DAILY UPDATES (Week Two, Main Thread) - Submissions, Questions & Discussion
Welcome, everybody, to the Main Thread for Week 2 - the final week of this challenge!
This is where the magic happens - the thread where we'll be posting our daily updates for the first week.
- Watch the prerecorded kickoff livestream for help with the first set of exercises, demonstrations of correct practice techniques, and more.
- Watch the Week 2 Livestream for help with the new exercises
Every day between February 5th (Week 2 stream) and February 12th (watch party), we are hoping to read your daily updates in this very thread right here!
Please use the following format when commenting (feel free to copy & paste!):
- Exercises you worked on:
- One thing you found easy:
- One thing you found difficult:
- (Optional): a video of you performing it!
- (Optional:) questions, metronome range
Sample daily update:
- Exercises you worked on: 1a, 1b, 1c, 2a
- One thing you found easy: I started practicing these very slowly and had a pretty easy time making all the notes sound even!
- One thing you found difficult: I keep forgetting which finger I last played with and ended up repeating fingers sometimes.
Feel free to make these updates as short or long as you wish!
↓ Let's do this! Post your daily updates below ↓
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Well here is my practice session for today (the end of it at least). I need a better angle but it’s also 12:30am and I didn’t want to do too much. As far as what I found difficult....my preparation needs work. I couldn’t seem to get it. So I’ll keep at it. Any other advice is welcome!
Have a good night/morning/day
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Ashley Great job, Ashley! The preparation can be a bit tricky at first, you are absolutely right. At this stage, it's also important to concentrate on getting a strong sound out, since the guitar is such a quiet instrument even in the hands of the most experienced players. Try to see how loud a sound you can produce without allowing the strings to buzz (or to "slap"). The more "defined" sound you can get with the least amount of hand movement, the better!
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Did exercises 4a-c and 5a,b
I did best with the Ascending arpeggios (4c).
I had issues with a few of the exercises - 4b I kept planting ima as my thumb played the note so not planting all at the same time. My fingers kept getting "muddled" playing 5b at a tempo above 60 bmp. I found it difficult to plant my thumb - the plant / play was one action and my ami would plant as the d note was struck.
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Mehmet very interesting, Mehmet! What I would do in these situations would be to separate repeats of the arpeggio from each other - basically, adding in those "unwanted rests" that I talked about in the kickoff livestream and in the workbook. This is not the final stage of where we want the exercise to be, but better to focus on a single repeat of the arpeggio with full preparation rather than repeating the partial preparations many times, allowing them to become entrenched like that. Great job though, keep at it and thanks for the regular and detailed updates!
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Did exercises 5a and b at 70 BPM.
Then I tried going up and down the fretboard in thirds in the key of E on the D and G strings.
I was better playing the standard exercises.
I really struggled with moving up the fretboard while playing the exercises when the thirds got past A C#. The notes started sounding higher than the notes played on the treble strings and it kept throwing me out. Slowed down to 50 BPM before I could consistently repeat the exercises.
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Mehmet awesome! Good job on trying the thirds, too!
so worthwhile to keep things interesting by adding a bit of left-hand spice! Thanks for the update and keep at it let me know if you find any other cool patterns to do this with in addition to the thirds I briefly explained.
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I practiced 4a, b, and c and 5a and b.
I was wondering if it is okay that my thumb bends at the first joint when I do exercise 4a? It seems to work okay from the large joint on the other exercises.
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Desi Husband That's absolutely fine! In fact, some incredible guitarists, including my teacher David Russell, spend a long time perfecting that very technique, of playing from the first joint of the thumb. I use it, too, depending on how close my i finger ends up from the p.
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So today I actually decided to practice for 30 mins! I usually only do 10 or 20 which was great! I practiced from 1a to 2c then 4a to 4c. For 1a to 2c I went up to 79bpm but didn’t use the metronome for 4a to 4c. My preparation is still pretty slow. I got somewhat faster than yesterday but I thing crazy. Also practiced with a chord. I don’t know which one it was. It just sounded great so I used it at the end of practice.
