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Post by wannaplayblues on May 16, 2015 23:59:42 GMT -6
Got quite a bit of playing in this week - but I also made a concious effort to start listening to Blues music regularly too, so spent a lot of time in the week doing that. One particularly fun thing I did was try to develop a motif during an improv session. I came up with a short lick that I liked and then used it throughout a 12 bar blues while "improvising" between the motif. At another time I also tried to develop/change the motif slightly during the piece. Overall it went quite well for me. May try it again this week and actually record what happens. Looking forward to playing guitar this week - so still very motivated  |
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Post by Phil on May 17, 2015 2:55:51 GMT -6
I had one of my worst weeks ever. Only got in 4 days for a total of less than 4 hours. 2 of those hours were yesterday and I didn't open any books. I just noodled around, played some stuff from memory, and went over some things that give me problems. So, yesterday was actually the best day all week. But, I couldn't get into playing on the other days. I think "True Trem Blues" burned me out.  I'm going to set some goals for the coming week, leave "True Trem" behind for a while and move on. I should try and record "Big Bends" this week. I think it's about as good as I can get it right now. |
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Post by jack1982 on May 17, 2015 5:42:43 GMT -6
TBone so sorry to hear about your knee, my condolences man. Phil, sometimes when I get totally burned out on a song, I find it helps to double the time I spend practicing it; that way I can see some progress again and it gets me enthused to continue working on it. Either that or your brain snaps and family members find you curled up in the fetal position in the basement Anyhow I got in 16 hours on guitar and a colossal 30 minutes on bass this week. It was rainy so golf was kept to a minimum. Worked quite a bit on Eight Bar Boogie in More BYCU, it's coming along satisfactorily. The last two-thirds of the rhythm part is mostly a spread rhythm, and I was playing it with all downstrokes, but after 10 minutes of that at 164 bpm my right wrist said "That's it man, put the guitars away; I'm done for the day." So I switched to alternate strumming and now I'm re-learning it that way. Still working on Got the Drive in the Rhythm book, think my solo is nearing completion finally. I'll need to re-learn the rhythm part to make a video of it since it's been ages since I've played through it. Did my usual thing with improvising and trying to memorize the chord tones that fall within the scale. I'm going to make up some diagrams today that just cover a small portion of the fretboard because trying to memorize the whole thing all at once isn't getting me anywhere. Worked some on that song in my TrueFire course as well. I'm with WPB on listening to more blues music. I downloaded a bunch of stuff last night and had a good evening of bluesy beer drinkin'. Got some Mississippi John Hurt stuff that I really enjoyed. |
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Post by bluesbruce on May 17, 2015 6:19:50 GMT -6
Aside from the sad, sad news about the King of the Blues passing away, a very, very bad week for me. I hurt myself badly this week. It seems like I permanently destroyed my knee Tbone, very sorry to hear about your injury. Hope you can bounce back from it. I've been working on several guitar things: trying to learn a 3-chorus slow blues from another blues course, also been trying to learn "Sweet Home Chicago" from the Hal Leonard Play Along Volume 7 Blues. I've got a ways to go on both of these. Dug out my old Troy Stetina "Total Rock Guitar" book (I'll blame that on Mick), and have been playing some from it. Been listening to lots of B. B. King this week, which isn't that unusual, but of course have been thinking a lot about him with his passing. Bruce |
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Post by cunningr on May 17, 2015 7:17:03 GMT -6
Tbone hope you heel well,from your injury.
As for me worst week ever, only got maybe 4 hours in total, due to building a new gas grill and a family bar bq.
I have rockin and Rollin pretty much memorized through the turn around, so should be starting to working it up to speed.
I am trying to focus some attention to smoothing out chord changes as I memorize the chords for the different positions.
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Post by joachim on May 17, 2015 7:45:09 GMT -6
T-Bone, I also wish you a speedy recovery.
I practiced alot this week, but I was all over the place. I took a sneak-preview at what I want to practice after BRYCU/BYCU, so I've been playing all sorts of things without making much progress.
Time to focus again and wrap up BRYCU/BYCU!
