ear training

Day 59. The Phantom of the Opera

Today I continued working on 1234s and scales and in the end kinda went over the top with picking up the whole melody and chords for The Phantom of the Opera.

1234 exercise

It’s funny how one day you have an issue and then the next day it’s gone but you’re struggling with something you’ve never noticed and had problems with before. Some combinations were harder on the way up the neck but now they are much easier on the way down some how and the other way around.

2341 on the 1-12 frets

8th notes @ 150 bpm

2413 on the 1-12 frets

8th notes @ 150 bpm

2431 on the 1-12 frets

8th notes @ 150 bpm

12, 13, 14, 23, 24, 34 on the 1-12 frets

8th notes @ 150 bpm

Scales

Major scales

8th notes @ 150 bpm. Muscle memory slowly but surely appears, which I’m happy about. Still struggling with D and G strings though.

Pronouncing notes [Fretboard knowledge]. During the exercise I used to though of the A string as if it was E string. So I messed up a few scales and had to start them over again. Hence it took far too long.

Minor scales

8th notes @ 150 bpm. The shape is really easy, but I need to work on the tension, especially in my pinky.

Pronouncing notes [Fretboard knowledge]. Surprisingly I managed to finish in less time that before although there was some mistakes as well.

The progress is quite unnoticeable but it is presented 🙂

Songs

I ran out of ideas for guitar riffs, so some new ones are really necessary to implement in this section. Will chose some soon.

Green Day – When I Come Around
Green Day – Welcome to Paradise
Green Day – Boulevard of Broken Dreams
Green Day – Brain Stew
The White Stripes – Seven Nation Army
Би-2 – Феллини
Deep Purple – Smoke on the Water

The Phantom Of the Opera

It all started when I accidentally played something remotely similar to the melody of this song.

Firstly, I picked up this part, then got interested in the song’s key and chords and noticed that playing the same melody in the shape of the scale is much easier. So I re-figured it out again on the other part of the neck.

This process repeated for a few times. Finally I got some chords and progressions between the verses. It was fun but took me literally hours. Anyway, here is the result.

Today I really wanted to make something like a cover of this song, but now I’m not that sure. Anyway, figuring out a song completely by ear and understanding how to play it more comfortable for myself was really great. Need to do it more.

Summary

The Phantom of the Opera part was a complete surprise and I liked it so much. But the new camera angle is not that good. I like the previous one better. Tomorrow I’ll experiment with the lighting and camera positioning and much likely sit down again.

Routines

2341 – 1-12 frets – 150 bpm – 8th notes – 3 min
2413 – 1-12 frets – 150 bpm – 8th notes – 3 min
2431 – 1-12 frets – 150 bpm – 8th notes – 3 min
12, 13, 14, 23, 24, 34 – 1-12 frets – 150 bpm – 8th notes – 6 min

Major scales – 1-12 frets – EADG strings – 150 bpm – 8th notes
Major scales – 1-12 frets – A string – Pronouncing notes – 6:48
Minor scales – 1-12 frets – EA strings – 150 bpm – 8th notes
Minor scales – 1-12 frets – A string – Pronouncing notes – 5:50

Day 58. Random riffs

Today I ordered a tripod for the phone, changed the lighting a bit and practiced the same routines as yesterday. Also I continued my new idea of playing some random riffs that were in my mind right then.

1234 exercise

2341 on the 1-12 frets

8th notes @ 150 bpm

2413 on the 1-12 frets

8th notes @ 150 bpm

2431 on the 1-12 frets

8th notes @ 150 bpm

12, 13, 14, 23, 24, 34 on the 1-12 frets

8th notes @ 150 bpm

Scales

Major scales

8th notes @ 150 bpm

I was rudely interrupted in the middle of the exercise, so here is another attempt.

Pronouncing notes [Fretboard knowledge]

Minor scales

8th notes @ 150 bpm

Pronouncing notes [Fretboard knowledge]

Ear training

I felt like I was failing more than yesterday but the results are getting better. Unfortunately, this process is not as fast as I want.

Songs

I really like this new tradition of mine 🙂

Marilyn Manson – Sweet Dreams
Black Sabbath – Paranoid
Blur – Song 2
Green Day – Holiday
Green Day – Good Riddance (Time of Your Life) [Intro]
Billie Eilish – bellyache
Ozzy Osbourne – Crazy Train [Intro]
Three Days Grace – The Good Life [Intro]
Green Day – Troublemaker
Green Day – American Idiot

Summary

I’m so into my random riffs idea 😀 It’s fun. My only concern is that I won’t be able to learn something new as fast and these videos will have many songs in common. But maybe it’s not that bad at all and we’ll see about that.

