whaack

I. Warmup (70bpm)
1. (RH) String Crossing - Alternative m & a up and down strings 4x per string 3x, 2x, 1x...
2. (LH) Spider Crawl whole neck (Ascend high e and then descend B, try not to look)
3. (LH) Chromatic scale in first position, paying attention to pinky legato.

II. Music Theory
Write out fingerings for Aeolian mode (relative minor) of open positions C,D,G,A,E,F,B Major scales.

III. Technique Developmentf
While focusing on pinky placement...
1. Picado 51bpm 2npb open position in Circle of Fifths Order: F,C,G,D,A,E,B Major Scales (w/ passing note except for B Major)
2. Tremolo PAMI
- 60 bpm Legato
- Rotate accent (P, A, M, I, No Accent)
- 60 bpm Sticatto
- 60 bpm Ascending / Descending thumb.
3. Double Notes (Rest stroke with thumb + free stroke with fingers)

IV. New Repertoire
1. Go over Bourree by Bach first 15 measures.

V. Repertoire Review
While paying close attention to dynamics:

1. Etude in C Major
2. Mauro Giuliani C Major Piece

==

Review of Session (Total Time: ~1hr 19min)

I Warmup (8 mins total)

2 mins String Crossing (Even sound, but I only used the flesh of my finger and no nail.)
6 mins Spider Crawl + Open Chromatic Scale

(Lots of problem with chromatic scale with buzzing, perhaps move it to technique development. Spider crawl revealed a problem in concentration - as I crawl down the neck I forget where I am because my mind wanders.)

II. Music Theory (28 mins) (TODO: Review below)

Result:

F Major; d minor

013 / 013 / 023 / 023 / 123 / 013

C Major; a minor

013 / 023 / 023 / 012 / 013 / 013

G major; e minor¹

023 / 023 / 024 / 023 / 013 / 023

D Major; b minor

The passing note is conveniently the note in the harmonic minor scale.

023 / 024 / 024 / 023 / 023 / 023

A Major; f# minor - There's no passing note here.

024 / 024 / 024 / 124 / 235 / 245

E Major; c# minor

024 / 024 / 124 / 124 / 124 / 024

B Major; g# minor - I learned that I should use the 0 on the G string as the passing note.

024 / 124 / 124 / 013 / 024 / 024

III. Technique Development

Picado Scales (4min) (TODO: More pinky legato work, slower tempo, and dynamics)

Tremolo (11min)

I need to work on evenness in volume.

Double Notes (1 Min) This was useful. (TODO: Play with dynamics between thumb and ima)

IV. New Repertoire (18min)

Still needs some work, but progressing fine.

V. Repertoire Review - skipped.

TODO: Improve Giuliani C Major Piece by using rest strokes with the thumb for the double notes.

1. I noticed that the passing note is not the raised seventh of the harmonic minor like it is in a few other scales. What if instead of using the 3 on the g string as a passing note, we use the 4 on the g string and then use 134 on the B string, with the 4 now being the new passing note which is also the note used for the harmonic minor scale? [↩]

The Circle of Fifths is a mnemonic tool used to memorize which notes are a perfect fifth¹ away from a given note. The Circle of Fifths is also helpful for figuring out which notes are sharp or flat in a given key.

The first diagram below² lists all of the major keys, their relative minor keys³, and the notes that are sharpened or flattened in that key.

Each time you go up the chart in the direction of the sharps starting from C major, another note gets added to the list of sharpened notes in that row's key. The mnenonic I use to memorize the order of the notes that get sharpened is:

Fidel Castro Gets Drunk At Every Bar.

This mnenonic captures the order of the tonics as they ascend from F in the Major Key column, excluding the top two tonics: F# and C#. If you are in the Major key of one of the notes enumerated by the above mnenonic appended by F#, C#⁴you find the sharps in the key by sharpening the notes starting from F up to 2 indices down your current key's tonic's position. (i.e. A is the 5th note in the list so the sharps are F#, C#, and G#. We stop at G because G is 2 down from A)

This trick does not work for F Major, which has just 1 flatted B, nor for C Major, which has no sharps nor flats.

