October 31 Practice

I am officially starting my 365 Guitar Project tomorrow, but I practiced today and wanted to jot some quick notes.  As I mentioned in my first post, I rarely "practice" anymore.  Not that I don't need it - because I do - I suck as a guitar player - but because it is more fun to just strum along to the songs I know.

However, this year I want to improve my skills and say "farewell to mediocrity" just like Jon Bon Jovi in Lost Highway!

I've decided to go back over the Justin Guitar Beginner course to make sure I have the foundation in place before I progress.  Hence, the basis for today's practice session.

Today's Practice

Tuning

My guitar has a tuner so it is super easy to keep it sounding like it should.  However, I really struggle with identifying notes as higher or lower in tone than another.  I decided to try tuning via the 5th fret method and then check it on the tuner.  I was close.  Three for three counts, right?

1 Minute Chord Changes

This is a practice Justin recommends.  I started with chords in Stage 1 and then in Stage 2.  In my mind I had already mastered these chords, but in quickly changing from one to another I noticed some "issues." 

I've also decided I strongly dislike the A chord.  I don't like fingering it either 1,2,3 or 2,1,3.  For some reason my fingers seem fat and clumsy and just don't like to fit in the frets all nice as they should.  And my fingers are not fat, so I don't know what the deal is.  I prefer to play the A cord with 2,3,4 or the little barre A, but that doesn't give you the anchor finger to move faster to D or E.  Sigh. 

• D-A = 68 changes per minute
• D-E = 72
• A-E = 54
• Am-Em =96 (woo hoo!)  Gotta love Em!
• Am-Dm = 44
• Em-Dm = 41

Need to Work On:

• Thumb behind the neck.  I always have my thumb over the top.  I know it's wrong but I can't get the dang thumb to stay where it's supposed to.  Need to break this bad habit.
• Dm.  It took me forever to work on this chord.  And as is plain from my numbers above, I'm slower than others.  I still place the 3rd finger down first and then kind of kick 1 and 2 into position.  It's weird.  I also have issues with my fingers stretching properly.  Actually they don't.  I've gotten better at spreading them apart, but I still don't have "guitar hands."
• A.  Dang it.  In a perfect world I'd like to play it 2-1-3 so I guess I need to practice it that way.