[This is a LONG post, so if you’re not interested in my musical / guitar progress, stop here and come back another day… You’ve been warned! — kmab] | |
The following is my “goal” for learning / playing guitar for the remainder of this year (2024). | |
Guitar Test |
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1.) | How much do you practice — # of Day (7) / week (52); # of Hours (1) – due to health issues, I missed more days last year (2023) than in the prior two years (total). I started in January 2021. In ’21 and ’22, I was mostly practicing an hour a day, six or seven days a week. Several months I only missed one day of practice. So far (in 2024), I’m averaging about 4-5 days per week and 45-75 minutes per day. Most days about 1 hour. Most weeks, 5-6 days. But, of course, life gets in the way… |
2.) | How well do you know the fretboard — progressing, but not fully “under my fingertips” memorized, yet. Still making progress, but not instinctive except for “A” and “G” which are pretty much muscle memory. |
3.) | Knowledge of major & minor scale for natural notes — good on all single strings and making progress on six-string scales. I know the shapes, but can’t call out the notes or go to each simply by name (except “A” – which I can do, but not at a “full” playing speed). I’ve spent a lot of time this year (2024) practicing major and minor on single strings. |
4.) | Knowledge of major & minor chords — open & barred. Forms are good, but still poor on naming the notes (as in letter / name of “1”, “3” and “5”) while playing. I have a physical issue of my fretting fingers being too large for most barred chords above 6-fret “A” in “E” shape barre, so the “CAGED” system doesn’t really work for me – despite spending a considerable amount of time trying. “A” shape barre is okay (more or less) full neck length. “E” and “D” shapes are so far impossible past 6-fret. |
5.) | Perform three: Maj7, Min7 & Dom7 chords — little to no progress. I “looked” at them, but haven’t practiced them. (2024) Still virtually no progress. |
6.) | Playing & modifying a chord progression — making progress. Best with (most practice of) “G”, “C”, “D” and “Am” or “Em”. Also working on adding walk-ups and walk-downs. I’m much improved on changing chords, but it’s still nowhere near instinctive. I constantly have to “think” about which is the next chord. Walk-ups / downs are now fun to incorporate, but still too easy to forget. |
7.) | Perform three different Arpeggios — anywhere on the fretboard; no “real” progress. I can hit individual notes in a chord all the way up the neck, but it’s not “really” informed arpeggiating. (2024) Arpeggios aren’t the problem. Inversions are the problem. Even with regular practice, it is too much thinking and not useful / practical. |
8.) | Build a Major scale (at least 3) — demonstrate a knowledge of scale formulas (along 1 string) — done for Major and Minor for all six open strings. I still need to work on major and minors from string notes further up the neck. (2024) Considerable progress made here on both Major and Minor and single string and across two octaves (six strings) – pentatonic and full scales. |
9.) | Name the tones of four major key signatures — work in progress. (2024) No progress. |
10.) | Name & explain three time signatures — count, beat, stresses & accents; I can “explain”, but don’t have this under my fingertips. (2024) LoL. I’ve forgotten all about this and anything I did know. I have not been practicing reading sheet music, so all of this has gone by the board. |
11.) | Explain note duration — whole, half, 1/4th, 1/8th, & 1/16th — explanation is the easy part. Playing the notes consistently is a work in progress. The exception is the 1/16 notes, which I am just not fast enough in my picking to play. (2024) Getting better in spurts. Not able to sustain over the course of many bars and certainly not for an entire song. |
Comments: (Original) | |
Of course, the object of “learning” these things is not the inherent value of knowledge. It is the ability to put the knowledge into use why playing the guitar. Some of the items on the list are things I already “know”. They are just (still) not yet under my fingertips. That will come with time and practice… Inshalla | |
Comments: (2023) (2024) | |
(2023) Progress is slower than I thought it would be, but the process (practice) is still very enjoyable – so I continue. (2024) I’ve started coming to the conclusion I will never be more than a “dabbler”. I’m simply not practicing any one thing long enough or consistently enough to establish core muscle memory. I still look at my fretting hand for chord placement and note placement (although less so when freeforming on scale riffs). | |
Issues: | |
(2023) I am still quite bad at reading standard music notation. I am making progress with reading single notes, but cannot / do not recognize chords well enough to play them. (2024) I started to make a lot of progress towards the end of 2023, but then fell off on the practice of using sheet music to play from. I “may” be able to pick it back up faster than originally learning it, but it does require fairly consistent work – which I simply do not put in. Mea culpa, mea culpa… | |
(2023) I still have terrible (no) rhythm / timing. This makes playing songs problematic. (2024) Every so slightly better, but still bad / poor. | |
