Guitar Journal: Year Two

When I began this blog, I wanted to document my studies. It became too burdensome, too detailed, and I stopped.

I think I will try it again for Year 2, just trying to be simple.

Guitar and Bass Practice: 11.21.2024

Wake Up with my Hohner HW200 – “Sawbuck” is its Name

As always, the second thing I do each morning is play guitar for 10 minutes. It wakes me up. And frankly, the sounds make me happy.

I normally practice a blind C chord (without looking), my 4 barre chord shapes, a 4 string F chord, a song or two and a blues riff.

Morning – Practice Bass for 45 Minutes

I use the Fender Play App for bass. It’s been very helpful. This morning I focused on finger stretching exercises and a few songs from the Fender Play app. I am using my Deltatone Bass from 2007-2008. It was a free bass given to my by a neighbor.

Afternoon – Practiced Guitar

Today I used my Harmony H80T (also perhaps known as a 02805 model) guitar and my Orange 12 amp. Finally got some clean sounds out of it.

Practiced strumming as I have done for over 3 months. I use Justin Guitar paid service for songs. I practice about half a dozen different strums.

Hurray, I got Tingles Playing “Dirt Road”

I had never played it before. I knew enough chords to play along and have fun. Basically, I was exploring a new song with chords I know. Wow, actually got some tingles from the vibe, felt good.

U.S.P.S. Delivered the Fake Blues Book

Delivered on a snowy day. Luckily, the thick spiral bound book was dry. I look forward to playing/learning some more blues.

Guitar and Bass Practice: 11.22.2024

Morning Practice – 10 minutes

I played the Hohner HW200 as I normally do.

Afternoon – Practiced on my Japanese Hohner Acoustic – 30 minutes

I picked up my Japanese Hohner acoustic and began strumming. It just didn’t sound right. Am I losing what little touch I have with acoustic guitars.

I switched over to the Glarry Semi-Hollow and my Orange 12 amp. The sounds immediately sounded better.

Evening – Re-installed the Ultimate-Guitar Chords & Tabs App

It misbehaved on my Android app. Struggled with it, emailed their help desk.

Software works fine on Windows PC. I theorized all data in the cloud. So I uninstalled the Tab app and re-installed. Had to set a new password.

Finally, Ultimate-Guitar Tabs app is working fine on my Android. Sometimes the darn computer stuff gets in the way of our guitar work.

Guitar and Bass Practice: 11.23.2024

Morning Practice – 10 Minutes – Wake up with my Hohner HW200

This is my usual practice, 2nd thing in the AM.

The B7 chord is getting more of my attention. I need it to play the blues.

Afternoon Guitar Computer Work – Ultimate Guitar and Chords App – 30 minutes

I do enjoy Ultimate Guitar and its Chords App. Unfortunately it decided to stop working for some reason. This has meant sending emails to Ultimate Guitar, getting some answers, and successfully changing a password.

I’d rather play guitar/bass than do this silly stuff.

Guitar and Bass Practice: 11.23.2024, Sunday

Guitar and Bass Practice: 11.24.2024

Morning Practice – 10 Minutes – Wake up with my Japanese Hohner

Today this was the 3rd thing I did. Practiced in basement so I didn’t wake up my wife.

I am focusing a bit more on the F7 chord which I now know can be played various ways. I want my blues chords at the low end of the neck to be perfect.

As always, practiced a “blind” C and my barre chords.

More and more I am trying to play my basic chords without looking. If you can play guitar from memory without coffee in the morning, you are making progress.

Early Evening Practice – 30 Minutes – Bass Practice with my Deltatone Bass from 2008

I do try to play bass once a day. The Deltatone bass is the “free” bass given to me by a neighbor. Plays great with a set-up and new strings.

Normally I play drills and simple songs with my Fender Play app. Tonite I tried to play some more difficult songs with my bass from Fender Play. Yikes, it was hard, but educaitonal.

I learned what staccato means when playing bass. You mute the quick notes with either your fretting hand or your rhythm hand. It wasn’t easy. So this evening I listened to two videos on Fender Play.

