2/17/2024, Weekly: Guitar Weekly Learning Journal

My Guitar Learning Notes for One Week

This is my second weekly KaizenGuitarist journal entry. I hope that someone finds this on the Internet and finds it useful.

Thursday: 2/8/2024: Practice without and with My Guitar

Today I spent 8 hours involved in getting my car repaired. There are no guitar practice rooms at car dealerships.

Learn: Beginner Guitarists can Practice with their Fret Neck Anywhere

I take my Pocket Guitar Practice Neck with me everywhere. It costs $13 on Amazon (I get nothing for referring you.) If I know there’s dead time waiting at a doctor’s office or auto dealership, I’ll bring the Pocket Guitar Practice Neck so I can practice my chords.

I starting practicing my 30 chords at the car dealership. It’s not an instrument so don’t expect musical notes. It’s a learning tool.

Learn: You cannot learn guitar technique from a video without playing your guitar.

At the car dealership I watched a Justin Guitar training module. As Justin Guitar has often said in his videos that you can’t learn from a video without playing your guitar. So that’s absolutely true.

Learn: Know when to place your left thumb behind the guitar neck

At home in my basement, I’m again studying a Justin Guitar module. He’s discussing the E min7 chord using 4 fingers. He advises holding your thumb behind the guitar neck and not over the guitar neck. You definitely hold your left thumb behind your guitar neck for chords that are difficult to play clearly where more pressure is needed.

Chord E min7 is a chord that may need thumb pressure to sound out clearly.

Ironically, an Old Town School of Music instructor told me to hold my left thumb over the neck to mute the thick E string if needed. Now Justin Guitar tells me the opposite technique.

When it comes to your left thumb placement, be selective in knowing where to hold your thumb. But holding your left thumb behind the guitar neck will help you in the future when you begin forming barre chords.

Learn: Learning how to Listen is a Guitar Skill

Justin Guitar teaches that hearing may be a beginner’s best method in learning guitar. Reading books and thinking can only get you so far. Sometimes you just need to listen very carefully to a guitar sequence and its rhythm.

I am moderately deaf and often use a hearing aid. So its a bit depressing to know that I must rely on my weak hearing in learning guitar. Historically I’m a visual learner and a tactile learner. I read and learn. I also handwrite notes and learn. Listening is not my preferred learning method.

But hearing loss is just a guitar quitters excuse for not playing guitar well. You have heard the excuses.

1. My hands are too small.
2. Playing guitar is too painful on my fingers.
3. I’m too old to learn.
4. Blah, blah, blah.

I will not let my moderate hearing loss be an excuse for not learning guitar. I am a Kaizen Guitarist and I am not inventing guitar excuses.

Friday: 2/9/2024: “Wish You Were Here” Riff for Beginners

Today I practiced for easily 90 minutes and learned a few things about my guitar practice and playing.

Learn: Justin Guitar teaches “Wish You Were Here” riff by Pink Floyd

This is a training module from my Justin Guitar course. This isn’t easy. But I am making progress.

1. 20 minute training video.
2. Use stuck 3/4 chord structure.
3. Guitar picking and unusual strumming.

Justin Guitar encourages learning by listening. I understand that. But with moderate hearing loss that’s more difficult for me. I learn best with visuals supported both by hearing and doing.

But I refuse to let my moderate hearing loss with hearing aids to be an excuse for not learning guitar.

Learn: Thumb Placement on the Guitar Neck

It doesn’t matter whether you are right handed or left handed. It doesn’t matter if you hold the guitar neck with your left hand or your right hand.

Two Schools of Thought on Where to Hold your Guitar Neck with your Thumb

1. An Old Town School of Folk Music Instructor. “Hold your left thumb on top of the guitar neck so you can mute string E if needed.”
2. Justin Guitar. “Hold your left thumb behind the guitar neck. This will give you greater note clarity (pressure when fretting) and strengthen your fingers for when you use barre chords.

I suppose both are correct in their techniques, at the right time.

As a beginner guitarist which technique is correct? Thumb on top of guitar neck or behind guitar neck.

IT ALL DEPENDS ON WHAT YOU NEED:

1. Left Thumb on top. I can do this if I need to mute the 6th string, the E string.
2. Left Thumb behind neck. If I need greater note clarity and pressure on strings, this is great.

Saturday: 2/10/2024: Practicing Notes in Open Position, E – D

Today I practiced another 90 minutes. Today, I practiced Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here” riff not doing it perfectly. I’ll keep practicing it until it’s 80% OK. In the meantime I am pushing on to learning the Open Position Notes.

Learn: Justin Guitar teaches the Open Position Notes

Yes, my daily study is with the Internet based Justin Guitar course. Once a week I attend a class at the Old Town School of Folk Music. Every two weeks I jam with my friend Tom G.

So in today’s module, Justin Guitar is teaching the Open Position notes. But I believe that any good guitar teacher (and Justin is very good) will teach open Position Notes.

Here is an expanded snapshot from Justin Guitar on the Open Position Notes for today’s lesson:

• Courtesy of Justin Guitar’s Guitar Website.

It was a bit confusing until I heard Justin Guitar say in his video that these are “the white keys” on the piano. Then it made sense. Then I found a piano keyboard on the Internet and began practicing the Open Position Notes more intuitively. That’s because I can see the “white notes” to play and the “black notes” on the piano to skip. See below.

• Courtesy of GNoted and their website.

Sunday: 2/11/2024: Practicing Notes in Open Position

Yes, even though today is the NFL SuperBowl, I practiced another 90 minutes.

