who wants to join a friendly 14 day practice challenge?

[RedJoker]

I spent some time last night working on F#m chord and transitions and Bm. Still working through "Hallelujah" and "Colder Weather" intro. I like playing through songs but, as a newbie, I have to set aside time for one-minute changes and scale work.

[Scotch]

DAY 1.

Hello folks. My goal in 14days is to Compose my first ever composition and it will be in Open C. Also To sing I wont back Down.

Problem last night got the bad dose of the Cold. Felt very ruff and just went to bed early but got a little practice in.

Been struggling as I have no idea on what i want to play but convey what i feel. Atm It happyness and sombre. So currently The idea has a nice sweet melody to start off then build it up. Making if feel more beefy but retaining the sweet melody then moving onto progression of building power, strength and strong happyiness. This so far is Introduction with melody i feel I've got down to a T, Got the build up. Then the big power part. It's fitting them together where its not a rash jump between two different styles.

I find it really hard to explain what I'm trying to convey. So maybe that last paragraph made no sense at all.

[Trevor B.]

Got my Lowden Fan Fret Set to hold Open C perfectly and new set of Elixir place on it today.

I sure hope we're going to hear a sample of your Lowden Fan Fret guitar, Scotch.

Today I've set my metronome at MM eighth note=132. The piece is in 6/8 and the final tempo is somewhere in the 168 to 176 range, so with about 10 days left for burnishing and polishing i believe my goal is doable. My approach will be to up the tempo only after all the phrases in the piece are equally comfortable to play. It's my view that one should always have a bit of headroom above the selected tempo for a piece (okay, I admit it, I'm risk averse). Will let everyone know where I'm at tempo wise tomorrow.

[Scotch]

Originally Posted by Trevor B.

I sure hope we're going to hear a sample of your Lowden Fan Fret guitar, Scotch.

.

Sure Will. Ill Upload a video Of the Composition hopefully by the end of the 14 Days. But again it will be recorded off my phone until can get a few pennies saved for a decent Mic.

Great reading your experiences so far guys!

Day 2: first day of the split up repertoire practice. Not so sure I like this (too addicted to 3+ hours of practice a night!) but I don't think I have any other choice given the situation. My wife suggested to compensate I should take one weekend evening to do a full repertoire practice. I think it's a good suggestion so I'm doing it.

Listened to the next song I'm learning, Big Bill Broonzy's Shuffle Rag from Stefan Grossman's Ragtime Blues Guitar DVD. Looks like a lot of fun and I'll start digging in on Thursday night.

I decided to record Freight Train next week as part of the challenge and post it. Stay tuned.

Also spent 20 minutes reworking a little section of Diddie Wah Diddie to conform to Stefan Grossman's approach. My way of doing it (picking the section all with my thumb) was slowing me down and I like what he's doing (alternating thumb and index). Seems to work for me so I'll incorporate it into playing the tune from here on in.

[Trevor B.]

My way of doing it (picking the section all with my thumb) was slowing me down and I like what he's doing (alternating thumb and index). Seems to work for me so I'll incorporate it into playing the tune from here on in.

You may already know this, Doug, but the alternating p(thumb), i(index) alternation was a common approach for scalar passages on the Renaissance lute. I realize that it's a different idiom but speaks to what a versatile technique the thumb, index alternation is.
Kudos on coming up with the 14 day practice challenge. Reading the daily updates folks are posting is both fun and informative. A win for us all.

Originally Posted by Trevor B.

You may already know this, Doug, but the alternating p(thumb), i(index) alternation was a common approach for scalar passages on the Renaissance lute. I realize that it's a different idiom but speaks to what a versatile technique the thumb, index alternation is.

Nope didn't know that. I really know nothing about the lute. Neat instrument though.

Originally Posted by Trevor B.

Kudos on coming up with the 14 day practice challenge. Reading the daily updates folks are posting is both fun and informative. A win for us all.

Thanks! I've been doing these for a while now, 5 week challenges, 40 day challenges, learn a song challenges. I thought I'd try out 14 days this time. I hope everyone is having fun.

