Day 21: Monday, April 19th 2021
Practice Time – 15 mins
The last three days were pretty poor for practice so I was determined to get back on the horse today.
I spent the session today running through Em, G, Cadd9 and D with a pick. The pick seems to bring out my floors. To make the pick sound good, I really need to make a smooth connection with the strings.
Day 22: Tuesday, April 20th 2021
Practice Time – 0 mins
Oh, dear! No practice again today. Life is extremely busy yet again.
Day 23: Wednesday, April 21st 2021
Practice Time – 0 mins
Oh, double dear! No practice again. It’s not that I don’t want to practice, it’s just that I’m so busy I’m forgetting about it.
Day 24: Thursday, April 22nd 2021
Practice Time – 15 mins
Hooray! I practised. 🙂
I decided to move up a level today and threw in the Am, C and F chords.
Thoughts on each chord:
The A minor chord
The A minor chord actually feels OK. Nothing overly difficult. I just need to build the shape into my fingers. Because I’ve already been practising the Em, the Am feels OK to me.
The C chord
I did work on this chord during the first few days of this project so it’s not totally unfamiliar. During the first few days, it felt impossible. But now it feels doable. It’s still difficult for sure, but it feels doable. I think my fingers are just that much better conditioned now.
The F chord
Ah, the dreaded F chord! Here we go.
So I’m learning a simplified version of the “Folk” F chord here, not the barre chord version. I feel as though a barre chord right now would be way too big of a jump for my beginner left-hand.
This is the first time I’ve tried this chord and it feels super difficult – almost too difficult. I feel as though maybe I should work on the C for a bit first, and then try the F. But, you know what, I’m just going to get stuck into it!
Finger 4 seems to be really struggling. This finger is going to need a bit of work here for sure.
Day 25: Friday, April 23rd 2021
Practice Time – 5 mins
Nothing really to report other than just a very quick brush over all chords. I feel as though I’ve lost a bit of momentum. Again, life is really busy.
Day 26: Saturday, April 24th 2021
Practice Time – 0 mins
Another super busy day resulted in zero practice.
Day 27: Sunday, April 25th 2021
Practice Time – 15 mins
Yey! I practised.
I just ran through a number of songs that I know the chords to:
Goodnight Irene – D, G and A
Wild Thing – A, D and E
Boulevard of Broken Dreams – Em, G, D and A
Time of Your Life – G, Cadd9, D, Em
Talking About a Revolution – G, Cadd9, Em and D
Even though my chord changes are still not up to speed, it felt really pleasant to play through some songs. Playing music feels better than drilling chord changes. But drilling chord changes is important so I think it’s all about finding the right balance.
Weekly Round-Up
Total Days Practiced:
Monday – 15 mins
Tuesday – x
Wednesday – x
Thursday – 15 mins
Friday – 5 mins
Saturday – x
Sunday – 15 mins
Total Weekly Minutes Practiced:
50 minutes
End of Week Thoughts:
I practised 4 days out of 7 this week which isn’t too bad really. That said, it feels like a pretty poor practice week and I don’t really think I’ve progressed much.
It’s been an enlightening experience though.
When I first learned to play the guitar back in 1997, I had all the time in the world to practice, and I remember having all the open chords down within a month (not including the F). I practised a lot!
Times are different now though, with work, home projects, and children to look after, it’s much harder to find the time to practice on a consistent basis.
This is another great lesson learned from this experience, and I’m looking forward to figuring out ways of getting around it.