Strat Or Tele?

BOTH!!! :)

Ordered two new guitars today: a Fender American Standard Stratocaster in Olympic White and a Fender '52 Vintage Hot Rod Telecaster in Butterscotch Blonde (the one with the mini Humbucker on the neck) - wooooohooooooo - hope to get them by the end of Feb.

In anticipation of the 2 new guitars I retired Nezzie up to the lake house - it seems right that she should be back with Abs - they belong together.

I have been practicing and playing everyday since my last blog - just not blogging it. Made some great leaps forward in theory too.

The major scale 1/8 notes @120bpm is not quite there yet so will stick at that speed at least for a couple of days.

My fingerstyle pieces are all improving all the time and soon I will be ready to learn something new. My lead guitar is going ok too but in truth I haven't been practicing it as much. Will move onto the intro & outro lessons on the Justin Guitar Blues Lead Guitar DVD soon and the 3rd position of the minor pentatonic.

I've also started to do a bit of practice on percussive fingerstyle technique but I'm struggling a bit. Lots of experimentation to do.

All good :)

Different Day

Did some conventional stuff - took the Major Scale up to 1/8th notes at 120 bpm.

Dood an hour or so of transcribing (kind of) using the JUSTIN method - got up to the middle of stage 6 before I was over it for the day.

Re-strung Em and played some fingerstyle stuff on her and also learned the opening riff to Layla.

Just basically goosed around - my fingers are sore so I must have done enough :)

Circa 10 mins on Fretpro

All good :)

Big Day & New Strings For Missy

Finally got new strings on Missy - geez - I didn't realise just how much I love playing her.

In other news....

Scales: G Major 5 positions - 1/8th notes tonight @ 100bpm (200bpm) - hardly any mistakes so even took it up to 1/8th notes @ 120bpm in postion 1 to see what that felt like - felt ok but made my hand sore.

Songs: Killing Me Softly, Good Riddance, Fool Fool Fool

Fingerstyle: Steady Thumb Blues, Stairway, Yesterday, Easy Wlaking Blues and Down & Out - several times through each

A Minor Pentatonic in first 2 positions plus blue notes

Solo'd using the major scale over backing tacks in G, A, D, E & F - still not as proficient as I am with th emonor pentatonic but some progress noted.

And played lots of old bibs and bobs on Missy.

Spent about 10 mins on Fretpro

All good :)

Modes

A good "aha" moment today when I worked out how to use modes - like wow - there is nothing tough to this - it is just about moving the tonal centre of the scale so you can reconcile the major key you are playing in with a particular chord of that key - no biggie but for some reaosn noone seems to be able to explain it easily.

Anyhoo onto my session:

Scales: G Major 5 positions - 1/8th notes tonight @ 100bpm (200bpm) - hardly any mistakes

Songs: Little Help From My Friends, Have You Ever Seen The Rain, Click Go The Shears

Fingerstyle: Steady Thumb Blues, Stairway, Yesterday - several times through each

A Minor Pentatonic in first 2 positions plus blue notes

All 10 licks in the first 2 minor pentatonic positions.

Solo'd over blues backing tracks in A - sounding darn hot :)

Spent about 10 mins on Fretpro

All Good :)

Catch Up

Had another day off work with crook back today - but it was better so I could play - yay!

Managed to catch up on most of the stuff I missed yesterday.

Scales: G Major 5 positions - 1/8th notes tonight @ 100bpm (200bpm) - barely making any mistakes now

Songs: Hallelujah, Dock of the Bay, Duncan, Knocking on Heavens Door, Peggy Sue

Fingerstyle: Steady Thumb Blues, Easy Walking Blues, Down And Out, Stairway, Yesterday - several times through each

A Minor Pentatonic in first 2 positions plus blue notes

All 10 licks in the first 2 minor pentatonic positions.

Solo'd over major scale backing tracks in G, D, E, A & F - some success, some pretty ordinary.....

Played electric rhythm riffs and a whole bunch of old stuff I know from way back

Spent about 10 mins on Fretpro

Spent some time studying the mathematics of the Diatonic Scale - good old Pythagoras whoda thunk he would come in useful? I eat this stuff up - I now really get why the perfect fifth and the perfect octave are what they are - whilst I get the perfect fourth, Im kind of struggling on what it is good for....

All good :)

More Crook Back

My back is really giving me some gyp, so I didnt play much today.

Just my Major Scale workout in G x 5 positions 1/8 notes @ 100bpm (i.e. 200bpm) and some Minor Pentatonic work in A over first 2 posies + blue notes.

Did some theory swatting up on Modes and I know all the names now - just need to practice applying them practically.

Fretpro for 10 mins.

More Time

Had more time for playing today and got in a good couple of hours.

Scales: G Major 5 positions - 1/8th notes@ 100bpm (200bpm).

Songs: House of the Rising Sun, Feeling Groovey

Fingerstyle: Steady Thumb Blues, Easy Walking Blues, Down And Out, Stairway, Yesterday - several times through each

A Minor Pentatonic in first 2 positions plus blue notes

All 10 licks in the first 2 minor pentatonic positions.

40 mins of soloing over blues baking tracks using minor pentatonic and licks in the keys of A, E, G & D

Spent on notes on the fretboard actually using the guitar as well as Fretpro.

Spent a few minutes just cutting loose on Speedy - After the Rain, Anarchy, Wild Thing - good fun.

All Good :)