More Practice and More Plans

I have meant to update this blog for days (make that weeks!) but life is busy -- too busy.  Still, I am focused on my original goal:  to play the guitar every single day.  And I have.

Thank goodness I didn't put the stipulation on myself to write every day, because that would have been an epic failure.  I don't like to fail.

I also am competitive.  I have seen some attempts at something similar to my 365 Guitar Project (such as playing guitar every day for a year) and the blog fizzled after three months.  Not me.  I will complete this project and play 365 days.  I just won't write about it :)

As a quick update, I am progressing, although slowly.  My goal was to go through the Justin Guitar beginner course a second time, really focusing on the skills, so I have a good foundation for taking the intermediate course.  Over the holidays I had less time to practice and spent much of my guitar time playing songs I enjoy.  

 

In making goals in other areas of my life I realize I need a bit more structure than just "go through the course again."  So I typed up a chart with all the various lessons, the day I watch the video for the second time, and the day I feel I have mastered the skill.  I have plan to tackle lessons on Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday.  The other days can be a little bit of practice and then just play for fun.

What have I improved on since my last writing?  B7.  I can easily hit it, where before it took a little finagling to get my fingers into position.  In fact all my 7th chords are better.  I'm doing a different fingering for A7 than I did in the past and it flows much more smoothly.

I am still struggling with the damn F barre chord.  I practice it most every day but I cannot, for the life of me, get the B string to ring out.  It is always dead.  That's my big issue.  Well, getting my fingers into position quickly is probably a bigger issue.  So when I play songs I play the mini F.  Talk about frustrating.

And honestly, my strumming still feels "off."  I am now holding the pick correctly, but my upstrums just are not natural.  I have tried changing the position of the pick as it hits glides gently over the strings, and sometimes I think yay! I've got it.  And then the pick shifts in my hand and I feel clumsy once again.  

I just found out that the dad of one of my son's friends teaches guitar.  While I am really resistant to taking lessons (although I'm no t sure why) I may see if I could meet with him on maybe a monthly basis to give me tips and evaluate my progress.  He would be able to give me honest and objective feedback.  As I type this I think why don't I just take lessons?  And here come the excuses:  I don't have time.  I really value and protect my free time.  A lesson would involve a commute.... OMG.  Just typing this out I see how ridiculous that sounds.  Seriously?  I will give real thought to contacting him.  I might get past my playing hurdles a lot faster with a real teacher.

Until next update... 

Image credit:  photogen.com

Happy New Year!!

I thought this was particularly appropriate in view of the New Years holiday!

Daily playing continues. Will post soon about an awesome musician party I was able to attend. Many insights for this newbie guitarist!

New Christmas Guitar Goodies!

Last Christmas Santa brought me a brand new acoustic-electric Takamine, so I guess it's hard to top that gift this year.  I did receive one guitar-related item and that was the Justin Guitar Beginner Songbook.


I have to admit that I don't know many of the songs in the book -- as in I've never heard them before.   For example, these songs:

• Fast Car (Tracy Chapman)
• Fields Of Gold (Sting)
• Vincent (Don McLean)
• Wonderwall (Oasis)

And many others.

So why did I want this songbook?  Because Justin breaks down the songs in an easy-to-understand way and he gives at least one strumming pattern option for each song.  I have to admit I get in a strumming pattern rut and often play the same one over and over.  Having played several songs from the book I've already learned new patterns.  Some aresimple and others a bit more complicated. 

Here's an example of the song breakdown:

This will open me up to a new world of music, and get me out of the rut of playing mostly Bon Jovi songs.  (Not that it's an unpleasant rut for me personally, but possibly for others in my household, lol.)

Here's a video introduction to the songbook.  I think it's great for beginner and intermediate players!






Oh, by the way, the streak of playing daily is still unbroken which I guess is the point of this whole post!

