Post your weeks guitar goals.

[tapper mike]

I used to practice scales Major and melodic minor six days a week. All the way up and down the fretboard. I haven't done that in decades on guitar. I do it on the linnstrument though.

I just noticed how rough I am on guitar for the Bb melodic minor tonight. So I'm going back to the regiment till the point where I'm fluent in all keys without thinking. In two weeks I will have worked out every key. The goal isn't to be fast just fluid.

[tapper mike]

Well this is disappointing...
I'm better than I thought I was last night. I was unfocused and tired. Still I spend 20 minutes into it.

[mystran]

I'm a huge fan of doing some sort of scale (sometimes straight, often in 3rds, sometimes other patterns; varying how it's played helps brain learn the scale and not just the next note) as warmup pretty much every time I pickup a guitar. I tend to play "slowly" once first, then double the speed, then if that's still not too fast, maybe double again (or play tripplets), not necessarily pushing super high speed, but like enough to get the blood flowing.

[mystran]

Oops, pressed submit before I'd written on the main thread topic...

I prefer not really set weekly goals really, more like 1 month, 3 months, 6 months goals... but lately I've been doing a lot of practice for strings skipping and bluegrass style cross-picking and all that ... not that I really have interest in bluegrass, but I like their fluency in jumping around on different strings and want to learn that for "other musical purposes."

[pekbro]

Had to break down and put some light strings on my tele as I couldn't play it well. Lazy to play the guitar of late, maybe my goal should be to fix that. heh

I mean I gotta take it outta the case, plug it in, put it back, clean it etc...

[tapper mike]

I'm easily distracted musically. Keeping a goal for a week gives me something that helps me lock in.

As a prime example. I accomplished my goal of playing scale patterns up and down the entire fretboard for F major and F melodic minor. I don't touch harmonic minor I don't like the sound even if it's favored by Yngwie Malmsteen or Beethoven.

Then I worked out a few beatles tunes and followed it up by some "Dinner Jazz" chord melody stuff. Not that I expect to record any of it or will be performing in the foreseeable future.

I have an increasingly harder time trying to focus in on anything. Newer songs are much harder to learn even if they are within the realm of my capabilites. Older stuff I stumble with to. At 65 I'm beginning to see the effects of Alzheimer's set in something I didn't expect for another 10 or 20 years. I take all the right meds and I'm still having to leave myself notes to remember to do things.

[tapper mike]

Had to break down and put some light strings on my tele as I couldn't play it well. Lazy to play the guitar of late, maybe my goal should be to fix that. heh

I mean I gotta take it outta the case, plug it in, put it back, clean it etc...

I used to love playing the guitar late night after I got off of work. I've been working second shifts almost all of my life. In the morning my fingers are stiff and my mind is a bit slow.. I've gotten better about going to bed earlier and kind of better playing earlier. Late night no longer works for me.

As for string gauges and brands types consistency matters more. If you always like brand x and gauge x stick to them. I run 12's wound G's on my boxes. 10's on my 24.7 scale length and 9's on my 25.5.

Not all tele's are created equal. I love the tone on my lated. Love it seven days a week. The neck is less than fair as it's a bit bulky for me. The other tele's I'd tried I tried them and tried them and wanted to love them and replaced pups and did this that the other thing and they still didn't give it back. Tonally this tele is my holy grail.

[mystran]

Actually, goal for the starting week: try to get better at string skipping with inside picking.

I think it's not really an escape problem for me, 'cos I can do adjacent strings pretty well and with wider skips it tends to be the last string before the target string (rather than the string I just picked) that I tend to scape on. Rather I think it's my brain's refusal to pick in one direction while immediately moving the hand in the opposite direction, which means the hand is late and then I end up trying to use my wrist to help reach the target string and that just never ends well.

This is something I really need to get down... so the next week's going to be nothing but inside string skips all day long.

