2/10/2024, Weekly: Guitar Weekly Learning Journal

My Guitar Learning Notes for One Week

This is my first weekly KaizenGuitarist journal entry. Last week I stopped doing daily blog posts because the time requirement was too high. My blogging time was exceeding my guitar time: not optimal.

So this is a collection of Learning Notes for the past week. I hope parts of it are useful to you. If not, I’ll just print them for my guitar notebook 🙂

Thursday: 2/1/2024: New Song, New Chords

I practiced a new song (can’t think of its name) which forced me to learn 3 new chords. Well, I haven’t learned them yet. But they are on my “to do” list for new Chords. See below.

Friday. 2/2/2024. Practice the Hard Stuff; not the Easy Stuff

While practicing my warmup riffs I decided they were too easy.

Playing Peter Gunn and the Cream Riff are fun but I’m not learning anything new. Neither am I improving my guitar skills.

So I am learning to make my practice harder. A good example is focusing more on the E Minor Pentatonic Scales using a pick rather than doing the Peter Gunn riff constantly.

If practice is too easy, too comfortable, than it’s really not practice contributing to your improvement.

Playing a familiar song with grandkids or playing songs at the end of the day is different. They are familiar and they are fun. Again, for me, if guitar practice is too easy, than what am I really learning?

Saturday: 2/3/2024 Entry

It’s been three heavy days of learning. So detailed I was forced to actually document just as I did in my career. So here goes.

New Song; New Chords

I practiced a new song and the chords were strange. So because I wanted to play the song, here are the chords. They are on my “to do” list for new chords.

The above C and 3 new chords is not yet high on my list of chords to learn. The Justin Guitar course has assigned me new chords and they are shown below.

Justin Guitar and Chords Assigned

I am a Justin Guitar online student. He does very nice work and I have been using his online course for perhaps 2 months. Old Town School of Folk Music school is great but that’s only once a week. My Justin Guitar studies/practice are every day.

This is his training module named Grade 2 and Module 8: Stuck 3 & 4 Wish.

Justin Guitar assigned these chords:

“Rock G”, “Big G”
What he calls the Stuck 3/4 chords. Fingers #3 and #4 are constantly pressed on the light strings B and E.
- Big G
- C add9
- D sus4
- A7 sus4
- Em7
Since Justin Guitar was in “Stuck 3/4” mode, he assigned two other chords to learn.
- D add11/F#
- E 6/9

Now this is pretty unusual for this online instructor to assign 8 chords in a 20 minute learning module. Now Justin Guitar is a thoughtful instructor. If he assigned 8 new chords for one lesson, he has a plan to use them soon. So I’m learning them.

Again, Justin Guitar does very good work. I don’t want to show you a ton of his training module because it’s HIS WORK. But I think one little snapshot will give you a taste of his thoroughness. See below. (And please consider visiting Justin Guitar’s website to consider becoming a customer. I don’t get paid for the referral. )

Sunday: 2/4/2024 Perfection vs Fast Chord Changes

I practiced for at least 2 hours over two sessions on this Sunday. Time does fly when I practice.

Justin Guitar – Perfect versus Fast Chord Changes

I am a Justin Guitar online student. Originally, he advocated fast changes. Now that I’ve been doing his course for at least 2 months, he’s also promoting accurate chord changes. So basically, I strive for both.

I do think Lauren Bateman had a good exercise. Buy a metronome, set it to 60 BPM, turn it on, and practice two chord changes in beat with the metronome. Good idea.

Justin Guitar, E Minor Pentatonic Scale

Old Town School of Folk Music class has me doing this already. Now, Justin Guitar online class wants me to practice the scales also.

Justin Guitar E Minor Pentatonic Scale Advice

Use a pick.
Focus on both left and right hand.
Memorize the shape you are using with your left hand.
RK (that’s me). Learn the left hand then focus on the right hand. I can’t learn both simultaneously.
Use your right hand to mute unneeded strings.
Don’t let perfection stop you from moving on to the next course.

Justin Guitar has a useful phrase: “Practice makes permanent, so practice perfectly.”

All to often we are not rigorous when we learn things. Learning a guitar technique incorrectly and then practicing it perfectly isn’t good behavior. This is a good reason to have an in-person guitar teacher who can examine your technique. For this reason, I attend an Old Town School of Folk Music class once a week.

Learning how to do the E Minor Pentatonic Scale perfectly will take several weeks, perhaps longer. What’s the benefit?

The E Minor Pentatonic Scale is used frequently in rock/blues music. Learn it now and you already know it when you need it.
It does teach you the scale.
This will help me greatly in improved using a pick.
Other reasons???

So I will be swapping E Minor Pentatonic Scale practice into my early routine with playing guitar. Playing easy riffs like “Peter Gunn” or a Cream riff is too easy for me now. It is better to practice a fundamental guitar technique that is moderately difficult than do the same exercises that are easy.

Monday: 2/5/2024 More Strumming and E Minor Pentatonic Scales

Richard’s Learning: Strum Guitar Gently and then Harder

I am sure someone taught me this. I just realized while I was strumming that my wife was upstairs hearing me “chop wood” on my strumming. Why not strum gently for a while and control the loudness of my strums. So I did so. And, I would call that learning.

