Week 41. Chords Galore

Well, that was a week and a half! 143 chord voicings for C Ionian and D Dorian related chords have been diagramed, sorted and saved on my computer.

At first I wanted to learn all the shapes by heart but on the 3rd day realized that it’s pretty much impossible, so I decided to create my own chord library instead.

Next week – Phrygian and Lydian modes. I’ll definitely have some work to do. See you then!

The goals for this week were:

  • [Done] Repeat C Ionian Chords
  • [Done] Learn D Dorian Chords

My goals for the next week:

  • Figure out E Phrygian Chords
  • Figure out F Lydian Chords

The chords I’ve figured out:

Week 40. C Ionian Chords

Well, that week was a breakthrough. I finally started to understand how chords work and why that chords belongs to that key. Mind blown!

As always, I wanted to go through Module 35 as thoroughly as I can. So instead of learning 1-2 voicings of each chord I decided to learn pretty much all of them. Well, at first I thought I’d learned all of them ?

The first approach I took was to find a website with as many chord variations as possible and learn all of them in the way I’ve learnt all the shapes of the CAGED system. And it really helped, now I know a lot of them.

But… Yesterday it downed on me! There is a way to figure out more voicings. So for the last two days I’ve been figuring out the shapes based on the C major chord shapes of the CAGED system. And since I’m not sure about all of them, I recorded the whole process. Hence the video length. Sorry about that.

That process has really made me excited and interested in finally learning the notes of the chords. And the process of figuring out the shapes appeared to be a refreshing experience.

So I’m looking forward to start practicing Dorian mode tomorrow.

P.S. I had no time to improve my improvisation, so there’s none of it in the video. I need to learn some licks in order to get more interesting sound, because I really started to repeat myself too often. So I guess I’ll return to it after the chords module.

The goals for this week were:

  • [Done] Implement Module 35 routines
  • [Done] Improvise daily

My goals for the next week:

  • Repeat C Ionian Chords
  • Learn D Dorian Chords

Week 38. Through The Snares

Hey guitar chefs!

The main focus of this week was implementing thumb snares into playing. At first that was tricky but then I kinda got the idea and it started feeling more natural. I’m not saying I’ve perfected them, but I managed to play them pretty consistently.

On the improvisation front there’s an issue – my knowledge faded away as soon as I added the second chord so I kinda need to process all my improv ideas over again in order to wrap my head around this new configuration of backing track ?

Fun stuff… Anyway, all routines are in the video.

The goals for this week were:

  • [Done] Practice Module 31 routines
  • [Done] Implement Module 33 routines
  • [Done] Improvise daily

My goals for the next week:

  • Practice Travis picking patterns
  • Improvise daily

Week 37. Hallelujah And Stuff

Hey guitar chefs!

This week I’ve been practicing the exercises from Module 31, have learned Hallelujah and Wake Me Up When September Ends and tried to improve in improvisation.

Not much to say, everything is in the video ๐Ÿ™‚

The goals for this week were:

  • [Done] Practice Module 31 routines
  • [Done] Implement Module 32 routines
  • [Done] Improvise daily

My goals for the next week:

  • Practice Module 31 routines
  • Implement Module 33 routines
  • Improvise daily

Week 36. Fingerpicking

Hey guitar chefs!

This week I started fingerpicking practice. My right hand fingers weren’t ready for that and calluses appeared on them. I got used to the calluses on the left hand fingers, but on the right one… That was really unexpected!

After going through all the exercises I remembered the song from The Last of Us Part II. It’s the cover of Take On Me by a-ha and it’s for fingerpicking. So I’ve been practicing it as well.

On the improvisation front I had three insights on some areas of this routine, changed the backing track and have been improvising on a single string each day. Had a lot of fun but need to figure out some new ways of doing it not to repeat myself too much.

Have a nice one!

The goals for this week were:

  • [Done] Implement Module 31 routines
  • [Done] Improvise daily

My goals for the next week:

  • Practice Module 31 routines
  • Implement Module 32 routines
  • Improvise daily

Week 34. Improv Is Fun

Guitar chefs, what a week it was! I discovered the world of improvisation and it’s SO MUCH FUN ๐Ÿ˜€

But let’s start from the beginning. I’ve been practicing modes this week. The idea was to remember the shapes and order of them and learn to play these shapes at decent speed. So by the end of the week I got from 1/4 notes @ 120 bpm to 1/8 notes @ 150 bpm, which is cool. The routine with the random scale machine was in my daily practice as well.

