Birgit, You are off to a great start and will surely make great progress. Keep it up!

2020-09-16 until 2020-09-23

This week I focused on:

Finger training to strengthen my pinky. It works better!

Repetition of Robert’s 12 bar blues (easy) with special focus on the rhythm

Continued to learn the Tenor Madness solo

I saw Robert’s video on „effective practice » and I immediately added some basics to my training :

• I focused on rhythm training to keep in time
• I read the chord charts (Robert’s 12 bar blues in A (easy) and Tenor Madness
• I listened to the backing tracks to learn where the chord changes are

This helped me a lot on my way to understand the basic elements while I’m learning a solo.

I attached my first recording of Tenor Madness. There is still a lot to improve

What I can hear:

I need to

• smoothen the chromatic lines and
• work on triplets (last bar)

09-24-2020 until 10-02-2020

This week I focused on:

Finger training to strenghten my pinky, using my trainings 12 bar shuffle blues in A.

Needs more practice than expected!

But now switching between 110, 120 and 130 bpm. After playing at 130 bpm, playing at 110 bpm feels much more comfortable than before!

Continued to smoothen the chromatic lines of the Tenor Madness solo, focusing on bars 5-6 and 10-11 : hard work for my pinky. Needs a lot of practice

Bar 13 : working on triplets, hard work.

Rhythm training to keep in time together with a backing track and metronome.

I prepared and shared my 2nd recording of Robert’s 12 bar blues in A (easy)

As Chris uses Reaper, I downloaded the DAW for a 60 day trial. I found an excellent introduction on Youtube and I’ll give it now a try. I already tested a few things. Makes a very good impression to me until now.

Practice program for the next week:

Focusing on my recording feedback:

• Holding on to the notes a little bit longer
• Putting Clayton’s humming suggestions into practice

Birgit

You have been busy doing many good things, and making great progress.

I thought this might be helpful to you regarding Reaper.

https://www.reaper.fm/videos.php

Keep up the great work.

@jestme

Chris, thank you for referring to the videos. I only downloaded the manual from the Reaper website, but I didn't see the button "videos" on the right side of the page!

A huge amount of videos and a lot of stuff to work through as a beginner! Great. I let you know how I'm getting along with the program.

Thanks Birgit

10-03-2020  until 10-08-2020

This week I focused on :

Holding on to the notes a little bit longer while I’m playing different blues solos. I realized that improvement does not happen overnight. This will take time: practicing, recording, listening and so on.

Recording is now a very helpful tool for me, clearly indicating where I need to work on:

• Listening to my recordings I noticed that at the beginning I could manage to hold on the notes a little bit longer, but coming to the end I reverted to the old habit. Without recording I wouldn’t have noticed this.

• Playing a 12 bar blues against a backing track and the backing track ends but my guitar solo is still going on: In this case I can take a look at my recorded solo in the DAW and together with a rhythm track I can identify the bar where I made a mistake. Very helpful in case the mistake happens again and again.

I also tried to use Clayton’s suggestions for humming, to play just the first notes of every bar and let the note hang until the next bar. This is really hard work for me because I’m so much in the flow of playing the following notes that I can’t stop and hold on until the next bar. But I don’t give up.

Still practicing the Tenor Madness solo, especially bars 4-5 and 9-11. I still need a lot ! more practice to get the chromatic lines smooth. Hard work to get the stretch with the pinky but a lot of fun!

Nice work, stay on it!

10-08-2020 until 10-14-2020

I focused on my main topic holding the notes a little bit longer.

So firstly I learned the exercise « Em pentatonic 1 phrase 5 boxes ». It’s such a beautiful exercise and I love it to climb the fretboard, where I tried to hold the notes. Still needs more practice.

Secondly I continued working a lot with Robert’s video on the melody and the solo of Tenor Madness. I did a lot of rhythm training and this is my first recording of the melody and the solo together. Hard work! At the end the notes are getting shorter. Still needs more practice too.

There is still a lot to improve on holding the notes a little bit longer but I think it’s a starting point.

I can hear the difference in the notes... you are coming along well. Keep it up!

10-14-2020 until 10-22-2020

Starting to learn E Major Blues Solo (8 bars) and the 2-5-1 Jazz Lick in C (8 bars) from Roberts „2 minute lessons“  still focusing on my main topic to hold the notes a little bit longer. This is hard work for me and not easy to achieve. So this will keep me busy for the next weeks (or months?).

And I have practiced triplets for the first time. There is still a lot to do!!! I couldn't play the last triplet of the E Major Blues Solo. And I have to work on the triplets of the Jazz Lick.

These are my first recordings:

E Major Blues Solo_90 bpm    (Robert plays bpm 85)

 2-5-1 Jazz Lick in C_100 bpm  (Roberts original version: bpm 130)

The lessons are not too long, so it’s easier to practice, but so colourful and sweet. I like them very much!

Based on Roberts and Claytons suggestions, I have now organized my practice tool :

• Humming the melody while listening to Roberts solo/lick again and again
• Tapping the beat with my finger tips and my foot while humming
• Playing the solo with the metronome and humming
• Listening to the backing track with focus on the chord changes and humming
• Playing with the backing track and humming

This helps me a lot to get struture into my practice and to improve my playing.

There is still a lot to do, but I really enjoy learning guitar!

I like your log it's very well detailed and I think it actually keeps you motivated and actually inspires me to keep posting on my log also so thank you.

Birgit!!!

You are growing by leaps and bounds. I can hear it! Holding the notes longer, playing smoother... Nicely done Your hard work is paying off. Keep it up!!!

@hillbilly_joe

Thank you, Joe, you are entirely right when you say, that the practice log keeps my motivation high. I always keep in mind Robert’s comment that it is important to keep a practice log to achieve better results.

I‘m now well advanced in years and I know that I can’t achieve great progress in playing. Only a little bit of progress in the next years here at MGA, and I’m really, really satisfied.

And I’m very happy to hear that I can inspire you to keep your practice log.

The nice thing about MGA is that we can keep inspiring and motivating each other and can ask for feedback from more experienced and really helpful guitar players.

Preserve the joy of playing, Birgit

@jestme

Thank you Chris for your feedback. That helps me a lot! And, as you said before, it may take a while to correct the old habit.

If you notice something I should work on, I’m always open for suggestions.

By the way, what do you really think about my recording in Reaper regarding volume guitar solo/backing track and tone of the guitar solo?  I have no experiences and rely only on my gut instinct, but I love to work with Reaper!

I would really appreciate your personal opinion.

Thanks Birgit