Practicing the E Minor Pentatonic Scale

So today is my a renewed focus on this scale. Old Town School of Folk Music instructor taught it to me and now Justin Guitar advises it be learned.

My approach:

Look first, left hand chord shapes. I am looking at my left hand (I am right handed) as it plays the required scale notes. Again, and again.
Blindfold second. Now I am practicing the scale without looking at my left hand or even my right hand. Admittedly, I am not using a pick yet. I am focusing on memorizing the chord shape and fingering.
Progress. I literally am using muscle memory to know where to depress a string. Practice, practice, practice.

Justin Guitar Learning: All Down 8th Note Strumming

Again, this is from an online class from Justin Guitar. He provides videos as he explains and plays the lessons for you.

Today Justin Guitar discussed what he calls “All Down 8th Note Strumming”. Here are quick details of what I learned.

New Strum. Instead of 4 downs to a bar you perform 8 downs to a bar.
Accent. For variety, accent (strum harder) on the 2nd and 4th beat.
Non-Accent strums. On the unaccented strums, just graze the thick strings.
Having a metronome would be great. I don’t have one yet.
What chords? Just use chords that you know, the focus is the strumming.

Old Town School of Folk Music Class

Today was a quiet day of practice. We focused again on the E Minor Pentatonic Scale and its importance in songs. We played the song Rumble by Link Wray and Milton Grant that includes an E Minor Pentatonic riff at the end.

Originally we had a class of 7 students and now it’s been reduced to 4 students plus our instructor, Henry A. This is Chicago in wintertime on a Monday evening, so its perhaps natural that a few students have dropped out of class. I hope they return.

Tuesday: 2/6/2024 Shaping Chords and my Epiphone DR-100

Shaping Chords with Right Angles

Some chord shapes are harder than others. For example, in my Justin Guitar course I was learning the E min7 chord shape shown below. (Courtesy of a Justin Guitar video; please consider his training services.)

I kept trying to shape one chord with my left hand fingers being diagonal to the fret board. Guitarists normally do that.

But it worked better with greater clarity when shaping the chord with my fingers perpendicular at a right angle to the fret board.

The next time you are faced with shaping a new chord, try your normal diagonal approach and if that doesn’t work try shaping your left hand on the fret board with a perpendicular approach (I am right handed).

Epiphone DR-100 has a 15 1/2 inch Neck Radius

The first acoustic I bought was the Epiphone DR-100. It has a wonderful boomy voice. But after playing it for a week or so I realized it had a thicker neck. It also had a 15 1/2 inch neck radius.

Learning: All I know is that after playing that guitar these past 2-3 months the Epiphone is now easier to play. I think my left hand fingers are just getting stronger.

Thursday: 2/7/2024 Dave Simpson and Queenie Discuss Guitar Practice

Apparently I invested 3 hours into guitar learning today.

Dave Simpson and his friend Queenie Discuss Guitar Practice

Dave Simpson and his friend Queenie are fantastic guitar players based out of Great Britain. I have been following Dave Simpson for at least 3 months on YouTube.

Visit Dave Simpson and Queenie Discuss How Important is Practice on YouTube. I listened to this while walking Chicago neighborhoods for one hour today. If guitar practice matters to you, visit them on YouTube and listen to their discussion on Guitar Practice.

Lauren Bateman uses Metronome for Rapid Chord Changes

I give Lauren Bateman credit on this technique. However, I am sure others have mentioned it elsewhere. But I thank a Lauren Bateman video for this idea.

Visit Lauren Bateman’s video on Accessories Every Guitarist Needs.

She mentions a metronome.
Then she discusses setting the metronome to perhaps 30 BPM (beats per minute) to practice two difficult chord changes. Practice them.
Then increase metronome speed to 40 BPM, then 50 BPM, etc. This will help you get faster.

I merrily brought out my 54 year old Sears Roebuck student guitar with its new strings and practiced chord changing. The string action on my SR guitar is a bit high but I am strong enough as a guitar player to use the guitar with my fingers. I surely do love the treble sounds that come from my solid birch Sears Roebuck guitar made by Harmony on Chicago’s southside in 1969. The guitar’s name is “Summer”.

Summary: My Guitar Learning Notes for One Week

I hope this new approach to documenting my guitar learning has been helpful. Perhaps you found a nugget or two of knowledge.

You keep your own guitar learning journal, don’t you?

Here are bigger things I learned this week:

Practice the hard stuff; not the easy stuff.
Practice the E Minor Pentatonic Scale. Do it until you can play it blindfolded with left hand fretting and right hand picking with a pick. (Again, I am right handed.)
Strum your guitar gently every now and then. Guess what, you don’t need to be loud. Experiment strumming dynamically with some quiet strums and then a loud strum. It makes strumming more fun.
Visit Dave Simpson and Queenie on YouTube as they discuss How Important is Practice. It’s an hour long and worth the time.
Thanks to Lauren Bateman’s fast chord change trick. Use a metronome, pick two tough chords, and practice with a metronome. Thanks Lauren Bateman: Accessories Every Guitarist Needs.

As Dave Simpson said in his discussion on Guitar Practice with his friend Queenie:

“Practice is a Joy.” – Dave Simpson
Dave Simpson and Queenie on YouTube

Stay Kaizen and Keep Practicing Your Guitar

Thanks for visiting the Kaizen Guitarist today.