1. How to do staccato notes.
2. Pick versus plucking discussion.

I am not good at staccato notes yet but I am getting better.

Guitar and Bass Practice: 11.25.2024

Wake Up with my Hohner HW200

Yet again, as always, the second thing I do each morning is play guitar for 10 minutes. It wakes me up. And frankly, the sounds make me happy.

I am focusing a bit more on my new shapes for the F7 chord. I can play the blues chords of A7, B7 (a little harder to do), C7 (harder to shape quickly), D7, E7, F7 (three chord shapes so far), and G7.

Late Morning Practice – 20 Minutes – Using my “too big” Epiphone DR-100 dreadnaught.

I tried to squeeze in some acoustic guitar while my granddaughter is here doing art upstairs with grandma.

Epiphone DR-100 NS Practice: Is it Too Big for Me?

So I reached for the acoustic that I have been struggling with: the Ephiphone.

It was the second guitar I purchased for $100 when I realized I needed an acoustic for the Old Town School of Folk Music classes.

Lately it’s felt too big for me. And I’m a 6’1″ 250 pound guy with long arms. The only reason I reached for this acoustic this morning is because I haven’t given it enough “attention” lately.

Acoustic Guitar Too Big for You? Try sitting on a 2 Inch thick Hard Pillow

So again, sitting down, the Epiphone felt too big in my lap. I tried my Fender CD-60 and it was just fine. It fits me.

And then I thought of a solution: Raise the seat up with two old fishing cushions.

60 years ago my Dad purchased these fishing cushions for a rowboat that doubled as life preservers (maybe). I have kept them all these years.

So I placed one and then tried two cushions on my guitar practice chair. It worked. It somehow made my body a little bit higher so I could tuck the bottom bout of the guitar more easily under my strumming hand. Success.

This simple solution made it easier to play my larger Epiphone DR-100 NS. And that made 20 minutes of playing acoustic guitar worthwhile.

Afternoon Practice – 45 Minutes – Strumming with my “too big” Epiphone DR-100 dreadnaught.

Grandma and granddaughter went food shopping 1 1/2 miles away. Time for Opa (grandfather) to get in some guitar.

I happily played my Epiphone dreadnaught sitting on top of two 60 year old fishing cushions (see morning notes). It made a difference. It increased the distance between my knees and my shoulder giving me another 2 inches of room to sit the Epiphone DR-100 in my lap. Hurray.

Playing the Epiphone was fun again. I didn’t feel slightly overwhelmed with its dreadnaught body in my lap. Again, if a 6 foot tall guy with long arms feels a bit overwhelmed by a dreadnaught size guitar, how does a shorter person feel?

What did I practice? Primarily strumming from Andy Guitar’s Strumming Family Tree. It’s worth a look if you have 5 minutes.

I go through the Andy Guitar’s Strumming Family Tree while I use songs from my Justin Guitar (Musopia) app. Strumming means little if you don’t compel yourself to change chords meaningfully as you play a song.

I practiced 5 different strums with 5 different songs working my way up to Johnny B. Good at 150+ BPM (beats per minute).

Guitar and Bass Practice: 11.26.2024

Wake Up with my Hohner HW200

10 minutes with “Sawbuck” the Florida Hohner today.

Morning Practice – 60 Minutes – Bass Practice with my Deltatone from 2008

My wife is working remotely today so I am in the basement quietly playing my Deltatone bass out loud. No hearing aids on so I don’t hear the occasional buzzing of strings.

