and recorded it after all the routines. I messed up two or three times during the song, so I’m gonna practice it more. This is like the first try to compare with in the future.

Here is clean version to hear how messy it sounds now 🙂

1234 on the 1-12 frets

I continue to practice it at the same speed – 320 bpm – and not sure if I’m getting better at it. Maybe I need to warm up before it instead of using this exercise as a warmup.

1234 on the 5th fret

1243

As I mentioned yesterday, I reduced the practice time for this combination to 2 min. Still the same 300 bpm, because it’s not clean at all yet.

1324

Finally this combination is completed and played at 300 bpm. It’s easier for me than 1243. Anyway, tomorrow I’ll start the next one – 1342.

Chord transitions

B7/E transition

I started with the same speed as yesterday – 90 bpm.

And then proceeded to 100 bpm.

B7/C transition

Same chord – same story. 90 bpm at first.

And then at 100 bpm.

Am G/B C G/B transition

Finally I stopped messing up the chord order. Now the Am and C are played exactly when they should. Increased the speed to 80 bpm.

Em D/F# G D/F# transition

Still struggling with the D/F# shape. So I practice both variants – with my thumb on the E string and with my index finger. The former is done at 80 bpm, the latter – hardly at 50 bpm.

Strumming

Module 7 pattern

Today I got to 100 bpm. Not everything went smoothly, but at the end I nailed it.

Fretboard knowledge

Realized that haven’t been practicing this stuff for a few days now, so I just did two attempts in a row on camera and got the time below 1:50 both times. Still worthy 🙂

Summary

I really like that thing with the songs and surely will do full covers (I mean two guitars and a bass) of both of these. Need more time to practice the bass lines, they are pretty fast and tricky. And keeping it up with my daily upload thing gets harder. But I’m having too much fun to stop doing it, so I’ll keep it up for as long as I could!

Day 24. Reducing routines

Today I started practice well-known 1234 finger combinations for 2 minutes each instead of 5 minutes to be able to make more progress with the newer ones.

I don’t know what it was, but I messed up a lot today in all the ways possible.

1234 on the 1-12 frets

Did it again at 320 bpm. Surprisingly large amount of mistakes today.

1234 on the 5th fret

1243

Repeated it at 300 bpm again. Today it was kind of harder too, so mistakes were made.

1324

This combination worked out better. Maybe I warmed up at last and was able to play it at 280 bpm.

Chord transitions

B7/E transition

Thought I had made some progress in this transition but then found out that the speed was 90 bpm yesterday as well.

B7/C transition

Same here – 90 bpm again. I think I’m getting better at B7 chord.

Am G/B C G/B transition

Increased speed a little – to 70 bpm.

Em D/F# G D/F# transition

The same 70 bpm here.

Strumming

Module 7 pattern

Played it faster today – at 90 bpm. Will proceed further.

Summary

Not much to say here. This report is quite short so I’ll just make this summary the same.

Day 23. When I Come Around

I watched module 8 and there was that routine – to play When I Come Around power chord progression. I couldn’t resist and decided to make the complete lead guitar cover of this song.

So here is how it worked out.

And that’s the same version but without effects or amplifier itself.

Fun part completed, let’s get back to practice 🙂

1234 on the 1-12 frets

Today was a messy day 1234 wise. I messed up a lot, but routine is routine, so here it is at 320 bpm again.

1234 of the 5th fret

1243

I repeated this combination at 300 bpm again. Again after 1:30 my fingers stopped behaving as they should but to that point everything went pretty well.

1324

Today the metronome was set to 260 bpm and it went very smooth. Already look forward to get it to 300 bpm in 2 days.

Chord transitions

I decided to practice at 120 bpm max. There is no really any need to go above this speed for such a long time, so I better focus on my precision here.

C/D transition

Did it at 120 bpm.

A/E transition

120 bpm here as well.

G/D transition

Again, 120 bpm.

B7/E transition

Increased to 90 bpm today. Definitely need to practice at that speed more.

B7/C transition

The same thing with the speed in this transition – 90 bpm for now, mistakes were made.

