Practice Log for Wednesday, 30 May 2018

Warm-up

Four- and three-note-per-string economy picking, as well as MAB’s two-note-per-string warm-up. Playing that with the ring finger and pinky really gets tiring. I need to strengthen those two fingers up. Their independence is also not good. I flubbered it up a few times, especially after they started getting tired on the way down.

Scales

I played the 1-3s down and the 3-1s up, to maximize practice of that awkward barring movement. They mostly flow pretty smoothly at h=40, although a few scales were surprisingly bad, such as D major. In general, going up with that pattern is less stable at tempo than going back down, probably because I’ve practiced down more at this point.

I also played through the 1-3-4-2 pattern both up and down. Little rusty, as well, especially in the middle of the neck, usually between strings 3 – 2. Crossing strings in that region is generally more difficult because of the tuning difference, anyway. It might pay to develop some exercises that focus on that change specifically. What I could do is identify the set of patterns that I can use to cross those strings and practice them explicitly to make it easier in context.

Repertoire

I forwent looking at producing the lead sheet for “More than Words”, and instead just attempted to sing the melody while I played the guitar part. It’s difficult, as I predicted, but not impossible. I’ll have to listen to the song a little more closely to see when lines come in in relation to the guitar part, but overall it came together halfway decent. Halfway…

I also ran through “Under the Bridge” once just to make sure I still had it under my belt. Turns out I didn’t, but after glancing at the lyrics and the chord progression, I had it back pretty quickly. Next time I look at it, I’ll work on connecting the intro to the verse, and I’ll also look at connecting the last chorus to the outro. That’s the roughest part.