Day 3 - Should I Record Myself? Please NO!

Almost as painful as my recent strumming is the idea that popped in my head.  I suppose I should record myself playing so I can compare what I sound like now with the way I will make my guitar sing in approximately 362 days.  Yeah right.

I've only recorded myself twice, and certainly have never shown anyone or published it on youtube. 

 

What can I learn from videotaping myself?

• check out technique (one of the videos I took showed my hand strumming and I now see the awkward way I used to hold the pick - like a pen.  The other video only shows my face.  That was intelligent.)
• check out how I sound (I need to find out the dates of my videos but one sounds decent - keeping in mind "decent" for me means that I strummed the chords correctly and accurately.  I can do a little bit of finger picking - which I quite enjoy - but only know a few riffs.  I don't do any lead guitar type of stuff.  Rhythm guitar all the way for me.)
• Justin from justinguitar.com says it's good to do!  And his opinion means a lot, ha ha.

Here is Justin's Quick Tip about recording yourself:

Back to Practice

Mostly Strumming Practice

Since it is Sunday, I was able to practice twice, for about an hour and a half total.  Still focusing mainly on strumming.  OMG.  I did search for a YouTube video to help me because it still feels amazingly awkward with my new pick hold.  I found a good tip from Jeni Trani at Mahalo.  She said to imagine flicking water from your hand/wrist.  Interestingly, she uses a lot more wrist action than others I've seen for really fast strumming.  I've seen other "experts" advise to use more of your arm, rather than wrist.

 

Which is it??  Aaahhh!

Soooo, I practiced a bunch of song but focused mainly on the strumming, not so much the chords.  I feel like a total beginner again.  Dang it.

Once I have the strumming mastered - please God let that be SOON - then I need to pull out the old metronome.  I always want to go FAST. 

My Favorite Chord of the Day

E7.  I was playing Alone by Heart and I just love the way E7 sounds.  I don't know why.  Many of the 7th chords I don't care for at all, like A7 and D7.  But E7 is cool -- today.

Riffs

I worked on Bring on the Heartache again.  I really like that song.  Interestingly, although Bon Jovi is my favorite band, Bringing on the Heartache is the song I enjoy playing most of all.  I usually just play the chords, but I'm learning the riff that sort of runs through all the song.

At the end of my evening session I decided to do the intro to Wanted Dead or Alive which I can play to speed finger picking, but I totally kept missing strings picking it with my "new technique."  So I got pissed and quit.  And that's cool because I met my goal today of playing my guitar every single day.  Bye!