Today I practiced everything again to record my results and messed around with some songs playing random riffs from them one after another.
1234 exercise
Unfortunately, today’s 1234s were not my best performance.
2341 on the 5th fret
8th notes @ 150 bpm
2413 on the 5th fret
8th notes @ 150 bpm
2431 on the 5th fret
8th notes @ 150 bpm
34 on the 5th fret
8th notes @ 100 bpm. Still no effect on my issue. Will try something else next week.
12-13-14-23-24-34 on the 5th fret
8th notes @ 150 bpm
Scales
Major scales
8th notes @ 150 bpm
Pronouncing notes [Fretboard knowledge]
Minor scales
8th notes @ 150 bpm
Pronouncing notes [Fretboard knowledge]
Ear training
Still trying to improve but unsuccessfully. For now I’m stuck at this level. But I think that I have a better understanding of differences between the intervals now.
Summary
Today the goal was to do my best at each exercise I practiced this week. Not everything went as good as it could go but in comparison with the beginning of the week it’s definitely a progress.
Today I spend half a day in a bathhouse so after that I was too relaxed for nailing dexterity exercises so completely ruined them all. But the note pronunciation routine went really great and I’m happy about the results.
So there is gonna be no comments on the exercises at all today, because I did a lot of mistakes and all of them kinda pissed me off a bit.
1234 exercise
2341 on the 5th fret
8th notes @ 150 bpm.
2413 on the 5th fret
8th notes @ 150 bpm.
2431 on the 5th fret
8th notes @ 150 bpm.
34 on the 5th fret
8th notes @ 100 bpm.
12-13-14-23-24-34 on the 5th fret
8th notes @ 150 bpm.
Scales
Major scales
8th notes @ 150 bpm.
Pronouncing notes [Fretboard knowledge].
Minor scales
8th notes @ 150 bpm.
Pronouncing notes [Fretboard knowledge].
Ear training
Still have some problems with Minor 2nd, Major 2nd and Minor 3rd differentiation…
Summary
I said everything in the beginning. Very glad that I visited the bathhouse today. If it would happed tomorrow I’ll have completely failed the final day of the week which is not great.
Today I achieved the speed I was going towards to (8th notes at 150 bpm) for both all 1234 combinations and scales. And there is another major difference: I decided to practice while sitting down, which led to some inconvenience as I got used to play everything standing up.
1234 exercise
Nothing special here today – I just increased the speed by 10 bpm.
2341 on the 5th fret
8th notes @ 150 bpm.
2413 on the 5th fret
8th notes @ 150 bpm.
2431 on the 5th fret
8th notes @ 150 bpm.
34 on the 5th fret
8th notes @ 100 bpm.
12-13-14-23-24-34 on the 5th fret
8th notes @ 150 bpm.
Scales
Dexterity exercises were as usual. I increased the speed and got to the one I wanted to get to – 150 bpm. There is something more interesting…
Today I figured out some patterns in the circle of fifths which helped me with flats / sharps decision while naming the notes for a specific key. I noticed that E A D G B which are the notes for the open strings in the standard guitar tuning have sharps in their major scales. C has no sharps or flats at all. F#/Gb is a special one with a choice. Other keys are with flats. It appeared to be very useful!
For the minor scales there is no such clean pattern, but I can still count 3 frets up and see whether in the corresponding major scale there are flats or sharps. I’m glad I noticed that. So even without looking at the circle of fifths I learned how to determine these things pretty quickly.
Major scales
8th notes @ 150 bpm.
Pronouncing notes [Fretboard knowledge].
Minor scales
8th notes @ 150 bpm.
Pronouncing notes [Fretboard knowledge].
Summary
Today I listened to over 200 guitar riffs on the YouTube in order to find what I might be wanted to learn. I picked up nearly 10-15 of them which I know but not sure if I really want to learn how to play them.
Today I practiced the same things as yesterday and tried to understand what is the use of the circle of fifths. Also I was searching for a new song worth making cover of.
1234 exercise
Gradually increasing the speed of 1234s.
2341 on the 5th fret
8th notes @ 140 bpm.
2413 on the 5th fret
8th notes @ 140 bpm.
2431 on the 5th fret
8th notes @ 140 bpm.
34 on the 5th fret
8th notes @ 90 bpm. I’m not sure if this is working. I’ll get to my goal speed this week, which is 8th notes at 100 bpm, but then maybe I’ll try something else to fix my issue with 34s.
12-13-14-23-24-34 on the 5th fret
8th notes @ 140 bpm. The precision was better today, tomorrow I’ll try increasing the speed to 150 bpm.