Am G/B C G/B transition

I don’t know why, but my brain refused to remember either Am or C was just played, so I ended up repeating C G/B C or Am G/B Am for a few times during the video. I started with 60 bpm.

Em D/F# G D/F# transition

I tried two variations of D/F# fingering. When I was using my thumb to play the F# on the E string, I nailed the 60 bpm transitions completely, as I’d been using my thumb to mute that string for a long time and there’s not anything unusual. Then I tried to play F# with my index finger and everything went really south. After some attempts and practice I managed to kind of play this variation at 40 bpm. Not sure if it’s necessary to train it instead of just using the variation I’m comfortable with.

Strumming

Module 6 pattern

I started at the same 140 bpm I played yesterday.

Then I increased the speed to 160 bpm and it was not hard too. I think that’s the fastest speed I will ever need to play it with so I’ll stop practicing it for now.

Module 7 pattern

Somehow my brain completely forgot how to play it and I basically had to start over and train myself to do it again. After 5-10 minutes off-camera I still wasn’t able to play it even at the same 70 bpm I played it yesterday. But then during the recordings I kind of pulled this off.

After that there was not much hustle to do the same at 80 bpm, so here it is.

Summary

First cover (a messy one, but still) in years done! I’m looking forward to learn the bass part as well and play the song completely. Preferably I will need the drum part. Still don’t know how to download them and is there any way to import the drums into Garage Band.

I decided to practice all the 1234 combinations that got to 300 bpm for 2 minutes instead of 5 just to be able to focus on the new ones more. I’ll do it starting from tomorrow.

My daily routine becomes really time consuming so I need to finish the simple chord transitions routines to free some time. Also I didn’t have time for fretboard knowledge practice today. Absolutely need to include this one in my schedule tomorrow.

Day 22. Polishing everything

It’s the first day of the week 4 so I had a lot of enthusiasm to make some progress. I want to conclude beginner modules of the course this week, so I had much to do today.

1234 on the 1-12 frets

I started with the same 320 bpm as usual to improve my consistency at that speed.

1234 on the 5th fret

Then I practiced yesterday’s 1243 combination and added one more to get it to 300 bpm eventually.

1243

I repeated the exercise at 300 bpm. Still need to work on that muscle thing. More practice needed.

1324

Last time I practiced this the speed was 220 bpm. So today I set the metronome to 240 bpm to improve.

Chord transitions

I decided that there is no really need in practicing these at speeds faster than 150 bpm. So my goal with these is to get all of them to 150 bpm.

C/D transition

Did it at 120 bpm.

A/E transition

Practiced at 150 bpm. Done. The hardest part is to maintain this speed for 1.5 minutes straight.

A/Dm transition

Did it at 150 bpm as well. Not so natural but not so hard as well.

G/D transition

My brain started to mess with me at this one. The metronome was set to 150 bpm and the transitions themselves were not the issue. The problem was in me trying to mute the strings after each chord. It somehow messed up with my fingers and I started to press the wrong strings or press them at the wrong time. Maybe I’ll practice this one more just to figure this out.

B7/E transition

Played it at 80 bpm. These transitions are definitely became better but there’s a lot to do.

B7/C transition

80 bpm here as well.

Strumming

Module 6 pattern

I started with increasing the speed for module 6 strumming pdf. First I repeated it at 120 bpm.

Then I increased the speed to 140 bpm.

Module 7 pattern

There was finally time to check out the next strumming patterns file. I played it at 100 bpm line by line to get used to these patterns. Some of them were really unusual and tricky to play so I took my time.

Then there was time to play the whole PDF at once. I was’t really sure about it so I started with 60 bpm. And it was definitely the speed to start with 🙂

After a few attempts I increased the speed to 70 bpm. It was not perfectly clean, but still pretty decent. Tomorrow I’ll start with that speed.

Summary

New week – new horizons. That’s a great start and I hope that I’ll be able to keep the pace throughout the week. We’ll see!

I really want to play something more musical, not only routines. So I started to record The Kids Aren’t Alright by The Offspring off-camera. I recorded everything but the solo. It is not at the full speed of the song, and I still need to learn the solo, but it’s great that I finally started something like this.

