100 Days of Guitar
Day 0
It's the last day of 2023! Y'know what that means... Or maybe not, but:
Round 10 of Atlantis' 100 Day Challenges starts tomorrow!
My choice is 100 Days of Guitar. I miss playing. I'll be travelling for the first week of the year so I'll be doing music-related tasks until my…
Day 1
Started the beginner course on Perfect Ear and got through the first chapter about notes A - G and the accidentals in-between.
Nearly forgot to do anything today.
Off to a great start. 🤣
1/100 Days of Guitar
Day 2
Learnt about intervals - harmonic and melodic. Then quality and quantity and LORDY did I get lost understanding what half a step was so I'll need to relearn that first (it's been over a year... Omg) before I fully wrap my head around this xD
2/100 Days of Guitar
Day 3
Went back to watch Justin Sandercoe's videos wayyyy back in Module 1 on tones, semitones, the Note Circle, and sharps/flats.
I've committed the Note Circle to memory now. Allegedly.
And then I returned to Perfect Ear exercises. Progress is average 😆
3/100 Days of Guitar https://t.co/KutOxR01Rr
Day 4
Long day, and travelling, so forgot to make the post.
More Perfect Ear exercises. I start off terrible 🤣. I'm not used to analysing individual notes so telling the distance between them is difficult.
4/100 Days of Guitar https://t.co/ZCthI3Yntg
Day 5
V. upset I didn't do anything yesterday but w/e. I travelled to four museums with no alone time.
Stopped at 12. My brain is ded.
5/100 Days of Guitar https://t.co/l82hJHDdmn
Day 6
Just a couple of exercises today. Distinguishing individual notes in harmonics is difficult for me xD
More training!
6/100 Days of Guitar https://t.co/BFRFTJEb7q
Day 7
Idk how I'm supposed to immediately go into reading the intervals without knowing which notes are what first 🙃
I guess I'll start on that tomorrow.
7/100 Days of Guitar https://t.co/8oHqyYNzSk
Day 8
Did more Perfect Ear exercises and found something to learn to read notes.
The PRESSURE omg xD
But it's kinda like a game so I'm gonna kill it eventually 💀
8/100 Days of Guitar https://t.co/6IBJSF5rsY
Day 9
I have made my life difficult.
I have no idea what these are but I will soon 🤣
9/100 Days of Guitar https://t.co/e4lDG7EQ0R
Day 10
Back to video clips. I won't be putting in too much effort, though. 😆 I used Premiere Rush, like last time, but not digging it without the alignment tools.
Anyway. I hope the calluses reform soon xD
10/100 Days of Guitar https://t.co/7ps3yXLUNk
Day 11
It's like my hand span shrunk while I wasn't practicing all this time😩
w/e. More exercises to do now ig :3
11/100 Days of Guitar https://t.co/MIk5bHVqhZ
Day 12
Seven Nation Army riff practice, and Am/Em added to the list. The calluses have yet to reform so I just get worse the longer I go xD
SOUND IS BAD. Dunno why. You have been warned.
12/100 Days of Guitar https://t.co/wKXCWkycwC
Day 13
Finger exercises, Sunshine of Your Love by Cream, and 505 by Arctic Monkeys.
Slowly grew worse with the finger pain, and Dmin is a biiiitch to swap to so I need a lot more practice there xD
Audio quality is killing me so I'll be buying a mic soon.
13/100 Days of Guitar https://t.co/JmIwNDb8TL
Day 14
Couldn't get the onboard mic working - it still wants to block out the guitar.
Zoom H1 didn't want to work with the cable available either, so I've ordered a new one. If that doesn't work, I'll buy a new mic =_=
Results grew worse because of the pain xD
14/100 Days of Guitar https://t.co/dJtOJeLSse
Day 15
Come As You Are by Nirvana riff practice.
Mic cable arrived today so we'll see tomorrow if I have to order a new one or not.
Also started practicing Eleanor Rigby, which is coming back to me quickly. I spent a lot of time learning it... And no Dmin 🤣
15/100 Days of Guitar https://t.co/6OITQu0bfv
Day 16
Audio is still a work in progress, but at least it's less garbled now.
Tried fingerstyle techniques as well but didn't bother to include that in the recording. And my fingers are sore so I'm not recording again.
