Dan’s Guitar Learning Journal

Blog posts on www.88curtis.com

I haven’t updated the blog in a while because I haven’t got to a comfortable level with
Practise Routine 3. I’ve made a few improvements, but I’m not quite ready to move on yet.  Here is some video of my latest practising to give you an idea of where I am.

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I changed my routine today. To better measure my progress I’ve added a proficiency column. The range I use is from the easy end, quarter notes, one note per beat (D D D D), then to eight notes (Strum one or two) with two measures per chord, then eight notes with one measure per chord [...]

I learned a new strum pattern tonight. Lets call it Strum 3.

Practise is going well. I’m almost ready to change my routine.
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A couple of years ago, during one of my various guitar learning phases, I picked up a really useful tip on how to hold barre chords. For months I struggled trying to learn barre chords, I thought it was a matter of developing strength in my hands and forearms, but I was very wrong about [...]

My favourite guitar mnemonic. From now on I guarantee you will have no trouble remembering the notes of your open strings.
Practise didn’t go so well tonight. My fret hand got tired quite early on and I never really recovered. I did go through the routine and there were still some improvements, so that is something. However I [...]

I’ve decided to copy Tony over at The Guitar Quest and learn possibly my favourite QOTSA song. It’s a bit challenging in the strumming and guitar trickometer departments for a mere beginner, but the chords are pretty easy and I have no trouble with the changes (E, G, D, A, C).
I’m using this Youtube clip [...]

Well, I have been very slack at updating my journal, that damn real life thing keeps interrupting me. Not so slack that I haven’t kept up my practise though. I’ve altered my practise routine slightly by adding in a song to practise. Stand By Me by Ben E. King, Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. So [...]

No entry last night because I was too busy entertaining friends… no really I was… but I did find time to make some improvements to the blog. Dans Guitar Learning Journal is now mobile thanks to
Word Press Mobile by Andy Moore. I bet that was the feature you were waiting for!
On the practise front I [...]

Well… I got slightly distracted tonight, watching the ‘Lost Boys’ in all its cheesy eighties vampire lovefest glory. However I did manage to work on my long progression skills and the F Chord. I also started reading the Guitar TAB Edition of the Muse Hullabaloo Sountrack and felt slightly overwhelmed at what I didn’t know!
If [...]

Tonight I wrote some down some tips that I think are highly useful for beginners such as myself (spot the fallacy). Most of them are just common sense but as I am so often reminded common sense just isn’t that common anymore.

The 15 Commandments of Learning Guitar
As for practise I went through my current practise [...]