Routines

Major scales – 1-12 frets – EADG strings – 150 bpm – 8th notes
Major scales – 1-12 frets – A string – Pronouncing notes – 6:31
Minor scales – 1-12 frets – EA strings – 150 bpm – 8th notes
Minor scales – 1-12 frets – A string – Pronouncing notes – 5:58

Day 57. New lighting and idea

Today I started practicing 1234s on the whole fretboard and tried to increase my playing scales skill. The second part didn’t work out…

1234 exercise

It was a rough start but considering it’s the first attempt I did pretty well.

2341 on the 1-12 frets

8th notes @ 150 bpm

2413 on the 1-12 frets

8th notes @ 150 bpm

2431 on the 1-12 frets

8th notes @ 150 bpm

12, 13, 14, 23, 24, 34 on the 1-12 frets

8th notes @ 150 bpm

Scales

I don’t know what’s up with me and scales but I just constantly keep messing them up. Maybe I should decrease the speed a bit or practice on a single fret instead of the whole fretboard at once.

Major scales

8th notes @ 150 bpm

Pronouncing notes [Fretboard knowledge]

Minor scales

8th notes @ 150 bpm

Pronouncing notes [Fretboard knowledge]

Ear training

Gradually increasing my ears skills. The process takes much more time than I hoped it would take. There were a few moments when I though I could get to the next level but every time I failed just by the end of the progress bar when I needed 2-3 more correct answers to proceed. I’ll try practicing every day before I go to sleep in order to reach my goal this week.

Songs

I decided to start a tradition of playing random riffs that I know and want to play right now. It’s just for fun and in order not to get bored of other routines. I was so excited about the new light that I came up with that idea just to record something using it 😀

Nirvana – Smells Like Teen Spirit [Intro]
Король и Шут – Лесник [Intro]
The Offspring – The Kids Aren’t Alright [Intro]
Green Day – 21 Guns [Solo]
Green Day – 21 Guns [Chorus]
Arctic Monkeys – Do I Wanna Know? [Intro]
The All-American Rejects – Dirty Little Secret [Intro]
Green Day – ¿Viva La Gloria? (Little Girl) [Solo]
Green Day – Boulevard of Broken Dreams [Solo]

Summary

The first half of the day was not that productive, but the thing with the new lamps got myself a second breath so I became very enthusiastic about recording something else. Need to maintain this kind of mood to proceed further easier and with more fun!

Routines

Major scales – 1-12 frets – EADG strings – 150 bpm – 8th notes
Major scales – 1-12 frets – A string – Pronouncing notes – 7:42
Minor scales – 1-12 frets – EA strings – 150 bpm – 8th notes
Minor scales – 1-12 frets – A string – Pronouncing notes – 6:54

Week 8. Summary

This week I practiced mostly 1234s and scales. Nothing too special, just was trying to increase the speed and consistency of them. Something went well, something didn’t, but overall I’m gradually improving, which is great.

I kinda stuck with the 1234s. The half of my entire daily routine consists of them. But I can’t just leave them as they are now when there are still some which I haven’t practiced yet 😀 It’s still a long way to go but in 7 weeks I’ll get to the point when I’m satisfied and can play all of them as 8th notes at 150 bpm across the neck consistently-ish. Then finally I’ll let this routine go and use this freed time for something else.

Module 14 gave an idea of circle of fifths but really didn’t tell anything about its application. Hopefully there will be something about this in the future modules but for now I just found one useful way of using it: I noticed that all keys (despite F# and for major scales) with sharps are just notes which open guitar strings in standard tuning have. So I used that knowledge to remember which key has sharps and which has flats for now. In minor scales there are no such simple pattern so I just counted 3 semitones up and referred to the corresponding major scale.

Scales notes pronunciation is an interesting exercise. I underrated myself and set an easy goal for this week, which I managed to achieve on the second or third try. So next week I’ll try some different approaches to improve my fretboard knowledge and scales notes knowledge even more. I’ll be starting at different strings or maybe play each scale on every possible spot of the fretboard. We’ll see.