Mistakes are many. Too bad so sad :3
16/100 Days of Guitar https://t.co/bH8AOmIYAf
Day 17
Sticking this here for record's sake. I was struggling by the end xD
I think I've been practicing for over an hour and my fingers are toast, so skip this one. I'll have better audio tomorrow, promise <3
Mic 'enhancements' needs a toggle.
17/100 Days of Guitar https://t.co/b8zfv2Pg06
Day 18
SOOOOOO MANY MISTAKES but w/e that's what practice is xD
18/100 Days of Guitar https://t.co/e3VdzuagDc
Day 19
Spent time with The Fray tonight. Dying fingers + tired af is not a good recipe for practice. Tomorrow: earlier!
After viewing this clip, I think I'll be buying a new mic xD
idk how I'll cope with the concert tomorrow. I started crashing at 8 PM 🤣
19/100 Days of Guitar https://t.co/7g8cJxgC5X
Day 20
Yesterday's sesh.
So tired I didn't even check if the guitar was showing up properly in the frame.
It was past midnight but I still wanted to practice. Key takeaway was to slow things down for a slow song. Duh.🤣
It should have been obvious to me in the beginning that there… https://t.co/aRAjyFPUNr
Day 21
Ended up re-watching a ton of video content today, and practiced these 'stuck 3&4 chords':
G, G5, Cadd9, D sus4, A7 sus4, A7 sus4 variation, E min7, D add11/F#, F 6/9
The numbers basically read like an encrypted key to me but I'll get there eventually xD
21/100 Days of Guitar https://t.co/0CmQP7PqJn
Day 22
Open E minor pentatonic scale. Had a go with the metronome.
Forgot to take off the mic 'enhancement' thing I'd activated for stream today so... Soz :/ Audio should be in sync though!
nn!
22/100 Days of Guitar https://t.co/yTee2BoCbu
Day 23
Justin turns the pick around while strumming xD I can't even. dmdiwkmalcasdcsa
Anyway. Tried muting strings while playing and fumbling with the pick. Half out of frame, but I'm sick and I just wanna go rest idc xD
23/100 Days of Guitar https://t.co/tZlHXJtNVl
Day 24
Wish You Were Here riff by Pink Floyd.
I'll get it smoother tomorrow. Managed to spend over an hour on this today *while* being sick so I think I did fairly well ^^
24/100 Days of Guitar https://t.co/01Bi6iCzo0
Day 25
Kinda got the nuances memorised now, I think? So squeaky because my fingers hurt 🤣
Gonna try this again tomorrow when not so tired. Can't wait for those calluses to develop properly.
25/100 Days of Guitar https://t.co/zxhnmNxjSF
Day 26
One of the forbidden songs - Wonderwall 🤣 Chords today, maybe strumming pattern tomorrow.
We'll see!
26/100 Days of Guitar https://t.co/HLHzw390gA
Day 27
Strumming practice for Wonderwall today!
This is what I'll be working with, it seems xD Not too shabby but maybe I'll get through a full play tomorrow, even if the strumming doesn't sound that great.
Unsure what's causing the buzzing sound, soz :/
27/100 Days of Guitar https://t.co/09U8Jr4yUJ
Day 28
Played with the song. Eh xD
Getting there though, albeit slowly. I lose my place many times 🤣🤣
28/100 Days of Guitar https://t.co/tzEcoUB2bm
Day 29
F it.
A bunch of F chords! F chord, F Major 7, F Major 7/C, mini F.
ouchouchouchouchouchxD
29/100 Days of Guitar https://t.co/t2zMWQKNlC
Day 30
A bit frazzled but practiced nonetheless.
30/100 Days of Guitar https://t.co/6JbgX2QyBX
Day 31
I feel like this was one of my worst practice sessions 🤣
Gotta do more to get it right then, eh :3
31/100 Days of Guitar https://t.co/SNKD8Rc7x2
Day 32
ngl I was so focussed on the pain in my fingertips and not being able to get the chords clean as a result that most other things fell to the wayside xD
32/100 Days of Guitar https://t.co/u3FGL44eTo
Day 33
House of the Rising Sun fingerstyle practice.... That's about as good as it's gonna get today. Felt nauseated otw home and need sleep but guitar first :3
Swapping to D without looking continues to elude me 😩
33/100 Days of Guitar https://t.co/xI99zwAp8B
Day 34
House of the Rising Sun again. Tried flat picking, and then rake picking. If my fingers weren't hurting so much it'd sound better but I guess it'll take a couple more weeks to get there xD
Still practicing that F chord daily too!
