Practise Diary - Grade 1 & 3

Hey Paul,

Thanks for looking at it and giving the feedback, i'm really looking forward to dissecting it with you tomorrow!

Sounding pretty good and ready to start polishing, now it's up to speed! I'm hearing a tendency to "rush" in places and though it isn't knocking you off hitting the "One beat" strongly each bar, warrants some attention. Here's a single bar snap-shotted to show something that's happening regularly throughout:

The note on the "and" (3rd part) of beat three is played pretty early here and takes the edge off the groove of things. Seeing it like this (if that makes sense?) should help visualise where we'll be aiming to nail it! It's the standard issue with offbeats as it's our old friend "KNEE and" in disguise! Shouldn't take long to tighten up!

Hey Paul,

Here's the first version of the last time at 100%!

Sounding grand Doug. Keep 'em coming!

Hey Paul,

Here's sitting on the dock of the bay a week on, it's definitely getting stronger.

The grind pays off again 😉... eminently listenable. Sounds great and nothing jumps out that won't smooth out with a little more bedding-in. How about adding in a 120% speed version next time you record it?

Hey Paul, here's the video for sittin on the dock of the bay at 100% speed. It definitely still needs some work in the middle section and towards the end but i thought it would be good to have a warts and all version.

Right on the button from start to finish. Superb stuff!!!

Hey Paul,

thanks for posting the above, i'll definitely start working through the scales later this week.

Additionally here's a version of me playing lonely boy at 100% speed now!

The tough way to learn them is to repeat them as written until they stick. It usually works but never seems to stick for long and isn't much fun to learn. The "trick" is to turn them into music. The first two on the list are "diatonic" (seven note) scales. If we shape the notes into a rhythm it can then be played as music and top speed can be measured to show progress (increased ease of playing). Here's a sheet showing that but with the C major scale (same as the G major scale on your sheet but played starting at fret 8 rather than fret 3):

Each bar has the rhythm "Egg Chicken Chicken Chicken" and begins on the root note C. Pick directions should follow the 8th note foot tap meaning a ghost pick on the "and" of beat 1. 1) Take the two bars outlined in green and get them looping. This gives the lower octave (8 notes) of the scale. 2) Do the same with the bars outlined in grey. This gives the upper octave. 3) Once each loop is familiar, playing through the full 4 bars as laid out then gives both octaves as written in your grade book. Can you see why it's referred to as the "E shape" C major scale? The following should help if not:

This idea works for any diatonic scale. The next on your list is the A minor scale which also has 7 notes so the same system will work there too. Try drawing it out as I've done with the C major scale. For each of the pentatonics we can use the same idea but applied to a 5 note scale. I cover that in this article: https://www.taplature.com/single-post/2019/09/04/better-public-speaking-on-guitar-turning-scales-into-music-1 As ever, monitoring progress with a metronome lets you see improvement as the shapes sink in and once learned this way they should stick forever!

Hey Paul,

Here are the scales that i've got to learn.

Hey Paul,

Here is The Last Time played to the backing track, it's currently at 75% speed.

So that's all 3 pieces for grade 3 that i just need to build the speed up on over the next few weeks. I've got some scales to learn too of course, but should be ready to book the next exam soon!