Today I kinda finished Module 23, because I really know how to play and sing at the same time. Also I’m not a fan of Hey Jude and Beatles at all, so I decided to play a song I know and like better – Superman by Lazlo Bane.
After recording the song I watched through Module 24, so tomorrow I’ll start its routines.
In the ear training I now practice 140 intervals per day in order to get 10 of each. Somehow the distribution is not completely uniform so I got one interval with 9 tries and one with 11.
Also I decided to count practice time not by the video length, because some things like pre-practice remains off-camera and I need to count the time I spend doing it as well.
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
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
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
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
Strumming – All of Me in D – 4 min Strumming – All of Me in D – 120 bpm – 4 min Strumming – Autumn Leaves in Gm – 8 min Strumming – Autumn Leaves in Gm – 70 bpm – 5 min
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