Scales
I don’t understand how to apply the circle of fifths to the note pronunciation exercise. Maybe I’m dumb, but the only application I found for myself is checking how many sharps or flats are in the specific key. Maybe I’ll understand something about it.
Major scales
8th notes @ 150 bpm.
Pronouncing notes [Fretboard knowledge].
Minor scales
8th notes @ 150 bpm.
Pronouncing notes [Fretboard knowledge].
Ear training
Managed to get to the next level today, but my ear refuses to hear the difference between Minor 2nd, Major 2nd and Minor 3rd yet… Hopefully I will train it better soon.
Summary
I started picking up the next song for the cover. The first idea was to play The Kids Aren’t Alright by The Offspring, but the solo is too tricky for my level of playing now, so I’ll get to this song later. The second idea was Dirty Little Secret by The All-American Rejects, and I even picked up the riff from the beginning of the song, but not sure if I’m gonna go with this one. We’ll see.
And yeah – no more paper and photos of sheets with exercise plans. From now on everything will be typed here below the summary.
Today I basically repeated previous routines having increased the speed a bit for all of them, and the scales speed matched my weekly goal. Now it’s only a matter of consistency and precision.
1234 exercise
It’s getting too hard to write something at the same exercises every day. There’s nothing different happening here anymore – just practice in order to maintain both tempo and precision. So in that part there is just numbers.
2341 on the 5th fret
8th notes at 130 bpm.
2413 on the 5th fret
8th notes at 130 bpm.
2431 on the 5th fret
8th notes at 130 bpm.
34 on the 5th fret
8th notes at 80 bpm.
12-13-14-23-24-34 on the 5th fret
8th notes at 140 bpm.
Scales
I had time today to practice notes pronunciation, and noticed that I don’t understand how the circle of fifths was helpful at all. The only thing I used it for was to realize whether I needed to start pronouncing notes with sharps or flats. Remembering the positioning of all the keys and what specific notes are with sharps and flats is overkill and it’s really simpler for me to just use my fretboard knowledge to tell which note is which.
Anyway, I almost got sub 8 minutes which is my goal for this week. Actually I might have beaten that time considering the fact I talked a lot in the middle of the video. Tomorrow I’ll spend more time on this routine and hopefully will beat that time 100%.
Major scales
8th notes at 150 bpm.
Pronouncing notes [Fretboard knowledge].
Minor scales
8th notes at 150 bpm.
Pronouncing notes [Fretboard knowledge].
Ear training
Slightly better than the last time 😀 Still can’t get to the next level…
Today I just continued increasing speed both on 1234s and scales. Unfortunately, there was no time to play scales pronouncing notes. Tomorrow I must have time for it.
1234 exercise
2341 on the 5th fret
8th notes @ 120 bpm.
2413 on the 5th fret
8th notes @ 120 bpm.
2431 on the 5th fret
8th notes @ 120 bpm.
34 on the 5th fret
Quarter notes @ 120 bpm / 8th notes @ 70 bpm.
12-13-14-23-24-34 on the 5th fret
8th notes @ 140 bpm.
Scales
Major scales
8th notes @ 140 bpm.
Minor scales
8th notes @ 140 bpm.
Summary
Just technical stuff today. I want to pick a song and practice it as well in order to not get bored of daily repetition of the same things.
Today I started practicing new combinations of 1234s, increased the speed in of other exercises and finally found the time to practice scales with notes pronunciation.
1234 exercises
Newly added combinations were fun but tricky as well as 2314 was 🙂
Wow, that was a week and a half! I’ve reached all my goals and even more, got through Module 13 and Module 14 and had so much fun finally practicing something music theory related.
I totally agreed with somebody’s comment under my When I Come Around cover – there is no need to look at the left hand all the time, especially while playing something easy and muscle memory related. So this week’s motto was “Don’t look there” and I practiced almost everything looking at the window 🙂 This approach led to some mistakes which were not a thing before, but I think I managed to adapt to it more or less, so I’m happy about that.
The main issue with 1234s this week was 2314 combination. My brain just couldn’t comprehend it after playing 1423 for a couple of weeks before. I tended to switch to the next string after playing 23 part instead of 14 one. But by the end of this week I seem to get rid of this habit. The combination is not perfectly played yet, not at all. But this major issue is gone.
I still struggle with the 34s in 12-13-14-23-24-34 exercise. My middle finger lives his own life and moves around a lot. So I started practicing this combination separately keeping my middle finger on the G string and trying not to let him go away from the strings. I’m getting there at the slower pace, but I need much more practice to achieve the current speed I use for this exercise.
