Why make a plan and keep to it?

I was going to comment that this was a short session, but I spent just over  90 minutes with the playstation running, and played 21 tracks although some I played several times for a total playing time for around 1:01:40.

Today I decided to focus on a smaller practice list and play each song several times to get my fingers warmed up before attempting the set list. This is the opposite of what I had intended yesterday when I made a list of what I was going to practice.

Why have a plan and keep to it after all!

Before I started I had two attempts at the Dawn of the Chorded game, and managing to get onto the leader board at number 10 on the second attempt, scoring 46700.

When I first started learning to play the guitar, I was using an introduction book and kept getting stuck at trying to get the F chord to sound anything like it should. I noticed during the game that I was managing to get the chord.

Playlist

Practice Songs

Well OK Honey by Jenny O: Beaten previous high score of 25719 with 30030 points. Played this five times, and slowly improved from 19677 points the first time I played the song
When I first heard this, I thought it was a fairly uncomplicated tune, but I am starting to see some of the more complex parts of the song starting to show up and confuse me.

Me and the Bean by Spoon: Beaten previous high score of 40392 with 51537. I played this track five times also, getting the best result the third attempt and dropped back in points for attempts four and five.

Play with Fire by The Rolling Stones: Beaten previous high score of 24535 with 30940. I only attempted this one twice, I could hear my girlfriend starting to move about and thought it would be a good idea to jump to getting the set list completed.

Third Street Lounge

I Got Mine by The Black Keys: Beaten previous high score of 27025 with 29272. Tried this one three times, and am getting around 71% of the notes right.

Do You Remember by The Horrors: Scored 54821. This one I did twice, the second version not as good as the first, and only getting around 62% of the notes right.

Breed by Nirvana: Beaten previous high score of 55989 with 57930. I didn't think I did that well while I was playing this one, but I must have done something better than the last time I played it.

Are You Gonna Go My Way by Lenny Kravitz: Beaten previous high score of 13010 with 14668.  I did achieve 74% of the notes on this one, and it might be the smallest guitar track on the entire game, the backing musicians seem to play a huge amount more. Having said that, the actual playing is fairly complex and I'm sure I have by no means seen everything that I have to play for this song.

When I'm with You by Best Coast: Beaten previous high score of 28407 with 30496. So close to qualifying, the target is 31100! Bacon butties were calling, which is why I stopped playing today.

Full song list

Song	Artist(s)	Latest Score	Latest Score
(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction	The Rolling Stones	74097	73793
Next Girl	The Black Keys	83349	83349
Angela	Jarvis Cocker	80260	80260
Higher Ground	Red Hot Chili Peppers	59421	58054
Go With the Flow	Queens of the Stone Age	89836	84208
In Bloom	Nirvana	40081	40081
California Brain	RapScallions	9136	9136
Vasoline	Stone Temple Pilots	71862	71651
Slow Hands	Interpol	42257	42257
I Can't Hear You	The Dead Weather	39500	39500
Surf Hell	Little Barrie	30509	25488
Boys Don't Cry	The Cure	30779	30779
Jules	Seth Chapla	11068	9647
Unnatural Selection	Muse	25297	25297
Outshined	Soundgarden	34738	30338
Number Thirteen	Red Fang	28531	23345
Use Somebody	Kings of Leon	57844	57844
Where is My Mind?	Pixies	57701	55323
Well OK Honey	Jenny O	29272	30030
Me and the Bean	Spoon	51537	51537
Play with Fire	The Rolling Stones	30940	30940
Song 2	Blur	76886	72507
I Want Some More	Dan Auerbach	23475	23475
I Got Mine	The Black Keys	29272	29272
Do You Remember	The Horrors	61026	54821
Breed	Nirvana	57930	57930
Are You Gonna Go My Way	Lenny Kravitz	14668	14668
When I'm with You	Best Coast	30496	30496

Rebel Rubbish

I've done another set of songs on Guitar Smith, and (for a change) completed a full set of songs and did the associated gig.
Rebel Rebel by David Bowie was one I was really looking forward to doing. I earned enough points to qualify the first time around, which is both a bonus and a shame. The bonus was I only played it once, instead of dozens of times! When I came to play this in the gig, I really messed up the opening half of the song, and as you can't restart a gig performance, I didn't get much appreciation from the virtual audience.
Mean Bitch by Toddy Porter. I really struggled with this song, although I did manage to beat the qualifier with better than 5000 points over the target. I doubt this will be a favorite of mine to play!
I Miss You by Incubus. I did play it, but can't think of how I felt about playing it at all.
Do You Remember by the Horrors. This was another challenging song for me to play, and I felt almost totally inept while playing it, but the virtual audience seemed to appreciate it.
High and Dry by Radiohead. Yes, another challenging song. The least said about how I played it the better.

The next set

I didn't make a note of the next set of songs, and have done this blog entry from memory. I have been noting down for my previous blogs how I felt as I competed each song. I think that is probably the better way to do it, but means you will have more to plough through.
Instead of playing each song until I qualify, I played through in the order that Guitar Smith wanted. This gave more variety in what I was playing, and I suspect prevented me getting fed up with not making progress. At least until the two I was really struggling with!
Guitar Smith recommends that you use the practice the techniques involved in the songs, and I have been ignoring that up to now. I'm considering actually doing the practice work before rehearsing the songs to see if it will improve and reduce the time it is taking me to qualify.
I'm getting curious what will happen in the game once I get through all the songs at the qualification level. I am hoping that there will be a harder qualifier with the songs if that happens.
I have been focussing on doing coursework for a Coursera online course I have been following this week, and have only picked the guitar up to practice some very basic tunes from the book I have been following.
I have done something different though, tonight I had a go at playing a simplified tab of The House Of The Rising Sun, and have recorded and uploaded the guitar work to SoundCloud. If you're interested, you can find it here. If you're not interested the link to follow is this one.

The next set to play

I'm busy watching a video for my database course, and thought that while I'm watching stuff I'm familiar with I'd stick another quick note about the guitar smith progress.

Five songs to get to a standard with, and these are:

• I Miss You by Incubus
• Mean Bitch by Taddy Porter
• Do You Remember by The Horrors
• Rebel Rebel by David Bowie - this is one I actually know I've heard before!
• High and Dry by Radiohead

The qualification level runs between 12,900 and 25200 and jumps up and down. I suspect that the higher levels are for songs with more notes.

OOps, I've just realised I've missed something so I'd better concentrate on the lecture and leave my blog alone!