I am documenting this at the start of the year to show my progress and what specifically I can train to be aware of what I can do to improve.
I would say rhythm is one of my strongest skills in all I can do in music I can find rhythms, strumming patterns, drum beats any of that I can pick up very quickly if not straight away which I feel is very helpful when it comes to learning any thing really, it helps speed things up a little. I feel this is a good skill as it helps me also with writing and getting creative when it comes to strumming patterns or borings parts of songs i’ve written I can change and make a little more exciting or more to my preference.
This video is a good example of good control over strumming, rhythm and shows I can change a song to be “more exciting or more to my preference” using the skills i’m talking about, this is my adaptation of the outro for Pluto Projector by Rex Orange County. Originally in the section of the song the notes are individually plucked instead of being strummed like a chord and the original piece is a lot more emotional with violins and what sounds like a beautiful orchestra in the song but I like my version its a nice show of how you can change any thing into any thing.
I know enough theory and things about the guitar to confidently write chord progressions and riffs for original songs which is great as I enjoy writing music and plan to write for as long as my fingers work. I think the ability to write is just amazing as it lets me direct my focusses on 1 thing when other life things may be getting stressful. I feel this is a good skill in music as a huge part of music is creation and using past things to make new things and all that awesome stuff.
Another thing that has been improving a lot this year is my ear, when it comes to finding notes or chords on the fretboard I can normally find it within 2 attempts. I feel being able to identify notes and chords just by hearing them would be a very helpful skill for learning and being creative/writing as it would increase the speed of the process of what it takes to learn a song your learning.
A skill that is okay but needs more work is my soloing and improvising as I feel I have the knowledge of enough scales and modes to be able to improvise a lot better than I can currently, I felt I could learn solos and be able to play these solos with few errors even fast ones.
This is a solo I learnt about a month ago after seeing Jacob playing it I asked him if he could teach me and he taught me every thing but the solo so as soon as I got home I learnt the solo and started recording and this is the result so I can solo but with other songs and slower solos that require a little more control over the guitar to be able to perform it correctly I need to practice a variety of songs with some nice challenging solos in them to help my self get better.(Rant over)
I can practice and have been practicing my improvising with Ben trying to get every last bit out of practice time and trying to target specific points I know are weak like my improvisation and my soloing. One of us will make a quick chord progression then we figure out the key and then we pass the opportunity to improvise a solo to each other and try keep the flow going with clean improv that fits with the style of whatever the chord progression may be.