Lots of observations today:

1. Holding a pick. Am I holding the pick correctly? I am self taught courtesy of Justin Guitar primarily. But I think I may be sloppy holding the pick. Hopefully I can find better advice.
   • Holding a pick for guitar and bass does seem to be different. On guitar I strum, on bass I pick notes.
2. Mute strings. I had noticed that playing a low E on bass and then a low A on bass gets a muddied tone. I had tried stopping it before.
   • Fender Play App talks about this for bass. Learn to mute strings with your fretting hand and/or your rhythm hand.
     • Mute with fretting hand. After the note rings, tap it with your finger. Open note? Tap with any finger to mute string. Fretted note? Ease off the fret with your finger but keep it on the string and the string will mute.
     • Mute with rhythm hand. As a note rings out, tap it with index or third finger. It will mute.
3. Learn the Notes. Fender Play taught this early on but I forgot. When you play a note in an exercise, say it’s name, memorize it. What’s the good of doing an exercise if you’re not reaffirming the notes you are playing.

Smile when you Play; make it a Habit

I released my 13 month YouTube video on Facebook to my friends.

My wife came downstairs to the music room to visit. She said:

Smile more. You look like an angry old man.

OK Sina. Need to smile, absolutely correct. Smile not just for YouTube or live but smile when I practice/play in private. Yes ma’am.

Afternoon Practice – 60 Minutes – Using the Glarry Electric to Re-learn how to Use a Pick

I researched how to use a pick on the Internet. Sifted through one or two poor demos. Then I found this video: How to Hold and Use a Guitar Pick with Mark TheGuitarGuy.

I can give you my summary but watching the video is better. Using a pick or pleckard gives you percussiveness, accuracy, speed, high frequencies and brightness.

Classic mistake: Holding a pick (pleckard) like a pen or pencil.

This limits you doing percussiveness with your strumming hand because it limits the use of your strumming PALM.

Three steps per Mark TheGuitarGuy video.

1. Place your thumb along the bottom of the pick. You’re almost covering the pick.

2. Place your index finger on the backside of the pick. Make sure it’s perpendicular to the thumb. You should turn your index finger so it’s on its edge nearest the thumb.

That’s How to Hold and Use a Guitar Pick with Mark TheGuitarGuy. My notes may help but watch his video.

The Chicago Winter Humidity Battle has Begun

The humidity gauge dropped to 38. The battle has begun.

Guitars need 40 – 60 for prime humidity. Below 40 and the guitar wood dries up a bit and you get fret sprout and heaven knows what else. Last year I put away my two Jet Guitars in their cardboard boxes and put one acoustic in its case. The Glarry Semi-Hollow guitar seems impervious to low humidity.

So I pulled out two humidifiers and got them going. I think my old Covid-19 office now retirement man cave is about 10 feet X 20 feet. It has its own two heaters and central heat. Plus a curtain that separates it from the colder, dryer basement. Maybe a wall with a door one day 🙂

The humidity is back up to just above 40. Temperature in my basement is 66 with three heaters on a Chicago November day. Temperature down here will hover around 60 when I’m not here.

Anyway, I am humidifying my guitars as best I can.

Resisted the Urge to Purchase a Cort CR100 on Facebook

It was tempting. I have been looking for a Cort or Samick electric guitar.

Glad I didn’t purchase it. Great price, nice reviews. But I think it unwise to make my wife sad over a marginal student guitar just before Thanksgiving. Glad I passed.

The Cort CR100 is a cheaper good student guitar. Better to aim for a Cort CR200 or above with set neck rather than bolted. Here’s the Cort CR100 and amp I passed on for $100 in faraway northwest suburbs of Chicago, IL.

Guitar and Bass Practice: 11.27.2024

Wake Up with my Hohner HW200

10 minutes with “Sawbuck” the Florida Hohner today.

Focused on new pick technique as in holding a pick correctly. The tone’s seem brighter. In my mind, it “feels” easier to pick a few notes on my riffs. Hope so.

Check Humidity and Temperature in the Basement (late fall, early winter)

Yesterday morning humidity was 38. This morning with humidifier it was 47 relative humidity. I turned it down a bit.

Shoshin Guitarist Website Daily Check

15 visitors with 30 views. But found a WordPress stat indicating people are looking at my home page only. The website is fat on the front page and difficult to immediately get into blog posts.

1. Need simpler WordPress template.
2. Need email collector. Need to start building my email list.

Morning Practice, 60 minutes+ – Epiphone DR-100

Again I picked up my Epiphone DR-100 for practice. Now that I know how to raise my sitting height with 60 year old fishing cushions, playing the big old Epiphone DR-100 is easier.