34/100 Days of Guitar https://t.co/mzEfW8rF0p
Day 35
Alternate picking requires too much brain effort for this time of day and also any day 💀
35/100 Days of Guitar https://t.co/x8yUziwXnQ
Day 36
Audio's a bit messed up for this one - sorry! - so if you turn it up don't forget to turn it back down!
Practicing the Rhythm Push - when the chord arrives a bit early on the upstrum before the next bar starts.
36/100 Days of Guitar https://t.co/ZOS2lZr5tR
Day 37
No video today! It's late and I need to sleep before the stream tomorrow - and birthday plans. I practiced the La Bamba riff though.
I'll post a video tomorrow when I've hopefully got better timing :3
37/100 Days of Guitar
Day 38
Struggle central with La Bamba.
Too tired to do well. You'd think I'd learn to do my practice early in the day but noooOOOOOOoooo =_=
38/100 Days of Guitar https://t.co/xo0uepnCF7
Day 39
There's an actual pie in an actual oven so that screwed up the audio.
Still learning the chords though so it'd have been terrible anyway xD Gonna take a week to work through this one until my fingers remember the F chord.
39/100 Days of Guitar https://t.co/f75OdQiXEY
Day 40
No video today! Did the same as yesterday.
There was a tiny breakthrough: I made adjustments to [slowly] put my fingers down nearly simultaneously for a chord instead of the order I was used to.
Once that becomes muscle memory I can switch faster ^^
40/100 Days of Guitar
Day 41
There's almost no pain in my fingertips anymore due to the calluses; most of it is throughout my fingers due to poor finger strength, and my wrist/thumb muscles (F chord).
I think I'll have a clean F chord within a week.
41/100 Days of Guitar
Day 42
I have attempted noodling. The advice was to play around with chords I know - lifting fingers, moving shapes around the frets, and seeing 'what sounds nice'. I don't have to be that knowledgeable when it comes to songwriting.
+ F chord practice.
42/100 Days of Guitar
Day 43
More ear training noob exercises, fingerstyle practice, and F chord attempts.
Getting there 💀 I can get the chord clean 50% of the time, and no speed xD
43/100 Days of Guitar
Day 44
Learnt half of Happy Birthday - fingerstyle.
I'll finish it tomorrow :D
44/100 Days of Guitar
Day 45
It is nearly midnight and way past my bedtime as I went to London.js this evening but I have learnt the rest of Happy Birthday (fingerstyle).
'tis done.
45/100 Days of Guitar
Day 46
Spent all evening coding a project I should've done in the morning. I only made time for some F chord practice and practicing fingerstyle (HBD and House of the Rising Sun).
Good enough, ig. Need sleep; long day tomorrow with the Atlantis nerds~
46/100 Days of Guitar
Day 47
Spent the day out with Atlantis nerds at Bletchley Park and the National Museum of Computing 😜
Made some time for Little Talks - got the F chord maybe 60% of the time? - and Happy Birthday fingerstyle.
nn!
47/100 Days of Guitar
Day 48
Learning Nothing Else Matters has caused my hand to start dying again considerably xD Stretching from the fifth to second fret at the same time = ouch
F chord isn't so bad anymore🤣
48/100 Days of Guitar
Day 49
I have spent most of day being sick and maxed out my energy on videos and writing an article.
Practiced some Nothing Else Matters and Little Talks, dassit. ^^
49/100 Days of Guitar
Day 50
No energy to get out of bed, really. Watched a video on songwriting and that was it. ^^
50/100 Days of Guitar
Day 51
Watched a video on palm muting. Will try it after I get around to practicing power chords.
51/100 Days of Guitar
Day 52
Kinda dying to get back to playing but my energy and focus is limited. Have to prioritise work.
Watched a video about writing riffs.
52/100 Days of Guitar
Day 53
Watched a video on understanding distortion. I miss my electric guitar 😭
And health.
xD
53/100 Days of Guitar
Day 54
Sat with my guitar again. Felt good. Tried out palm muting, noodling around, and more F chord practice up and down the neck.
This was yesterday. xD
54/100 Days of Guitar
Day 55
Practiced the A Minor Pentatonic scale. Feels like I did the bare minormum but w/e
;3
55/100 Days of Guitar
Day 56
F chord practice. V. short - was exhausted af. Didn't post either - this is yesterday's post xD
56/100 Days of Guitar
Day 57
Back to Little Talks! Which is all I had the energy to do.
