Week 33. Moving On

What’s going on chefs!

This week was kinda demotivating, because I’m not only failed to increase the speed of muted strumming but had to decrease the speed and my performance got much worse. It’s not what one expect from daily consistent practice, so I’ll drop that exercise for time being and maybe return to it later on. The same goes with the right hand muted string skipping exercise.

Other routines were however pretty okay. I improved in celtic exercise and will stop practicing it, Snow sounds and feels much more consistent and The Last of the American Girls solo appeared to be just a bunch of arpeggios and since that I learned it by ear in 5-10 minutes.

So my emotions are kinda mixed right now. I’m not really depressed, but these dexterity stuff needs to go for now. Today I’ll watch Module 30 and start its routines tomorrow.

Have a nice week everyone!

The goals for this week were:

  • Snow (Hey Oh) at 150 bpm consistently
  • Muted strumming exercise at 190 bpm consistently
  • [Done] Right hand muted string skipping exercise at 100 bpm
  • [Done] Celtic exercise at 120 bpm consistently
  • [Done] Learn The Last of the American Girls by Green Day solo by ear

My goals for the next week:

  • Snow (Hey Oh) with different fingering at 120 bpm
  • The Last of the American Girls by Green Day solo at 122 bpm playing arpeggios the right way
  • Implement Module 30 routines

Week 32. Lots Of Muted Strumming

Hey guitar chefs!

This week I mostly focused on muted strumming, since I was told that only applying much time to its practice I would be able to improve. Other exercises were kinda sent to the background for the time being.

Despite this I only increased the speed by 5 bpm – to 185 bpm, and there is still inconsistency in my playing. Next week I’ll try to really tremendously increase the time I spend on this exercise. Will be strumming for like several sessions 10 minutes each daily or something like this. We’ll se how it goes.

Surprisingly I still managed to record almost every other thing I set as a goal this week: 1234 with strings skipping, right hand muted string skipping exercise, celtic exercise, Snow by RHCP riff… They’re not very good but if the performance was awful I wouldn’t add them to the video anyway 😀

Take care, good luck and have a nice week!

The goals for this week were:

  • Snow (Hey Oh) at 150 bpm consistently
  • [Done] Muted strumming exercise at 190 bpm
  • [Done] 1234 exercise skipping 2 strings at 130 bpm consistently
  • Right hand muted string skipping exercise at 100 bpm
  • [Done] Celtic exercise at 120 bpm

My goals for the next week:

  • Snow (Hey Oh) at 150 bpm consistently
  • Muted strumming exercise at 190 bpm consistently
  • Right hand muted string skipping exercise at 100 bpm
  • Celtic exercise at 120 bpm consistently
  • Learn The Last of the American Girls by Green Day solo by ear

Week 24. Summary

This week I’ve been mostly working on the Pinch Harmonic Solo, trying to start playing it consistently and adding palm muting in order to get the sound similar to the original. It doesn’t really work, but I’ve managed to record an attempt which is pretty okay. It’s been three weeks now, so I’ll drop this solo as it is in order to start Module 27.

The other stuff was easier, so I’ve been practicing Chords Using Thumb and Santa Monica Intro as well. They sounded decent the last time, so now they are okay as well.

Next week – Bending solo. I listened to it and it’s really cool. Can’t wait to learn it!

I beat my record of interval ear training. Now it’s 138 of 140 correct guesses. Soooooo close to 100%… 🙂

Yeah, also my friend and I finally released the cover for Kids by MGMT. So if anyone haven’t seen it, you may do it here: https://vskolos.ru/covers/mgmt-kids-guitar-cover-with-seva/

The goals for this week were:

  • [Done] Clean up Pinch Harmonic Solo
  • [Done] Clean up Chords Using Thumb
  • [Done] Clean up Santa Monica Intro

My goals for the next week:

  • Bending Solo with the metronome

Practice time

Day 162 â€“ 15 min
Day 163 â€“ 15 min
Day 164 â€“ 107 min
Day 165 â€“ 25 min
Day 166 â€“ 35 min
Day 167 â€“ 39 min
Day 168 â€“ 55 min
Total â€“ 4 h 51 min

Solo

Module 26 â€“ Pinch Harmonic Solo – 120 bpm

Strumming

Module 26 â€“ Chords Using Thumb – 130 bpm

Songs

Module 26 â€“ Santa Monica Intro – 70 bpm

Ear training

Intervals – 14 intervals â€“ 138 of 140 – 98.57%

Day 168. Unsuccessful solo attempts

Today I failed to get a single perfect take of pinch harmonic solo in order to finalize the week. So I’ll drop it for now and maybe return to it later.

