29.Nov 2017

A day in my rehearsal basement. Heavy metal-sounds and awful shouting from left an behind in the evening hours. So what. I should start earlier in the afternoon. 

• 2 h 5o min total
• 20 min warmup
• 30 min chords/chord progressions 7er, 9er
• 20 min scales aeolian/dorian combined with pentationic patterns
• 1h min developing my one-man-band repertoire, a combination of trained songs out of Blues You Can Use with 3 x runthroughs of improvisation (using "anytune pro", my most helpful app). Trying to hit the character of the diction of the song. Not that successful. Got to do more intense analysis what it is about in the orginal theme. (marked red for reminder)
• 40 min just fun, enjoying my variton-free Lucille (the difference is overwhelming, now she sound clear and powerful, the sound out of damp socks is gone)

Tasks for tomorrow

• Take one of the Blues-You-Can-Use songs and work on it concentrated.
• Start Robert T-Bone-Walker "scuffle". Keep in mind to record what I'm doing. Upload?
• Keep monitored wether this kind of log is helpful

30. Nov 2017

• Total time about 3 h
• 15 min warmup
• 45 minutes 7er/9er chords voicings along the fretboard
• 20 min minor scales
• 1 h 45 MGA T-Bone Scuffle watching and practicing the rythm section

The G13 / C9/D9 change 7. and 8 fret: My fingers don't want what I want. Has to be trained.

The muted "reduced" chords on G on the third fret run quite easily. Interesting, nearly intimate sound. Thx Robert!!

The muting-line in the rhythm part does't run that accurate I want it to. Has to be trained as well.

In general: I decided to pay more attention to the rhythm parts. I won't catch spontaneous applause BUT  it's important for me and my one-man-band music (and probably in general) on the one hand (as I have to load it up on the looper and need interesting voicings / progressions in order to avoid dullness. On the other hand I recently struck a Robert Ford-Video on chords, voicings and rhythms. There's a lot waiting for me, you can be sure of that. 

For tomorrow: See the red lines above. And don't forget B.B.s Solo! 

01 Dec 2017

2.75 in total

• Warm up, scales & chord progressions as usual
• 30 min praticing Roberts G7 appregio mentioned in Chat #5 (I guess)
• 1.5 h practicing T-Bone-Scuffle chords, got some problems with rhythmical exact upstrokes (always want a downstroke in between) and still my fingers do not find the right position automatically
• On the whole a quite unhurried day in the practice room. That's ok!!!

Stick to the chords and upstrokes,  stay laid back.

02 Dec 2017

Total Time about 3 h 15

• Start up as usual
• About 1,5 h on T-Bone-Walker Scuffle, chords but mostly on the first 12 licks. Funny how  the triplet go "sudden death" after two notes (bar 16, 25) and the last note is missing. I think Robert picked up a typical T-Bone-Walker-Style element. Right? It is as if there's a gap (where a tone is expected). Keeps tention.
• Another 1,5 h tighten music out of my Angelmodde West  repertoire. Absolute no blues yet 🙂 I stick to the delay (=less music / more effect). Get rid of it (for a while)!!!

04 Dec 2017

Total time about 4 h

• About 1 h 15 on warmup, scales, chords (still different voicings of 7er chords) and Roberts Chat about A7 chord-tone-combinations (7 | root | major 3 | 5). Interesting exercice which will enlarge my soloing repertoire (one day.....). 
• About 2 h on T-Bone-Scuffle lesson the first 12 licks. Got it - but far away from out of the pocket. I am not familiar with the lines like Robert adapted it from T-Bone Walker. Anyway: it's fun playing it.
• About 45 min repetition of Blues songs out of Blues You Can Use. I am tryin to "make it mine", some of them which I really like  and fill it up with my soloing. I am quite satisfied how it is going on.  Perhaps I upload a record in here in the coming days.

It's a pain to fight with possibities to record my music in a video. I'm looking for a simple way but  all I can find is more technical effort than I want to invest. I definitly want to spend my time making music. So I decide today: All I am up to is to record it with my Zoom recorder. Ultimate. (Update 0n 7 Dec: obviously a part in me nevertheless wants to know how to record a video properly - see 6th of Dec. And I can't quiten it. The mount for my smartphone will be delivered today. Pity....)

By the way: This Practice Log is developing to a quite personal thing. I don't mind. But I hope it's not annoying someone else in here.

And: Indeed, I have no clue in english puncutation. I apologize for that.

Gottfried

05 Dec 2017

Total time 2 h 40 min

• 1 h 10 warmup, scales, chords
• 1 h on T-Bone Scuffle
• 30 min jam for fun

I have got to slow down and that's ok. I am trying to play the first 37 bars (solo) by heart. It's no that easy because the "language" spoken here is not that familiar for me. And I would like to know wether there is an "turning the pages-machine" (indeed, google knows there is one, called nota:bene, looks funny). My screen (and the note types) are to small to use the pdf or sound-slice and normally I use printed sheets because it's much more easier to make some notations as in bar 30 where I hear more notes as written in the sheet.

Task: Listen to the whole solo and figure out, if there are parts which need to be practised first and most.