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Ashley Awesome, great job Ashley!!! So happy to hear you got such a long session in a single day! Very cool about the chord - I love that! If you feel comfortable doing it, maybe record it next time, I'd love to know what the chord was
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Practicing all of the exercises, all are moving along. Planting on moving strings remains a challenge because my nails seem to always hit the strings making a horrible buzz that drives me crazy. I have tried moving my hand at different angles and closer and further away from the strings without much success.
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Maureen Woww, great job Maureen!!! You got the preparation totally down! So happy to see this and proud of you! The buzz didn't bother me at all in this case, I barely registered any nail noise at all. Great job, well done! Perhaps it's time to add in some left-hand chords to keep it interesting
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Focused on 4c, 5a and 5b with left hand moving through thirds in the key of E. Also did 2c at 80 BPM from last week - focused on RH position.
What I found easier was 4c.
What I had issues with was 5b.
The session was good - I improved the 5b a lot and noticed I was anticipating the sounds of the next "shift" as I was moving my left hand and planting.
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Mehmet Great job, Mehmet! Happy to hear things are moving along
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- First I practiced last week's exercises and then went on to practice all of week 2's exercises.
- I noticed that I was having trouble with the rest strokes from last week. I seem to want to bend my wrist up when playing rest strokes. Is that okay or should I try to keep it straight? I am wondering if it is because I have short fingernails and am trying to make up for lack of sound.
- On exercise 4a, I had trouble playing all four strings together so that they sounded like one.
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Desi Husband It's perfectly fine to have a slightly different right-hand position for rest stroke versus free stroke! In my case, the two of them have become basically fully merged by now, however, I started out having different ones too, and it was working out for me at the time. Don't let this slow you down
congrats on keeping at it and posting the updates!
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Tonight was another review of last week. I practiced 1a - 3c with a metronome. Went up to 89bmp Then did 4a- 5b. Preparation had gotten a bit faster but it’s still difficult. The complex arpeggio pattern was my favorite thing to practice because of the simple melody. Although I kept forgetting which note was next. It’s a challenge to read the notes/numbers while trying to play the correct ones.
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Ashley great job! Yes, you are absolutely right - for that very reason, I always end up memorizing my exercises as soon as I've played through them a couple of times. So freeing to not have to look at the page all the time!
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Today I put it on my todo list to record myself and post! My recording has plenty of mistakes and I think I forgot to prepare a couple of times but I think I’m getting better at it.
Worked on Exercises: 1a, 1b and 1c. Then 4a, 4b and 4c along with 5a and 5b. (Don’t remember if I recorded all of that though)
One thing I found easy: The 1 exercises are becoming easier!
One thing I found difficult: Doing the complex arpegggio while remembering the sequence and to prepare.
My first video wouldn’t upload so I had to record this one super quickly. I used a chord at the end for some fun but I don’t remember what chord it is.
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Ashley wonderful, Ashley!!! So much progress from last time, too! You've got the preparation basically down now, and I applaud you for the super even tone and volume when practicing last week's "i, m" exercises! Great job all around! Thanks for posting the video.
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Did 4a - c at 60 BMP trying different hand positions and different tambers - sonido natural (bottom of the sound hole), sul ponticello (close to the bridge) and sul tasto (close to the fretboard).
P.S. also learned new words
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Mehmet I need to commit these words to memory!
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Mehmet niiice, great job Mehmet!
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I went through all exercises this time, working up to 120 bpm, which was fun! Seems to be getting easier. Still having a bit of trouble getting one smooth sound when trying to play all four notes at once though.
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Desi Husband awesome! congratulations on sticking with it and taking it up on the metronome, too!
looking forward to perhaps even seeing some video at some point, if you feel comfortable sharing 
no pressure though. Very happy to hear it's been working out!
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End of the Year Challenge: Finish Strong!