I get the F chord like half the time but can keep the rhythm for the most part so... I'll probably be able to play it properly in another couple of weeks with concentrated practice.
57/100 Days of Guitar
Day 58
Tiny progress! Did some more focussed little bits - Little Talks here and there, and swapping between the chords.
I think at this point I need to play some slower songs with the F chord so the changes aren't as fast xD
58/100 Days of Guitar
Day 59
Started learning Enter Sandman. More F chord practice. I can do the changes slowly tbh - it's Little Talks that's giving me trouble because the strumming and changes are both quick.
I'll be moving on but still practicing that one almost daily.
59/100 Days of Guitar
Day 60
Practised for the jam sesh tomorrow: Wonderwall and Eleanor Rigby.
Can't sing though - I try that for more than a minute and I end up spluttering with throat pain xD
Semi-whispers for a while still, it seems.
60/100 Days of Guitar
Day 61
Jamming with @Alomoadev and @adamtolcher
That was my first sesh ever playing guitar with others and I loved iiiiiiit 🥳 Alom's singing! Adam's melodies! SO GOOD. :D
New achievement unlocked for 100D!
Wonderwall, Eleanor Rigby, and Little Talks~
61/100 Days of Guitar https://t.co/v89cG7V7z0
Day 62
Electric guitar time! Power chords and all the typical songs that come with it are soon to follow xD
idk why they don't call them e-guitars 😜
62/100 Days of Guitar
Day 63
Started Song 2 by Blur.
I feel so nooby with my non-functional power chords 🤣
63/100 Days of Guitar
Day 64
Brain is fried. I managed to understand the strumming pattern for the first two chords and that's it xD
64/100 Days of Guitar
Day 65
Between stream, work, and Dune: Part Two I only spared a few minutes to go over what I did yesterday
But did worse 😆😆
65/100 Days of Guitar
Day 66
It's Saturday, but spent it working. Little time for guitar - I started learning Eric Clapton's Cocaine.
Today was the first day I didn't need painkillers though, so that's a plus. I might even be able to talk properly next week 😆
66/100 Days of Guitar
Day 67
Finished the Cocaine (song) video from yesterday ^^ Felt like I hardly even did the bare minimum but I needed a break.
Let's hope I can get back to bad singing after another week of healing :D In the meantime I'll return to clips.
67/100 Days of Guitar
Day 68
Went back to theory as I realised I won't be meeting some of my initial goals if I don't xD
Tbh I enjoy working in large chunks - courses included, though those can't be powered through. I may spend a few days on theory before my *next* tech project.
68/100 Days of Guitar https://t.co/MS1H2U46f0
Day 69 nice
Identifying things at intervals is difficult omg xD I don't have enough training for this. 8 and 9 semitone gaps WHY IS THIS A THING 😭
Started some rhythm exercises so I'd stay sane.
69 (nice)/100 Days of Guitar https://t.co/gx4fWtyjnR
Day 70
Found Justin's Practical Music Theory course and downloaded a WORKBOOK which I don't remember doing like, ever, or using outside school
I made one a few years ago though xD
70/100 Days of Guitar https://t.co/DX9f5LZipJ
Day 71
me: struggling with power chords and muting strings
@adamtolcher: let's learn Metallica's One together
This man. 😆
More Cocaine (the song, not the thing that would get me arrested) practice plus music theory (note circle).
71/100 Days of Guitar
Day 72
Did more music theory. Today was the first time I understood how notes work up and down the fretboard.
Can't believe it took me this long to get to a video with enough pieces for everything to make sense xD
72/100 Days of Guitar
Day 73
WOO. Let's go :D
73/100 Days of Guitar https://t.co/I0l2zJaEYS
Day 74
Went through the rest of the videos for Grade 2 and finished the quiz. I may try some scales and ear training while I work on my power chords.
74/100 Days of Guitar https://t.co/MCFmgeYhup
Day 75
Started practicing power chords on the acoustic instead of electric.
Ouch. xD
75/100 Days of Guitar
Day 76
Started an ear training course and got through the first video.
That's it for today!
76/100 Days of Guitar
Day 77
'You might upset your cat maybe if it's really bad' - Justin encouraging singing 🤣
Finished the intro Ear Training module. The exercises will be great for low energy days where Iearning a new thing feels like too much effort.
