This week I started to learn and apply CAGED system. It’s really cool how many voicings of the same chords exist. I’ve been playing C A G E D chords in every position with every shape and doing it for Major, Minor, Major 7th, 7th, Minor 7th chords. In the PDFs and the lesson itself there were no 7th chords shapes for CAGED system. Is there any reason for that? Anyway I figured them out myself and have been playing them as part of this routine as well.
Above that the common routines continued. 1234s are preserved as always and I’m getting closer to my ultimate goal: next week I’ll play the 4*** combinations as 8th notes at 150 bpm across the fretboard and it will conclude my long journey of playing each of 24 combinations that way. I have some ideas how to improve this exercise even more after that, but I’ll tell about it the next week.
I’ve been practicing scales as well, but I’m not better at playing them at all, so next week I’ll decrease the speed and try to increase it bpm by bpm. This leap of 10 bpm at once (or 5 bpm if we’re talking about 16th notes) seems to be crucial and too hard, so I need a step back. No scales videos in the summary this time 🙂
Merry Christmas everyone and a Happy New Year!
The goals for this week were:
[Done] 4231, 4312, 4321 as 8th notes at 150 bpm on the 5th fret
Practice ear training at tonedear.com daily
Kids by MGMT solo at 170 bpm consistently
[Done] Implement Modules 19-20 routines
My goals for the next week:
4123, 4132, 4213, 4231, 4312, 4321 as 8th notes at 150 bpm across the neck
Practice ear training at tonedear.com daily
Kids by MGMT solo at 160 bpm consistently
CAGED shapes for each kind of chords in less than 1:20
1234 exercise
4231 on the 5th fret – 8th notes @ 120 bpm → 8th notes @ 150 bpm 4312 on the 5th fret – 8th notes @ 120 bpm → 8th notes @ 150 bpm 4321 on the 5th fret – 8th notes @ 120 bpm → 8th notes @ 150 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 – 1:34 CAGED– Minor chords – 1:39 CAGED – Major 7th chords – 2:05 CAGED – 7th chords – 1:41 CAGED – Minor 7th chords – 1:35
Ear training
Intervals – 175 of 200 – 87.50% → 268 of 300 – 89.33% Minor 2nd, Major 2nd, Minor 3rd, Major 3rd, Perfect 4th, Tritone, Perfect 5th, Minor 6th, Octave
Today I’ve started holding my pinky on the guitar body in order to get better in picking. The precision have become better, but the pinky stays in the way from time to time so I need more time to get used to it.
1234 exercise
4231 on the 5th fret
8th notes @ 150 bpm
4312 on the 5th fret
8th notes @ 150 bpm
4321 on the 5th fret
8th notes @ 150 bpm
Scales
Major scales
16th notes @ 90 bpm
Minor scales
16th notes @ 90 bpm
CAGED system
Major chords
Minor chords
Major 7th chords
7th chords
Minor 7th chords
Ear training
Got to the level with 8 intervals again. My consistency is getting better.
Songs
MGMT – Kids [Solo]
8th notes @ 145 bpm. I played it pretty well yesterday but after applying new picking technique with holding my pinky on the guitar body the same things became harder. After several minutes I’ve kind of got used to this but still not completely.
8th notes @ 150 bpm. I decided to increase the speed to diverse the practice, because I got sick of playing the same solo at the same speed for ages.
Today I’ve managed to work on solo more and repeat everything else.
1234 exercise
4231 on the 5th fret
8th notes @ 150 bpm
4312 on the 5th fret
8th notes @ 150 bpm
4321 on the 5th fret
8th notes @ 150 bpm
Scales
Major scales
16th notes @ 90 bpm
Minor scales
16th notes @ 90 bpm
CAGED system
Major chords
Minor chords
Major 7th chords
7th chords
Minor 7th chords
Ear training
It’s the first time ever I’ve got to the level with 9 intervals. My ear is getting better, and that’s a fact. Unfortunately, I failed my weekly goal to practice every day, but the results are getting better and better, which is marvelous. My best result ever!
Songs
MGMT – Kids [Solo]
8th notes @ 140-145 bpm. I’ve decided to work more on consistency so the idea was to play the whole solo again and again at the given speed until it sounds good for a few times in a row. The speed I got to is not that impressive – 145 bpm. But I think that this approach is what will lead me to the finite goal of playing the solo at the original speed.
Summary
I’m not sure what to write here, so this section will be optional since tomorrow.
By the end of the day when I’ve finally got some time to practice I was too sleepy to do it. So in order to record something I decided just to play some 1234s.
Today I’ve repeated the same routines I did yesterday and found out where my issue with the 2nd bar of the solo was originated.
