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.

Day 19. Tricky transitions

Finally I had some time in the morning to play the guitar. I went through module 7 and took some routines from it. I didn’t touch new strumming patterns because I didn’t quite master patterns from the previous module.

1234 on the 1-12 frets

I started the exercise at 300 bpm. It got better than before. My phone ran out of memory again so I didn’t record the first attempt and repeated 1234s one more time.

1243 on the 5th fret

This time the speed was increased to 240 bpm.

And I repeated the routine in the end of today practice just to improve the results more.

Chord transitions

In module 7 there were two chords added – G and B7. The latter was almost not used by me at all, so these were tricky ones.

A/E transition

Did it at 140 bpm. Not sure if I will practice this transition more – it’s pretty easy to play it.

A/Dm transition

This time the metronome was set to 120 bpm. I decided to mute the strings after each strum to hear if all the strings are played in each chord.

G/D transition

This one was easy. The ring finger serves as the anchor point to rotate other fingers around it. The pace was 120 bpm.

B7/E transition

There is where fun begins… I played this chord literally several times in my life. And the hardest part of it is to place the fingers so that open strings are not muted. So I started at 60 bpm. I wouldn’t say it was too fast, but for now my transitions are not very consistent at that speed.

B7/C transition

Somehow this one was a bit easier for me despite the fact that in terms of fingers movement there is much more going on here. I think that that one song I played which contained B7 chord was with this transition, so I have some kind of muscle memory for it.

Fretboard knowledge

As always, first attempt for today – 1:41.

The best one was in 1:35. And the last one on camera was in 1:42.

Strumming

I continued increasing the speed for module 6 strumming pattern. At first I played it at 110 bpm.

Then I increased the speed to 120 bpm. Will start from this speed tomorrow, because it was not perfect.

Summary

I want to play 1243 on the 5th fret at 300 bpm by the end of the week. So I will be practicing mostly this thing as long as I could in terms of my hand and finger exhaustion.

It’s cool to finally get to the point where I need to practice something from level zero. I’m talking about B7 chord. I was surprised to see it as one of the crucial ones. I saw it maybe in 1 or 2 songs I played. It will be fun to improve my chord transitions speed with this one.

Day 18. Repetition

Today I didn’t have much time to practice so I just repeated every yesterday exercise, some with the metronome speed increased.

1234 on the 1-12 frets

I repeated it at 300 bpm. There were errors but not so many. I missed a string with a pick a few times, messed up timings of my ring and pinky fingers a bit and messed up with transitions between the frets once or twice.

1234 on the 5th fret

I continued to practice different combinations of fingers at the same 220 bpm. It’s quite hard for muscle memory and for the brain to master all combinations at once so I decided to practice them one by one for a few days each to get to the consistent playing at 300 bpm or so.

1243

1324

1342

Chord transitions

I practiced the same transitions as yesterday at the faster speed.

A/E transition

Did it at 120 bpm. Because of the way I play the A chord this transition is easy for me. Tomorrow I’ll increase the speed even more.

A/Dm transition

That’s more tricky, but not impossible, especially at 100 bpm. Tomorrow I’ll increase this value.

Strumming

I started with practicing it a bit more without the metronome, because I did’t quite mastered it yesterday. Then I tried to do it on beat. After several attempts this chord and strumming progression was written to my brain and I managed to do it pretty seamlessly and clean.

This is my last attempt, I recorded it separately to have it in other video.

Fretboard knowledge

Maybe I need to practice more of it every day or maybe it’s really hard to get below 1:30, but I didn’t get closer to it yet. My first attempt was in 1:42.

My best one for today was in 1:38 and the last one I recorder – in 1:41.

Summary

I don’t have much to say today. It was quite an eventful day, so I got only 1 hour or so in the evening to practice. I did nothing new, just repeated the previous day routine. But that’s ok, I think. The best thing is that I find some time to do it. And my consistency with these daily posts is what makes me happy.