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Week one:
Week one:
Lesson:
In this weeks lesson we learned a Paul Gilbert lick from Alex. it was a lick from the scale of A Dorian and it involved Legato, Pull- offs and Alternate picking. it was important that we worked on these techniques so that the exercise sounded clean and efficient. the exercise is played so quickly that no time signature is given and where it notes beats per minute it just states "very fast". the first shape is played on the B and the G string, i picked up the speed of the shape quite fast but decided to slow down a little to work on the pull offs and picking motions. we were then told to work on this exercise throughout the week
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Practice:
My practice of this exercise began on Thursday the 15th of January at around 11am. i began practicing the exercise to a beat of 100 bpm. i would lay 2 notes on each beat, focusing on my legato and picking motion, after trying out some of the different shapes that were in the exercise, i am still unable to cleanly pull off the notes on the G - string but this will come with more practice. after around half an hour of working on this i set to work on some of my Grade 6 work, i looked at arpeggio's , went through a run of the technical performances and looked over some of the parts of That Sounds Like Noise as well as the solo in Cranial Contraption. After this i worked on practicing the melodic recalls and the chords. I had another round of practice on the weekend this time going over the exercise briefly and looking into dont let me down by the Beatles, a song for our performance this week. the chords for don't let me down are E, F# and B so i practiced strumming the chords to the song for a while,
*New Post
Week two
Lesson:
This week we looked further into the Paul Gilbert exercise and carried on with the different patterns in the technique, instead of just being 5, 3 ,2 ,5,2,5,3,2 it would be in different places and patterns on the fret board, our goal was to get down the technique of the position and pattern shape, as well as working on cleanliness at a slow speed with alternate picking , we would use pulling off, legato and efficient picking in later lessons
*New Post
Practice:
On the Tuesday afternoon i decided to learn Stevie wonder's Superstition by ear. i would be learning the song for performances the following week, i first looked on tab websites to look for the main riff then looked at some cover songs and learn their techniques by ear. in one cover the player bends on the 15th fret of the B string and travels down the frets to replicate the notes of the horned instruments that play after the chorus, i also looked into what scales he uses for his solo's and made a note of these too, all i need to work on now is remembering the songs structure so i can fit all the pieces in the right place
*New Post
Week Three:
Lesson:
In our third lesson of the new term we looked into the final parts of Paul Gilbert's exercise, after following on from the different patterns in the the middle half of the exercise, the final part of the exercise consisted of going up the frets in a similar pattern using different modes such as Ionian, Dorian, Lydian and Mixolydian, it was hard progressing up the neck on a guitar like mine because i have 24 fret meaning from 12 and up the frets are smaller than usual. however i worked around this and focused on learning the exercise rather than the speed i could play it.
In our third lesson of the new term we looked into the final parts of Paul Gilbert's exercise, after following on from the different patterns in the the middle half of the exercise, the final part of the exercise consisted of going up the frets in a similar pattern using different modes such as Ionian, Dorian, Lydian and Mixolydian, it was hard progressing up the neck on a guitar like mine because i have 24 fret meaning from 12 and up the frets are smaller than usual. however i worked around this and focused on learning the exercise rather than the speed i could play it.
*New Post
Practice:
After Tuesday's lesson i decided to practice the Phantom Lord Lick in my rehearsal room after everyone else had left. i practiced this starting off at 90 bpm, and continued to keep playing until i felt comfortable, then i tried 95 bpm, had a few cleanliness and picking mishaps but i managed to get 95 bpm clean.
*New Post
Week four:
Lesson
This week saw us looking at modes all up the the fret board, we went through signatures such as ionian, dorian, lydian and mixolydian on two octaves, i found some hard and some difficult as i was already family with Dorian as a previous tutor made me practice it throughout the span of the year. many other modes on the higher end of the frets were a challenge also such as mixolydian.
practice:
*New Post
this would be my last week looking into Phantom lord, i decided to try and match the speed of the original recording, this i was able to do by matching the 180BPM to a metronome then playing the riff. after feeling comfortable with playing it to the metronome i looked toward playing to the original, it took me a few times but i got there eventually.
*New Post
Week Five (Half Term week 1):
Practice:
Week five was an off timetable week and where i got the chance i would practice the grade 6 stuff, i decided to run through the songs on the first week of half term and the back of the book on the second week of half term. Songwise they are all at a good playing standard however it is now down to me working on the details of the songs and getting the little things right.
*New Post
Week Six: (Half Term week 2):
This week would be my final week of half term and as much as it was a busy one for me i managed to find time for my grade 6 technical exercises, it was clear to me that the Arpeggios needed work.
*New Post
Week Seven
Week seven was the first week back in college so Alex decided to Revisit the modes and make sure they were practiced by us over the holidays. We also decided to look into how naming the modes we play is important so that we would be able to play them in different keys on different frets, it also meant being able to remember a pattern by name so that it can be easily remembered.