[lfm]

It's admirable the determination and discipline I read about here.
- I just need more variation for a period of time

Apart from maintaining some level of pace picking and sync left and right hand, I do some different thing also.
- it could be sweep picking or something else
- or switching to keyboards and Hammonds too that is a bit different
- or mixing and getting some mixer closer to being worth mastering possibly
- and have rought ideas on a dictaphone to pick up doing something about those

Right now it's slide, and start with standard tuning stuff and found some courses getting better at that.
- Greg Koch has a book with some cool stuff
- Ian Simmo at licklibrary.com I liked the pedagogics he moves through various stages
- getting a grip of slide double/triple stops all over fretboard also helps getting those intervals in backbone

Some courses on licklibrary.com are still subscription only, that is to change in the coming weeks an ability to buy a course with lifetime access.
- so waiting for that
- I did the same thing for pianote.com and Jordan Rudess paino technique course, fits better than subscription model

The satisfying part of doing some completely new stuff in there, is that going from beginner and up a couple of notches is fast progress in comparison for hours put in.
- the better you get, you also need more hours for any perceived improvement

Fits my personality better....total freedom on fretboard would be to hear next note in your head and able to pick that interval in a fraction of a second....no boxes or cages.....

[tapper mike]

Actually, goal for the starting week: try to get better at string skipping with inside picking.

I think it's not really an escape problem for me, 'cos I can do adjacent strings pretty well and with wider skips it tends to be the last string before the target string (rather than the string I just picked) that I tend to scape on. Rather I think it's my brain's refusal to pick in one direction while immediately moving the hand in the opposite direction, which means the hand is late and then I end up trying to use my wrist to help reach the target string and that just never ends well.

This is something I really need to get down... so the next week's going to be nothing but inside string skips all day long.

Hybrid picking is the answer


Pay special attention to how he cups his right hand.
You don't need and shouldn't try to clamp up to play fast. It's a slight twist rotation from the elbow rather than a hand shake from the wrist.

I used to use teardrop picks. Now that I've settled into slower jazz and classic rock I use regular flatpick

I use a lot of hybrid picking these days in a completely different manner for strumming. My fingers do a lot of "Frailing"

[mystran]

Hybrid picking is the answer

Well... sure, if the goal was just to play the notes.

It's a different technique with a different sound though (just like legato)... and this isn't so much of a "I need this in a song right now" type of deal, but rather more of a "this is the worst part of my alt-picking right now, so we'll put it on the priority list of things to practice" type of deal.

I mean.. basically the same thing as choosing fingering for a song (pick the most convenient one) vs. choosing fingering for a technical exercise (design the whole thing to force training the inconvenient one).

I used to use teardrop picks. Now that I've settled into slower jazz and classic rock I use regular flatpick

I've pretty much settled on a 2mm Ultex Flow.

[tapper mike]

I admire your dedication to your craft.

[mystran]

I admire your dedication to your craft.

I came up with this exercise.. (though actually I play it a few frets higher to make it easier to hear if I hit the G accidentally)

string skip exercise.png

Definitely not a masochist ..

[tapper mike]

Well I've completed the goal even though by the end of scaling practice it drained me to the point I really didn't want to much time into playing other things on guitar

In other news I've completely stepped away from the cinematic classical stuff on the linnstrument. I'm bored with it and don't feel like I'm growing as a musician.

It's time to consternate on Steely Dan one again. I used to be able to perform a whole show with just Steely Dan material on guitar. Trying to get a band to support me was another matter. This time linnstrument in hand it will be a good workout for my pseudo keyboard skills.

Wish me luck.

[mystran]

I came up with this exercise..

I actually ended up spending most of the week with a slightly different exercise, one that 3+2 with skips over two strings. Not really happy about how well I can do it yet, so we'll probably have to keep this a focus for at least another week...

...but there is definitely some progress. Earlier today I had an accident with the metronome where I thought it was set to lower than it actually was ... and I was wondering why I was suddenly much sloppier again .. and then I realised what was going on and how I wasn't actually supposed to be able to do the exercise at that speed at all... so at least we're getting somewhere, I think.

Next weeks goal (besides continuing this) is to work on patterns that require fingering 1-3-4 'cos I feel like that's very weak for me, 'cos I tend to do these as 1-2-3 most of the time, but there are times where that doesn't really work and kinda unnecessary stretch at lower frets.