Hello Fabien and fellow guitarists! Some advice last week was to record yourself playing more, so this morning I took two 3 minute videos of me playing over a drum track. One is a blue progressions with full chords, then fragments, then improvising. The other is primarily a G major comp with triad ideas. In addition to direct feedback on my playing, I’d love to get advice on what I should be looking out for when I review my own clips? I hear some ideas that I really like, but then also some glaring mistakes. But, I’m not sure what my takeaways should be. Should I try recreating good parts? Or turn a mistake into an exercise, even something simple like messing up a chord change? Some mistakes I’m not alway sure how to analyze when I hear them. Any advice on how to self review would be very helpful! Thanks 🙂

This is a recording I did this morning (first try), of the James Taylor video I posted a few days ago. Apologies in advance as this is only a recording, no video, of my playing the intro to “Fire and Rain.” This is the result of finishing the book, implementing some of its strategies. I don’t do a lot of play thru’s anymore when I’m practicing. Now I go right to the problem area and based on the “book” suggestions I work on that area until I’m able to play it consistently several times through. So here is my latest version at the intro.

Thanks to everyone today who checked in for today’s lesson. It’s great learning from Fabien and then practicing what we learned today. 🎸🎸🎸

Thanks to lessons from Fabien I played a blues solo last night with a lot more confidence. Lasting several notes and ending my solo on an A, key of the blues we were playing, cemented in my mind a couple of things. Mainly, I had been over playing. I slowed way down last night and the band allowed me to play to the idea that they were all playing lower (volume) to allow me to be heard. This was a milestone for me. Additionally I turned up my amp volume just before I began to solo. I could hear my sound coming from my amp much louder. Another tool which I had to learn to use. In the past my amp volume was so low that I was actually fishing for the correct notes at times because I couldn’t quite hear them and therefore, I wasn’t sure which notes sounded correct over the chord which was being played. When I was able to hear my every note last night, it really gave me a sense of identifying with my phrasing. My soloing actually felt comfortable and correct. The guitar felt good in my hands.

It’s early morning and I’m getting worried about whether I’m going to get enough playing time in the month of October. It dawned on me that this is going to be a great month for playing gigs. So far my calendar looks like this: Oct. 7, 11, 15, 18, 25, 26, 29. This includes worship band, private gigs, open mic nights, open jam nights.