I know that I already posted that I won’t be posting a practice plan for this week, but I can’t sit around and not practice just because I’m sad. (I mean, I totally could, and I fully support a person’s right to just be sad and do nothing. But not practicing is actually doing the opposite of help).
One difference this week, I am also indicating practice for the guitar, which I really should be keeping as sharp as I can, even though I am not principally a guitarist and have no intention of becoming one. And this has little to nothing to do with a crush on Molly Tuttle.
You may notice that a lot of my practice list is very similar to two weeks ago. One of my big goals this week is to move this material off of my practice plan (by learning it). It’s just been a hard couple weeks. 🤷🏻♂️
Practice Plan for 06 November 2022
Lesson:
Mandolin: 09 November 2022
Guitar: I don’t currently take guitar lessons. But if I could find someone to teach me bluegrass styles – especially claw hammer guitar – I would totally jump at that.
I record myself fairly regularly to give myself an opportunity to step back and listen. It is a great way to look for places that I need to make improvements, but is also a good opportunity to compare how I’m doing and the progress I’ve made.
To facilitate this, in addition to whatever I am working on in my practice plan for the week, I often record the same songs over again. Bonnie Tammie is a good example. I have a recording of myself playing it from right after I first started lessons, the first time, in 2016. I was even worse than I am today, if that can be imagined.
A few other of my regular check-in recordings are Clinch Mountain Backstep and Whiskey Before Breakfast, because I know them pretty well AND they are fun to play.
So this is my first week posting some of my progress videos here. They are confounded here because I am also trying out the tone on my Epiphone mm50e. I bought it to use for a punk folk project (it has a neat pickup system), but right now it is also standing in while I am between primary instruments.
Clinch Mountain Backstep
I still have some notes that fall out of time because of things like incorrect pick direction, but this was a good one to hear the tone of the Epiphone. Still deciding on that.
Make Me Down a Pallet, Mandolin
I worked this out first on guitar. Gillian Welch sings this in E flat (in C but capoed up 3), I believe, and that fits my voice best, but was a devil on the mandolin (where we don’t use capoes) at first. Figuring this out was not only a topic at my last lesson, using a key signature dice and transposing to whatever key comes up was one of my assignments.
Make Me Down a Pallet, Guitar
And then the same on guitar.
The Wind that Shakes the Barley/JohnStinson’s
I learned this a few weeks ago and have been working on them. Getting close(ish).
Whiskey Before Breakfast
The double stop potatoes at the beginning are new. In my lessons right now I am working on the transition from rhythm to lead, and you can see that it is still an early work in progress – especially with how disorganized my fingers are for the first A part.
And that, is where I am at the end of this week of practice. I probably won’t get this week’s practice plan up until tomorrow, because I haven’t made it yet.
I am excited to start sharing this new post type. I plan out my mandolin practice for the week every Sunday. I will make a longer post talking about how I do my planning and what I include and am looking for, but here is a quick summary.
I follow a format that I learned from David Benedict (not directly, of course – although I think he’s super rad, I have never met him) that has five sections: 1) New Material, 2) Developing Material, 3) Performance Material, 4) Techniques, and 5) Musicianship. I also indicate in my plan whether I have a lesson and what my plans for playing with others are for the week (I have a goal to play with others at least once every week).
Starting today, I am going to be posting my weekly practice plans here on Turtlshel. Obviously I am a bunch of days late posting this week, but a person has to start somewhere.
