Hi Efe! Wishing you a great week!

Here’s the outlook on this month.

The recital is May 2nd. The priority for you right now is to perform for the recital. Hence we’re putting the music reading and other guitar studies on hold for the time being. 

You’re going to be playing the 3 main riffs of Boulevard of Broken Dreams for the recital.

— Practice the first 2 of these in Em (E minor); the way I showed it in class.

  • The first one: Em, G, D, A. 
  • The second one: C5, G5, D5, Em. (The 5’s just mean that they’re powerchords. Remember to use fingers 1 and 4 for these.)

— The 3rd one: Use this Unlisted YouTube video to practice it with. March 18th Video. The key here is F# minor. Slow the video down to 0.75x speed when practicing with it.

  • At minute 4:50 is where I start demonstrating this last riff.
  • Regarding the vibrato: Just try to do some with your Left Hand fingers going left-right-left-right-left-right. The thumb must be located directly behind where the fingers are doing the vibrato on the guitar neck. Also, whatever number of finger is on the fretboard must have your other Left Hand fingers pressed down on the frets to its left. It is stronger and therefore more comfortable vibrato this way. Examples: Finger 3 vibrato means fingers 1 and 2 must also be on the fretboard. Finger 4 vibrato means fingers 1, 2, and 3 must also be on the fretboard. — These other fingers on the fretboard should each be on a fret, all right next to one another. (Not the most important thing out of this week’s work; I’ll tell you more about this next week. Just give it a try.)

I’m going to make an arrangement of these riffs in one seamless piece of music.

— This arrangement is now here, at this Unlisted YouTube video link: April 15th Link

  • Slow the video down to 0.5x speed when practicing with it. For now. I know the video says 0.6x, but that’s a step I’m hoping you’ll be able to achieve in another week.
  • Regarding playing speed: We’ll soon choose the final speed as a goal at which you’ll be playing this for the recital.

Enjoy the strumming patterns. Playing strumming patterns is one of the exciting things about playing the guitar.

Remember to do at least a little bit of practice for this everyday.

Good seeing you again today, Efe! I’ll see you in a week!