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Post by blackcountrymick on May 17, 2015 15:20:32 GMT -6
Aside from the sad, sad news about the King of the Blues passing away, a very, very bad week for me. I hurt myself badly this week. It seems like I permanently destroyed my knee and put my career as an enthusiastic sport hobbyist to a definite end. This is kind of hard to swallow - on the upside, I definitely have the Blues of sorts now and have loads of time to spend on the guitar and enjoy B.B.'s gracious legacy. Well, that's how it goes - sometimes they win, sometimes you lose... So sorry to hear about your accident Tbone, I sure hope the injury isn't as bad as you fear. Get well soon man. |
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Post by Phil on May 17, 2015 15:21:32 GMT -6
...It seems like I permanently destroyed my knee and put my career as an enthusiastic sport hobbyist to a definite end. This is kind of hard to swallow - on the upside, I definitely have the Blues of sorts now and have loads of time to spend on the guitar and enjoy B.B.'s gracious legacy. Well, that's how it goes - sometimes they win, sometimes you lose... We must have uploaded our posts at the same time, because I didn't see this when I posted. I'm really sorry to hear about your knee, and I hope you are wrong about the prognosis. Phil |
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Post by blackcountrymick on May 19, 2015 12:03:59 GMT -6
Time to focus again and wrap up BRYCU/BYCU! Joachim, if you're ready, let`s start with MBYCU together. Although I originally intended to accept John's homework to go through BYCU and BRYCU again and play everything in all 12 keys and fingerings before I move on, I changed my mind about that and will do this later (probably once it's possible to order the 2nd edition of BYCU over here in Europe so I can work with that). I feel it's time to move on, and I need something to keep me occupied the next few weeks... they'll try to stitch my knee back together in the next few days, but other than that I'm pretty free and should be ready by the end of May/beginning of June (that's also when the recording course is over, so I might even be able to deliver some solid recordings this time). I know we all work on our little side projects, but I'd be up for the challenge of a tune each second week? The big boys have some mileage, but I bet we can catch up as they're distracted by working with JtB and RnBYCU (don't alarm them while we're chasing them). So, are you in? You can count me in as well, I've only tackled the the first lesson so far, perhaps Bruce might want to get on board as well  . |
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Post by joachim on May 19, 2015 12:11:56 GMT -6
Tbone and Mick, I am also up for the challenge (still got two studies to go, though), although I planned to do some consolidation first. I can do that on the side, I guess...
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Post by Phil on May 19, 2015 13:54:26 GMT -6
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Post by jack1982 on May 19, 2015 15:05:13 GMT -6
Time to focus again and wrap up BRYCU/BYCU! I bet we can catch up as they're distracted by working with JtB and RnBYCU (don't alarm them while we're chasing them). I see your devious plans there Well I better get practicing instead of posting lol. |
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Post by bluesbruce on May 19, 2015 17:08:47 GMT -6
Well, damn, how can I refuse an invite like that?
Bruce
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Post by blackcountrymick on May 20, 2015 2:03:26 GMT -6
I think WPB only has 2 to go with BYCU as well, perhaps he could make it a team of 5..........
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Post by joachim on May 20, 2015 3:30:08 GMT -6
I think WPB only has 2 to go with BYCU as well, perhaps he could make it a team of 5.......... And about the same for Rich, I think... |
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Post by Phil on May 20, 2015 6:27:16 GMT -6
.... I suspect MBYCU to be quite a piece of work and hope not to have misjudged the situation when I expected to be able to work through a lesson in two weeks. Although I'm getting used to having bitten off more than I can chew, I'll probably will have to put all other musical side-projects to the backburner in order to focus on the task at hand and to keep up pace! This forum and it's members are great motivators, so I'm very much looking forward to another great learning experience! CU soon, T. In Jan. I set a goal of finishing MBYCU by 1 July 2015. That is now only 6 weeks away, and I'm just about to record study #6. That leaves me with 7 more studies. I don't think I'm going to finish MBYCU by 1 July 2015. I started MBYCU at the end of August 2014 and have been working consistently on it. I had no idea that I would have such a difficult time with this book. Now I have further motivation to get moving. Not only do I want to catch Jack, I now have to stay ahead of you guys who are starting to breath down my neck.  |
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Post by cunningr on May 20, 2015 9:32:18 GMT -6
I think WPB only has 2 to go with BYCU as well, perhaps he could make it a team of 5.......... And about the same for Rich, I think... I think that's about right I am still working on rockin and Rollin, so I guess technically have 3 studies to finish. question is do you ever really finish, I finding that I am going back to a couple of the lessons to understand the material better now. i need a game plan cause I want to work through blues rhythms and mbycu, but I find it hard to concentrate seriously on more than one study, maybe I can alternate. |
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Post by Phil on May 20, 2015 9:45:38 GMT -6
I think once you start MBYCU you could put BRYCU on the back burner for a while or just select specific lessons to work on - the ones that you find particularly interesting. I say that because each study in MBYCU also has a separate rhythm part that you need to learn, and most of them are as good and complex as the ones in BRYCU.
Just a thought.
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Post by joachim on May 20, 2015 10:25:16 GMT -6
And about the same for Rich, I think... I think that's about right I am still working on rockin and Rollin, so I guess technically have 3 studies to finish. question is do you ever really finish, I finding that I am going back to a couple of the lessons to understand the material better now. i need a game plan cause I want to work through blues rhythms and mbycu, but I find it hard to concentrate seriously on more than one study, maybe I can alternate. Rich, I feel the same - I think we cut ourselves short of an important learning experience by not at least quickly reiterating BYCU - I've been working on the book for more than a year! I plan to go over both BRYCU and BYCU once more in parallel with MBYCU. Hopefully it should be easy. I listened to some of my recordings from 3-4 months ago, and the studies sound easy, but my recordings make me cringe - it's definitely worthwhile to do play those studies again. Regarding doing MBYCU and BRYCU in parallel, I second Phil's advice to just start with MBYCU and save BRYCU for later. The studies in MBYCU looks like they require much work, so if you feel woking on two books with distract you, then better focus on just one of them. That said, I really enjoyed BRYCU. |
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Post by cunningr on May 20, 2015 22:57:34 GMT -6
I am getting close the 1 year point as well, excellent advice thought which I have been tooling over.
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