1234 exercise
4231 on the 5th fret
8th notes @ 150 bpm
4312 on the 5th fret
8th notes @ 150 bpm
4321 on the 5th fret
8th notes @ 150 bpm
Scales
Major scales
16th notes @ 90 bpm
Minor scales
16th notes @ 90 bpm
CAGED system
I’m getting better in remembering shapes and switching between them. Not too great though, still need to look up some of them before the recording.
Major chords
Minor chords
Major 7th chords
7th chords
Minor 7th chords
Ear training
I was on an almost perfect streak for the first 100 questions with only 5-6 mistakes. But as soon as Minor 3rd appeared all went south… Also I mixed up some buttons and increased the number of mistakes for Perfect 4th for instance. Need to be more focused to exclude things like this.
Songs
MGMT – Kids [Solo]
Today I made a breakthrough. The hardest bar for me was the second one and I thought that it was because of the bar itself. But it appeared that I just hadn’t used alternate picking for the whole bar and had to pick up or down multiple times in a row, which on the higher speeds is pretty much impossible. So I slowed down once again and trained myself to play everything correctly. This bar appeared quite easy so the progress will definitely follow 🙂
Summary
There was a long practice. Nearly 1.5 hours if I’m correct. And it was really fun. Although the next parts of the solo became worse, I’m still really happy with the 2nd bar. There are no more reasons for me to stop increasing the speed, and I’m looking forward to it.
Today I repeated everything I’ve practiced yesterday and also returned to Kids by MGMT solo practice.
1234 exercise
4231 on the 5th fret
8th notes @ 140 bpm
4312 on the 5th fret
8th notes @ 140 bpm
4321 on the 5th fret
8th notes @ 140 bpm
Scales
Major scales
16th notes @ 90 bpm
Minor scales
16th notes @ 90 bpm
CAGED system
Trying to remember all positions for every chord for now.
Major chords
Minor chords
Major 7th chords
7th chords
Minor 7th chords
Ear training
Got to the level with 7 intervals again!
Songs
MGMT – Kids [Solo]
Was trying to practice every bar separately. It went pretty well, but I didn’t have much time to finish the practice, so the whole thing will be played tomorrow.
Summary
The solo is really tricky. Hopefully with the new approach I’ll be able to play in consistently-ish tomorrow.
Today I practices 1234s and scales as usual but also added one more routine on the CAGED system.
1234 exercise
4231 on the 5th fret
8th notes @ 130 bpm
4312 on the 5th fret
8th notes @ 130 bpm
4321 on the 5th fret
8th notes @ 130 bpm
Scales
Major scales
16th notes @ 90 bpm
Minor scales
16th notes @ 90 bpm
CAGED system
I just started this routine, so the goal was to play all CAGED progressions throughout the neck for all basic chords.
Major chords
Minor chords
Major 7th chords
7th chords
Minor 7th chords
Ear training
It was pretty hard today, but I managed to get to the level with 7 intervals on the 200th attempt. It means that if I was gonna make a mistake, I’d stop the training there. But fortunately here is the full practice with 400 answers.
Summary
Today I finally started something brand new. I didn’t know about CAGED system at all, and it’ll definitely come in handy in understanding of the chords on the fretboard.
This week was kinda relaxed on practice. I mean, I still practiced daily, but All of Me and Autumn Leaves are not that hard and are fun to play. So to spice it up a bit I concentrated mostly on the Kids by MGMT solo.
Originally it’s played as 16th notes at 123 bpm. Last week I just learned the solo and played it as 8th notes at 123 bpm, recording every bar separately 😀 By the end of the week I managed to get to the speed of 8th notes at 160 bpm. It’s not consistent at all – I’ve been recording myself daily for 20-30 minutes and from that footage I only get 2-3 successful attempts. So I’m gonna change the approach and practice each part separately, increasing the speed. Then I’m gonna connect them all. Hopefully, this will help me progress faster.
Anyway, here’s the video. There are no questions this week, and also I tried to organize it differently for it to be shorter 🙂
The goals for this week were:
[Done] 4123, 4132, 4213 as 8th notes at 150 bpm on the 5th fret
[Done] Get to the level with 7 intervals on ear training at tonedear.com 3 times
[Done] All of Me consistently at 150 bpm (both open and barre chords versions)
[Done] Autumn Leaves at 120 bpm
My goals for the next week:
4231, 4312, 4321 as 8th notes at 150 bpm on the 5th fret
Practice ear training at tonedear.com daily
Kids by MGMT solo at 170 bpm consistently
Implement Modules 19-20 routines
1234 exercise
4123 on the 5th fret – 8th notes @ 120 bpm → 8th notes @ 150 bpm 4132 on the 5th fret – 8th notes @ 120 bpm → 8th notes @ 150 bpm 4213 on the 5th fret – 8th notes @ 120 bpm → 8th notes @ 150 bpm
Scales
Major scales – 1-12 frets – EADG strings – 16th notes @ 90 bpm Minor scales – 1-12 frets – EA strings – 16th notes @ 90 bpm
