20 days of practicing and learning 1 song

[JackC1]

Originally Posted by TBman

Can anyone join these lessons?

Yes, kind of.

There are some rules that students must meet (it's on the honor system).

Last year (my first year), the rules were:
1. You must post videos for critique
2. You must comment on other's videos
3. You must post 1 advertisement for the class
4. You must register under your real name

This year (my current year), an additional rule was added:
5. You must not have a teacher.

Next year (starting Spetember 2023), one more additional rule:
6. Limits on class sizes (with guaranteed space for current students).


When I first participated, last year, I was also concurrently taking in-person guitar lessons. At one point I had 3 lessons going on (in-person private lesson, in-person classroom lesson from a local college, and the Delcamp inline lesson); that was really exhausting and stressful.

After that first year, when I started my second year with Delcamp, I noticed the new "no access to a teacher" rule. Fortunately, at that time, I only have an acoustic guitar teacher; and I noticed many students stating that they have no "classical guitar teacher", which fits my situation too.

For the next year, right now, although I'm currently, truly without a teacher, I'm not sure if I want to continue with Delcamp. I'll have to see.

The Delcamp program is really nice; but with the new "no teacher" rule, I think, many people can't signing up. There's a very noticeable drop in the number of students last year vs this year across all the Delcamp class levels (I'd estimate -50% or more). Because the system is based on peer feedback (although the higher-level classes get Delcamp and more tutor feedback), the classes work better with more participants, especially the lower-level classes.

Delcamp is still a very nice class for the self-teach student because you can get feedback on your playing. Recording and sharing your videos somehow (as least for me) makes it very much easier to perform for others (I've always thought music is meant to be shared so I place a high importance on public performances). The thing that's keeping me with Delcamp for the second year is that the assignments aren't too demanding (perfect IMHO for an amateur hobbyist) so there's pretty much no stress. You also develop relationships with your classmates as you go thru the years. If one is strictly self-teaching, I highly, highly recommend Delcamp.

Please feel free to ask me any questions; I'd be very happy to answer if I can.

[JackC1]

Ah, managed to put into another 14 minutes of practice. I can almost taste the first play-thru (without major messups that is)... almost there.

Because of all these play-thru attempts, I'm getting way better at playing the first half of the song than the bottom half. I tried to balance them out by playing more the bottom half after I gave up on the play thru attempt towards the end of the practice session.

I still can't play the entire song from memory. I might have to just give up memorizing it. It's such a simple song, but I'm just not used to memorizing music in a while.

My finger tips are starting to hurt (they are beyond sore) so I decided to stop; I think I'll probably need to rest them tomorrow.

I kind of miss my acoustic guitar; haven't had a chance to play them. After my fingers feel better and I make a first recording, I might take a couple of days off and play my acoustic guitars.

[mr. beaumont]

Really hearing the progress from day 1.

This is a great thread--really shows the power of practice, even with a limited time! A little goes a long way.

[TBman]

Originally Posted by JackC1

Ok, I watched your 1st attempt in this video. The big thing I take away from it is when you made a mistake near the end of the piece (at about 0:38), you stopped and then restarted from the beginning. That's not good. You have to immediately replay the area that had the mistake until you get it correct and then continue to the end of the piece. Replaying from the beginning won't fix the problem area. Other than that you are making good progress.

[JackC1]

Originally Posted by TBman

Ok, I watched your 1st attempt in this video. The big thing I take away from it is when you made a mistake near the end of the piece (at about 0:38), you stopped and then restarted from the beginning. That's not good. You have to immediately replay the area that had the mistake until you get it correct and then continue to the end of the piece. Replaying from the beginning won't fix the problem area. Other than that you are making good progress.

Thanks for the tips. It makes very good sense, and I'll change the way I'm practicing when trying to do a play thru. It definitely can to decrease the repeated playing of the beginning part.

[JackC1]

********************* DAY 6 *******************

Well, my finger tips seems good, but finger joints are a bit sore. I sure hope I'm not coming down with arthritis! That'd seriously suck.

Today, I started on a new song (Anonyme Un éléphant qui se balançait). Doing some Internet searching, I think it is a French children song about elephants. It's got a very catchy tune; before I knew it, I've put in 25 mins. The tune is catchy, but I apparently suck at playing dotted notes; so I found it challenging.

No work on Pavane. I think it is good to let Pavane have some rest today.

(Ths videos in this thread are links to my practice journal for pavane; so, you are spared of my aweful elephant-stumping-sounding practice on this new song. It's whimsical and I want to put into my repertoire; so I have a feeling it'll be stealing much time from Pavane.)

[JackC1]

******************* DAY 7 *********************

Another day of rest for Pavane.

Although nothing on Pavane, I did put 40 minutes of practice between today and yesterday into Un Elephant Qui Se Balancait (the new assigned song for May from Delcamp). It's a children song, but it was giving me difficulties because of its rhythm that I'm not familiar with. However, once I got the hang, it isn't too bad and I was able to record a first play thru.



Here's the score, if anybody's interested

[JackC1]

I probably should mention that I'm resting Pavane mainly because I have a cut on my pinky finger (and also the reason I wasn't able to follow Un Elephant's fingerings on finger #4).

I've found that music is very fair; you get what you put in. It's rewarding in that way too; the more you give, the more it returns.

We're experiencing a cold front here. Just a few days ago it was like 80-90F; right now (a couple hours ago while driving to the markets) it is 52F.

[JackC1]

******************** DAY 9 *********************
(You may think I've skipped a day, but I didn't. Instead, I re-lived Day #3 and must, therefore, make the count correct with Day #9.)

I foolishly played some basketball yesterday and reopened my cut. To make matters worse, I changed the aquarium water and accidentally put my cut finger into the water (I sure hope I don't get any infections).