Learn: My Glarry Semi-Hollow Telecaster is my Low Humidity Guitar

I know, most people think cheap electrics like the Glarry Semi-Hollow Telecaster guitar are a joke. But while low humidity has forced me to store my better guitars in their cases in low humidity, my Glarry Telecaster gets the job done for me. It seems impervious to fret sprout on its neck and doesn’t seem to mind the cold of near 60 degrees.

I’m not saying you should rush out and buy a Glarry Semi-Hollow Telecaster. But I am saying that if the guitar is well setup in a used guitar store it mind be worth a try if you’re a beginner. My Glarry has served me well after buying it for $60 in a used guitar store in Chicago, IL.

Learn: Justin Guitar teaches the Open Position Notes and the Notes Circle

I returned to Justin Guitar’s online training and began again with the Notes Circle. It’s shown below courtesy of Justin Guitar and his website.

• Thanks to Justin Guitar and his website.

I found that studying the fret positions for the Open Notes and the Notes circle during my lesson today helped a lot.

As I went to sleep this day, I practiced the fingering of the Open Notes in my mind.

Learn: Practicing Guitar without a Guitar

This may sound strange but I think it means I am making progress.

1. I practice my 30 open chords over coffee when I wake up. No Guitar, just my guitar neck learning tool.
2. I listen to guitar playing or discussions on my earphones when I take my walks in Chicago.
3. I practice guitar with my guitar neck board when I am waiting in a doctor’s office or auto store.
4. Now I am start to dream about guitar when I sleep.

It’s a bit like learning a new language. If you’re studying enough, you begin to dream in that 2nd language.

Monday: 2/12/2024: “Wish you Were Here” Riff, Notes Circle, and Old Town School

Learn: “Wish You Were Here” Riff by Pink Floyd

I continue to study this riff as taught by Justin Guitar as a lesson.

Why am I learning this at this point?

Perhaps its because the riff actually teaches two new notes as chords and also finger picking with an unusual strum pattern. But I am getting better at this riff.

Learn: Understanding the Note Circle

I can play the note circle on the first four frets of the guitar.

Now I realize that whatever I learn could apply to “finding notes” throughout the guitar neck.

Learn: Understanding the Note Circle

Learn: Attending Old Town School of Folk Music

Tonight the one thing learned was the use of a mini barre chord. If you can’t cover 6 strings, perhaps you can at least cover 2 strings in learning mini barre chords.

A student from the next class was shocked when my instructor said that I was practicing a guitar 2 hours a day. He said, how can you do that?

My answer was:

Practice is a Joy.

I am retired so I do have much more free time than someone working a job and/or raising a family. But then I said this to him also:

For me, it’s not how much I practice that matters. What matters most to me is whether I am practicing good techniques correctly.

Tuesday: 2/13/2024: More work on the “Wish you Were Here” Riff and the Notes Circle

Learn: “Wish You Were Here” Riff by Pink Floyd

I have spent hours on learning this guitar riff from a Justin Guitar video. Is it worth it? Yes.

1. Memorizing notes is a guitar skill. Get used to it. I can’t read notes yet from a music sheet so I am doing it the old way: by hearing.
2. Picking is a skill. Learn it.
3. Difficult strum. Learn it.

Learn: Playing with a Tiny Right Thumb Injury

Chicago winters can be very dry indoors. And even picking up a guitar incorrectly you can sometimes slice a finger. However, I don’t know or remember how I nicked my right thumb so critical to my strumming.

So today I found myself with a tiny knick on my strumming thumb, my right thumb. This would have been a perfect time to tell myself, “Your thumb is painful, you don’t need to practice today.”

I think beginner guitarists find excuses not to play all the time.

Instead, being a Kaizen Guitarist, I put on a tiny band-aid, took a pick, and focused more on playing with a pick on guitar.

Wednesday: 2/14/2024: Cataract Surgery and Playing Guitar

Learn: Cataract Surgery is not an Excuse to not Practice Guitar

Today I had cataract surgery on one eye. Surgery at 8 AM and guitar practice at about 3 PM. Not a big deal to me.

But Shoshin or beginner guitarists find reasons or impediments to NOT practice guitar. My hands are too small, I hurt my thumb, my vision is poor, my guitar is too big.

For me, there is no impediment yet to block me from playing or practicing guitar. I hope that you feel the same way.

Learn: Less Technique and More Songs

Today I did my guitar practice routines and said, “It’s time to play some new songs.”

I opened up my Old Town School of Folk Music Songbook:

1. I tried the first ten songs.
2. I knew the chords for all the songs. That’s the benefit of knowing 30 chords. (But knowing chords and rapid chord changing are two different things.)
3. But I was able to badly play 5 of the songs because I knew their melody.

So do your guitar practice exercises whatever they may be. But don’t forget to play new and different songs. After 4 1/2 months of practicing guitar I was happy to learn I could play many of the songs of the Old Town School of Folk Music Songbook. Now learning how to play those songs well, to strum correctly, and to sing with those songs is a different matter entirely.

But I am making progress in learning how to play guitar.

Summary: My Guitar Learning Notes for One Week

I am under some time pressure tonight. I’ll be brief in my summary.

1. You can learn guitar anywhere, even without a guitar.
2. I wish people would stop telling me that I can learn guitar just by listening to them play. This is a bit inconsiderate since I am moderately deaf.
3. Learning Open Notes from Justin Guitar is helping me understand playing music better. I practice it every day.
4. Learning “Wish You Were Here Riff”, by Pink Floyd has been difficult. Memorizing a riff, getting your timing correct, strumming correctly, and using a pick are not easy. But it’s what every guitarist does. So it’s part of the learning journey.

Thanks for reading Kaizen Guitarist today. I hope my learning log helped you in some way.