Guitar Practice Week Six

We're already up to week six.  That 's almost a month and a half.  I didn't have a lesson last week due to surprise Amanda Palmer concert, which I might try to review at some point this week, and this week I had to cancel for Gordon Webster and Rosh Hashana.  Gordon's probably worth it.

So where am I at today, a month and a half into my guitar adventure?  I've got all the natural open major chords down and most of the natural open minor chords.  I'm pretty darn close to getting barre chords down, and I understand their theory.  I've begun my first forays into power chords and single note lines, and those are coming along.  I'm fairly confident with the major scale, though I will continue to work and work and work at it.

More importantly, my ear training is drastically improving.  I'm beginning to reliably hear major seconds and thirds, perfect fourths and fifths, and octaves quite reliably - at least going up.  Going down, I've only gotten major thirds down so far.  The secret: hearing songs that start on that interval in my head.

• Major Second - Do Ray Me, this one is easy.
• Major Third - When the Saints
• Perfect Fourth - Here Comes the Bride, Chariots of Fire
• Perfect Fifth - So Far Away
• Octave - Somewhere Over the Rainbow
• Descending Major Third - If I Were a Bell

Now I just need to add songs to my head for other intervals.  I'm also becoming better at distinguishing between major and minor third, but I still tend to make mistakes with either very high or very low root notes.  I'm going to keep practicing.

I've decided that ear training is the single most important thing I could be working on, so my progress there is really heartening.  I might become a real musician yet.

Side note: I've been pretty much exclusively using my electric guitar at this point.  It looks and feels so much better than the old Epiphone.

Weekend Practice Wrap Up

So Saturday ... I played for six hours.  That's right, six.  The results were palpable.  You could literally palp them.

"Where is My Mind" is like almost working.  The lead part and chord parts are 95% there individually, and I'm about 80% there to stringing them all together.  Since this is by far the most difficult material I've tackled, I think that's pretty good.

This means that my barre chords are coming along.  The F Major shape is no longer a challenge.  Like at all.  And I can hold it much better than before.  I now have the strength to do two or three choruses of "Creep" before having to quit, instead of just one.

Finger exercises are coming together.  By focusing on relaxing, I was able to blast through the first couple finger exercises Tony had given me.  And I've almost aced the G Major scale already, thanks to LOTS of practice.  My technique: learn it one note at a time.  Keeping it simple and mastering the first three notes, then the first four, then the first five, etc., made learning it cleanly far more manageable.

I've almost got the problem chords in "Autumn Leaves" working.  I'll be able to play the chords all the way through at tempo in a week or two if this keeps up. 

I need to watch out for repeated use injuries.  My wrist was fairly sore by the end of the marathon session.  That shouldn't be happening and is not a good thing.  Also, my fingertips were WAY too sore to even touch the guitar on Sunday, though I tried anyway.

I'm excited.  I think I'm on my way to becoming an actual guitarist.

Unfortunately, I need to cancel my lesson on Tuesday due to surprise Amanda Palmer tickets.  I'm okay with this.

Effectivizing Guitar Practice

That's probably not a word.  I don't care.

The Dilemma:

As you may have noticed from my previous blog entry, the list of shit to practice is ever growing.  However, as I return to dancing a bit, my time is becoming more scarce, so I'm going to need to manage my practice time significantly better than I have been. 

My practice in the last week was unfocused and meandering, often involving switching between random things whenever I hit a wall.  It's probably not a coincidence that this week's lesson was the first time I felt like I was under-prepared.  And now that the material I need to practice is growing every week, I can't afford this sort of lackadaisical practice.

It's Time to Get Organized.

This is obvious.  I've done some reading on building guitar practice schedules, and I think I've figured out my methodology for building one.  The keys are to focus on what needs work for extended periods, but not so long that you get frustrated, vary your focuses within a session, and vary your focuses between sessions.  And most importantly, practice at least a little bit every day.  This last bit will be difficult with dance, but I think it's doable.

My Solution: Modular Practice Schedules.

I'm going to build a bunch of blocks that I can string together.  I will figure out what blocks I'm working on before my practice session begins.  I will then practice them for five or ten minutes, before moving on to something else.  I will log my practice times somewhere.  Maybe I'll finally get to use Evernote.  I knew there was a reason I downloaded that.

Modules Ahoy!

• Scale work.  For now this is only the G Major Scale, and thus will probably not extend over five minutes.  Metronome required.
• Finger exercises.  Moving up and down the neck.  Metronome required.  Could be done whilst watching tv or doing other things, but focus on accuracy is encouraged.
• Barre Chord to Barre Chord switching.  Use song "Creep."  Metronome required.  Probably five minutes max now, because this is going to be hard on my fingers.  Use "One Minute Changes" method to work on speed.  I might explain this in a later post, where I talk about how this experiment is going.
• Open Chord to Barre Chord switching.  Use "Where is My Mind" and, later, "Should I Stay or Should I Go Now."  Use "One Minute Changes" method to work on speed.
• Power Chord Practice.  Use "Where is My Mind" for this.  Not much here to work on, shouldn't be longer than five minutes.
• Open Chord Practice.  "Autumn Leaves" changes.  Again use "One Minute Changes" method. 
• Teacher Assigned Lead Guitar Work.  "Where is my Mind is the focus here, obviously.  Metronome required.
• My Lick of the Week / Month / Whatever.  "Surfing U.S.A." for now.
• Aural Training / Transcription.  Five minute blocks initially, using justinguitar.com till I'm able to actually do this to real music.  
• Singing and playing.  Do this only with songs that I have down, like "Closing Time."  This is a good break exercise, and should only be five minutes for now.
• Song of my choosing.  Should only be done when I have longer blocks and have already accomplished at least five or six of the above.  This could involve learning the song or putting everything together.
• Theory Exercises.  The focus here is on figuring out theory things on my own.  This includes moving scales around, moving chord shapes around, and naming notes on the neck.

The key here is to use timed five minute blocks on each of these, with a max of two in a row.  Even if working on the same song, like "Where is my Mind," I can break it down into parts so everything is practiced with hyper focus.  This will allow me to put it all together far faster than my hodgepodge approach. 

I will make a note of which modules I've been working on, to ensure nothing is overly neglected.

Let's give this a shot!