[Staredge]

Originally Posted by RedJoker

I spent some time last night working on F#m chord and transitions and Bm.

Started working on Changes in Latitude today. G, D, and A are easy enough.....then they throw those two in there. (also an F and a C at the end)

[Toby Walker]

Originally Posted by RedJoker

Count me in. I'm only three months into this guitar thing so I'm still learning chords and beginning to pick melodies. I'm working on "Hallelujah" for the F chord, zac Brown's colder weather for picking to strumming transitions and rhythm. And a whole bunch of others to get ready for campfire season.

Originally Posted by Trevor B.

You may already know this, Doug, but the alternating p(thumb), i(index) alternation was a common approach for scalar passages on the Renaissance lute. I realize that it's a different idiom but speaks to what a versatile technique the thumb, index alternation is.
Kudos on coming up with the 14 day practice challenge. Reading the daily updates folks are posting is both fun and informative. A win for us all.

How cool is that?

The Reverend Gary Davis used the same technique when playing many of his single note runs.

Originally Posted by Toby Walker

How cool is that?

The Reverend Gary Davis used the same technique when playing many of his single note runs.

Yeah Stefan Grossman's arrangement of Diddle Wah Diddie that I learned and posted has a bass lick that uses thumb and index. I used his approach for most of it but for some reason reverted to thumb only for three notes but I found it really slowed me down so I'm now doing to thumb and index for the whole thing.

[AX17609]

Day 2 -- I went to a local open mic last night, and now I’m thinking I might want to do that after all. But back to the original goal recording something. Given my penchant for overdoing things, I read a mountain of material on how to record the acoustic guitar. Then I set out to get a solid recording of something simple. I had to dig into the Reaper Forum to re-learn how to do a couple of things, but I managed my way thru it. After a while, I got something worth saving… not worth posting, but worth saving.

[Tony Done]

OK, day 1 I spent most of the day in my (hot!) workshop making a new electric pickguard, and promptly fell asleep in the armchair when I can back in. Did get a bit done though. I've decided to work on thumb/finger brush for acoustic lapsteel, using "Leaving Liverpool" as the example, possibly wandering off into other bouncy folk songs as the mood takes. I've tried this style before for normal spanish-position playing, and I know that if I get it right I will end up with a mandolin-like jangle.

Day 2, did some more. I had been using a reso, but since I practice (for want of a better word) while watching the TV, I decided to switch to the kona, which is a lot quieter. It still annoys the family, but not quite so much.

Day 3: unhappy with my new split repertoire practice. I'm finding practice time is done but I still want to keep playing. So I'm going to do a full repertoire practice on nights where I don't have to put my son to bed and the half repertoire practice on nights that I do. I think that's the best solution for me.

I had a good practice last night. Felt good and I think I sounded good. A few problem spots but that's to be expected. I have a philosophy that if I make a mistake I see if I make the same mistake the next time I play the piece. If yes then I work on the problem area. Otherwise I don't worry about it. It's just a subspace anomaly.

At the end of practice I spent some time working on that thumb and index finger bit in Diddie Wah Diddie and it worked out well. It's a lot easier and allows me to pick up the tempo a bit. I didn't look at Shuffle Rag but I'll get started tonight. I already play a few Big Bill songs and I really like his style.

[Staredge]

I HATE BARRE CHORDS!!!!!!!!!!!!! Bm to an F#m. I can hit the Bm clean, but have a heck of a time with the F. The G and D strings fall right under the fold of my finger, so they end up muted. Grrrrrrrrrrrr.

Originally Posted by Staredge

I HATE BARRE CHORDS!!!!!!!!!!!!! Bm to an F#m. I can hit the Bm clean, but have a heck of a time with the F. The G and D strings fall right under the fold of my finger, so they end up muted. Grrrrrrrrrrrr.

I don't play a lot of barre chords anymore but what works for me is to rotate the index finger a bit so that I'm barring more with the left edge of the finger. Hope that makes sense. I also tuck my elbow in a bit toward my side.