As you go down the rows from C Major, the notes in the keys get flattened. The (popular) mnenonic I use to remember the order of the notes that get flattened is:

BEAD GCF (Greatest Common Factor.)

If you are in any of the flattened Majors keys, to acquire the notes that are flattened in that key you list the notes in the mnenonic up to one index greater than the position of your key's tonic. For example, A is the 3rd note in the mnenonic so the notes flattened in Ab Major are all those up to and including the one in the 4th position: B,E,A, and D.

***

There are 12 pitch classes, and thus there are 24 possible keys (1 Major and 1 minor key for each pitch class). Yet this chart has 15 rows, so there is redundancy with three pairs of Major and minor keys whose respective tonics are enharmonic notes. Those pairs are

(C#/a# with Db/bb)
(F#/d# with Gb/eb)
(B /g# with Cb/ab)

This second graph, the Circle of Fifths itself, shows those pairs of keys. I believe that these three pairs of enharmonic keys are enumerated for the sake of making the nice pattern found in the first diagram. But I do not know the reasons why one would choose one key over another key from the above pairs - i.e. why would anyone consider themselves in Cb Major instead of B Major?

After writing these notes, I figured that I need a larger mnenonic for memorizing the full clockwise walk around the Circle of Fifths to be able to acquire the note that is a fifth away from my current note. I came up with:

Fidel Castro Gets Drunk At Every Bar, Gbod Dbamn Ablcohol Eberyday, Bbad Fidel...

I should eventually memorize F->C, C->G, G->D, individually so I don't have to "sing the alphabet from the beginning" to know the next letter. Likewise I should memorize the relative minor key for each major key, instead of walking back a minor third each time.

Anyways...next up, intervals!

1. i.e. 7 semitones i.e. the frequency of the reference note * 2 ^ (7/12) [↩]
2. Taken again from The Complete Musician by Laitz [↩]
3. The tonic of the relative minor is the note found a minor third down from the tonic of the corresponding major key. [↩]
4. i.e. F,C,G,D,A,B,F#,C# [↩]

I. Warmup (70bpm)
1. (RH) String Crossing - Alternative m & a up and down 6 strings 4x per string, 3x, 2x, 1x...
2. (LH) Spider crawl over whole neck
3. (LH) Chromatic scale in first position. Pay attention to pinky legato.

II. Music Theory
1. Play B Major in open position.

III. Technique Development
1. Picado 51bpm 2npb open position C,D,G,A,E,F,B Major Scales (w/ passing note except for B Major)
2. Tremolo PAMI
- 60 bpm Legato
- Rotate accent (P, A, M, I, No Accent)
- 60 bpm Sticatto
- 60 bpm Ascending / Descending thumb.
3. Double Notes (Rest stroke with thumb + free stroke with fingers)

IV. New Repertoire
1. Go over Bourree by Bach first 15 measures.

V. Repertoire Review
While paying close attention to dynamics:

1. Etude in C Major
2. Mauro Giuliani C Major Piece

==

Review of Session (Total Time: 1hr 25 mins)

I. Warmup: (Total: 10 mins)

String Cross - had trouble with getting loud sound with a finger; had trouble keeping nail/flesh even between fingers. (5 mins)
Spider Crawl + Chromatic Scale (5 mins)
(Almost had pinky legato down, tomorrow I should focus just on pinky placement)

II. Music Theory: (Total: 6 mins)

Learned B Major in open position, fingerings are:

024 / 124 / 124 / 134 / 24 / 024

Made a few errors, keep practicing at same bpm.

III. Technique Development (Total: 20 mins)

Picado on C,D,G,A,E,F,B Major Scales (5 mins)
Few mistakes, keep practicing at same bpm.
Tomorrow play in Circle of Fifths Order: F, C, G, D, A, E, B

Tremolo (15 mins)

Didn't seem to improve from first session, if anything it seemed like I did worse. I have a hunch I need to fix my nails. Bad nail shape might lead me to practicing with the wrong form. I sent an email to a potential teacher to take a look.

I skipped practicing Double Notes in the interest of time.

IV. New Repertoire: (40 mins)

I still wasted a lot of time from fatigue / hunger / boredom.

