Guitar Learning Journal
Overview
This is the learning journal that I am keeping for reflecting on my progress of learning the guitar. This is part of my series of reflects on my Learning Framework.
Time Spent Learning:
Research:
From my research I've come up with a few different sources of how I'm going to learn the guitar:
- Guitar Class at Collin: 1 hour 50 minutes once a week for 15 weeks. Goes over the classical style of playing guitar.
- Guitar Udemy Class: I almost forgot that I have this 8 hour online course that teaches everything from foundations to advanced techniques. I will probably be using this as a backup to the online class.
Goal:
Timeline:
In the next 3 months, I will spend 30 minutes a day practicing chords, notes, and rhythm, so that I can play "Shampoo Bottles" by peach pit. This milestone will help me reach my larger goal of learning the guitar for fun. To Achieve this I will spend 30 minutes practicing everyday at 4 pm. Practice will be broken down into warm-up, 20 minutes skill building, and 10 minutes applying skills to a song of my choice. By achieving this goal I will be learning an instrumentn to test my learning strategies and so that I can play with [Best Friend] or [Girlfriend].
Accountability Framework
In order to help keep ourselves accountable we have been sending each other video check-ins with our progress. For the next 2 weeks we will be changing the frequency of our check-ins from once a day, to 3 times a week.
Every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday from Feburary 2nd to Feburary 17th.
Check-in Questions:
- It's Check-in #__
- Demonstrate the progress you've made.
- Discuss the challenges you've faced.
- Compare to your long-term goal.
- Define your next steps.
Click here to see previous Check-in Questions
Add findings from experiences.
We are building the habit of checking in on one another to keep each other accountable for learning goals.
Starting from January 15th, and continuing until January 31st we will send each other 1 video that answers the following questions:
- What specific progress have you made on your goals/learning this past interval. Demonstrate or illustrate your effort.
- What is something that was outside of your comfort zone, boring or difficult for you this past interval?
- How does this compare to the goal you had set last check-in? Is this still aligned with what you wanted to achieve?
- What obstacles in motivation, time management, or material did you encounter this past interval?
- How are you making time for your practice?
- What are your specific goals or action items to meet by the next check-in?
We've faced a limitation with sending videos, which is that we can only send videos that are roughly under 5 minutes long.
Check-In Checklist:
- It's Day __ / Check-In Number __
- Demonstrate your progress.
- What was outside of comfort zone?
- Compare to last check-in, and your goal for this check-in.
- What obstacles were faced.
- How are you making time?
- What are your goals for next check-in?
Learning Log:
Click Here to see my learning journal template.
Learning Journal Template:
YYYY-MM-DD | Time Spent
What I Practiced:
- Describe the pieces, exercises, or techniques you worked on today/this week.
Challenges & Solutions:
- What difficulties did you face and how did you try to overcome them?
Technique Analysis:
- Reflect on the effectiveness of the techniques you used. Why did they work or not work?
Discoveries:
- Share any new understandings about guitar playing, music theory, or personal learning style.
Goals Review:
- Reflect on your progress towards your guitar-playing goals.
What are my next steps in learning guitar?
2024-02-14 | 30 minutes practice
Practiced the lullaby at 45 bpm, need to get to 75 bpm.
2024-02-10 | 40 minutes meta research + 30 minutes practice
2024-02-01 | 35 mins studying
Practiced:
I did some drills on reading the guitar music sheet and playing it off of the sheet for the first and second strings.
Challenges:
Not used to the system of counting 1 2 3 4 and then going back to 1, I found myself counting 1 2 3 4 5 and then getting it screwed up.
Also found it difficult to get the right placement on the guitar for the notes.
Discoveries:
Starting to figure out how to read the sheets. Getting more comfortable with 1st and 2nd string.
Goal Review:
I still feel like its possible to catch up with the class.
Next Steps:
I'll keep drilling away tomorrow.
2024-01-31 | 45 mins studying
Practiced:
Finished creating flashcards from textbook material.
Challenges:
N/A
Discoveries:
N/A
Goal Review:
Finished creating flashcards. Feeling kinda good about it.
Next Steps:
Tomorrow will focus on practicing rhytm based on the drills in the textbook.
2024-01-30 | 35 mins studying
Practiced:
Created flashcards from textbook material.
Challenges:
Learning how to create image based flashcards.
Discoveries:
N/A
Goal Review:
I'm somewhat behind in practicing the rythem with chords, but on track to learn the sheet music side in the next 2 weeks.
Next Steps:
Creating more flashcards for the strings, notes, and positions on the sheet.
2024-01-29 | 1 hour 50 mins class
Practiced:
Started learning how to read music sheets and what the notes are for each string and fret. Lots and lots of new information I need to more deeply understand.
Challenges:
I felt like I was overwhelmed by the amount of material covered in the class. I couldn't participate at the end of the class because I couldn't read the notes or stay on beat.
Discoveries:
Reading sheet music, sit further forward in seat, thumb should be going down (not into the hand), alternate form for G which makes switching between G and C easier.
Goal Review:
I think that I need to focus on the intellectual understanding of reading music, staying on rythem and the different chords. I don't want to fall behind in class.
Next Steps:
Going to review class material. Find ways to really memorize and actualize the information and techniques.
2024-01-28 | 30 mins practice
Practiced:
I started strumming on every 4th beat at a bpm of 60 and moved up to 80 moving from chords E Em A C Am G D Dm.
Challenges:
I found that moving between the chords was difficult to do at the bpm, so I am starting out by just doing it every 4th beat.
Discoveries:
Every 10 minutes of drill practice I try to have 5 minutes of fun learning, where I just strum or do whatever. Today I started learning happy birthday.
Goal Review:
I am working towards my goal of changing between chords at a pace of 100 bpm. I'm starting at every 4th beat at 80 bpm.
Next Steps:
I am going to continue this drill unless I learn something in my class tomorrow that I think will be more beneficial to practice.
2024-01-27 | 30 mins practice
Practiced:
Today I practiced going from 55bpm to 100 bpm. I decided that I would make a larger jump in the pace and found that 100 wasn't as bad as I was expecting. I got 2-3 perfect segements back to back and feel pretty confident to move onto chords.
Challenges:
N/A
Discoveries:
I'm noticing that my index finger is staying on the string why I strum with my thumb on my right hand. Don't know if that is something I shouldn't be doing but it seems alright right now.
Goal Review:
I hit my goal of hitting a pace of 70bpm in the drill I was trying of and even pushed it to 100bpm.
Next Steps:
I want to hit a strumming rythem of 100bpm of switching between chords. I want to do the basic chords.
2024-01-26 | 30 mins practice
Practiced:
I practice moving from the high to low strings with both hands. I increased my bpm from 40 to 55 in this practice.
Challenges:
I found that I was having difficulty moving from the low strings to the high strings while watching a video of myself. So I decided to create a drill that focuses on that.
Discoveries:
I've found that having a few minutes to just strum and play with the guitar helps keep me movtivated to keep practicing.
Goal Review:
I'm on track to reaching 70 bpm in the drill.
Next Steps:
Once I finish this drill I would like to do the same type of BPM drill with the basic chords.
2024-01-24 | 30 mins practice
Currently practicing my hand positioning and rythem. My method of practicing is starting at 40bpm on a mentronome and going through the first 4 frets and all of the strings using the basic hand position in the classical style.
Once I get 3 perfect runs through all of those notes, I will increase the bpm of the mentronome. Once I hit around 120 bpm I'll move on to the next drill.
I have also been recording myself and watching it back every 15 minutes or so to get some feedback and watch my hand motions and positioning.