Starting Over!

matonanjin

Chubby, old guy trying to play some blues.
Like I do with every other damn course I start, I worked part way through it, got distracted and then SQUIRREL!!!

As you saw from my post from last December I got to Lesson 5. In fact, I got part way through it. Then for some unfathomable reason set it aside.

Since then it has become even increasingly, patently obvious how desperately I need chord and strumming work.

Rather than start back in at session 5, because it has been the best part of a year, I am just going to start over. I started a few days ago and am through the lesson part of 1 and am at the "play along" part at the end. Hoping to finish this week-end.

Wish me luck. And if you don't see my posting some progress reports tell me what a dumb ass I am.
 

sdbrit68

Student Of The Blues
there is nothing wrong with it.............when a blues jam is coming up, Iswitch back to basic blues stuff, if we are writing an acoustic song, I go to rhythms and fills, it all adds up anyways
 

Olivia

the lady sings the blues
Ha, I can't resist answering this thread (!)

matonanjin (Ron) good on you for starting again.

Your "story" is very close to mine :rolleyes: as in, I was on lesson 9 eons ago, and I really liked lesson 9, but just like you, for some unfathomable reason, the course ended up on the back-burner :unsure:

I decided to go back to it a few weeks ago. I thought I'd take it from lesson 4, rather than go back to lesson 9, and that was wise... except I couldn't play lesson 4 properly (!) so I backtracked some more and went to lesson 2... and guess what, I couldn't even play that properly either, hmm...

I felt "disgusted" with myself, because I was doing so well before, and why on earth I stopped working on this course is a question I've been asking myself for ages. So, I gave up again then, which was definitely not the way to go (!)

It's good to see your post, and it seems very wise to start all over again. I guess I'll do the same, starting from lesson 2 since I couldn't fully pull it when I last tried. I did go back to lesson 1 then, but I was fine with that (yippee) so lesson 2 is where I would start from. What a disgrace though, when I was on lesson 9 before... I do agree with you 100% that starting all over again is the way to go.

So, your post has inspired me to get back to doing this course, and at least get back to where I was before, and hopefully carry on some more... maybe even try to finish the course :ROFLMAO:

You said, and I quote, if you don't see my posting some progress reports tell me what a dumb ass I am.

Same here :LOL: this said, we could maybe encourage each other to keep going and not give up (?)

I'm going back to it today (thanks to you) and I vowed to myself this time I won't let it go on the back-burner... if I do though, I'll definitely need to be told what a dumb ass I am ;)

Hopefully this time "we" won't mess up...

Very best to you,

Olivia
 

Jalapeno

Student Of The Blues
Keep at it Ron and Olivia. The fun part of playing guitar comes after you've mastered the basics (though the learning never does end).

Eric
 

matonanjin

Chubby, old guy trying to play some blues.
@Olivia I'm glad my post motivated you to post and start over. I would like to say that the reason for my delayed response is due to my working SARM so intently that I haven't had time to post. But that would be a lie. :(

I like your idea of bilateral encouragement and we need to pursue that. In that spirit, the millisecond I hit "Post Reply" I am pulling out the guitar and firing up Griff's video of lesson 1. I honestly have worked it some since this OP and hopefully today will go from slow play-along to fast. That switch from C open chord to Cm barre chord in the second to last measure is killing me. I mastered it once before but now it is as if I've never practiced it before!:mad:

Keep me posted how you are doing.

Ron
 

MarkDyson

Blues Hound Wannabe
You guys are inspiring! I keep haring after the lead/solo type lessons but, truth be told, I need more work on bread-n-butter rhythm and some of those challenging chords and time signatures.

Okay, so as of right now this course has risen to the top of my squirrel-chasing heap and I pledge to give it an honest run of work as life stuff permits. :Beer:
 

sdbrit68

Student Of The Blues
the more I think about this, the more, I think the secret sauce is to heavily focus on one course, For me its the penatonic scales mastery, 6 days a week, I put a minimum of 30 minutes into it. After I do that each day, I practice whatever my hearts desire calls for.

Right now, I am practicing licks from another teacher. The two courses compliment each other, but, I could just as easily do rhythms and fills. The Penatonic mastery is my hard course ( think chemistry, trig), and I treat the others as my more fun course, less concentration ( think humanities or arts)

This way, I get my ADHD fill and fun, while also dedicating to something hard
 

matonanjin

Chubby, old guy trying to play some blues.
t...

The Penatonic mastery is my hard course ( think chemistry, trig), and I treat the others as my more fun course, less concentration ( think humanities or arts)
The only problem that I have with your logic is that chemistry, especially biochemistry, and trigonometry (and algebra) were fun and humanities and especially art were hard. For me ;)
 

sdbrit68

Student Of The Blues
The only problem that I have with your logic is that chemistry, especially biochemistry, and trigonometry (and algebra) were fun and humanities and especially art were hard. For me ;)

I hated chemistry and trig.......actually, let me rephrase that, I enjoyed chemistry that taught me mcgyver like stuff, but never had the discipline for just the study of it.