*New Post
Practice:
after following on from the modes i looked back in the grade 6 pieces for a while and worked on the little details rather than the songs themselves, Grade 6 back of the book was up to scratch. Steve via cleanliness and play style. Work on certain parts of playing pieces and focus on arpeggios as they need work
*New Post
Week Eight:
Lesson:
This time in instrumental studies we had no lesson at all, instead today was a day for all us to be recorded in front of a camera while improvising a solo over chord patterns. the solo could be in A Minor Pentatonic or the G Dorian mode. the backing had a relaxed and casual feel with fast drums, we would be recorded individually, and so i decided to record last so i could spend as much time as i could running up and down the scales to find some nice sounding ideas, afterwards i felt that confident i did well.
*New Post
Practice: this weeks practice had to focus completely on the grade 6 Arpeggios, as much as i could play them and remember the pattern, they didn't sound so confident alongside a 100 BPM click, i would have to get used to playing them to a click for the exam. So i began the technique of practicing one, playing it to a click, practicing another and then going back to the previous one. im feeling a lot more confident with them now and so they should be ready for next week.
*New Post
Week nine:
Lesson: this weeks lessons was a review of our mode patterns and names, we were called out at random to name a mode and write out the frets that are included, on top of this we learned about notes that can be included in the E pentatonic scale, to conclude the lesson we improvised on a chord progression to put what we learned to work such as the pentatonic notes we learned and the Ionian modes,
*New Post
Practice: after successfully executing the Arpeggios in last weeks guitar practice it was time to focus on the general musicianship questions at the very back of the book, these questions ask for names of pitches, musical markings dynamic found in the piece, so i spent a lot of time looking into possible answers to be found to the questions.I also kept working on the arpeggios to keep them in check.
*New Post
week ten:
Lesson: No lesson
Practice:
Seeing as there was no lesson to be had i wisely used the time on offer to run through my grade 6 exam, The technical pieces are still as solid as they were in the seventh week. the pentatonic scales are solid on their own but need to practiced against a click more often, this would be my last week until my exam so practicing as often and jst has hard was important, i would be having a mock test with Alex during our monday guitar lessons, so during the weekend i spent a solid hour praticing all the book had to offer.
*New Post
Week Eleven
Lesson:
Rhythm was this weeks focus so without any hesitation we began with Quavers, Triplets and Semi-Quavers, we first had to vocally repeat the rhythm with Quavers, Triplets and Semi-Quavers so we could become more comfortable with the changes in beat, we then slowly set to work on applying them to guitar, our first goal was to pick a single note in time with Quavers, Triplets and Semi-Quavers. Then we ran through a mode progression and applied the rhythm to it, the quavers were okay but the triplets and semiquavers became rather a challenge for us, so it would be something to practice over the coming weeks.
*New Post
Practice
as my Rock school exam was just around the corner it was my utmost priority to keep on top of my technical pieces and exercises, the exam was on friday so i had a good five days of practice, so i could really get the exam under my fingers i decided to run through the entire book with a mixture of different guitars. this would also allow me to take more than one to the exam incase something happened to one of them.
*New Post
Week Twelve
This week was a simple review and revision of our online blogs, mine are up to date and on point so there's no worry on my shoulders.
Week Thirteen - Fifteen ( Half Term)
*New Post
Week Sixteen
On our first week back we looked more into the ionain scale and decided to apply it to different patterns, instead of going down the scale in order we would change it up and go down the scale in different patterns, so instead of going
------------------------------------------------------------5--7--8-------------------
-------------------------------------------------5---7---8----------------------------
--------------------------------------4---5---7---------------------------------------
-----------------------4---5---7------------------------------------------------------
-----------3---5---7------------------------------------------------------------------
-3---5--7-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
we would be doing
5-7-8-5-7-5-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------8-7-5-7-8-5-7-5----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------7-5-4-5-7-4-5-4---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------7-5-4-5-7-4-5-4---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------7-5-3-5-7-3-5-3---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------7-5-3---------------------
*New Post
Week Seventeen
in this week we would bee following on from out improvisation skills as seen in week eight. we would spend some time doing some melodical composition. We learned that the best way to approach the improvisation is not to practice improvising but to practice pre-written patterns and melodies. Using the key of A minor we set to work and made our own tunes going up the strings, the key is to make a melody that couldn't possibly be conjured on the spot, it would need to be broken up into pieces and jigsaw'ed together at the the end. then you would begin the process of re-learning your melody.
Week Eighteen: BANK HOLIDAY
*New Post
Week Nineteen
without warning from Alex prior, we would be performing our Final improvisation exercise on camera. it would be using the same backing track with the same chords and pentatonic scales. The aim is to show signs of improvement from the last time we did the exercise. Alex had been teaching me to write a recipe book for all the different patterns that i could do in the scale so i didn't have to make things up on the spot.i brushed up on this in last weeks post andI felt confident in my playing and i feel that i made good progress in comparison to my last video! all that was left to do now is to write the final evaluation.