And playing the Epiphone makes me happy. I had considered selling it.

More practice holding a Pick Correctly

Again, I watched How to Hold and Use a Guitar Pick with Mark TheGuitarGuy. This is the second day in a row I have watched.

Great. Then I practiced holding the pick, strumming and a dash of picking. It’s easier strumming and picking with good hand posture.

Weakness. But I sometimes realize I have slipped into clenching my three uninvolved fingers into a fist. Open up your fingers in the OK symbol.

My strumming attack is now vertical, not diagonal, and strumming seems easier. Picking strings seems easier also. Time will tell.

Andy Guitar Strumming Tree and Justin Guitar Songs

I use a printout of Andy Guitar’s “Strumming Tree”. Look him up on the Internet. And, I use Justin Guitar and his Musopia app for playing songs that match the strums.

So today, using good pick holding technique, I played my usual half a dozen songs with chord changes, different strums, and faster beats. Every day, I practice strumming. I am relentless.

Playing “Red Dirt Road” by Brooks & Dunn

I like this song and it means learning a few new chords.

Guitar and Bass Practice: 11.28.2024

Yes, today is Thanksgiving 2024 in the U.S. Yes, I still practice on Thanksgiving.

If guitar and bass practice isn’t fun, then perhaps you’re doing it wrong. It’s meant to be fun.

Wake Up with my Hohner HW200 – 10 Minutes

10 minutes with “Sawbuck” the Florida Hohner today.

Just the usual blind C chord, getting better at blind mini-barre F chord. Also working on my riffs and blues progressions.

Morning Practice, 60 minutes+ – Jet JS300 electric

Picked up the Jet JS300. It sure is pretty. But it’s low E always sounds a bit “sour” to me. It definitely needs new strings from Paul my Guitar Guy.

Orders a 2nd Pair of EyeKeeper Reading Glasses for $12

I ordered a 2nd pair of reading glasses with different magnification in each eye. I had monovision cataract surgery. So I can see far in my right eye and see near in my left eye.

I orders a left/right combo of 2.0 and 4.0 magnification. I even used a reading chart to estimate correct magnification.

This may be a $12 waste or perhaps a wonderful $12 investment. It’s not fun playing guitar when the strings you see are fuzzy.

Early Afternoon Practice, 30 minutes+ – Deltatone WPJB 500 from 2008

Courtesy of the Way Back Machine on the Internet (stores old websites), I discovered my Deltatone bass has the uncatchy model number of WPJB500. It has no model name.

My Deltatone bass cost someone $359.99 in 2008. It’s described as a TransBlue and Black bass.

Today as many days, I am using my Fender Play App. My goodness, there are many bass lessons to experience.

1. Bass Rock – 6 “Levels” with approximately 15 “Courses” per Level. Each “course” has about 6 “lessons and practice modes”. So that’s approximately 540 “lessons and practice modes” for Bass Rock.
2. Bass Funk – Has another approximate 540 lessons.

Easily, easily, the Fender Play App has 1000 “lessons and practice modes” for electric bass. And all of these lessons have different instructors with slightly different playing styles. Variety is a good thing among online training. Hurray.

10 PM Evening Practice, 60 minutes+ – Califorria Bass from 2004

The Eleca company (China) who made this guitar literally misspelled its name in script on the headstock. Califorria not California.

But I do call it the California bass. Paul my guitar tech says I should sell it because it has a stripped truss rod. I haven’t gotten around to doing that yet. But I like playing it because it has a bright sound for a bass so I play it.

At the end of a long Thanksgiving Day I rallied and practiced 60 minutes.

Tonight I just wanted to play songs that I knew from the Fender Play App. I played eleven songs with plucking, no picking.

Than I discovered that the Fender Play App has bass riffs and you can filter them by easy, medium, and difficult. Nice to know the Fender Play App has that feature.

