who wants to do a 40 day practice challenge with me? - Page 7

#91 05-03-2013, 07:43 AM

Days 26-27: My problems continue. Being on full time bedtime duty with my son is killing me when it comes to practice time. Wed was fine. I never fell asleep and I had a really great practice and some excellent (but tough!) time working out the new section to the new song. But last night I just couldn't get up. I came to at 1 and just went to bed. But not all dark clouds! I did get about a 1/2hr+ in yesterday just focusing on my new song and I nailed it. This section is really tricky but I had a great break through and really put it together. It's moments like that that make it all worth it. Anybody have that feeling when they are working out a new song where the sunshine just break through? Feels great.

Tonight: back to repertorie and reinforcing the new section plus listening to the next bit. I'll see how it goes. I'm pretty close to the end of the new piece!

bayoubill · #92 05-04-2013, 09:11 PM

Day 3

Went to bridge today and had no idea where I left off. Had to go back to the top. Finished and now well over 3/4 the way through. this song isn't hard to play but I feared my brain is.

delb0y · #93 05-06-2013, 05:28 AM

Day 31. More of the same over the last few days. Really struggling to get a good recording of the whole thing with no mistakes, but that aside it's going well. The bits that I have recorded are just starte to sound ok to me - a bit of bounce and syncopation and even that lightness of touch that this is really all about. I've upped the practice speed to 215 bpm (107 in Flatpicker's terms - they divide it all by two for some reason) which is way in excess of my original goal - so it may make it easier when I drop down a few bpm for the final recording in 9 days time...

delb0y · #94 05-06-2013, 07:34 AM

Just to add a further update to the note above, here's the audio position of where I am as I go into the last quarter of the challenge.

Ragtime Annie V2

This is only the beginner's and intermediate choruses as I'm yet to get even a halfway decent version of the advanced chorus down - but there's still over a week left and I'm almost there.

I much prefer this speed (I can't even listen to the old version now). There's still a few things I've been doing over the last week that I'm yet to incorporate at this tempo (only started playing at this speed this morning) - mainly trying to hold the low C note down and let it ring throughout some of the runs, and a bit more syncopation - but I'm happy with the progress.

Comments welcome - has it been worth it??

Cheers
Derek

#95 05-06-2013, 09:00 AM

Days 28-30: Friday night: my wife called from Vancouver and helped wake me up after I put my son to bed. Unfortunately I was having a bunch of hand cramps but I made it through the practice. Saturday: I finished the last part of my new song! I spend some time during the day working on the parts I knew and then I grabbed the video and figured out the last part. Not the best practice though. I kept screwing up my repertorie. Sigh. At least my wife got back home so I didn't have to put my son to bed. Sunday: I spent a little bit of the day between chores working on the new section of my song. It went well and did my usual practice at night. After that I spent about 30-40 minutes trying to tie the whole new song together. It was quite a struggle but I got it in the end.

Tonight: repertorie, more time with the new song and hopefully a recording session.

mc1 · #96 05-06-2013, 09:10 AM

i've still been maintaining about 1 hour per day which for some reason i am spreading out over a number of pieces. we had company over the weekend, and the garden needs tending amongst other obstacles. at the very least i'm really building up a library of excuses.

kirkham13 · #97 05-06-2013, 07:32 PM

Ragtime Annie and freight train sound great esp Annie, it's exactly the type of music I'm digging now... Great job.

delb0y · #98 05-07-2013, 08:11 AM

Quote:

Ragtime Annie and freight train sound great esp Annie, it's exactly the type of music I'm digging now... Great job.

Thank you, Kirkham!

Day 32 - the joy of working from home. Spent half an hour at lunchtime sitting out in the sun with a cup of tea plucking away at Annie. Even managed to get through the whole thing once or twice and have added another tiny tweak which I 'heard' when listening to the version above.

Off to London tomorrow so it may be the first day since the challenge began when I don't get to play - but I'll hopefully be back home in time for a few minutes on the song.

Kind regards
Derek

bayoubill · #99 05-07-2013, 04:50 PM

I'm not sure what day it is.

I'm getting a late start cuz it's after 5 pm. No problems so far. I just love this song. After I learn it ALL comes the real work of practicing it.

#**100** 05-07-2013, 05:55 PM

Day 31: really putting my new song together now. Able to play it end to end with no mistakes but it takes a few tries to get there. Also I can run the new song through in my head when I'm away from the guitar which is usually a good sign. Good practice all around last night and I did a recording of Woody Mann's Midtown Fling. Here the fruits of my (recording) labour:

http://soundcloud.com/tripleohdoug/midtown-fling

Comments are always welcome.

Blank731 · #**101** 05-07-2013, 11:24 PM

this is such a good idea. I'm totally doing it, 40 days in a row and record everyday. Don't think I can pull 2 hours though, maybe a half hour and record 1 songs or something every day.

Picking Moose · #**102** 05-08-2013, 03:38 AM

Ok.. I must admit it... just reading how much effort you all put into it gave me a nice boost towards playing/practicing more than I normally do but... record something every day?

That would imply having a permanent recording setup, ready to go at whim. For me at least.
And having something worth recording every day too.

OK, OK... I'll work on it!
Darn!!

@J-Doug: nice tune you've got there. Some nice tricky bits in it.
To make it perfect I would suggest watching out for some slight speed discrepancies here and there. This is a sort of piece which requires the utmost steady and rock solid speed to work out best.
Great effort as it is, anyway. Thanks for sharing it with us all

#**103** 05-08-2013, 07:12 AM

Thank you for your kind words Picking Moose! I noticed some tempo shakiness when I listened back but I wanted to go to bed so I left it!

bayoubill · #**104** 05-08-2013, 08:56 PM

Wow! It's been a week already. I didn't spend the 2 hours a day I thought I would. Well I'm learning the outro and after that comes the woodshedding. 7 days practice so I'm hoping to be through by the 25th or so. Then I'll do the recording thing to hear if I can play it without mistakes. I give myself 3 tries and if I can't play from beginning to the end I go back the practicing. When I get a recording I'll post it. This is fun!

delb0y · #**105** 05-09-2013, 01:47 AM

Day 33 (Yesterday) went like this - up at 6.00 to catch the train for London. Arrive home 7.30-ish in the evening, quick change and then walk the dog. Get back from walking the dog and set off for Accident & Ermegency at the hospital as SWMBO had slipped coming down the stairs...arrive home 2.00 in the morning. However... between walking the dog and heading to the hospital a tiny window of opportunity arose and I did manage to play through Annie about three times and spend a few minutes focusing on the one run that's still causing me most issues. Not much work in the grand scheme of things - maybe 15 mins - but at least it kept the muscle memory warm.

Today, Day 34, will be another tight one I think. But I will get some work in. I've come too close to mastering this arrangement to let it slip now...