History, statistics and probability, any kind of math that analyzed trends and things were easy for me
 

Jalapeno

Student Of The Blues
That switch from C open chord to Cm barre chord
Ron, a tip for making progress from someone who has learned a bunch from dvd's... don't let one thing keep you from moving forward. Get it as close as you can, move on, but keep working on it. Eventually it will come and you'll have made progress in the meantime.

Eric
 

matonanjin

Chubby, old guy trying to play some blues.
Agreed, @Jalapeno. Griff even said, if you recall, if the C Open to Barre C was an issue just play the open C. I've been picking up the acoustic when I'm not doing anything important, which is always according to my wife, and just practicing that change. It's coming along but won't be good enough to do the fast version. "Get it as close as you can, move on, but keep working on it" is exactly what I am going to do.
Thanks, Eric.
 

MarkDyson

Blues Hound Wannabe
Welcome to the party, @MarkDyson

I'm holding to my resolve. I've moved all my other BGU course material to a data storage drive so this course is the only one physically on my computer (download version). That should help forestall temptation to hare off on other material until I've gone through this course. For now. :confused:
 

MarkDyson

Blues Hound Wannabe
Well, at the end of Lesson 1 and working on the Example 1-11 piece. That C to Cm is a bugger, yep! I'm going to try it using the barre shape for the final C instead of the open one, and then the Cm and G at the end are smaller finger movements. Wish me luck! :Beer:
 

MarkDyson

Blues Hound Wannabe
Heh. Okay, that got me closer but, in truth that chord is a distraction. I need to be focused on the strumming, not working on my barre chord chops. I switched the ending over to one of my favorites: C - D7 - G. Handled, I feel comfortable, time to move on to Lesson 2 and tie one on. :Beer:
 

matonanjin

Chubby, old guy trying to play some blues.
Mark, I'm close on it. But not good enough to make the switch on the fast version of the playalong. I'm just going to play it open C all the way through. I'm going to pledge to all of you that I will come back to work the open C -> Barre Cm. But I probably never will.

I hope to finish up Lesson 1 tomorrow. And then I'll be there to tie one on with you. (Absolutely horrible pun btw. Great job.:rolleyes:
 

Olivia

the lady sings the blues
Paging @Olivia! Paging Olivia. We haven't heard from you. How are you doing?

Ha, thanks for checking on me Ron, @matonanjin (y) I can be really useless with posting (!)

Also, thank you for your response to my post last week. I really do think it helps to have someone else doing the same course at the same time. It's pretty clear-cut really, we make a vow to ourselves we will do the course dutifully and finish it (no less) but that seems to vanish the moment we hit a stagnant place, and not long after that we give up altogether :( that's why I truly think there is a lot to be gained when a commitment is made with someone(s) else. It makes it much more likely we won't give up, and therefore much more likely we'll succeed. Motivating and encouraging each other can play a vital role, as long as it's not for competition of course (!)


@Jalapeno, Eric, thank you for your words of encouragement, and for your advice.

In the case of the "dreaded" change from the open C to the Cm, I fully agree it should not stop any of us from moving on if that is the only problem and the rest is good enough. When I first did this course (aeons ago) I spent a good while on that lesson 1 track, then one day it dawned on me I was obviously not going to pull it, so I bypassed it altogether as I knew it would work without, although it's much nicer with the Cm of course (!) but once I made that decision, I moved on to lesson 2 at the time and kept on going. If I hadn't, I'd probably still be stuck there now, or would have given up on guitars altogether :ROFLMAO:

As for my
progress over the past week, I'd say it's definitely good going. I'm plodding along and it feels nice, like a place revisited, where you know some bits but the rest remains a mystery. I sure remember it wasn't fun last time round, so I'm gonna make the most of it this time ;) I know the "quality" of my playing is so much better than it was back then, thank goodness :rolleyes: I'm not saying it's good, I'm just saying it's better (!) and there is no doubt about that.

So, this time round, I thought I'd give that C to Cm change a go (!) and I surprised myself that after a whole heap of tries, I could actually pull it most of the time, at a very slow speed that is (!) and way too slow for the rest of the "tune" so I moved on again (back to lesson 2) but every time I've picked up my guitar to practice since then, I've spent a few minutes on that chord change only. I don't time it, but I know it's addictive :sneaky: it keeps challenging me and I keep on going. It's improving slowly and it's also fun to just practice that chord change on its own. I am getting faster, and getting it right a lot more times than when I started a few days back. There always seems to be some fingers which won't "obey" me properly :confused:

Finally, in Ron's words: Welcome to the party, @MarkDyson

Let's keep on going hey (!)

I'll try to post a little more often :whistle:

Olivia
 

DaveJardine

Blues Newbie
Starting over is something I have to do.
When I first start a course as great as this one, I usually go thru it with excitement and speed, then go back to the beginning and go thru it slowly, and amazed then on how much I missed
 
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