Week 3. Summary

I’m only happy with the first half of this week. Then there was too much planned and the practice was not the priority of that reason. So the only time to play was at night and I really couldn’t do what I needed and wanted to at that time.

I watched modules 6 and 7, played some more chord transitions and strumming patterns, but mostly I focused on 1234s again but this time with some new finger combinations. The details are in the video.

1234

1234 – On the 5th fret at 320 bpm → On the 1-12 frets at 320 bpm
1243 on the 5th fret – 200 bpm → 300 bpm
1324 on the 5th fret – 200 bpm → 220 bpm
1342 on the 5th fret – 200 bpm → 220 bpm

Fretboard knowledge

All strings at once – 1:44 → 1:35

Chord transitions

C/D – 90 bpm → 110 bpm
Am/C – 140 bpm → 180 bpm
E/D – 120 bpm → 160 bpm
A/E – 110 bpm → 150 bpm
A/Dm – 90 bpm → 140 bpm
G/D – 120 bpm → 140 bpm
B7/E – 60 bpm → 70 bpm
B7/C – 60 bpm → 70 bpm

Strumming

Module 6 pattern – 80 bpm → 120 bpm

Day 21. Midnight again

Today was the final day of my third week into the course. Unfortunately, the only time I was able to have some practice was at the night. So all the loud routines mostly remained untouched. I kinda did the chord transitions, but it was not it at all.

1234 on the 1-12 frets

I repeated the routine at 320 bpm. A few more of those and I will increase the speed to 340 bpm. I got my cats sterilized today and had to keep one in the room, so there was some meows to get my attention during the recording.

1243 on the 5th fret

I wanted to finish the week at 300 bpm. So I started with 280 bpm I did it at yesterday.

And then increased it to 300 bpm. Done!

I didn’t manage to maintain that speed for the whole 5 minutes. There is my ring-pinky-fingers-muscle-problem I talked about, so after maybe 30-40 seconds that muscle starts burning and getting really tired. Need to practice more. But overall – goal achieved!

Chord transitions

I wasn’t able to play the chords out loud and it didn’t sound right that way so I’ll repeat all these transitions tomorrow with the same paces. Anyway, there are some videos.

A/E transition

Increased the speed to 150 bpm.

A/Dm transition

Set the metronome to 140 bpm.

G/D transition

Did it at 140 bpm.

B7/E transition

Sped up to 70 bpm.

B7/C transition

The same 70 bpm here.

Summary

I didn’t happy with how this day’s routine went, but it is how it is, so I just hope to continue everything tomorrow and practice in the morning or so. It should be enough time for this now.

Day 20. Midnight practice

There was not much time to practice today, so I ended up starting the routines at 00:30 or so. So I didn’t plug in the guitar today as well as didn’t practice loud things such as chord transitions or strumming.

1234 on the 1-12 frets

I started with the usual 300 bpm tempo.

Then I decided to increase it to 320 bpm. My legato went south instantly 🙂 I got better in the end but this speed increase was unexpectedly hard in comparison to the 1243 speed improving which will be described below.

1243 on the 5th fret

I really want to end the week with the ability to play 1243 at 300 bpm so I had to increase the speed twice today. First I set the metronome to 260 bpm.

And then to 280 bpm. My pinky and ring fingers have a quite strong relationships and are not willing to leave each other when one of them pressing the string. In 1234 combination it was okay, but when the pinky presses the string first, it’s hard for me to press the string with the ring finger and then lift my pinky up. Hopefully, this problem will sort out by itself.

Fretboard knowledge

For a week or so I practiced fretboard knowledge the same way and ended up with a great time. Today I decided to basically start over and play strings not only one by one but in the opposite order.

As I thought I really got used to the order I played the notes. So when I changed that order it became way more difficult. I think I will practice it that or some similar way for a while.

Anyway, that’s my initial attempt.

And that’s my final try for today after I practiced each string for 5 times independently.

Summary

There’s a lot to do tomorrow. I’m looking forward to increase every result to record my weekly report video and share it in the facebook group. Too soon to make some statements yet, so let’s just move on.