Week 17. Summary

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

Songs

MGMT – Kids [Solo] – 8th notes @ 170 bpm → 8th notes @ 180 bpm
MGMT – Kids [Solo] – My version – 118 bpm

Day 119. Solo consistency

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

Total – 63 min

Day 118. My solo version

I composed the new version of the Kids solo yesterday and tried to play all parts at once today. Also I repeated everything else.

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

10 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 –7 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 – 3 min
CAGED – 7th chords – 60 bpm – 4 min
CAGED – Minor 7th chords – 60 bpm – 5 min

Ear training – Intervals – 10 intervals – 10 min

MGMT – Kids [Solo] – My version – 118 bpm – 10 min

Strumming – All of Me in D – 120 bpm – 2 min
Strumming – Autumn Leaves in Gm – 70 bpm – 4 min

Total – 59 min

Day 117. Polishing CAGED shapes

My routines remain the same, I just repeated them all again to improve.

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

8 intervals

Songs

MGMT – Kids [Solo]

8th notes @ 180 bpm. Still failing to play it, decided to skip this one today.

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 – 4 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 – 8 intervals – 10 min

MGMT – Kids [Solo] – 8th notes – 180 bpm – 3 min

Strumming – All of Me in D – 120 bpm – 2 min
Strumming – Autumn Leaves in Gm – 70 bpm – 4 min

Total – 56 min

Day 116. Skipping scales

Today my playing of the single notes was not ok. So after trying a bit I decided to almost skip these parts of the routine.

1234 exercise

1234 on the 1-12 frets

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

8 intervals

Songs

MGMT – Kids [Solo]

16th notes @ 90 bpm. I tried to play it but didn’t feel like it so just skipped this one for today.

Routines

1234 – 1-12 frets – 90 bpm – 16th notes – 4 min

CAGED – Major chords  60 bpm – 4 min
CAGED – Minor chords – 60 bpm – 3 min
CAGED – Major 7th chords – 60 bpm – 6 min
CAGED – 7th chords – 60 bpm – 5 min
CAGED – Minor 7th chords – 60 bpm – 9 min

Ear training – Intervals – 8 intervals – 12 min

MGMT – Kids [Solo] – 90 bpm – 16th notes – 2 min

Strumming – All of Me in D – 120 bpm – 3 min
Strumming – Autumn Leaves in Gm – 70 bpm – 4 min

Total – 52 min

Day 114. Combining scales

Today I repeated yesterday’s practice but with combining major and minor scales into the single videos.

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

6 intervals. I had 5 beer so my ear is not in the best condition now.

Perfect pitch

3 notes. After 5 beer still.

Songs

MGMT – Kids [Solo]

8th notes @ 180 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 – 5 min
CAGED – Minor chords – 60 bpm – 5 min
CAGED – Major 7th chords – 60 bpm – 5 min
CAGED – 7th chords – 60 bpm – 5 min
CAGED – Minor 7th chords – 60 bpm – 11 min

Ear training – Intervals – 9 intervals – 13 min
Ear training – Perfect pitch – 3 notes – 7 min

MGMT – Kids [Solo] – 8th notes – 180 bpm – 7 min

Strumming – All of Me in D – 120 bpm – 3 min
Strumming – Autumn Leaves in Gm – 70 bpm – 4 min

Total – 80 min

Day 113. Everything at once

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

MGMT – Kids [Solo] – 8th notes – 170 bpm – 5 min
MGMT – Kids [Solo] – 8th notes – 175 bpm – 5 min
MGMT – Kids [Solo] – 8th notes – 180 bpm – 4 min

Strumming – All of Me in D4 min
Strumming – All of Me in D – 120 bpm – 4 min
Strumming – Autumn Leaves in Gm8 min
Strumming – Autumn Leaves in Gm – 70 bpm – 5 min

Total – 120 min

Week 16. Summary

So, where should I start… What a crazy week! I decided to count how much time I’ve spent practicing and the result for this week is really mind blowing – 7 h 48 min ?

It’s a great pace and hopefully I’ll be able to maintain this excitement and desire to practice in the future. I’m still not done with the Module 19 routines though, which is even more surprising. Maybe I’m overdoing these exercises, by I want to play everything I need to decent before proceeding further.

Anyway, the scales are not much better, but still better, I think. Almost the whole week I sucked at them at this speed but suddenly today I’ve just felt that it’s the day for some dexterity and managed to record some decent attempts.

The CAGED goal transformed the very first day. I started using the metronome to control how fast can I make chord transitions. I’ve started with major chords at 60 bpm and then been adding other types of chords every day. So the goal became to play all of them for C, A, G, E, D chords at 60 bpm. Unfortunately I got to Minor 7th chords just today so I switched them every other beat instead of every one. But I’ll fix this the next week.

