Russ
Blues Newbie
My Current Practice Sessions
Everyone has different amounts of time they can practice. Some work and have active family lives. Some are retired and have more time than they want. And of coarse there are varying degrees in between and all around this general statement. I donât always get the opportunity to practice every day or even multiple times per day. I usually get 15-30 minutes a day to practice. As a matter of fact, it sometimes helps my learning curve when I miss or skip a day of practice. I believe it gives my hands a chance to rest and my brain to enter information into long term memory. If I struggle with a lesson, I tend to excel if I skip a day. So here, I thought Iâd run down my practice session just for comparison. I honestly started getting a little board with the BBG songs, so I figured I needed more complicated things to learn. Donât get me wrong. At this point (May 2012), Iâm still having issues with 5th string chords, but Iâm getting there.
One thing I would like to throw out there for everyone to absorb is this. Donât get too hung up on sounding exactly like Griffâs recordings. He is a professional with high quality equipment. In comparison, I have a small practice amp, a camera with a video feature, a guitar to computer USB that doesnât record the true quality of my guitars and a free copy of Audacity. Work with what you have and accept it until you have the funding to do something else.
1) My practice sessions start out tuning my guitar EVERY time because I live in MN and the moisture variations just require it. Otherwise, I get people telling me Iâm âsharpingâ my notes by pressing too hard, etc.. I just figured this out recently from reading a post response of one of my recordings. As much as I think about guitars and moisture level, Iâm a bit embarrassed that it took me all Spring to figure that out.
2) After tuning, I practice my musical alphabet.
A B C D E F G G F E D C B A
3) The actual practice starts out with Blues boxes 1 and 2. I may only be in BBG, but I already owned BGU and figured its never too early to start learning more than just Box 1. Box 2 only took me about 3 days to get into long term physical and mental memory. Anyway, I go through box 1 forward and back a few times. Then I do the same with box 2. Iâm not to the point where I can play any of the box notes without having to go through the whole shape. I do want to get there.
4) Now, I do my neck note practice. I am up to 2 notes and I also throw in the stringâs octave. Forward and reverse. I couldn't get the tab letters to match the numbers from the writing screen to the posting screen, but you get the idea and you can move them around if you want to copy them or anything.
  C G E  C G  A  C G D    C G   C G B    C G E
  8 3 12
E-----------------------------------------------8-3-12
B-------------------------------------1-8-12
G------------------------------5-12
D-------------------10-5-12
A---------3-10-12
E-8-3-12
5) Now I play my current lesson as many times as I can before my chord hand starts to hurt (many wrist injuries). As of this writing, it is Pleading the 5th with 5th string chords. Iâm getting close but Iâm not quite there. If Iâm really frustrated with it, I will go back and play one of the other lessons like Brown Eyed Squirrel or Muddy A Blues, etc..
By then, Iâm out of time and have to do something else.
Everyone has different amounts of time they can practice. Some work and have active family lives. Some are retired and have more time than they want. And of coarse there are varying degrees in between and all around this general statement. I donât always get the opportunity to practice every day or even multiple times per day. I usually get 15-30 minutes a day to practice. As a matter of fact, it sometimes helps my learning curve when I miss or skip a day of practice. I believe it gives my hands a chance to rest and my brain to enter information into long term memory. If I struggle with a lesson, I tend to excel if I skip a day. So here, I thought Iâd run down my practice session just for comparison. I honestly started getting a little board with the BBG songs, so I figured I needed more complicated things to learn. Donât get me wrong. At this point (May 2012), Iâm still having issues with 5th string chords, but Iâm getting there.
One thing I would like to throw out there for everyone to absorb is this. Donât get too hung up on sounding exactly like Griffâs recordings. He is a professional with high quality equipment. In comparison, I have a small practice amp, a camera with a video feature, a guitar to computer USB that doesnât record the true quality of my guitars and a free copy of Audacity. Work with what you have and accept it until you have the funding to do something else.
1) My practice sessions start out tuning my guitar EVERY time because I live in MN and the moisture variations just require it. Otherwise, I get people telling me Iâm âsharpingâ my notes by pressing too hard, etc.. I just figured this out recently from reading a post response of one of my recordings. As much as I think about guitars and moisture level, Iâm a bit embarrassed that it took me all Spring to figure that out.
2) After tuning, I practice my musical alphabet.
A B C D E F G G F E D C B A
3) The actual practice starts out with Blues boxes 1 and 2. I may only be in BBG, but I already owned BGU and figured its never too early to start learning more than just Box 1. Box 2 only took me about 3 days to get into long term physical and mental memory. Anyway, I go through box 1 forward and back a few times. Then I do the same with box 2. Iâm not to the point where I can play any of the box notes without having to go through the whole shape. I do want to get there.
4) Now, I do my neck note practice. I am up to 2 notes and I also throw in the stringâs octave. Forward and reverse. I couldn't get the tab letters to match the numbers from the writing screen to the posting screen, but you get the idea and you can move them around if you want to copy them or anything.
  C G E  C G  A  C G D    C G   C G B    C G E
  8 3 12
E-----------------------------------------------8-3-12
B-------------------------------------1-8-12
G------------------------------5-12
D-------------------10-5-12
A---------3-10-12
E-8-3-12
5) Now I play my current lesson as many times as I can before my chord hand starts to hurt (many wrist injuries). As of this writing, it is Pleading the 5th with 5th string chords. Iâm getting close but Iâm not quite there. If Iâm really frustrated with it, I will go back and play one of the other lessons like Brown Eyed Squirrel or Muddy A Blues, etc..
By then, Iâm out of time and have to do something else.