Day 56: Monday, May 24th 2021
Practice Time – 2 mins
This wasn’t really a practice session – just a quick 2-minute strum just before bed when I realised I’d not practiced any guitar today.
Day 57: Tuesday, May 25th 2021
Practice Time – 1 hour
A mammoth session.
I ran through all of my chords, again mostly focussing on 4-finger G, Cadd9, Em, and D (I think this is starting to sound like a broken record now)
I can definitely feel fretting hand progress, although I think I need to isolate the strumming hand to give it some real attention.
Day 58: Wednesday, May 26th 2021
Practice Time – 15 mins
For the past two days, I’ve looked more closely at how I play guitar right-handed and I’ve tried to replicate the same finger angles/positions, left-handed.
When playing right-handed, my fingers are a lot less curled, so I’ve been experimenting with this whilst practicing left-handed. At first, it felt strange, but it’s starting to feel pretty good under the fingers today.
I practised the usual chords again today: 4-finger G, Em, Cadd9, D, A, E, Am, C and F.
Day 59: Thursday, May 27th 2021
Practice Time – 0 mins
Today was the beginning of the end (of this week).
I didn’t do any practice today, Friday, Saturday or Sunday, making this week officially my worst week since I started this experience.
I was aware that I wasn’t practicing too, which is not a good sign.
Oh, dear…
Day 60: Friday, May 28th 2021
Practice Time – 0 mins
Day 61: Saturday, May 29th 2021
Practice Time – 0 mins
Day 62: Sunday, May 30th 2021
Practice Time – 0 mins
Weekly Round-Up
Total Days Practiced: 3
Monday – 2 mins (not really a practice session)
Tuesday – 1 hour
Wednesday – 15 mins
Thursday – x
Friday – x
Saturday – x
Sunday – x
Total Weekly Minutes Practiced:
1 hour and 17 minutes
End of Week Thoughts:
Practice Gone?
Man, there’s quite a lot to think about here. Where has my practice gone? Clearly, something isn’t quite right.
I’ve been thinking about this and I think that I’m just not enjoying this experience as much as I was previously. This seems to be the big issue. So what’s happened?
A couple of things have changed over the past 3 or 4 weeks:
1. I’ve set myself a goal to Progress to a specific level of playing after 12 weeks of learning
My plan over the past few weeks has been to reach a specific level of playing within 12 weeks of learning. This has put me in what I call a “Progress Mindset”. My mind is constantly on improvement, and the small amounts of progress that I do achieve are not satisfying enough.
2. The Plectrum
Over the past few weeks, I’ve been forcing myself to practice and use a plectrum. The thing is, playing the guitar with a plectrum (left-handed) for me just isn’t as enjoyable as it is when I use my thumb.
A Possible Solution?
My whole teaching philosophy is based on how we feel whilst we learn.
In a nutshell:
We need to feel: Excited, Inspired, Motivated and Fulfilled.
We need to NOT feel: Obligated, Frustrated, or Bored.
Recently, my feelings towards playing and practice have ventured into the “NOT feel” category.
So next week, I’m going to change my mindset from Progress to Process. I’m no longer going to focus on how much progress I’m making. Instead, I’m going to focus on the actual Process, and how I feel whilst learning.
We’ll see what happens next.