My Goodness – 3 Hours of Guitar and Bass Practice on Thanksgiving Day

Yes, almost 3 hours today on both guitar and bass.

And I spent another 20-30 minutes ordering two magnification “readers” for seeing the guitar strings up close. I hope they work well. For $12 we shall see in a week when they arrive.

Time for sleep; grandkids coming over for 2 days.

Guitar and Bass Practice: 11.29.2024

Morning: 10 minutes waking up with my Hohner HW200.

Afternoon: 30-45 minutes playing Bass.

It’s a little hard getting in practice time when you are watching two young grandkids with grandma.

Learning Moment: Although I hold a pick correctly with my thumb and index finger, I do find myself using a closed fist. The rhythm hand needs to be an OK symbol. The last three fingers need to be spread. I also need to be closer to the strings, less of a gap.

Guitar and Bass Practice: 11.30.2024 (Saturday)

Morning: 10 minutes waking up with my Bristol acoustic guitar. Grandkids were on top floor watching TV so I went into the basement to play for 10 minutes.

Late Morning: 30-45 minutes playing my JS400, “Bela”, the Olympic white HSS guitar.

Losing the Humidity Battle in the Basement

With two humidifiers working, humidity is 35 which isn’t good. I do think I will need to box my two Jet guitars for the winter and case my good acoustics.

Only the Glarry Semi-Hollow can really survive this low humidity. I don’t want to dry out my other guitars and get fret spikes and worse.

It’s a little hard getting in practice time when you are watching two young grandkids with grandma.

Learning Moment: Although I hold a pick correctly with my thumb and index finger, I do find myself using a closed fist. The rhythm hand needs to be an OK symbol. The last three fingers need to be spread. I also need to be closer to the strings, less of a gap.

Guitar and Bass Practice: 2.1.2024 (Saturday)

Grandkids watching TV on 2nd floor. I stumble to the basement with a cup of coffee. I check my humidifiers and fill them up with water.

Sadly, I spill water (a bit too much) as I fill up one humidifier. So, starting guitars today with a water mess. Yikes.

Wake Up with my Bristol BM-16

10 minutes on the Bristol BM-16. It’s really a nice 3/4 or 7/8 guitar with a beautiful sound, perhaps best of all my guitars. The sound is almost like a cello.

Just the usual blind C chord and blind mini-barre F chord. The mini-barre F chord is becoming “stronger” or easier to play with early morning practice.

I caught myself using the pick 1/2 correctly:

1. Correct grip with thumb and index finger.
2. Wrong closed grip with 3rd, 4th and pinkie finger. I immediately opened up my hand in the OK symbol.

Late Afternoon Practice, 60 minutes+ Harmony H80T

I was tempted to play bass this afternoon. Then I strummed the Harmony H80T. It sang/vibrated for seconds on the headstock. It’s wonderful.

Harmony H80T and Peavey Vypyr VIP-1

I just plugged in the Harmony into the VIP-1, accepted its first pre-set, put on my headphones and strummed the Harmony. It made a beautiful sound. I didn’t need a better sound than that one.

1. Harmony switch position.
   • Switch at 4th position near bridge.
   • Volume max.
   • Tone at mid-point.
   • Tone at mid-point

2. Peavey Vypyr VIP-1 settings.

Buddha setting with Comp/Chrs at red.
Took photo without flash so you could see the settings better their lights.

Played “Coat of Many Colors” and “None of Us are Free”

1. Coat of Many Colors song by Dolly Parton. Country song.
2. None of Us are Free by Solomon Burke. Blues song.

I Played and Thought to Myself

“I Ain’t that Good; but I’m Good Enough.”

I enjoy the fact that I can “noodle around” on a relatively new song and hist the chords and sing quietly along. Good enough for 13 months of guitar.

Listerine Breath Strips for Singing

Yes, strange things come to mind when I practice guitar.

I use Listerine Breath Strips for better breathing when I sleep or take my mile long plus walks. It opens up my nasal passages.

Why not take them when I sing and play guitar.

I think it will help me breathe better.