The goals for this week were:

[Done] 2341, 2413, 2431 as 8th notes at 150 bpm
[Done] 34s without moving my middle finger at least as 8th notes at 100 bpm
[Done] All the scales consistently as 8th notes at 150 bpm across the fretboard
[Done] 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

My goals for the next week:

2134, 2143, 2314, 2341, 2413, 2431 as 8th notes at 150 bpm across the neck
12, 13, 14, 23, 24, 34 as 8th notes at 150 bpm across the neck
Improved consistency of the scales as 8th notes at 150 bpm across the neck
All the scales pronouncing notes in less than 5 min starting on ADG strings
Get to the level with 7 intervals on ear training at tonedear.com

As always, here’s the video.

1234 exercise

2341 on the 5th fret – 8th notes @ 110 bpm → 8th notes @ 150 bpm
2413 on the 5th fret – 8th notes @ 110 bpm → 8th notes @ 150 bpm
2431 on the 5th fret – 8th notes @ 110 bpm → 8th notes @ 150 bpm
34 on the 5th fret – Quarter notes @ 100 bpm → 8th notes @ 100 bpm
12-13-14-23-24-34 on the 5th fret – 8th notes at 130 bpm → 8th notes at 150 bpm

Scales

Major scales – 1-12 frets – EADG strings – 8th notes @ 130 bpm → 8th notes @ 150 bpm
Minor scales – 1-12 frets – EA strings – 8th notes @ 130 bpm → 8th notes @ 150 bpm
Major scales – 1-12 frets – Pronouncing notes – 8:35 → 4:00
Minor scales – 1-12 frets – Pronouncing notes – 9:27 → 4:41

Ear training

Intervals – 314 of 400 – 78.50%
Minor 2nd – 61 of 67 – 91.04%
Major 2nd – 36 of 58 – 62.07%
Minor 3rd – 27 of 50 – 54%
Major 3rd – 41 of 73 – 56.16%
Perfect 5th – 73 of 76 – 96.05%
Octave – 76 of 76 – 100%

Day 56. Repetition for the conclusion

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.

Routines

2341 – 5th fret – 150 bpm – 8th notes – 3 min
2413 – 5th fret – 150 bpm – 8th notes – 3 min
2431 – 5th fret – 150 bpm – 8th notes – 3 min
34 – 5th fret – 100 bpm – 8th notes – 2 min
12-13-14-23-24-34 – 5th fret – 150 bpm – 8th notes – 3 min

Major scales – 1-12 frets – EADG strings – 150 bpm – 8th notes
Major scales – 1-12 frets – Pronouncing notes – 4:00
Minor scales – 1-12 frets – EA strings – 150 bpm – 8th notes
Minor scales – 1-12 frets – Pronouncing notes – 4:41

Day 55. Too relaxed for practicing

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.

Routines

Major scales – 1-12 frets – EADG strings – 150 bpm – 8th notes
Major scales – 1-12 frets – Pronouncing notes – 4:37
Minor scales – 1-12 frets – EA strings – 150 bpm – 8th notes
Minor scales – 1-12 frets – Pronouncing notes – 5:12

Day 53. The circle of fifths?

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.

Routines

2341 – 5th fret – 140 bpm – 8th notes – 3 min
2413 – 5th fret – 140 bpm – 8th notes – 3 min
2431 – 5th fret – 140 bpm – 8th notes – 3 min
34 – 5th fret – 90 bpm – 8th notes – 3 min
12-13-14-23-24-34 – 5th fret – 140 bpm – 8th notes – 3 min

Major scales – 1-12 frets – EADG strings – 150 bpm – 8th notes
Major scales – 1-12 frets – Pronouncing notes – 6:07
Minor scales – 1-12 frets – EA strings – 150 bpm – 8th notes
Minor scales – 1-12 frets – Pronouncing notes – 6:23

The Offspring – The Kids Aren’t Alright
The All-American Rejects – Dirty Little Secret

Day 52. Scales almost there

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…

Summary

Need to choose a song for the cover!

Day 50. Keeping myself busy

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 🙂

2341 on the 5th fret

8th notes @ 110 bpm.

2413 on the 5th fret

8th notes @ 110 bpm.

2431 on the 5th fret

8th notes @ 110 bpm.

34 on the 5th fret

Quarter notes @ 110 bpm.

12-13-14-23-24-34 on the 5th fret

8th notes @ 130 bpm.

Scales

Major scales

8th notes @ 130 bpm.

Pronouncing notes [Fretboard knowledge].

Minor scales

8th notes @ 130 bpm.

Pronouncing notes [Fretboard knowledge].

Ear training

Summary

Week 7. Summary

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]