(2023) The rhythm issue is compounded by inability to change between chords smoothly. I am MUCH better, but not anywhere near a playing ability. The pauses are simply too long and when I try to speed up, my fingers mute or buzz adjacent strings. (2024) This issue is compounded by my frequently switching between guitars. The recommendation is to practice on one at a time until you get good with it. I’ve yet to take this advice. (LoL!) | |
(2023) I can’t hear the notes in my head (from reading tab or normal notation) in advance of playing. The only note I can hum with any consistency is “F#” on the sixth string. (2024) No change. I can hear different tones while playing, but I cannot (still) hear them in advance of playing the note. Also, my “F#” is actually a little sharp, so I can tune a guitar to itself, but every string is slightly sharp when verified with an electric tuner. I am mildly surprised this tuning “error” doesn’t seem to effect the guitar’s harmonics. | |
(2023) Because I use each of my guitars on a rota, I am not developing a player’s instrument expertise with any single one of them. In other words, I am constantly learning (and relearning) the very minor physical changes required to get better on any individual instrument. The flip side to this is I’m getting a much better physical exposure / expertise to (and with) the range of guitars: neck and body shapes / sizes / weights; frets and sound holes (if any); and, comfortability of playing the different instruments. (2024) Every one of my guitars is slightly off somehow. Either physically (neck shape / width) or structurally (body resonance). My first guitar (steel string acoustic) was my favorite, but now I’m even getting nit-picky about how it sounds (brassy) / feels (neck is too thin). | |
(2023) I am spending almost no time on the luthier side of guitar. I need to work on this aspect without reducing my playing / practicing. I also need to spend more time investigating the use of amps and pedals. (I STILL play my electrics almost exclusively without plugging them into an amp.) Time keeps on slippin’, slippin’ slippin’… (2024) Virtually no change on this. I did some fret leveling / polishing / rounding on one guitar, but this can be time consuming and it is sometimes difficult to feel like there’s a benefit. Perhaps I am getting closer to the point of “investing” in a single “better” (ie. more expensive) guitar and gifting the rest to other folks. (Naaahhh!) | |
(2023) The “secret” to getting better remains: each day, learn a little more about guitar / music, and continue to practice consistently. Try to get to a playable level at each skill before trying to add another skill (or nuance of that skill) – but continue to practice the prior skills, too. And, of course, all of the above is difficult when I (you) MUST practice slow to get to a high enough skill level to begin practicing faster. | |
(2024) I am getting better (slowly), but I doubt it would be very perceptible to others – particularly other musicians. I am still almost always enjoying my hour a day practice and that is enough for me to keep at it. I wish progress was faster, but it is what it is… | |
I have gotten okay (committed to memory) at parts of four songs: “Happy Birthday“, “God Save the King” (“My Country ‘Tis of Thee“), “Ode To Joy“, and “Praise To The Lord“. I am trying to add: “The Star Spangled Banner“, “The Ballad of Paladin“, “Drunken Sailor“, “Ring of Fire” and the theme of “Star Trek (TOS)“. The first two by sounding them out (very slow “ear” training) and the latter three by using tabs (much faster progress). | |
My wife finds it very annoying that I play the same songs over and over and over again. LoL!! Actually, I don’t. I practice each bar individually. I add one bar at a time. I get better at the song. I move to different tones for the same notes (different frets and strings, but the same notes). Finally, I practice the same tone (interval) structure, but in a different key. I do this to help me hear the differences (tones in keys) and to help me memorize the locations of the various notes. Eventually, I hope to be able to play alternating verses in various (progressive) octaves and / or keys in a single song. | |
Last, but not least, I’ve started playing with finger-picking (Travis, classical, and Spanish) and adding percussion effects. Just messing around, but it’s tremendous fun… | |
. | |
On This Day In: | |
2023 | Goals / Test (2023 Update) |
2022 | Goals / Test |
2021 | Waiting For The Sting |
Right From The Start (Don’t Go Breaking My Heart) | |
2020 | Reward Truth In November |
2019 | Prepare For The 2020 Election |
2018 | Why #45 Is Uncivil And Sinking |
Ole! … Ole, Ole, Ole | |
Is This Still The United States Of America? | |
2017 | Go Where? |
2016 | Returning To The Same Box |
2015 | The Hunter’s Music |
2014 | Dedication |
2013 | Unhappy Alternatives |
2012 | Implications |
2011 | Never Let Us Down |
Goals / Test (2024 Update)
June 18, 2024 by kmabarrett
Posted in Education, Guitar, Music | Tagged 2023 Update, 2024 Update, Arpeggios, Chords, Drunken Sailor Song, Fingerpicking, Fretboard, God Save The King Song, Guitar, Guitar Test, Happy Birthday Song, Issues, Music, Ode To Joy Song, Practice, Praise To The Lord Song, Progressions, Ring of Fire Song, Scales, The Ballad of Paladin Song, The Star Spangled Banner Song, Theme from Star Trek (TOS) Song, Time Signatures, Tones | Leave a Comment
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