*New Post
Week Twenty
i knew the Evaluation was up and coming so i made my own essay plan with questions and things to include in the essay. I also learned from Alex what other questions we could include in the essay such as which of your instrumental goals did you achieve? how? and if there are any you diddnt how would you do about achieving them again?. The essay is still rather empty but i have all the questions i need to help get it up to scratch
Week Twenty One
*Half Term*
*New Post
Week Twenty Two
as we had finished our Improvisational exercise there was no more practical work to be done so this week would be focused on sorting out our Task folders, finishing our Evaluation and working on something new. We would have to prepare a presentation with a action plan, it would include a list of some of the the things need to improve on as well as ways to achieve our individual goals. On a plus note i managed to submit my evaluation ready for Alex's marking.
*New Post
week Twenty Three
i would spend my Twenty third week from last week and finishing off my presentation for the evaluation, I also got some feedback from Alex about adding in timestamps so i could set deadlines in the presentation, on top of this i also had to finish off the conclusion for my Instrumental evaluation. with all of these tasks finished my instrumental studies module will be complete and i will be able to focus on other modules that need completing, this would also be the last monday before the coursework deadline so i am unsure if anymore blog posts will be published.
*New Post
Lesson: No lesson
Practice:
Seeing as there was no lesson to be had i wisely used the time on offer to run through my grade 6 exam, The technical pieces are still as solid as they were in the seventh week. the pentatonic scales are solid on their own but need to practiced against a click more often, this would be my last week until my exam so practicing as often and jst has hard was important, i would be having a mock test with Alex during our monday guitar lessons, so during the weekend i spent a solid hour praticing all the book had to offer.
*New Post
Lesson:
Rhythm was this weeks focus so without any hesitation we began with Quavers, Triplets and Semi-Quavers, we first had to vocally repeat the rhythm with Quavers, Triplets and Semi-Quavers so we could become more comfortable with the changes in beat, we then slowly set to work on applying them to guitar, our first goal was to pick a single note in time with Quavers, Triplets and Semi-Quavers. Then we ran through a mode progression and applied the rhythm to it, the quavers were okay but the triplets and semiquavers became rather a challenge for us, so it would be something to practice over the coming weeks.
*New Post
as my Rock school exam was just around the corner it was my utmost priority to keep on top of my technical pieces and exercises, the exam was on friday so i had a good five days of practice, so i could really get the exam under my fingers i decided to run through the entire book with a mixture of different guitars. this would also allow me to take more than one to the exam incase something happened to one of them.
*New Post
This week was a simple review and revision of our online blogs, mine are up to date and on point so there's no worry on my shoulders.
Week Thirteen - Fifteen ( Half Term)
*New Post
On our first week back we looked more into the ionain scale and decided to apply it to different patterns, instead of going down the scale in order we would change it up and go down the scale in different patterns, so instead of going
------------------------------------------------------------5--7--8-------------------
-------------------------------------------------5---7---8----------------------------
--------------------------------------4---5---7---------------------------------------
-----------------------4---5---7------------------------------------------------------
-----------3---5---7------------------------------------------------------------------
-3---5--7-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
we would be doing
5-7-8-5-7-5-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------8-7-5-7-8-5-7-5----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------7-5-4-5-7-4-5-4---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------7-5-4-5-7-4-5-4---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------7-5-3-5-7-3-5-3---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------7-5-3---------------------
*New Post
in this week we would bee following on from out improvisation skills as seen in week eight. we would spend some time doing some melodical composition. We learned that the best way to approach the improvisation is not to practice improvising but to practice pre-written patterns and melodies. Using the key of A minor we set to work and made our own tunes going up the strings, the key is to make a melody that couldn't possibly be conjured on the spot, it would need to be broken up into pieces and jigsaw'ed together at the the end. then you would begin the process of re-learning your melody.
Week Eighteen: BANK HOLIDAY
*New Post
without warning from Alex prior, we would be performing our Final improvisation exercise on camera. it would be using the same backing track with the same chords and pentatonic scales. The aim is to show signs of improvement from the last time we did the exercise. Alex had been teaching me to write a recipe book for all the different patterns that i could do in the scale so i didn't have to make things up on the spot.i brushed up on this in last weeks post andI felt confident in my playing and i feel that i made good progress in comparison to my last video! all that was left to do now is to write the final evaluation.
*New Post
i knew the Evaluation was up and coming so i made my own essay plan with questions and things to include in the essay. I also learned from Alex what other questions we could include in the essay such as which of your instrumental goals did you achieve? how? and if there are any you diddnt how would you do about achieving them again?. The essay is still rather empty but i have all the questions i need to help get it up to scratch
*Half Term*
*New Post
as we had finished our Improvisational exercise there was no more practical work to be done so this week would be focused on sorting out our Task folders, finishing our Evaluation and working on something new. We would have to prepare a presentation with a action plan, it would include a list of some of the the things need to improve on as well as ways to achieve our individual goals. On a plus note i managed to submit my evaluation ready for Alex's marking.
*New Post
i would spend my Twenty third week from last week and finishing off my presentation for the evaluation, I also got some feedback from Alex about adding in timestamps so i could set deadlines in the presentation, on top of this i also had to finish off the conclusion for my Instrumental evaluation. with all of these tasks finished my instrumental studies module will be complete and i will be able to focus on other modules that need completing, this would also be the last monday before the coursework deadline so i am unsure if anymore blog posts will be published.
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