Here are two more interesting emails and comments I have got lately.
I hope you find the emails and my thoughts useful…
Email #1
“Thanks again for your email. Your mini quiz was quite poignant given that I gained my first Star today.
It is a great way to show how much progress a student guitarist like me is making. When learning on your own it can be difficult to gauge your own progress. People have said about recording yourself and watch it back.
My fiancée heard me practice a song called “A Song for The Life”. Written by Rodney Crowell performed by The Waterboys. She overheard me trying to play it and said you’re a Dark Horse. I took that as a compliment. I thought I must be improving.
The quiz also shows how much knowledge you have gained. So many thanks Dan. I will start cutting myself some slack.
Kind Regards”
– Brian
I love it when I hear of a student getting a compliment from a loved one.
It certainly sounds like Brian’s fiancé meant that as a compliment for sure.
It’s also interesting Brian mentioned recording himself – that is a difficult but tried and tested way to measure your own progress.
Many people can freeze up when the camera is on (I used to do so too). It’s a strange thing, but it gets easier the more you do it.
I also loved how Brian got a well-deserved boost for passing his first star.
In case you don’t know, in the Dan Thorpe Acoustic Academy, I created the “5-star Award” as a way to give students specific goals and clarity.
The “quizzes” are there to measure your progress. I’ll be opening up the Academy again towards the end of June, but a good takeaway here is that however you find a way to measure your progress, it’s well worth doing.
That could be things like recording yourself, the “5-Star Award”, or getting encouraging feedback from others.
Well done to Brian!
Email #2
“Hi Dan belated happy birthday glad you had a good day, sorry to hear you have split from Emma.
Glad to hear everything else is going well for you.
At the moment someone has let me borrow a baritone ukulele don’t know if you have ever seen or tried one of these the strings are DGBE top high strings of a guitar so I can play most of the chords easily.
I’ve been exploring a bit with this and found that I can finger pick the Romanza piece on it with a bit of adapting, sounds nice as the baritone has a much deeper mellow sound than the other ukulele. I will try some of the other pieces at some point. Still playing my bass bought a new one recently.”
– Glynis
It’s good to hear from Glynis.
Glynis started out on ukulele, took lessons with me on guitar, and made a lot of progress in that time.
…Not just on the guitar, but as an all-round musician.
So much so that she was asked to play bass in the local ukulele group – that’s no mean feat being the sole bassist in a group of a dozen ukulele players!
Anyway, I know a decent amount of my readers also play the ukulele – which is quite a cool instrument in many ways.
This reminded me of something I like to get students who play other instruments to do, which is…
Play something you know on the guitar and play it on another instrument.
I’m not a great keyboardist, but for years I’ve enjoyed working out how to play lots of little riffs and melodies that I know on the guitar and play them on Archie’s keyboard.
It’s a bit of fun and can help to make you a more musical and rounded musician!
Anyway, one proven way to help your musicality is to fix the things that hold back your playing in a systematic and enjoyable way. For more help with that, you might like to check this out below…
Guitar Domination Super eBook Bundle
Have a great day of practice!
Dan Thorpe
Guitar Domination
P.S. This post was originally taken from Dan Thorpe’s private email list. To get blog posts like this sent to you which are full of great tips to make fingerpicking, strumming, and learning guitar more enjoyable (especially if you are over 40) join Dan’s list. It’s 100% free, HERE.
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