So, I'm going to lay off the pinky today; and, that, unfortunately for me, means no Pavane practice today.

On the bright side, I'll put in some time on Un Elephant. I think today I might be able to make a final recording of that song. Once that's done, all I have left for the next 10 days is Pavane.

[JackC1]

Put in some practice time on Un Elephant. I'm hoping this vesrion is good enough for Delcamp. Now, I shall put practice time into Pavane once again.

Here's (hopefully) my final Un Elephant song


Today, I also put in a few minutes on the acoustic gutiar (not really practice time since I was just noodling around). Not able to use my pinky really made me realize just how much it is being used when I play chords. It also made me think about the hardship a disabled person faces everyday; I know my pinky is nothing compared to even the smallest disability; but it helped to refresh my mind to always think how difficult some people have it in life.

[Gitfiddlemann]

Originally Posted by JackC1

Put in some practice time on Un Elephant. I'm hoping this vesrion is good enough for Delcamp. Now, I shall put practice time into Pavane once again.

Here's (hopefully) my final Un Elephant song

Much better than the first go around Jack. Good work.
The big improvement imo was observance of the tempo and dotted rhythm. You obviously focused on that. Makes a big difference.

[JackC1]

****************** DAY 10 **********************

Almost didn't practice today! 11th-hour practice at 11PM. Coincidence? or Fate? Anyway, I'm glad to have played Pavane today because any more time off and I think I might have to start from square one. I can't remember much of the song (I guess it's goodbye to memorization); it's almost like I'm sight reading it all new.

Managed to get 4 minutes of practice in today when I almost didn't feel like practicing. So that's not too bad.

[JackC1]

****************** DAY 11 ****************

Almost didn't practice today (again); but decided to put in some practice just before 12AM. Good, so far, I've practiced guitar everyday (almost). Not bad. Thank you, Mr. Thread. I think without this thread, I'd have skipped on practice today.

I realized that my fingerings were wrong so today's practice focused on correct fingering. Also, with the correct fingering, I can just put accents on the m-p fingers and get correct measure dynamics if I want to treat this piece as a 2/4 time; or just mind the second m-p accent if I go with 4/4 times. As I've decided earlier, I'm going for something between 2/4 and 4/4, so I'll put just the slightest less accent on the second m-p (beat 3).

Also, I noticed that I'm slacking off on the string damps during the practice; so I've been correcting that near the end (after I noticed it). If I'm curious enough, I'd review my old videos to see where the damps stopped getting played. But, I'm not that curious

My pinky fingers still hurts when I use it so I accept the poor fretting on the pinky. I think another 2 or 3 days, it'll be as good as new.

Although I've not yet recorded my first play-thru; I'm feeling pretty good with the pace of learning this piece. Once my pinky is fully healed, I think I'll put in some major practice time to get that first play-thru out.

Ah, I see the time has just moved past 12AM. So, everything that was today is now yesterday. A day older, a day wiser. I'm thankful to be able to share my practice sessions and thoughts with you.

[Gitfiddlemann]

Originally Posted by JackC1

****************** DAY 11 ****************

Almost didn't practice today (again); but decided to put in some practice just before 12AM. Good, so far, I've practiced guitar everyday (almost). Not bad. Thank you, Mr. Thread. I think without this thread, I'd have skipped on practice today.

I realized that my fingerings were wrong so today's practice focused on correct fingering. Also, with the correct fingering, I can just put accents on the m-p fingers and get correct measure dynamics if I want to treat this piece as a 2/4 time; or just mind the second m-p accent if I go with 4/4 times. As I've decided earlier, I'm going for something between 2/4 and 4/4, so I'll put just the slightest less accent on the second m-p (beat 3).

Also, I noticed that I'm slacking off on the string damps during the practice; so I've been correcting that near the end (after I noticed it). If I'm curious enough, I'd review my old videos to see where the damps stopped getting played. But, I'm not that curious

My pinky fingers still hurts when I use it so I accept the poor fretting on the pinky. I think another 2 or 3 days, it'll be as good as new.

Although I've not yet recorded my first play-thru; I'm feeling pretty good with the pace of learning this piece. Once my pinky is fully healed, I think I'll put in some major practice time to get that first play-thru out.

Ah, I see the time has just moved past 12AM. So, everything that was today is now yesterday. A day older, a day wiser. I'm thankful to be able to share my practice sessions and thoughts with you.

Hi Jack,
Good work. A couple of things about you mentioned above:
- At two beats per measure (as I think it should be written) you would be playing the piece in 2/2 time, not 2/4. The beat would fall on the half-note, not the quarter note.
- Regarding muting or damping. It's unusual the way it's indicated (with that snowflake symbol) but regardless, you have to make sure that you don't dampen the note at the point at which the symbol appears.
For example, in measure 3, the low G half-note needs to ring through to the C in measure 4, where you then stop or dampen it in order for it not to ring through that C note in measure 4.
I think you got that, but I wasn't sure you did, since it is a little confusing the way they decided to show this (imo).

[JackC1]

Originally Posted by AndreF

- At two beats per measure (as I think it should be written) you would be playing the piece in 2/2 time, not 2/4. The beat would fall on the half-note, not the quarter note.
- Regarding muting or damping. It's unusual the way it's indicated (with that snowflake symbol) but regardless, you have to make sure that you don't dampen the note at the point at which the symbol appears.

Hi Andre, Thanks for the tips. I think what you said make perfect sense.

I shall play this as 2/2 rather than a blend of 2/4 and 4/4. I like the simplicity of your way.

And, thank you for reminding me regarding the damps. I was taught the way you described but I have a bad habit of doing what I was doing in the video without noticing it. I'll put extra effort into more legato.