At the beginning of the week I was really upset about my Kids solo progress. I couldn’t beat the 160 bpm wall no matter how hard I tried. So I dropped this routine and told my friend that we’re gonna improvise in this part instead or play something else. But today I felt that I could give it a second chance and managed to play in at 165 bpm quite easily. Then I switched to 170 bpm and there were quite a few successful attempt so I’ll count it as an achieved goal and will continue to increase the speed in the following weeks.

Also I returned to 1234 combination and use it as a warm-up before anything else.

Next week I really want to finish Module 19 routines and finally proceed to the next module. The fun stuff is awaiting me in the following modules so I really want to get there as soon as possible. I really haven’t played almost anything but the routines to prioritize the course, but this module appeared to be quite heavy on exercises ?

The goals for this week were:

  • [Done] Scales as 16th notes at 90 bpm consistently
  • [Done] Kids by MGMT solo at 170 bpm consistently
  • [Done] CAGED shapes for each kind of chords in less than 1:20

My goals for the next week:

  • CAGED shapes at 60 bpm with clean sound
  • All of Me in D at 120 bpm
  • Autumn Leaves in Gm at 70 bpm
  • Kids by MGMT solo at 175 bpm consistently

Practice time

Day 106 – 48 min
Day 107 – 45 min
Day 108 – 10 min
Day 109 – 75 min
Day 110 – 78 min
Day 111 – 80 min
Day 112 – 132 min
Total – 7 h 48 min

1234 exercise

1234 on the 1-12 frets – 16th notes @ 90 bpm

Scales

Major scales – 1-12 frets – E string – 16th notes @ 90 bpm
Major scales – 1-12 frets – A string – 16th notes @ 90 bpm
Major scales – 1-12 frets – D string – 16th notes @ 90 bpm
Major scales – 1-12 frets – G string – 16th notes @ 90 bpm
Minor scales – 1-12 frets – E string – 16th notes @ 90 bpm
Minor scales – 1-12 frets – A string – 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 (half pace)

Ear training

Intervals – 3-11 intervals – 275 of 300 – 91.67%
Minor 2nd, Major 2nd, Minor 3rd, Major 3rd, Perfect 4th, Tritone, Perfect 5th, Minor 6th, Major 6th, Minor 7th, Octave

Perfect pitch – 3-4 notes – 229 of 300 – 76.33%
A, C, D, E

Songs

MGMT – Kids [Solo] – 8th notes @ 160 bpm → 8th notes @ 170 bpm

Day 112. Phenomenal practice

In order to finalize the week I played everything I could that was connected to my goals. The total practice time is crazy today.

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

Added Minor 7th chords today.

Major chords

60 bpm

Minor chords

60 bpm

Major 7th chords

60 bpm

7th chords

60 bpm

Minor 7th chords

60 bpm

Ear training

Intervals

10 intervals

Perfect pitch

3 notes

Songs

MGMT – Kids [Solo]

8th notes @ 160 bpm

8th notes @ 165 bpm

8th notes @ 170 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 – 11 min
CAGED – Minor chords – 60 bpm – 10 min
CAGED – Major 7th chords – 60 bpm – 14 min
CAGED – 7th chords – 60 bpm – 9 min
CAGED – Minor 7th chords – 60 bpm – 17 min

Ear training – Intervals – 9 intervals – 10 min
Ear training – Perfect pitch – 3 notes – 10 min

MGMT – Kids [Solo] – 8th notes – 160 bpm – 8 min
MGMT – Kids [Solo] – 8th notes – 165 bpm – 7 min
MGMT – Kids [Solo] – 8th notes – 170 bpm – 18 min

Total – 132 min

Day 111. Maybe… Perfect pitch?

Today… Well, actually, yesterday I started practicing perfect pitch exercise at tonedear.com. Today I decided to do it daily from now on. We’ll see how it goes. I added 7th chords shapes into CAGED practice and also decided to do a warm-up with 1234s from now on.

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

Added 7th chords today.

Major chords

60 bpm

Minor chords

60 bpm

Major 7th chords

60 bpm

7th chords

60 bpm

Ear training

Intervals

9 intervals

Perfect pitch

3 notes. It’s not that easy… Hopefully this skill will develop after some time put into practice.

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 – 6 min
CAGED – Minor chords – 60 bpm – 10 min
CAGED – Major 7th chords – 60 bpm – 11 min
CAGED – 7th chords – 60 bpm – 15 min

Ear training – Intervals – 9 intervals – 10 min
Ear training – Perfect pitch – 3 notes – 10 min

Total80 min