Got an hour in each of the last two nights. Pretty solid overall, but not great. I don’t know if I had off nights or if I work better when I get an hour warm-up with technical exercises before doing other things. Nonetheless, it felt as though I took a step back. On the other hand, past experience tells me that these bad practices usually mean a gain is soon to come. Gonna look for this to be my reality over the next day or two.
Didn’t get to play today. Well, I got a little bit in before I headed off to school. Noodled around with some finger style blues I’ve been learning. Also worked on creating some melodic runs in the progressions of these finger style blues jams. I love trying to figure out how to make a chord progression more melodic. I often neglect this because I don’t feel I’m very good at it. I should, however, dedicate more time to it so I get better at it. What’s more, the more I play around with it the more I realize I really can do it.
Anyway…had conferences until late this evening so I didn’t get a chance for any prolonged practice tonight. I do, however, have four straight days, starting Saturday, that I should be able to get 2+ hours per day (I’m aiming for 3 – 4 hours each day).
This post is my catharsis for the evening. With that, here’s a run-down of the past couple days.
Agenda for 11/6 and 11/7
- Warm-ups/Technique
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- 1234, 4321
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- 8th notes (60, 80, 90, 100, 120 bpm) alternate picking up neck
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- 1234, 2341, 3412, 4123
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- 8th notes (60, 80, 90, 100, 120 bpm) alternate picking up neck
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- 8th notes (60, 80, 90, 100, 120 bpm) alternate picking up each string starting at high-E
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- 134, 341, 431
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- 8th notes (60, 80, 90, 100, 120 bpm) alternate picking up neck
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- Finger Stretches
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- 12, 13, 14
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- 8th notes (60, 80, 90, 100, 120 bpm) alternate picking up neck
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- 8th notes (60, 80, 90, 100, 120 bpm) legato up neck
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- Theory
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- Pentatonic Scales
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- Position 1 all twelve roots
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- 8th notes (60, 80, 90, 100, 120 bpm) alternate picking up neck
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- Position 1 – 3 with legato and slides
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- 8th notes (60, 80, 90, 100, 120 bpm) alternate picking up neck
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- Positions 1, 5, 4 (down neck) with legato and slides
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- 8th notes (60, 80, 90, 100, 120 bpm) alternate picking up neck
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- Various blues, rock, and jazz licks derived from pentatonic scales
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- Various scale positions up and down neck
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- 50%, 60%, 75%, 100%
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- practiced until perfected, then 10x each
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- 12-bar blues progressions in keys of A, E, B, D, G
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- Varying strumming patterns
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- 4/4 time at different 80 – 140 bpm
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- Repertoire
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- 12-bar Blues Fingerpicking – Keys of A, E, G
11/6 and 11/7 Time: 2 hours
Total Time: 24 hours
Time Remaining: 9,976 hours