Day 449: Barre-F and Little F Practice Schedule
Here’s what my regular practice schedule looks like on Day 449.
F-chord practice:
- Barre F-chord Catch & Release (2 minutes): I’m doing the catch and release exercise from Nate Savage’s 8 Chords You Must Know. It’s not about the F-chord. It’s a practice suggestion to use when learning new chords. You fret the chord and then let it go. Shake out your hand and fret the chord again. You “catch” the chord and then “release” it. Forcing your hand to do this helps you develop the muscle memory needed to master the chord.
- Little F chord to C chord transition (1 minute): This is from the Justin Guitar 1-minute chord practice drill. You’re working on making as many chord changes as fast as possible and not worrying about correctness so much. If you can do 60 changes in a minute, you can move on. I tend to do this drill until my chord quality improves.
- Barre F chord to C chord transition (1-minute): Same drill as above but with the barre F-chord.
Finger picking:
I’m playing with fingerpicking here because I’d like to eventually play California Dreamin fingerstyle. To anyone else reading this, I’d say skip it. You’ll probably be better off spending your time on mastering more fundamental skills. I’m not in a hurry to become a rock star and win my first Gramy Award, so I’m trying things that I like.
- Practiced the Justin Guitar warm up fingerpicking drill (2-5 minutes). I don’t really have a goal for fingerpicking besides learning it for California Dreamin‘. California Dreamin’ is a long-term project for me. It requires that I master F-chords, so I’m not expecting to play it for some time.
- California Dreamin’ fingerstyle (2-5 minutes): I’m playing with the California Dreamin’ intro riff as a fingerstyle practice. It’s fun for me
Theory & ABCs:
For those of you who use Fender Play and you’re practicing the little F-chord, you’ll have already seen the ABCs Know Your Notes (Level 2, Course 13 in the electric guitar, rock genre). In the video Matt Lake walks you through the musical alphabet, whole steps and half steps, and sharps and flats. The lessons finding the notes on the low E and the A strings. Using what you’ve learned in the lesson, you can also figure out the note locations on the other strings.
The Alphabet spelling drill: This drill is simple. You try to spell words using the A, B, C, D, E, F, G notes on a string. I started with the low E string because it’s helpful for me when identifying power chords. I try to spell as many words as I can think of and I never repeat a word during the practice. BEAD, BEEF, DEAD, DAD and many other words are possible as a part of your practice. If nothing comes to mind, start making up words. It’s helped me memorize the low E string and I’ve moved on to the same exercise on the A-string. \
I’ll spell until I get tired of the exercise. It usually doesn’t go on for more than a few minutes, but there have been days where I’ve found that I’ve practices for more than 15 minutes. Don’t make it a chore. When it stops being fun, move on. I’m in no rush. I’ll memorize the fretboard when I memorize the fretboard.
My ABCs Practice:
- Play the notes up and down the scale for each string starting with the low E string.
- Play the alphabet spelling drill on the low E string.
Now that I’ve memorized the E-string, I’m trying to spell words using the E and A strings and will alternate letters back and forth across the strings. It definitely forces you to remember where the letters are.
Muting:
Fender Play teaches different kinds of muting techniques in the Level 4, Course 09 with Sydney Ellen (Electric guitar, Rock genre). I’m looking to learn, “Smells Like Teen Spirit” by Nirvana as a part of my power chord practice. The song makes use of fret hand string muting, so I’m going back and reviewing these lessons. Fender Play doesn’t really make a lot of use of these techniques in the lessons following Level 4, Course 09, so finding songs you want to learn is important way to force yourself to practice the techniques that are taught.
The Lauren Bateman in her power chord video talks about “chcka chicka” fret muting at the end of her video.
Other Practice Songs / Riffs:
- There She Goes (1-5 min): This is one of the songs that I’d like to learn. I’m working on the intro riff. I’ll put a few minutes into this and go longer if I’m in the mood. I use this lesson as an opportunity to practice alternate picking. Fender Play covers this in Level 4, Course 14, Pick Trick – Alternate Picking on the electric guitar, rock genre. The location will vary depending on the instrument and genre you choose on Fender Play.
- Satisfaction (1-2 min): I’ve memorized this riff from FP, Level 1, Course 06. I love the song and practice this riff for speed, and consistency. Eventually, I’m going to have to learn the whole song. The FP exercise is at 90 bps which feels painfully slow now. The version on Songsterr.com is at 134 bps, which is where I’m practicing this at.
- Come As You Are (1-2 min): You’ll find this practice riff on Fender Play, Level 2, Course 15 in the electric guitar, rock genre. The exercise speed is at 80 bps, but I’ll practice the riff on the standard tuning version on songsterr.com at 120 bps.
- Peter Gunn (1 min): I’ll practice this old Fender Play Level 1 practice riff if I’m in the mood. If I do practice this, I’ll do it for accuracy and clarity. It’s no longer in the Fender Play lesson rotation, but you will see it here in the Justin Guitar lessons. I’m not a fan of the Justin Guitar version of this practice riff. Unlike Fender Play, the free YouTube lesson doesn’t provide any tabs.
- Smoke on the Water (1-2 min): Marty Music teaches this practice riff. It’s somewhat similar to the old Fender Play Seven Nation Army practice riff / lesson in that it teaches you fretting a single string up and down the neck. I do Marty’s two finger “extra” credit version mostly to practice muting the neighboring strings.
- Oh, Pretty Woman (1-2 min): I’m hoping to learn the whole song and slowly working more of it into my practice. If you’re not interested in the song, skip it and find something that you enjoy.
Power Chord Practice Songs:
- Blitzkrieg Bop (10-15 minutes): I’m working on learning the entire song. I think this song is a lot of fun and I’ll usually lose track of time with it.
- Seven Nation Army (5 minutes): Work on this for power chord practice. I’m trying to mute out any junk notes when strumming the power chords. I’d like to get to a place where I’m as clean as I am on the simple version Seven Nation Army practice exercise on Fender Play (I think Fender Play has retired this practice exercise, but Justin Guitar still talks about and suggests it.)
Chord Transition Practice:
I’ll practice transition drills if I have the time and the energy.
- Level 1 Chord transitions (1-2 min): Em – Am, Em – D
- Level 2 Chord transitions (1-2 min): A – E, Am – E, Em – A
- Level 3 Chord transitions (1-2min): G – C – D
- Level 4 Chord transitions (1-2 min): E7 – B7, E7 – B7 – D7
Resources:
- Lauren Bateman: Power Chord lessons – She also talks about muting power chords as used in songs like, “Smells Like Teen Spirit”.
- Nate Savage: 8 Chords You Must Know
- Justin Guitar 1-minute chord changes drill
- California Dreamin’ tab (songsterr.com)
- There She Goes (songsterr.com)
- I Can’t Get No Satisfaction (songsterr.com)
- Smoke on the Water (Marty Music)
- Come As You Are (songsterr.com)
- Peter Gunn (Justin Guitar)
- Oh, Pretty Woman (songsterr.com)