This week I mostly focused on muted strumming, since I was told that only applying much time to its practice I would be able to improve. Other exercises were kinda sent to the background for the time being.
Despite this I only increased the speed by 5 bpm – to 185 bpm, and there is still inconsistency in my playing. Next week I’ll try to really tremendously increase the time I spend on this exercise. Will be strumming for like several sessions 10 minutes each daily or something like this. We’ll se how it goes.
Surprisingly I still managed to record almost every other thing I set as a goal this week: 1234 with strings skipping, right hand muted string skipping exercise, celtic exercise, Snow by RHCP riff… They’re not very good but if the performance was awful I wouldn’t add them to the video anyway 😀
Take care, good luck and have a nice week!
The goals for this week were:
Snow (Hey Oh) at 150 bpm consistently
[Done] Muted strumming exercise at 190 bpm
[Done] 1234 exercise skipping 2 strings at 130 bpm consistently
Right hand muted string skipping exercise at 100 bpm
[Done] Celtic exercise at 120 bpm
My goals for the next week:
Snow (Hey Oh) at 150 bpm consistently
Muted strumming exercise at 190 bpm consistently
Right hand muted string skipping exercise at 100 bpm
Celtic exercise at 120 bpm consistently
Learn The Last of the American Girls by Green Day solo by ear
Well, this week my practice wasn’t very regular again, but I’ve spent some time at pretty much everything I needed to.
It seems that I’ve hit some kind of plateau speed wise, and just can’t surpass it. I’m not depressed or demotivated, more like annoyed. Will try to practice more and more regular and see what happens. Still have some kind of spark inside that keeps me motivated on this behalf.
I’m not gonna write everything about every exercise today, there are a lot of them. All of the information is in the video with time codes for convenience as always.
The goals for this week were:
[Done] Clean up The Kids Aren’t Alright solo at 200 bpm
Learn the next part of Crowd Chant
Muted strumming exercise at 190 bpm
[Done] 1234 exercise skipping 1 string at 150 bpm consistently
1234 exercise skipping 2 strings at 130 bpm consistently
16th notes string skipping exercise at 100 bpm
Celtic tune at 120 bpm
My goals for the next week:
Snow (Hey Oh) at 150 bpm consistently
Muted strumming exercise at 190 bpm
1234 exercise skipping 2 strings at 130 bpm consistently
Right hand muted string skipping exercise at 100 bpm
There are holidays now in Russia, so a few days were spent with the family, hence the lack of exercise. But anyway I got something to share.
Mostly I focused on Module 29 routines which are on string skipping. 1234 exercises were a challenge mostly for the left hand, especially the one with skipping 2 strings at once. The right hand is not that big issue since I kinda feel what and where I need to play with a pick when I’m pressing something with my left hand. So I managed to play the exercise with skipping 1 string at 150 bpm almost right away. The one with skipping 2 strings is at 120 bpm for now though.
The next one (The Right Hand Muted Exercise) which I called just “String skipping exercise” in the video looks so simple yet I had to decrease the speed a few times in order to play it semi-consistently for some time.
I really liked Celtic Exercise cause it’s really simple yet sounds pretty cool. Again, not much time was spent practicing it, but the clip I recorded is pretty okay.
Also I continued increasing speed of muted strumming for The Kids Aren’t Alright. Not very happy about the progress but still I have one so it’ll do. I increased the speed to 180 bpm, but my right hand still stutters every now and then.
The same thing goes with the solo. It’s really much easier to play now, so the original speed of 200 bpm was not very hard to reach. But I really need some speed increase in the double stop strumming part in order to play it right.
Also, I kinda want to record something for my YouTube channel and start doing it on a regular basis. This thought appears in my head sometimes, but such a thing would take some time and planning in order to be able to do it. Just sharing my thoughts… Hopefully, this will turn into something solid in a few days or weeks.
Take care! See you next week 😉
The goals for this week were:
[Done] The Kids Aren’t Alright solo at 200 bpm
Learn the next part of Crowd Chant
Muted strumming exercise at 185 bpm
[Done] Implement Module 29 routines
My goals for the next week:
Clean up The Kids Aren’t Alright solo at 200 bpm
Learn the next part of Crowd Chant
Muted strumming exercise at 190 bpm
1234 exercise skipping 1 string at 150 bpm consistently
1234 exercise skipping 2 strings at 130 bpm consistently
Hello there! Another week has passed. I finally finished Module 19 routines, which is great, and watched Modules 20-21. Whew, there’ll be a lot of scales next week 😂
Anyway, briefly on all the goals for this week:
CAGED system shapes are MUCH more comfortable to play now, I’m switching all of them without any struggle. The only one that is not doing well is Gm7 shape as an open chord. But as I understood there’s nothing in the world that would force anyone to play this voicing instead of barre shape on the 3rd fret. So I’m not worried about it.
All of Me and Autumn Leaves were fun to play in the different keys. This time I’ve been playing them on the acoustic to add some challenge. And yep, these chords are quite easy for me to play now.
Kids solo was at the same time pretty decent and not great this week. At the very first day of the week I managed to play it not at 175 bpm but at 180 bpm as well pretty clean. But then I just couldn’t repeat that even once. So I decided to finally drop it and come up with something else instead. In the video there is a solo which I composed over the original chord progression. I’m note sure if all the notes are correct, but I think there are no dissonant ones. Correct me if I’m wrong 😊
I’m excited to start practicing something new. These scales in 3rds or in 4 note pattern look pretty tricky to play, and I’m really looking forward to try playing them.
See you next week, guitar chefs!
