Day 125. Ear struggling

Today I’ve just repeated everything from yesterday.

Scales

A mixolydian

16th notes @ 80 bpm

D major (A string)

16th notes @ 80 bpm

A major in 3rds

8th notes @ 80 bpm

A major in 4 note pattern

8th notes @ 80 bpm

A major pentatonic

16th notes @ 80 bpm

A major pentatonic in 3rds

8th notes @ 80 bpm

A major pentatonic in 4 note pattern

8th notes @ 80 bpm

A minor pentatonic

16th notes @ 80 bpm

A minor pentatonic in 3rds

8th notes @ 80 bpm

A minor pentatonic in 4 note pattern

8th notes @ 80 bpm

Ear training

7-12 intervals. I need to come up with examples for 6th and 7th in order to make some decent progress.

Routines

Scales – A mixolydian – 80 bpm – 16th notes – 3 min
Scales – D major (A string) – 80 bpm – 16th notes – 3 min

Scales – A major in 3rds – 80 bpm – 8th notes – 3 min
Scales – A major in 4 note pattern – 80 bpm – 8th notes – 3 min

Scales – A major pentatonic – 80 bpm – 16th notes – 3 min
Scales – A major pentatonic in 3rds – 80 bpm – 8th notes – 3 min
Scales – A major pentatonic in 4 note pattern – 80 bpm – 8th notes – 3 min

Scales – A minor pentatonic – 80 bpm – 16th notes – 3 min
Scales – A minor pentatonic in 3rds – 80 bpm – 8th notes – 3 min
Scales – A minor pentatonic in 4 note pattern – 80 bpm – 8th notes – 3 min

Ear training – Intervals – 7-12 intervals – 15 min

Total – 45 min

Day 124. Slightly faster

Today I’ve increased the speed of every scale practice routine and also started practicing ear training from seven intervals instead of three.

Scales

A mixolydian

16th notes @ 80 bpm

D major (A string)

16th notes @ 80 bpm

A major in 3rds

8th notes @ 80 bpm

A major in 4 note pattern

8th notes @ 80 bpm

A major pentatonic

16th notes @ 80 bpm

A major pentatonic in 3rds

8th notes @ 80 bpm

A major pentatonic in 4 note pattern

8th notes @ 80 bpm

A minor pentatonic

16th notes @ 80 bpm

A minor pentatonic in 3rds

8th notes @ 80 bpm

A minor pentatonic in 4 note pattern

8th notes @ 80 bpm

Ear training

7-11 intervals. The result is not that impressive, but I started from 7 intervals, so it was much harder to guess them right from the very beginning.

Routines

Scales – A mixolydian – 80 bpm – 16th notes – 3 min
Scales – D major (A string) – 80 bpm – 16th notes – 3 min

Scales – A major in 3rds – 80 bpm – 8th notes – 3 min
Scales – A major in 4 note pattern – 80 bpm – 8th notes – 3 min

Scales – A major pentatonic – 80 bpm – 16th notes – 3 min
Scales – A major pentatonic in 3rds – 80 bpm – 8th notes – 3 min
Scales – A major pentatonic in 4 note pattern – 80 bpm – 8th notes – 3 min

Scales – A minor pentatonic – 80 bpm – 16th notes – 3 min
Scales – A minor pentatonic in 3rds – 80 bpm – 8th notes – 3 min
Scales – A minor pentatonic in 4 note pattern – 80 bpm – 8th notes – 3 min

Ear training – Intervals – 7-11 intervals – 15 min

Total – 45 min

Day 123. Better and better

My ear is much better now. Tomorrow I’ll start to begin from more intervals. Other stuff is getting better as well. Tomorrow I’ll definitely increase the speed of practice in 3rds and in 4 note pattern.

Scales

A mixolydian

8th notes @ 150 bpm

D major (A string)

8th notes @ 150 bpm

A major in 3rds

8th notes @ 70 bpm

A major in 4 note pattern

8th notes @ 70 bpm

A major pentatonic

8th notes @ 150 bpm

A major pentatonic in 3rds

8th notes @ 70 bpm

A major pentatonic in 4 note pattern

8th notes @ 70 bpm

A minor pentatonic

8th notes @ 150 bpm

A minor pentatonic in 3rds

8th notes @ 70 bpm

A minor pentatonic in 4 note pattern

8th notes @ 70 bpm

Ear training

3-12 intervals

Routines

Scales – A mixolydian – 150 bpm – 8th notes – 3 min
Scales – D major (A string) – 150 bpm – 8th notes – 3 min

Scales – A major in 3rds – 70 bpm – 8th notes – 3 min
Scales – A major in 4 note pattern – 70 bpm – 8th notes – 3 min

Scales – A major pentatonic – 150 bpm – 8th notes – 3 min
Scales – A major pentatonic in 3rds – 70 bpm – 8th notes – 3 min
Scales – A major pentatonic in 4 note pattern – 70 bpm – 8th notes – 3 min

Scales – A minor pentatonic – 150 bpm – 8th notes – 3 min
Scales – A minor pentatonic in 3rds – 70 bpm – 8th notes – 3 min
Scales – A minor pentatonic in 4 note pattern – 70 bpm – 8th notes – 3 min

Ear training – Intervals – 3-12 intervals – 15 min

Total – 45 min

Day 122. Getting used to the shapes

These scales shapes and patterns are getting more comfortable to play. I think I’m gonna increase the speed in the next few days.