Holidays Hampering My Schedule

What is the expression about the best laid plans?  I had all sorts of lofty goals to follow my guitar practice schedule, but with Christmas coming up in just four days I've made little progress.

However, I have played my guitar every day, and practiced the dreaded F chord most of those days.  I can hit is (slowly) with some accuracy (often the B string is dead), so I am making progress.

I have really nothing further to write other than I am meeting my goal of daily playing.  I'm on vacation for an entire week and hope to get lots of playing in along with decking the halls and all that jazz.

Oh, thinking of Christmas, I got the most AMAZING Christmas gift ever yesterday!  My friend gave me a pack of custom-made guitar picks with a very special picture on it -- the one of me with Jon Bon Jovi when I met him in October.  I'd publish a picture except that would kind of ruin the anonymity thing.  But the picks (and the pic) rocks!!

The Dreaded F Chord





Keeping track of how many days into this project I am is stressing me out so I will hereby discontinue numbering the days. The important thing is that I have not missed a day playing guitar. Some days are practice-oriented, some are fun, and one was "a quick strum so I can say I played."

 

Consistency is key and I'm nailing that so far. 

Today I finally got back to an official practice session, and the lesson of the day was - cue scary music (oh shit that's MY music!) - the dreaded F chord!  I know how to form the full barre chord, but most of the time I can't get the second string to sound and it takes me about 30 minutes to form the damn chord shape. 

I've given passing attempts to learning it, but obviously somewhere along the line I gave up. I play the mini F and can transition to it quickly.  But this time is different. I will master the full barre chord or die trying. 

I hereby bequeath my Jon Bon Jovi jeans with autographs

 on both ass pockets to my sister...

 



One ass pocket of Jon Bon Jovi's jeans...



 

But I digress. Lol. 

 

 

So I shall work on the F chord every day. 

Day 33-35

DECEMBER 4, 2013

Crap - almost missed a day!  It was crazy busy and then I got engrossed in a post for my real blog and suddenly I looked at the clock and saw 11:59pm. Holy shit!  I ran into my music room and swept my fingers over the strings of my Fender while still on the stand. I suppose that rather loosely counts as "playing guitar", no?!

DECEMBER 5, 2013

I'm not sure if my days are numbered correctly anymore, but I haven't missed a day of playing. Yesterday was really a cheat, but I did strum - sort of - and it's the thought that counts. 

Tonight I "practiced" and worked on the 12 bar blues, I Want to Hold Your Hand (which is essentially mastered) and various other stuff. 

I realized that recently I have been focusing on practice and not FUN. In fact, when I decided to play my signature tune - Bringin' on the Heartbreak, I almost forgot how it started. Yikes!  So I must find the balance between practice to improve, as well as fun playing which nurtures my soul. 

Days 30-32

Thank goodness my resolution was only to PLAY guitar daily and not to blog daily!  Now that we are officially in the Christmas season, I suspect I will be checking in only a few times per week.

I have done "official" practice sessions these past few day.  Still working on the 7th chords.  Only B7 and G7 are problematic.  B7 is just a matter of quickly moving my fingers to the proper position and it's coming along well.

G7 is  more of a finger stretching issue.  When I play the chord, my first finger tends not to land squarely on the first fret.  I play it at an angle.  I've already mentioned that I do not have "guitar hands" and, although I've improved in stretchiness over this past year of playing, there are some things that are difficult.  And G7 without a crooked finger is an issue.

It helps to bring the palm of my hand up closer to the neck of the guitar. Since this is my year to correct bad habits, I am trying to play this one slower to make sure my first finger is as close to perfect as possible.  After practicing it a bit it hurts my hand!  Lol.

Otherwise, all is well.  I think I'll move on from Stage 5 in the next day or two.  One thing I will do, that I did not do the first time through the Justin Guitar course, is revisit the blues from time to time.  This way I will improve in skill even if bluesy songs aren't what I prefer to play for "fun."




photo credit: boston_camera via photopin cc