The goals for this week were:
[Done] CAGED shapes at 60 bpm with clean sound
[Done] All of Me in D at 120 bpm
[Done] Autumn Leaves in Gm at 70 bpm
[Done] Kids by MGMT solo at 175 bpm consistently
My goals for the next week:
Mixolydian scales as 8th notes at 150 bpm
Major scales with root on the A string as 8th notes at 150 bpm
Major pentatonic scales as 8th notes at 150 bpm
Minor pentatonic scales as 8th notes at 150 bpm
Major scales with root on the E string in 3rds as 8th notes at 70 bpm
Major pentatonic scales with root on the E string in 3rds as 8th notes at 70 bpm
Minor pentatonic scales with root on the E string in 3rds as 8th notes at 70 bpm
Major scales with root on the E string in 4 note pattern as 8th notes at 70 bpm
Major pentatonic scales with root on the E string in 4 note pattern as 8th notes at 70 bpm
Minor pentatonic scales with root on the E string in 4 note pattern as 8th notes at 70 bpm
Practice time
Day 113 – 120 min Day 114 – 80 min Day 115 – 20 min Day 116 – 52 min Day 117 – 56 min Day 118 – 59 min Day 119 – 63 min Total – 7 h 30 min
1234 exercise
1234 on the 1-12 frets – 16th notes @ 90 bpm
Scales
Major scales – 1-12 frets – EADG strings – 16th notes @ 90 bpm Minor scales – 1-12 frets – EA strings – 16th notes @ 90 bpm
CAGED system
CAGED – Major chords– 60 bpm CAGED – Minor chords – 60 bpm CAGED – Major 7th chords – 60 bpm CAGED – 7th chords – 60 bpm CAGED – Minor 7th chords – 60 bpm
Strumming
All of Me in D – 120 bpm Autumn Leaves in Gm – 70 bpm
Ear training
Intervals – 3-10 intervals – 272 of 300 – 90.67% Minor 2nd, Major 2nd, Minor 3rd, Major 3rd, Perfect 4th, Tritone, Perfect 5th, Minor 6th, Major 6th, Octave
Today I repeated every routine from the previous day and have been working on the consistency of my Kids solo version in order to get closer to the recording day.
1234 exercise
1234 on the 1-12 frets
16th notes @ 90 bpm
Scales
Major scales
16th notes @ 90 bpm
Minor scales
16th notes @ 90 bpm
CAGED system
Major chords
60 bpm
Minor chords
60 bpm
Major 7th chords
60 bpm
7th chords
60 bpm
Minor 7th chords
60 bpm
Strumming
Module 19 pattern
All of Me in D
120 bpm
Autumn Leaves in Gm
70 bpm
Ear training
Intervals
9 intervals
Songs
MGMT – Kids [Solo] – My version
118 bpm
Routines
1234 – 1-12 frets – 90 bpm – 16th notes – 4 min
Major scales – 1-12 frets – EADG strings – 90 bpm – 16th notes – 8 min Minor scales – 1-12 frets – EA strings – 90 bpm – 16th notes – 3 min
CAGED – Major chords– 60 bpm – 3 min CAGED – Minor chords – 60 bpm – 4 min CAGED – Major 7th chords – 60 bpm – 4 min CAGED – 7th chords – 60 bpm – 4 min CAGED – Minor 7th chords – 60 bpm – 6 min
Ear training – Intervals – 9 intervals – 10 min
MGMT – Kids [Solo] – My version – 118 bpm – 11 min
Strumming – All of Me in D – 120 bpm – 2 min Strumming – Autumn Leaves in Gm – 70 bpm – 4 min
Today I practiced everything I’ve been playing before, trying to improve the speed or consistency. Also I added All of Me and Autumn Leaves in different keys. So the routines list is really HUGE.
1234 exercise
1234 on the 1-12 frets
16th notes @ 90 bpm
Scales
Major scales
E string
16th notes @ 90 bpm
A string
16th notes @ 90 bpm
D string
16th notes @ 90 bpm
G string
16th notes @ 90 bpm
Minor scales
E string
16th notes @ 90 bpm
A string
16th notes @ 90 bpm
CAGED system
Major chords
60 bpm
Minor chords
60 bpm
Major 7th chords
60 bpm
7th chords
60 bpm
Minor 7th chords
60 bpm
Strumming
Module 19 pattern
All of Me in D
Figuring out the chords
120 bpm
Autumn Leaves in Gm
Figuring out the chords
70 bpm
Ear training
Intervals
9 intervals
Perfect pitch
3 notes
Songs
MGMT – Kids [Solo]
8th notes @ 170 bpm
8th notes @ 175 bpm
8th notes @ 180 bpm
Routines
1234 – 1-12 frets – 90 bpm – 16th notes – 4 min
Major scales – 1-12 frets – E string – 90 bpm – 16th notes – 4 min Major scales – 1-12 frets – A string – 90 bpm – 16th notes – 2 min Major scales – 1-12 frets – D string – 90 bpm – 16th notes – 2 min Major scales – 1-12 frets – G string – 90 bpm – 16th notes – 2 min Minor scales – 1-12 frets – E string – 90 bpm – 16th notes – 2 min Minor scales – 1-12 frets – A string – 90 bpm – 16th notes – 2 min
CAGED – Major chords– 60 bpm – 8 min CAGED – Minor chords – 60 bpm – 6 min CAGED – Major 7th chords – 60 bpm – 10 min CAGED – 7th chords – 60 bpm – 8 min CAGED – Minor 7th chords – 60 bpm – 15 min
Ear training – Intervals – 9 intervals – 13 min Ear training – Perfect pitch – 3 notes – 7 min
Strumming – All of Me in D – 4 min Strumming – All of Me in D – 120 bpm – 4 min Strumming – Autumn Leaves in Gm – 8 min Strumming – Autumn Leaves in Gm – 70 bpm – 5 min