One thing I did well was noting on my score the places where I make mistakes and focusing only on those spots. I need to do this immediately.

Repertoire Review: (10 mins)

Quite a flop, I received a message on my phone and let myself break concentration and lost myself in a piece. Phone needs to be off while practicing.

In order to have more structured practice sessions with measurable goals, I've decided to keep a practice log. The log will contain the goal/schedule for the practice session followed by a review of the session.

Below is the schedule I made for my practice routine and a review of the practice itself.

I. Warmup:
1. (Right Hand) String Crossing - Play alternating i & m up and down the 6 strings, 4x per string, then 3x per string, then 2x per string, then 1x per string.
2. (Left Hand) Spider crawl over whole neck, saying note names as they are played.
3. (Left Hand) Chromatic scale in first position.

II. Music Theory/Technique Development:
1. Picado 51bpm 2npb open position C, D, G, A, E, F Major Scales (w/ and w/o passing notes)
Note: Work on keeping legato w/ pinky
2. Tremolo PAMI single string.

III. New Repertoire:

1. Go over Bourree by Bach first 13 measures.

IV. Repertoire Review:

1. Etude in C Major
2. Por Carolina
3. Mauro Giuliani A minor Piece
4. Mauro Giuliani C major piece

==

Review of Session

Warmup (Took about 10 mins)

- Struggled with ascending alternative fingers on ascension for 1x
- Forgot to do thumb ascending/descending
- Had to look at fretboard for spider crawl, could not name notes at the same time. (hard to say the flats/sharps, maybe just say the notes mentally.)
- Chromatic scale: struggled with not looking at fret, + normal trouble with pinky placement.

Music Theory/Technique Development

Picado on Paco De Lucia Major Scales:

- Pinky can avoid touching bottom strings by lifting the hand and having more of an arch.
- The A major has no passing note
- Passing note for both D and G major is 3rd fret G string (i.e. A#)
- E Major passing note is 1st fret B string.
- F Major passing note is 2nd fret B string (also, high E string is 0 1 3, i kept accidentally playing 0 2 3)

- Tremolo practice went well.
- I rotated accents but I did not practice moving the thumb up and down the other strings while playing tremolo on the E string yet.
- Potentially should reach out to Beckman for lessons.

New Repertoire

-I was tired and kept spacing off playing random rifts.
-I learned that in measure 2 I can preemptively place my pinky finger on the D# fret.

Repertoire Review

-I realize I don't understand the tempo of Por Carolina

A diatonic collection is a collection of 7 notes where each letter (A..G) is used exactly once.¹

A scale is a stepwise ordering of a diatonic collection.

The tonic is the most prominent pitch in a scale. Playing the tonic gives a sense of resolution and subjectively is the best note for the end of a song/rift.

The full list of of the names of scale degrees in a major scale are:

1st degree = tonic
2nd degree = supertonic
3rd degree = mediant
4th degree = subdominant
5th degree = dominant
6th degree = submediant
7th degree = leading tone

A minor scale in its natural form contains the following intervals:

W,H,W,W,H,W,W²

Note that a minor scale is also the aeolian mode of a relative major scale.

Because the 7th degree in the natural minor scale is no longer a semitone away from the tonic, the 7th degree is referred to as the subtonic instead of the leading tone.

The two other forms of the minor scale are the harmonic and the melodic.

The harmonic minor scale raises the 7th degree so it is once again a "leading tone." Its intervals are:

W,H,W,W,H,W+H,H

The melodic minor scale raises both the 6th and 7th degree one semitone to form the following interval pattern:

W,H,W,W,W,W,H

However when one descends the melodic minor scale one returns the 6th and 7th degree to their natural position.

A staff displaying the three forms of the A minor scale³:

1. The convenience of being able to have a diatonic collection where, given the context, each note can be specified with only a letter is the reason for the existence of enharmonically equivalent pitches - i.e. two pitches with the same frequency but different name such as A# and Bb. [↩]
2. A "W" is a whole step i.e. two semitones, an "H" is a half step i.e. one semitone. To go up a semitone one increases the frequency of the previous tone by the twelfth root of 2. [↩]
3. Taken from The Complete Musician by Laitz. [↩]