Day 161: Monday, September 6th 2021
Practice Time – 0 mins
So I’m home from holiday, the kids are back in school, and a sense of normality resumes. The summer holidays were a real challenge for my Guitar From Scratch experience what with work, kids and extra side-projects I also had on the go, but I think I did what I could with what I had, and I’m pleased to have experienced the challenge.
This week starts a fresh new term and I have 3 sessions left before I make it to the big 101 days of practice.
I begin on Friday – Let’s do this!
Day 162: Tuesday, September 7th 2021
Practice Time – 0 mins
Day 163: Wednesday, September 8th 2021
Practice Time: 0 mins
Day 164: Thursday, September 9th 2021
Practice Time – 0 mins
Day 165: Friday, September 10th 2021
Practice Time – 1 hour
It’s been a couple of weeks since my last practice session, so here goes everything:
Practice day 99!
If there’s one thing that this project has taught me it’s that the physical conditioning of the fingers is so important for improving and progressing on the guitar. On a physical level, it’s the only thing that holds us back.
So today I ran through I bunch of different things with this concept in mind:
- Single Note Picking
As well as running through all of my regular chords/changes/strumming, I decided to add some single note picking into the mix to give the fingers a little extra to work on. I did this specifically to work and condition the fingers into better shape for playing my open chords. I’m glad I did because it was also fun!
I worked on 7 Nation Army, Sunshine Of Your Love, Come As You Are, Smoke On The Water and Iron Man, all within the first 3 frets using a closed hand position (the same position as I’m using to play my open chords).
- Blues Riffs
I also worked on my blues riffs which are all based in an open hand position.
I really enjoy the workout these open hand blues riffs give me. As with the single note picking stuff, it’s also fun to practice.
A combination of both closed and open hand workouts seem to work really well for speeding up the physical conditioning of the hands and fingers for playing the guitar.
- Tapping Combos
This is a cool technical exercise that I stole from Guthrie Govan. I practised both in an open and closed position. It’s doesn’t need too much thought once you’ve got yourself going and it’s fun to put some music on in the background to tap along to.
- Chord Walking
I’ve also come up with a new exercise which I’m calling “chord walking”. Another little exercise that sounds musical and really gives my fingers the workout I know they need.
As usual, I also ran through all of my open chords and threw in the A7, D7 and E7 chords whilst in the spirit of Blues. It felt really nice to work on some new chords to be honest. I’m definitely ready for this.
All in all, today’s 1-hour session went really well. The variation in what I was practising really held my interest for the entire time. I think this is an important concept for me when practising for longer periods of time.
Day 166: Saturday, September 11st 2021
Practice Time – 1 hour
Practice Day 100!
Pretty much an exact replica of yesterdays session! Really happy to practice for the full hour. My fingers feel a little better than yesterday.
Day 167: Sunday, September 12nd 2021
Practice Time – 1 hour
Practice Day 101! Woohoo! I made it.
MISSION COMPLETE!
Again, an exact replica of the Friday and Saturday sessions.
Practice felt good and hitting the 101-day milestone felt even better.
Weekly Round Up
Total Days Practiced: 3
Monday – 0 mins
Tuesday – 0 mins
Wednesday – 0 mins
Thursday – 0 mins
Friday – 1 hour
Saturday – 1 hour
Sunday – 1 hour
Total Weekly Minutes Practiced:
3 hours
End of Week Thoughts:
I MADE IT! 101 DAYS OF PRACTICE
Yey!!! I finally got to 101 days of practice and I’m super pleased 🙂
My chords still don’t feel as perfect as they do when I play right-handed, but I think they’re good enough to knock out some tunes around the campfire which was my goal.
This project has been a wonderful learning experience for me, and I’m so happy I went ahead with it.
Phase 1: Campfire Guitar Star – Mission Complete!
Before moving on to the next phase, I now need to compile everything I’ve learnt through this experience into a brand new Guitar From Scratch which I’ll upload to youtube and my website. It’ll be available to everyone learning guitar from absolute scratch, and will be absolutely free!
I’ll give myself 2 months to write and record this course in its entirety. After that, I’ll begin Phase 2 of this adventure, where I’ll be wandering into power-chord and barre chord territory.
Keep strumming, and see you soon.
Lee 🙂