Progress Report – Transcribing, busy time and more.

The Report :

180+ Hours in. Between all the practice, learning some songs, pitch harmonics and really really really trying to learn how to play by ear, it has been pretty heavy.

Also been really busy with me going to another city back and forward. The Holidays, and family coming over.

Big stuff.

What I’ve been learning:

Pitch Harmonics: Really really hard to pull of sometimes, I can do it from time to time but since I tend to play with my hand close to the bridge pickup, I have to force myself to move my hand towards the Neck Pickup so I can Pitch Harmonic it.

Music Theory: I still don’t get a single thing of what is going on, why is it all confusing? I can rewatch some videos over and over and over again and I still have no idea of what’s going on, feels like alien language.

Licks and Improvisation: Same thing as before, gotta keep on going, and at least I don’t sound as bland as before and not so repetitive.

Bending, vibrato and other techniques: Including the Pitch Harmonics, been practicing them more so when I play I would sound not so bland and more with feeling.

Transcribing and Learning by Ear: Still new to this, but I want to keep on pushing it. I’m getting tired of using tabs to everything and there is some really really good songs I want to learn but makes me tired to ask: Do you have tab for that? For this?

So I’m trying to learn by ear so I can stop asking for them and to play things that I cannot find tabs for and learn the neck more properly.

Songs I’m learning / learned :

Shoji Meguro Time!

Shoji Meguro: Decisive Battle (Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner 2: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. King Abaddon) [LEARNED]

Shoji Meguro: Battle for Everyone’s Souls (Persona 3) [LEARNED]

Shoji Meguro: Digital Devil Saga 2 – Hunting Betrayal [LEARNED-sorta]

Sumire Uesaka: 「POP TEAM EPIC」OP – Zoma’s Cover [LEARNING-by ear and visual]

Obstacles :

All of it! Specially Music Theory.

Plans and goals :

♦ All of the above.

Progress Report – Gaming Edition

The Report :

With 138 Hours in, I’m feeling a bit better with my progress, tho I often hit plateau, I go back to my blog to remind myself about my progress and to not give up. Woo- yay.

I was able to improve my vibrato a lot, and bending are getting better! On top of that, some of the songs I play doesn’t sound as monotone or robotic as before, so I feel I’m playing with more “feeling”.

Also I got some early presents for Christmas, cleaning stuff for my Guitar! Yeah!

Songs I’m learning / learned :

Shoji Meguro – Keeper of Lust [Persona 5]

-Hopefully I can upload it soon-

Obstacles :
When playing a song, I can play it with not so many problems but when recording myself or in front of somebody, I screw up like if it was my job.

Plans and goals :
Before, I said that my back was getting destroyed, but I was looking at videos and asking about my posture and technique when holding the guitar; So, now my back and wrist don’t hurt and I feel pretty comfortable, yay.

♦ Train my ear and be able to recognize chords and certain notes and spot them on my guitar.

♦ To record myself on video and upload it to Youtube someday so I can stop being so nervous and feel more comfortable playing in front of people or when recording myself.

Progress Report – The busy week.

The Report :

This week hasn’t been that great for practicing guitar, been too busy and had 3 birthdays including my own. It’s exhausting. Oh and been playing too much Resident Evil 2 – Thank you cosi!

With the little time I had, my Guitar Practice has been pretty much a grind, as I’ve been repeating the same solos, the same parts of a song and learning licks so I can learn how to improvise a little. Even then, I have to grind the licks a lot until it becomes second nature.

Songs I’m learning / learned :
None, but here is an example of some improvisation song thing I’ve made -sort of.

Obstacles :

For some reason when I’m trying to improvise, my brain suddenly wants to shut down, I will be playing and then poof! My brain just stops working.

Plans and goals :

Keep on doing the same and keep on practicing / learning. Also to remember to have a proper posture because my Les Paul is pretty heavy and-

Progress Report – 119 Hours: “My wrist hurts Edition”

The Report :

Last month total hours ended with : 60 Hours 37 minutes Learning/Playing.

Now on the start of this month I’ve learned/played a total of 16 Hours 26 minutes.

It has been fun and all being able to learn to play Guitar and be able to finally play songs that I want without looking at tableture.

I’ve been trying to get into using the Metronome more often along with foot tapping and couting out loud but still makes me feel a bit awkward and I end up focusing more on the Metronome than playing.

Songs I’m learning / learned :

We Wish you a Merry Christmas
Muse – Plug in Baby

Demos:

Breaking the Law – Judas Priest

Heading out to the Highway – Judas Priest

Smells Like Teen Spirit – Nirvana

I was going to add Plug in Baby but I’m still having a bit of problems with the Intro since is so fast.

Obstacles :

Right now I’m on some lessons about improvisations / licks, but I’m really having a lot of problems with it. I know at the moment 5 licks, and I can play them properly-ish but if I want to modify them or get a new lick out of them I cannot do it, they end up all sounding the same or I will always end up landing on a root note, making it extremely annoying.

On top of that when I have something on my head it sounds really good but as soon as I want to apply it to the Guitar it banishes or I cannot translate it.

Plans and goals :

Learn how to Metronome. Be able to translate what I have in my head into the Guitar, take my time to Learn more Licks and to Git gud @ Improvisation.

Progress report – 100 Hours

In this blog I will be posting my Guitar Journey. It will be also used as a way to motivate myself to keep on playing, track my progress and improve further by taking notes after practice.

TLDR; It’s a diary.

The real Journey started in 10/23/2019 by using the website Guitar Tricks that I found by looking at random Guitar videos over the Youtube.

The Report :

Here it shows how long I’ve been playing on total (First Picture) and how much I played in this month up to 100 hours (Second Picture).

Songs I’ve learned :

Nirvana – Smells Like Teens Spirit

Deep Purple – Smoke on the Water

Judas Priest – Breaking the Law

Judas Priest – Living after Midnight

Judas Priest – Heading Out the Highway

Royal Blood – Little Monster

Ramones – Blitzkrieg Bop

Arctic Monkeys – R U Mine?

Jack White – Lazaretto (Still learning)

Jack White – Over and Over and Over (Still learning)

Obstacles :

My biggest problems at the moments are; Barre Chords (It hurts so much), string bending and lack of Rythm. I’m still not sure how to fix the Barre Chords problem, sometimes it hurts, sometimes it doesn’t, I’ve tried looking at many videos explaining on how to fix it, but I guess my hand just doesn’t feel like cooperating lol.

String bending along with Vibrato are things I’ve to keep on learning and get used to do more often.

And Rythm, my mistake was not using Metronome when I started, so I try to now use it more often, along with counting and foot tapping.

Plans and goals :

Plans for the blog are to give updates about what I’m learning / playing and to have it as a diary to keep my motivation going and be able to look at my mistakes and how to improve them.

My goals are to be able to learn someday how to improvise, be able to play Rock, Metal and Blues and do covers for fun.

Ending :

What I’ve gotten myself into lmao.