-
My routine starting in April
My Guitar Routine:
I own 3 guitars. A small inexpensive ¼ size, a ½ size Cordoba and a Martin D28.
5:00am – In my Studio, I check out the Daily Challenge and make a list in excel of what I have plans to do today. I list the exercises/songs that I will be playing throughout the day. This helps give me with structure and accountability of what I’m actually doing.
9:30am – In my Studio, I will work on the daily challenges and play a few songs on my list that I need a video to work with. I usually use the 1/4 size in my studio.
2:30pm – In my living room, I begin to play songs and exercises on the excel list. I track what I play and the times. This way, I know what I’m doing and actually if I am putting in the time that I think I’m putting in. I usually use a ½ size Cordoba for this, since I’ll be playing exercises over and over again. The nylon strings are wonderful for practicing. Also the ½ size works out as a great travel guitar.
4:30 or 5:30 – In my living room, I will continue to work off my “to do” list and get in as many of the exercises/songs on it. It’s a toss-up if I use the Cordoba or Martin.
In addition: My Cordoba in the living room and I can easily pick it up to go through some playing anytime of the day. Sometimes just to work out notes to a song or jingle. But, it’s always there. My times fluctuate because I work around my husband’s work schedule, but they are usually around those times.
My goal for today 4-5-2021
Daily Challenge
Freight Train and Scales – Finger picked
Killing me Softly – Finger picked
Alice’s Restaurant – Finger picked
My Heros Have Always Been Cowboys – Strumming
Simple Twist of Fate – Open D Tuning
Dream a Little Dream of Me. – fingerpicked and hard as all heck!I may only hit on half of these but I’d rather have a list to work off of, then waste my time figuring out what to do.
-
10 Replies
-
Great routine and nice song selection 😀
-
I am NOT a master at any of them. But, I can play Alice’s Restaurant without the music in front of me. Of course with buzzes and hesitations. This was my goal song to learn after a 30 year absence. I had to able to play the main course of Alice Restaurant before I would upgrade to the Martin D28. I bought a guitar 10-2-2020 and upgraded to the Martin mid February 2021. 🙂
-
-
That is a busy Schedule!
Alice’s restaurant alone could take all day just to get through it once 😛
What a fun song… story… moral lesson…. whatever he intended!
-
@Alfred , no, not a busy schedule at all. I don’t do them all. I just have a line up of songs available. I start with the Daily Challenge and Freight Train, then I start on my list. It’s a waste of time to search for songs when I’m already sitting down to play. Sometimes i’ll start fingerpicking a song and it just isn’t working so I skip to another. I needed a couple of strum songs in my list and finger picking songs. I just added the Open D tuning so I get used to it. My challenge song right now is “Dream a little dream of me”. I finally can pick it but very very slowly. It’s not recognizable its so slow. It way beyond my skill level. But if we don’t push our selves. We won’t get better.
-
-
Great routine and a good plan , it is great that you can work on it though out the day, nice song list too.
-
I never get through the full list. Right now i’m concentrating on Freight train and scales. I have been having a heck of a time with “Killing me Softly”. The picking changes and I lose it. I play it over and over and over again trying to make it sink in. and as soon as the picking changes….. I lose my rhythm, then the rest is a wash.
-
-
Ok, so I just gave Alice’s Restaraunt a peak…
How long did it take to train your fingers for an F#dim chord? is there a workable cheat, because F7 doesn’t quite sound right.
-
It took a good 5 months to be able to play the song. I didn’t play it great but I could play it. As for the dim chord… I think you are talking about the area of the song where it goes… (F) just a half mile from the (D7/F#) railroad track. The F , you know. The D7/F# is just a D7 chord and your holding down the LO E on the 2nd fret with your thumb. You do a little pick holding down the “b” string on 1st fret then adding a quick 3rd fret pick (you need pinky power). It reminds me of the picks in Freight Train. If you capo down to the 2nd fret it helps. I still screw it up. ha ha ha. I don’t play the full 18 minute song. Just getting the intro & first stanza down was hard enough to memorize. But, it’s pretty much the same throughout the song. This is a great warm up song. Stretches out those fingers. I did have to omit a few picks here and there because my fingers just wouldn’t do it. Now, I think I could, but like I said I use it as a warm up now, so I just play the intro for warm up. My fingers are already trained, if I think too hard when I’m playing I can’t do it???
-
This reply was modified 4 years, 11 months ago by Cadgirl.
-
This reply was modified 4 years, 11 months ago by
-
-
That is an impressive routine. Somedays I get in more than one session but that is the exception as opposed to the rule. I am like you though in that my session starts with the daily challenge and then I have a list of songs I am working through to learn. It gives me focus as well.
-
Glad to hear i’m not the only one. Once I started tracking how long I actually played I was surprised it was only 1 or 2 hours (throughout the day). I would have swore I was on the guitar a lot longer than that.
-
Log in to reply.