Next week I want and need to focus more on the notes than the shapes. So I will be memorizing the Circle of Fifths better and playing all the scales and modes pronouncing the notes out loud.

Improvisation is now my favorite thing to do ๐Ÿ˜€ As soon as I’ve kinda got the idea and started messing around with different shapes, rhythms and melodies, it became less frustrating and more inspiring. It’s quite interesting that I tend to hold to a particular rhythm the whole session but each day it’s the different one. I suppose it represents my current mood or something like that. Very interesting!

Snow and The Last of the American Girls were not the priority at all this week. As soon as I started the modes and improv I’ve completely forgotten about them, and kinda want to spend more time on the modes next week as well. So these two are abandoned for some time.

My daily practice works. It’s not always easy to keep up but I kinda forced myself to make it a habit and it’s not that annoying already. I upload to the fresh Instagram account daily in order to be accountable for that process: https://www.instagram.com/vsevolod.kolos/

See you next week. Take care!

The goals for this week were:

  • 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
  • [Done] Implement Module 30 routines

My goals for the next week:

  • Memorize the Circle of Fifths
  • Play the modes pronouncing the notes out loud
  • Practice modes with the Random Scale Machine
  • Improvise daily

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 ๐Ÿ˜€

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 31. Dexterity Plateau

Well, this week my practice wasn’t very regular again, but I’ve spent some time at pretty much everything I needed to.

It seems that I’ve hit some kind of plateau speed wise, and just can’t surpass it. I’m not depressed or demotivated, more like annoyed. Will try to practice more and more regular and see what happens. Still have some kind of spark inside that keeps me motivated on this behalf.

I’m not gonna write everything about every exercise today, there are a lot of them. All of the information is in the video with time codes for convenience as always.

The goals for this week were:

  • [Done] Clean up The Kids Arenโ€™t Alright solo at 200 bpm
  • Learn the next part of Crowd Chant
  • Muted strumming exercise at 190 bpm
  • [Done] 1234 exercise skipping 1 string at 150 bpm consistently
  • 1234 exercise skipping 2 strings at 130 bpm consistently
  • 16th notes string skipping exercise at 100 bpm
  • Celtic tune at 120 bpm

My goals for the next week:

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

Week 30. Mostly String Skipping

Hey everyone!

There are holidays now in Russia, so a few days were spent with the family, hence the lack of exercise. But anyway I got something to share.

Mostly I focused on Module 29 routines which are on string skipping. 1234 exercises were a challenge mostly for the left hand, especially the one with skipping 2 strings at once. The right hand is not that big issue since I kinda feel what and where I need to play with a pick when I’m pressing something with my left hand. So I managed to play the exercise with skipping 1 string at 150 bpm almost right away. The one with skipping 2 strings is at 120 bpm for now though.

The next one (The Right Hand Muted Exercise) which I called just “String skipping exercise” in the video looks so simple yet I had to decrease the speed a few times in order to play it semi-consistently for some time.

I really liked Celtic Exercise cause it’s really simple yet sounds pretty cool. Again, not much time was spent practicing it, but the clip I recorded is pretty okay.

Also I continued increasing speed of muted strumming for The Kids Aren’t Alright. Not very happy about the progress but still I have one so it’ll do. I increased the speed to 180 bpm, but my right hand still stutters every now and then.

The same thing goes with the solo. It’s really much easier to play now, so the original speed of 200 bpm was not very hard to reach. But I really need some speed increase in the double stop strumming part in order to play it right.

Also, I kinda want to record something for my YouTube channel and start doing it on a regular basis. This thought appears in my head sometimes, but such a thing would take some time and planning in order to be able to do it. Just sharing my thoughts… Hopefully, this will turn into something solid in a few days or weeks.

Take care! See you next week ๐Ÿ˜‰

The goals for this week were:

  • [Done] The Kids Arenโ€™t Alright solo at 200 bpm
  • Learn the next part of Crowd Chant
  • Muted strumming exercise at 185 bpm
  • [Done] Implement Module 29 routines

My goals for the next week:

  • Clean up The Kids Arenโ€™t Alright solo at 200 bpm
  • Learn the next part of Crowd Chant
  • Muted strumming exercise at 190 bpm
  • 1234 exercise skipping 1 string at 150 bpm consistently
  • 1234 exercise skipping 2 strings at 130 bpm consistently
  • 16th notes string skipping exercise at 100 bpm
  • Celtic tune at 120 bpm