Practice time â€“ 55 min

Solo

Module 26 – Pinch Harmonic Solo

120 bpm

Strumming

Module 26 – Chords Using Thumb

130 bpm

Songs

Santa Monica Intro

70 bpm

Ear training

14 intervals

Day 167. Adding palm muting

Today I tried adding some palm muting into the solo. It went quite well but needs some practice. Hopefully, tomorrow I’ll manage to make some decent attempts to finalize the week.

Also I beat my ear training record. Now it’s 138 of 140 intervals guessed right.

Practice time – 39 min

Solo

Module 26 – Pinch Harmonic Solo

120 bpm

Strumming

Module 26 – Chords Using Thumb

130 bpm

Songs

Santa Monica Intro

70 bpm

Ear training

14 intervals

Day 166. Trying out new tones

Today my friend and I finally released our MGMT – Kids cover. Also, I continued practicing Module 26 routines trying some different tones.

Practice time – 35 min

Solo

Module 26 – Pinch Harmonic Solo

120 bpm

Strumming

Module 26 – Chords Using Thumb

130 bpm

Songs

Santa Monica Intro

70 bpm

Ear training

14 intervals

Day 164. It’s getting easier

I really feel how pinch harmonics are becoming more natural for me to play. Hopefully by the end of the week I’ll be able to play the solo more consistently than ever.

Also I finalized my part of the cover me and my friend have been working on for a few months now. It will be released soon.

Practice time – 107 min

Solo

Module 26 – Pinch Harmonic Solo

120 bpm

Strumming

Module 26 – Chords Using Thumb

130 bpm

Songs

Santa Monica Intro

70 bpm

Ear training

14 intervals

Week 23. Summary

Well, that week had a lot of holidays and family stuff in it 🙂 So, unfortunately, I only had time to practice 4 of 7 days. Other 3 times I did only ear training. But anyway, let’s summarize what I’ve managed to do.

Still struggling with pinch harmonics. In order to get two takes which are in the video I had to record myself for 40 minutes straight. And these two attempts are not even perfect – just close to being perfect. So I’ll continue practicing this solo next week.

Playing that chord progression with the thumb was fun and almost not hard at all. Fun stuff, I’ll be playing it a few more days just ’cause it sounds pretty cool.

Fun fact – I haven’t heard the original Santa Monica Intro, just repeated what Brandon was playing in the video. So if it’s incorrect, my hands are clear 😀

The goals for this week were:

  • Clean Pinch Harmonic Solo at 120 bpm
  • [Done] Chords using thumb
  • [Done] Santa Monica Intro at the original speed

My goals for the next week:

  • Clean up Pinch Harmonic Solo
  • Clean up Chords Using Thumb
  • Clean up Santa Monica Intro

Practice time

Day 155 â€“ 15 min
Day 156 â€“ 15 min
Day 157 â€“ 15 min
Day 158 â€“ 60 min
Day 159 â€“ 93 min
Day 160 â€“ 46 min
Day 161 â€“ 49 min
Total â€“ 4 h 53 min

Solo

Module 26 â€“ Pinch Harmonic Solo – 120 bpm

Strumming

Module 26 – Chords Using Thumb – 130 bpm

Songs

Module 26 – Santa Monica Intro – 70 bpm

Ear training

Intervals – 14 intervals â€“ 136 of 140 – 97.14%

Day 161. Long solo practice

Today I’ve been playing and recording the solo for 40 minutes in order to get 1-2 semi-decent attempts. Not the best stuff, but still I think it sounds better.

Practice time – 49 min

Solo

Module 26 – Pinch Harmonic Solo

120 bpm

Strumming

Module 26 – Chords Using Thumb

130 bpm

Songs

Santa Monica Intro

70 bpm

Day 160. Almost perfect intervals

Today I practiced everything again and got almost perfect attempt of ear interval training. I’m so close to it at this point 🙂

Practice time â€“ 46 min

Solo

Module 26 – Pinch Harmonic Solo

120 bpm

Strumming

Module 26 – Chords Using Thumb

130 bpm

Songs

Santa Monica Intro

70 bpm

Ear training

14 intervals