Weekly update 11-1-2015

This is the end of the 1st complete week of the new year. I got in 6 days of practice for a total of 6 hrs. This is actual practice time and not time spent with a guitar in my hand. I use a timer to time the segments of practice and only turn it on when I'm practicing something. A few months ago I discovered that I might be sitting there with my guitar for 2 hours and only actually practice for 1 hour. The rest of the time I'm reading something, taking a break, noddling around, checking the forum, etc.

I think I made some good progress on "Jumpin Blues." I can play it clean at 90% full tempo and sloppy at 100%. I may have it ready to record by next weekend. The rhythm part is fairly complex and may give me some problems.

After listening to the recording I uploaded of "Cheap Runs" I decided that I need to practice it and smooth it out now and not wait. I cringe every time I listen to it. I'm now approaching it as I should have from the start - breaking it into small chunks and PRACTICING IT WITH A METRONOME. I'm finally getting those runs smooth at 60 bpm (the full tempo is 74 bpm). It is very hard for me to get the choppiness out of these runs since they are 6 to 9 notes per beat. Taking it in very small chucks is helping. I'm talking 1 beat chunks here, and trying to land on the the 1st note of the next beat.

One of my additional new year's resolutions is to practice with a metronome more often. Since I never used a metronome in the past, any time spent using it will be "more often."

I worked a little on an Otis Rush/Jimmy Page lick (and variations of it) that I found on the Gibson Skills House website under Arlen Roth's lessons.

I also worked a little on "Hide Away" and a cool slow Blues turnaround from Jody Worell's youtube channel.

No major leaps this week. Just slow steady progress.

Wow, Phil, I'm definitely guilty of this myself.  I've been thinking along the same lines - that I need more (any?) dedicated practice time, rather than this being a "multitasking" activity.

Well, I did at least play some again this week.  I'm thinking that I need to take up Phil's timer idea.  You know, they say it's hard to modify a behavior when you don't really know what that behavior is to begin with...  A couple of days ago, my wife also asked me why I never make any guitar videos any more.  Now that I think about it, I think making the videos sort of forces you to set goals and works towards them.  I'm still trying to work on some motivation here.

Bruce

Yes Bruce, we're waiting...and waiting...  

That jazz forum is full of cobwebs, I think there's a family of mice that have taken up residence there too 

Well for me I practiced about 5 hours total on more minor blues, been trying to knock out a recording but always have a blatant flaw in one section or another.

Spent several hours just playing around testing my ne tcelectronic delay, and adjusting my pups again.
Tested recording using my new USB mic, not sure it will be possible, the mic is so sensitive it picks up my shoe moving while playing. Will have to do more experimentation.

I also learn first 3 parts of Tom Sawyer, and started working on the 3 part, my pocket pod has a Tom Sawyer algorithm so sounds pretty darn good.

Went and saw 1 set of a blues duo female singer male acoustic guitarist, that was excellent too much smoke to stay and listen to set 2 or talk to the guitarist. Tried to video a section to post but video was too dark.

Also spent time practicing SRV rythmn.

Is it a uni-directional mic?

That mic has a cardioid pattern, which means it's going to  pick up sound from that sides. I seems to me that a uni-directional like a Shure SM-57 (which only picks up sound in the direction it's pointed) would be a better choice for miking an amp. The SM-57 used to be the THE mic for miking amps in concerts, but I'm sure things have changed a little since 1970. However, I'm reasonably certain that you will get better results with a uni-directional mic of some kind to mic an amp.

I didn't get in as much time as I would have liked this week but still was alot more time than I had been putting in. I mainly worked on scale exercises and BYCU lesson 1.
At first glance I thought lesson 1 would be a piece of cake, it look easy enough on paper; I have ran into a snag though. For some reason, when walking into the b7, I continue to fret that 4th string before catching the open note. I really have to slow down to be able to catch it. It's amazing how rusty I have gotten.

 I plan on getting a recording done Phil. It's not gonna be pretty but I need the feedback and the accountability that I know I will get here.