Augeleven’s guitar practice journal

A place to track your progress, or lack thereof

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augeleven
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Augeleven’s guitar practice journal

#1

Post by augeleven » Sat Aug 08, 2020 1:31 pm

Mods, feel free to move this (although technically, it’s training...)
Used to be a guitarist, and as a music teacher have played daily to accompany my classes. But since schools have shuttered, I haven’t even been playing kid songs.

I figure I’d start a log for it separately to keep me compliant, and I’ll probably make a ig dude account to post vids. Some of music pals found my lifting one, and I’m too embarrassed for them to hear okay right now.

Background: I have an actual college degree in jazz guitar (it’s ok, you can laugh). Most of my background is playing modern classical “art music (?)” and experimental music though. Every once in a while somebody asks me to play normal music, so I should probably do some of that, too.
I gave myself tendinitis in my twenties spending 88 hours a day adapting Webern and Messiaen to the guitar (with little success), so I have to ease into practice volume.

Short term goals:
Play a little each day, maybe 10 or so minutes working on a single note etude, something chordal, a solo piece, and something improvised. I think I can find 4 ten minute blocks?

Mid term Goals:
Record some stuff and through it up into the uncaring interspace, even if it’s trash (it will be).
I’m looking at Stravinsky three pieces for clarinet and maybe a movement or two from Bach’s B minor partita?

Write a new piece for my quartet? Record some of the things I’ve written and have no good document of.

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Re: Augeleven’s guitar practice journal

#2

Post by augeleven » Sat Aug 08, 2020 1:50 pm

Chords
Mr Goodchild exercises
Drop 2 cycle 4 in C major and C harmonic minor
1-4,2-5
I really like voiceleading with harmonic minor: 7 scale degrees with 7 different 7th chords

Single Notes
Bmi Double/presto 1st 10 measures fingering
Up to 132 in measure fragments
Last edited by augeleven on Sat Aug 08, 2020 4:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Augeleven’s guitar practice journal

#3

Post by platypus » Sat Aug 08, 2020 3:47 pm

augeleven wrote: Sat Aug 08, 2020 1:31 pm I gave myself tendinitis in my twenties spending 88 hours a day adapting Webern and Messiaen to the guitar (with little success), so I have to ease into practice volume.
Does practice volume mean the same thing to most guitarists as it does to lifters?

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Re: Augeleven’s guitar practice journal

#4

Post by augeleven » Sat Aug 08, 2020 4:19 pm

platypus wrote: Sat Aug 08, 2020 3:47 pm
augeleven wrote: Sat Aug 08, 2020 1:31 pm I gave myself tendinitis in my twenties spending 88 hours a day adapting Webern and Messiaen to the guitar (with little success), so I have to ease into practice volume.
Does practice volume mean the same thing to most guitarists as it does to lifters?
I don’t think people in general think about it that way, but totally. I’ve been toying with using Lydiard running programming to influence my guitar speed/technique

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Re: Augeleven’s guitar practice journal

#5

Post by Wilhelm » Sat Aug 08, 2020 6:46 pm

Free Bird!

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Re: Augeleven’s guitar practice journal

#6

Post by augeleven » Sat Aug 08, 2020 7:24 pm

Wilhelm wrote: Sat Aug 08, 2020 6:46 pmFree Bird!
Fire Bird?
old ig link/



(link doesn’t seem to be working, I played some silly chords. Haha omg kill me)
[( why am I getting nervous recording bullshit stuff that no one will see? Did covid turn me 14 again?)]

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Re: Augeleven’s guitar practice journal

#7

Post by Wilhelm » Sat Aug 08, 2020 7:45 pm

Love it.

Also, you have the knowledge, experience and talent, that when you say you're concerned something is shit, it's so much different than when most people say that.

Hope playing again brings you joy.

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Re: Augeleven’s guitar practice journal

#8

Post by augeleven » Sun Aug 09, 2020 9:59 am

Spent an hour doodling on some junk mail.
Chord thoughts:
Thinking through some of Mick Goodrick’s voice leading stuff. To extrapolate out:
Both 3 note and 4 note diatonic groupings can be reduced to 5 types.
3 note groups
123 - cluster
124 - 7th no 5
125 - quartal
126 - 7th no 3
135 - triad

4 note groups
1234 - cluster
1235 - C/D “Mick calls Triad over bass note (TBN1)”
1236 - G/C “TBN2”
1245 - quartal
1246 - 7th chord

I’ve spent so much time with four note stuff - jazz guitar pedagogy seems to be very focused on it. I think I need to spend way more time investigating three note stuff

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Re: Augeleven’s guitar practice journal

#9

Post by augeleven » Mon Aug 10, 2020 9:14 pm

Played some classical guitar while press resting. It looks like I need to add free stroke power to the long list of things I need to get back on the guitar.

Afterwards I formally began my goal of playing this on the guitar


I’m starting with mvt , starting around 1:54.

I recorded some of my practice, again just to keep myself accountable.


For some reason, I kind of like the idea of having a stuffy solo recital, but I only play pieces written for clarinet or flute, and I play it on an electric guitar.

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Re: Augeleven’s guitar practice journal

#10

Post by hector » Tue Aug 11, 2020 7:23 am

augeleven wrote: Sat Aug 08, 2020 1:31 pm I gave myself tendinitis in my twenties spending 88 hours a day adapting Webern and Messiaen to the guitar (with little success), so I have to ease into practice volume.
This is one of the most badass things I've ever heard. Not sarcastic.