06 Dec 2017

• some warmups as usual
• 1 h 23 m on T-Bone Scuffle. Got it so far. Now I am trying to memorize the licks up to where the chords of the solo begin. Not so easy, they are so close.
• AND spent about 2 h trying to make a video, record it in time via cubase, trying to put the things together. It's a pain in the ass - to be honest. But I think I've got it an list it here, for it may be forgotten tomorrow.

How to make my videos:

• Don't forget to plug in power supplies for smartphone and laptop!!!
• Start recording on cubase (first! You need some seconds of running in cubase)
• Start recording the video
• Give a handclap or one single loud tone (for to get synchronized the audio and the video file.)
• If it's done, DON'T CUT ANYTHING YET!!!
• Import the video to cubase (it's only for synchronisation)
• Find the start-tone and synchronize it to the video - NOT THE OTHER WAY ROUND!
• Leave the Video as it is, don't move the starting point!!
• Export the audio file as an single file (mp3). It has to start exactly with the video. 
• Replace the orginal audio file of the video with the exported mp3.
• Cut the video
• Good luck!

07 Dec 2017

Time on strings: about 3.5 h (one set in the morning, one in the afternoon)

• About 1 h making the T-Bone Scuffle mine. It's going to work and I like it to step through these triplets. It's a fairly high tempo (to me), but it getting better.
• Further on practicing scales, chords AND the chord tones, Robert is talking about in Chat 5. It will take it's time to implement them in my playing. That's ok.
• About 1 h min on "my music", trying chords and the sound of it, listening to what comes out and wether it is worth to stay on. Found a nice "broken" progression. On day here (on video???)
• About 45 h just having fun with backing tracks. I am backpedaling (strange exression I found in my online dictionary) fro mtime to time, analysing some fragments of my soloing: What am I acutally doing? I am looking forward to any reply how you - out there - analyze your soloing - if you do so.  Replies are welcome!!!

15 Dec 2017

Still busy with the T-Bone Scuffle in my usual guitar days and work- and funload. My fingers remember what to do with the scuffle - most of the time... And that's what I am going for: To play it out of - -  I don't know where. Musical memory? Anyway...

And I am looking what to pick next out of Roberts lessons. Quite overwhelming.

Thought about the Kirk Fletcher lick and Claytons jam. Indeed, I am too shy yet. Maybe next week. 

By the way: Kirk Fletcher will be on Tour in Germany (2 concerts), I ordered a ticket for his gig in Hannover on the 17th of march 2018. About 200 km to go. 

And as my practice log is going to be a kind of diary: I picked my amp (my beloved Fender Hot Rod Michael Landau edition) out of the basement room I rented for one day of the week. Too expensive just to use it as a soloist. Pity. To play the Hot Rod at home (it's awful loud that amp) at home I just ebayed an EWS Subtle Volume Control and I hope this will do the job. 

If you see Kirk, perhaps you can mention me. I’m a big fan of him and I’ve talked to him a few times. I can’t say I  know him well but he’s very friendly. I’d like him to know I’m informing guitarists online about his greatness. 😎

Respect for your patience Gottfried, to learn the beautiful T-Bone lesson.
I'm sure you go the learn it.

And have a nice time at the concert of Kirk Fletcher in Hannover on the 17th of march 2018.

Posted by: Gottfried

07 Dec 2017

Time on strings: about 3.5 h (one set in the morning, one in the afternoon)

• About 1 h making the T-Bone Scuffle mine. It's going to work and I like it to step through these triplets. It's a fairly high tempo (to me), but it getting better.
• Further on practicing scales, chords AND the chord tones, Robert is talking about in Chat 5. It will take it's time to implement them in my playing. That's ok.
• About 1 h min on "my music", trying chords and the sound of it, listening to what comes out and wether it is worth to stay on. Found a nice "broken" progression. On day here (on video???)
• About 45 h just having fun with backing tracks. I am backpedaling (strange exression I found in my online dictionary) fro mtime to time, analysing some fragments of my soloing: What am I acutally doing? I am looking forward to any reply how you - out there - analyze your soloing - if you do so.  Replies are welcome!!!

 

Hi Gottfried, such dedication will surely reap rewards.

For me it is all about the phrasing so when analysing I listen to hear if it makes sense. As you already know recording yourself as often as possible augments your learning immensely. You can immediately hear where to improve. What may seem to be sounding sweet in your head can sound less than appealing when played back from a recording. This makes analysis very easy. For me intuitive leaps are achieved through this process.

Also playing a simple phrase over and over to the point of total boredom somehow leads to unexpected treasures. At some stage the creative intuition kicks in and I play something most unexpected.

Many of the lessons here at MGA are goldmines for this way of learning. The secrets that Robert reveals are truly amazing and inspiring. Very special indeed. 

I hope this helps  😀  😀

Regards Craig. 

Hi Robert, for sure I will deliver your best regards - if I come close enough to do so. What should be possible, the place is for about 300 guests. 

Hi Craig, 

yes, it helps. I didn't record my playing up to know very often because - simply - playing guitar is more fun than bothering with recording technics. But I know: it is not a question of quality recording but about listening  at all to what I am doing.   

Thanks for your encouragement!!

Gottfried