77/100 Days of Guitar https://t.co/7A0XRotL45
Day 78
Read two articles on ear training references, watched a video on playing Perfect 5th using songs, and another on minimum movement.
Doing that exercise for 5 mins 5 days a week for a few months is apparently how long it'll take hot damn 🙃
78/100 Days of Guitar
Day 79
45%. I had forgotten how this works - only figured it out near the end xD
I just want to be able to read different types of music before this challenge is over.
79/100 Days of Guitar https://t.co/4zl3XmBx6A
Day 80
Some noodling, power chord practice, and F chord practice.
All energy went into work today, and it will keep doing so until this project is dooooneee next week~
80/100 Days of Guitar
Day 81
Light jamming with @Alomoadev and @adamtolcher
Food and company was *chef's kiss*
81/100 Days of Guitar https://t.co/jrHO2TZPlL
Day 82
Practiced power chords on the acoustic and got a little bit better.
But also ouch. Slides hurt on these strings xD
82/100 Days of Guitar
Day 83
Power chords again (R5) and can't slide at speed...
...Yet.
Yes, I had code on the brain and put 100 Days of Code so I ✨DELETED IT✨
Been working from 0400 to 2100 with 1-2h worth of breaks plus stream xD
83/100 Days of Guitar
Day 84
Can fumble through Cocaine now.
The song.
On acoustic.
I'll use the e-guitar tomorrow if I make good headway with the GSAP animations I'm adding to this Svelte project. :D
84/100 Days of Guitar
Day 85
Moved to e-guitar and did alright! The strings ring out more so I have to be more careful xD Good for practicing being correct.
85/100 Days of Guitar
Day 86
Started on the intro for Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spirit.
15-year-old me is excited for this one 🤣
86/100 Days of Guitar
Day 87
Can you tell I'm back on Twitter💀
Watched more of the Smells Like Teen Spirit video; will get to practicing chords tomorrow.
nn!
87/100 Days of Guitar
Day 88
Fingers crossed tomorrow is the day I'm working full-time on this GSAP/Svelte thing xD
Worked on the chords and strumming pattern for Smells Like Teen Spirit a bit. Looking forward to being able to play it noobily!
88/100 Days of Guitar
Day 89
Getting really difficult not to type '100 Days of Code' every day now xD
Practiced chords until my hands hurt. Man, this acoustic power chord business had so better pay off xD
89/100 Days of Guitar
Day 90
I got the strumming pattern! I couldn't get it yesterday.
Can't switch chords quickly enough but I'll get theeeere~~
90/100 Days of Guitar
Day 91
Switched over to playing the chords the way Nirvana does it and it's both more and less difficult for various reasons xD
One finger on two strings, so that's fewer to move, but that's one finger on two strings, with which I have no experience xD
91/100 Days of Guitar
Day 92
More chord practice. Sounds... Mid xD
I won't have my guitar as I'll be travelling for the next week or so; the rest of my practice will be theory and ear training ^^
92/100 Days of Guitar
Day 93
Rhythm training.
I forgot about this part of music notes tbh xD
93/100 Days of Guitar https://t.co/pA95QDHK7A
Day 94
More rhythm training, but I had to pick notes this time xD
94/100 Days of Guitar https://t.co/g6SYeNPyiu
Day 95
Some reading! Turns out I remember the note circle fairly well
95/100 Days of Guitar https://t.co/ThL4OrlJaz
Day 96
First time I got 100% off the bat!
I was guessing the intervals by reading notes, no sounds involved.
96/100 Days of Guitar https://t.co/idJoqE2uon
Day 97
I spent WAY longer on these drills 😭 this is just the last one I practiced over and over until I finally got it right
Initial round was 4/10 wrong 🤣
97/100 Days of Guitar https://t.co/fr3xem0C0m
Day 98
Different exercise; basically had to continue guessing notes. Did okay!
98/100 Days of Guitar https://t.co/6nDiDsZtEf
Day 99
Rhythm tapping. Spent AGES on because I kept getting it wrong xD Tiny bit frustrating.
99/100 Days of Guitar https://t.co/zlojIMAA9a
Day 100
More rhythm tapping. Not as bad as yesterday... Which isn't saying much xD
I'll get there! Phone tapping feels a bit sus. I feel like I do better with an instrument + metronome.
100/100 Days of Guitar https://t.co/B3W3s3Jb0e