The scales are the fun part for me 🙂 It may sound weird, but I haven’t practiced one before, so it’s really fun. After 1234s it’s something different and finally more music related. So I enjoy playing them and trying to do it consistently. Pronouncing notes while playing scales are really tricky for me. It takes a lot of time, so I only practiced it once this week. And I completely forgot about the circle of fifths, so I had to figure out myself whether this scale is with sharps or flats. It was really long, but it was fun 😀
I also practiced the intervals ear training at tonedear.com, but I only had time to do it once. I started from the easiest level and practiced for about half an hour non-stop. In that time the level increased only twice – Major 2nd and Minor 2nd were added. After that I didn’t succeed in increasing the level more by making mistakes too often to make any progress. But the final result is not bad – 78.27%.
The goals for this week were:
[Done] Play at least three 1234 combinations starting with 2 at 300 bpm
[Done] Increase my ring-pinky endurance and precision in 12-13-14-23-24-34 exercise
[Done] Find notes on all strings in fretboard knowledge exercise in less than 1:30
[Done] Watch through Module 13 again and start the ear training
My goals for the next week:
2341, 2413, 2431 as 8th notes at 150 bpm
34s without moving my middle finger at least as 8th notes at 100 bpm
All the scales consistently as 8th notes at 150 bpm across the fretboard
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
As always, here’s the video.
1234 exercise
2134 on the 5th fret – 8th notes @ 110 bpm → 8th notes @ 150 bpm 2143 on the 5th fret – 8th notes @ 110 bpm → 8th notes @ 150 bpm 2314 on the 5th fret – 8th notes @ 110 bpm → 8th notes @ 150 bpm 34 on the 5th fret – Quarter notes @ 80 bpm → Quarter notes @ 100 bpm 12-13-14-23-24-34 on the 5th fret – 8th notes at 120 bpm → 8th notes at 150 bpm [Then made a step back to 130 bpm]
Fretboard knowledge
All strings at once – 1:35 → 1:30
Ear training
Intervals – 317 of 405 or 78.27%
Songs
Ozzy Osbourne – Crazy Train [Ear training] Cream – Sunshine Of Your Love [Ear training] Europe – The Final Countdown [Ear training] Arctic Monkeys – Do I Wanna Know? [Ear training]
Today I repeated yesterdays practice in order to polish everything for the weekly report.
1234 exercise
2134 on the 5th fret
8th notes @ 150 bpm.
2143 on the 5th fret
8th notes @ 150 bpm.
2314 on the 5th fret
8th notes @ 150 bpm.
34 on the 5th fret
Quarter notes @ 100 bpm.
12-13-14-23-24-34 on the 5th fret
8th notes @ 130 bpm. Definitely need to practice 34s separately more.
Scales
Major scales
8th notes @ 120 bpm.
Minor scales
8th notes @ 120 bpm.
Summary
I’ve spent whole day lifting and moving furniture so I had a bit of practice time only in the late evening. So now I just want to record my weekly report and consider all of it done for today.
Today I continued working on 1234s consistency at the goal speed and practicing the scales.
1234 exercise
Trying to reduce the amount of mistakes I make during exercising with these combinations.
2134 on the 5th fret
8th notes @ 150 bpm.
2143 on the 5th fret
8th notes @ 150 bpm.
2314 on the 5th fret
8th notes @ 150 bpm. Still can’t wrap my head around this one. By brain just refuses to control the fingers the way they should work in order to play everything correctly. Hopefully I’ll be able to record something semi-decent on this routine to finish this week’s goal.
34 on the 5th fret
Quarter notes @ 90 bpm. Struggling, but it’s kinda becoming better. Still can’t play the same way without my middle finger on the string – it starts flying off as soon as I try to release it.
12-13-14-23-24-34 on the 5th fret
8th notes @ 150 bpm. Will reduce the speed tomorrow. Some of the combinations are trickier to play consistently.
Scales
Didn’t have time to practice note pronunciation today as well as my voice is not great today cause I’m kinda sick. Will do it tomorrow. Also I didn’t record a video per string – it’s really not that necessary. Instead I have one for all major scales and one for all minor ones.
Major scales
8th notes @ 110 bpm.
Minor scales
8th notes @ 110 bpm.
Ear training
Also I practiced intervals at tonedear.com. Started from easy level and was identifying them for a few dozens on minutes. These are the results:
Summary
I’m excited about scales. It finally started to feel music theory related, which is why I’m mainly in the course. Still got to get used to the circle of fifths in order to become better and faster in notes naming and remember how many flats or sharps are in a key. Tomorrow is the last day of Week 7. The weekly report should be pretty good. Still need to do something with my running nose though.
