scales

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.

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 51. 1234s and scales

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.

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

Day 49. Not much to say

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.

Day 48. Practicing scales

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.

Day 47. Scales, baby!

Finally I got to some theory. I watched through Module 14 and started practicing some scales. Also I got 2134, 2143, 2314 combinations to the point where I played them as 8th notes at 150 bpm, so basically reached one of my goals for this week.

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.

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

8th notes @ 150 bpm.

34 on the 5th fret

Quarter notes @ 80 bpm. Finally got to practice this combination separately. Thought it would be harder than it appeared to be. Will increase the speed and implement this muscle memory into 12-13-14-23-24-34 exercise.

Scales

I decided to practice scales in two ways:

Dexterity and consistency – playing them a lot with the metronome, increasing the speed every day.
Fretboard knowledge – playing them pronouncing all the notes out loud to remember all of them.

Major scales

Starting on the E string. 8th notes @ 100 bpm.

Starting on the A string. 8th notes @ 100 bpm.

Starting on the D string. 8th notes @ 100 bpm.

Starting on the G string. 8th notes @ 100 bpm.

Starting on the E string. Pronouncing notes [Fretboard knowledge].

Minor scales

Starting on the E string. 8th notes @ 100 bpm.

Starting on the A string. 8th notes @ 100 bpm.

Starting on the E string. Pronouncing notes [Fretboard knowledge].

Summary

Module 14 was quite heavy on theory. I didn’t implement all the routines and haven’t understood and remembered everything. I need to have a closer look on the circle of 5ths in order to have a better understanding which scales have which notes. Today I just figured them all out through brute force while playing.