Scales

A mixolydian

8th notes @ 150 bpm

D major (A string)

8th notes @ 150 bpm

A major in 3rds

8th notes @ 70 bpm

A major in 4 note pattern

8th notes @ 70 bpm

A major pentatonic

8th notes @ 150 bpm

A major pentatonic in 3rds

8th notes @ 70 bpm

A major pentatonic in 4 note pattern

8th notes @ 70 bpm

A minor pentatonic

8th notes @ 150 bpm

A minor pentatonic in 3rds

8th notes @ 70 bpm

A minor pentatonic in 4 note pattern

8th notes @ 70 bpm

Ear training

3-12 intervals

Routines

Scales – A mixolydian – 150 bpm – 8th notes – 3 min
Scales – D major (A string) – 150 bpm – 8th notes – 3 min

Scales – A major in 3rds – 70 bpm – 8th notes – 3 min
Scales – A major in 4 note pattern – 70 bpm – 8th notes – 3 min

Scales – A major pentatonic – 150 bpm – 8th notes – 3 min
Scales – A major pentatonic in 3rds – 70 bpm – 8th notes – 3 min
Scales – A major pentatonic in 4 note pattern – 70 bpm – 8th notes – 3 min

Scales – A minor pentatonic – 150 bpm – 8th notes – 3 min
Scales – A minor pentatonic in 3rds – 70 bpm – 8th notes – 3 min
Scales – A minor pentatonic in 4 note pattern – 70 bpm – 8th notes – 3 min

Ear training – Intervals – 3-12 intervals – 15 min

Total – 45 min

Day 121. Scales, scales, scales

Just have been practicing all the new way of playing scales.

Scales

A mixolydian

8th notes @ 150 bpm

D major (A string)

8th notes @ 150 bpm

A major in 3rds

8th notes @ 70 bpm

A major in 4 note pattern

8th notes @ 70 bpm

A major pentatonic

8th notes @ 150 bpm

A major pentatonic in 3rds

8th notes @ 70 bpm

A major pentatonic in 4 note pattern

8th notes @ 70 bpm

A minor pentatonic

8th notes @ 150 bpm

A minor pentatonic in 3rds

8th notes @ 70 bpm

A minor pentatonic in 4 note pattern

8th notes @ 70 bpm

Ear training

3-13 intervals. Wow! That’s unexpected 😀 Thought 12 intervals would be the final level. I haven’t got a chance to guess the Minor 9th so it’s not in the results, but still wow!

Routines

Scales – A mixolydian – 150 bpm – 8th notes – 4 min
Scales – D major (A string) – 150 bpm – 8th notes – 5 min

Scales – A major in 3rds – 70 bpm – 8th notes – 5 min
Scales – A major in 4 note pattern – 70 bpm – 8th notes – 4 min

Scales – A major pentatonic – 150 bpm – 8th notes – 5 min
Scales – A major pentatonic in 3rds – 70 bpm – 8th notes – 3 min
Scales – A major pentatonic in 4 note pattern – 70 bpm – 8th notes – 4 min

Scales – A minor pentatonic – 150 bpm – 8th notes – 3 min
Scales – A minor pentatonic in 3rds – 70 bpm – 8th notes – 3 min
Scales – A minor pentatonic in 4 note pattern – 70 bpm – 8th notes – 3 min

Ear training – Intervals – 3-13 intervals – 15 min

Total – 54 min

Day 120. New horizons

Today I started practicing all this new scales stuff. Mixolydian shape, scales in 3rds and in 4 note pattern… It was fun and I still have some time to play something less technical ?

Scales

A mixolydian

8th notes @ 150 bpm

D major (A string)

8th notes @ 150 bpm

A major in 3rds

8th notes @ 70 bpm

A major in 4 note pattern

8th notes @ 70 bpm

A major pentatonic

8th notes @ 150 bpm

A major pentatonic in 3rds

8th notes @ 70 bpm

A major pentatonic in 4 note pattern

8th notes @ 70 bpm

A minor pentatonic

8th notes @ 150 bpm

A minor pentatonic in 3rds

8th notes @ 70 bpm

A minor pentatonic in 4 note pattern

8th notes @ 70 bpm

Ear training

3-11 intervals. Finally looked up a Minor 3rd reference and the result is much better now.

Songs

MGMT – Kids [Solo] – My version

118 bpm. I changed two wrong notes and played 4th bar as triplets.

Here’s the video with the sound from Garage Band.

Routines

Scales – A mixolydian – 150 bpm – 8th notes – 3 min
Scales – D major (A string) – 150 bpm – 8th notes – 4 min

Scales – A major in 3rds – 70 bpm – 8th notes – 6 min
Scales – A major in 4 note pattern – 70 bpm – 8th notes – 4 min

Scales – A major pentatonic – 150 bpm – 8th notes – 4 min
Scales – A major pentatonic in 3rds – 70 bpm – 8th notes – 5 min
Scales – A major pentatonic in 4 note pattern – 70 bpm – 8th notes – 5 min

Scales – A minor pentatonic – 150 bpm – 8th notes – 4 min
Scales – A minor pentatonic in 3rds – 70 bpm – 8th notes – 3 min
Scales – A minor pentatonic in 4 note pattern – 70 bpm – 8th notes – 3 min

Ear training – Intervals – 3-11 intervals – 15 min

MGMT – Kids [Solo] – My version – 118 bpm – 5 min

Total – 61 min

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