I think your guitar log is a great idea. I downloaded an app to learn keyboard. If I stop being lazy I could make a log too.

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Re: Augeleven’s guitar practice journal

#11

Post by augeleven » Tue Aug 11, 2020 4:35 pm

That was a typo, @hector . It was only 8, although sometimes more. I got in trouble for breaking into the music building to practice. The irony was the tendinitis shut my practicing down completely, and I probably sounded my best about a year after having stopped practicing. Musical supercompensation?

Oh also my group made an album that’s getting released, and there’s a music video. The composer picked a part of the piece that is tangentially related to normal music.

We are Dither
https://www.newsounds.org/story/weekly- ... ghoy-blues

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Re: Augeleven’s guitar practice journal

#12

Post by augeleven » Tue Sep 08, 2020 4:08 pm

Well I haven’t been updating this...
From mid August -


Then school stress hit me and I have just been reading through Bach lute suites. Here is one of the better snippets, inspired by @KarlM throwing down in his log


I need a better plan, now that I have no time. I think I’m gonna keep the Kroepsch and the Bach, and add putting together some demo stuff for a band project (outside rehearsals? My neighbors have been spoiled for the past 8 years, all things considered...)

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Re: Augeleven’s guitar practice journal

#13

Post by KarlM » Wed Sep 09, 2020 5:26 pm

@augeleven, Dude!!! Relearn guitar my ass lol. That shit is sweet!!

If I could play classical pieces like that I might just not care about anything else.

Do you mind if I post YouTube guitar videos here for “Dude check this awesomeness out” appreciation moments?

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Re: Augeleven’s guitar practice journal

#14

Post by augeleven » Wed Sep 09, 2020 9:49 pm

Relearn is serious. I have a long way to go, and have been distracted and sidelined for a bit.

Sure man.
I’ll start - I’m not a classical guy - no nails etc
This is a classical guy (Julian Bream) giving a Bach masterclass. The stuff he talks about with bringing out the individual voices is revelatory.


This guy here putting Berg’s Piano Sonata on guitar


A friend of mine from college who tries to be a rock guy, but can’t stop living that #freejazzlife


The Man


The Men, Dither’s grandfathers

The piece at 12:40 is called “To Laugh Uncleanly at the Nurse”

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Re: Augeleven’s guitar practice journal

#15

Post by KarlM » Fri Sep 11, 2020 9:24 pm

@augeleven, that Julian Bream BBC recording was great. Why can’t we have Telly like that in the states? He would go on with these strange lyrical explanations, but when he would play a bit, you could hear his words and the point he was trying to make in his playing. Remarkable.

I believe I’m opening strong with an old SRV acoustic video. If I could play like that I’d die of happiness.


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Re: Augeleven’s guitar practice journal

#16

Post by augeleven » Fri Sep 11, 2020 10:42 pm

Yeah @KarlM, I don’t listen to a lot of SRV (or blues in general) these days, but I forget how rock solid his time was. That vid kinda reminds of that Jimi 12 string Hear My Train a Coming video.

On the practice front: I haven’t played with a pick in over a month, and I haven’t played a plugged in electric in forever ago.
I started editing a piece I wrote almost 5 years ago(?!?!?) to see if I can’t it to go smoother for a under-rehearsed band.

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Re: Augeleven’s guitar practice journal

#17

Post by augeleven » Fri Aug 12, 2022 2:06 pm

Resurrecting this.

I have been practicing more stricter stuff lately, and think I’m going to give this a solid go this school year.

Big Goals:
1) get that shredder technique, bruv
2) get that fusion/post-Trane language together
3) get some bebop/post-bop stuff going
4) record something, anything, and out it on Bandcamp

Current Progress Indicators
1a track the BPM of 5 minutes straight of tremolo picked scales (4 note per string majors)
1b track the BPM of a ramped 5 minutes of muted down picking
1c track the BPM of descending chromatic scale exercise
2 play Ben Eunson Etudes at 80% tempo
3 play Galbraith book 1&2 straight through each in under 30 minutes
4 idk record a bunch of stuff

8/12
I did:

5 minute trem - started at 130 and failed down to 90. Embarrassing, but a start

5 minute down pick- ramped from 60-80 over the 5. Lost it with 7 seconds to go

5 minute descending chromatic exercises, then up and down. 90 bpm

Played through Galbraith G and C

8/13

Eunson Etude 3 first 4 measures at 65 bpm

5 min trem at 92 - felt easy but I used my shred guitar

5 min down pick from 70-80, consistently running out of gas at 77 so I’m going to start at 70 and linearly progress that.

8/14
5 min trem pick 94
Playing with 4/6 at 80. Might keep for speed work

Rehearsal prep

8/15
Jazz standards
Hockey prep
Messing around with effects settings

8/16
Galbraith G7,C7
Hockey prep
Effects tuning

8/17
Effects tuning
Galbraith harmonic minor read through 25 min
Bb h min 84 needs work
E h minor 168
5 min trem 94
3 min 4464 trees 84

8/18
Galbraith D harm, A harm, F, Bb, Eb
5 min trem 96 - 4s got through major, harmonic and melodic minor
5 min 4464 trem had to drop tempo from 85 to 82
Kept playing 5s

Too tired to sweep, although Yesterday I did a bunch of these weird free association sweeping exercises.
Gonna be gone for a week. Bringing my backpacker guitar and the Galbraith books. Probably play a lot of Bach and stoopid campfire songs. Cuz campfires.

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