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

Local Support Act

I've just completed the next set of songs, and got my rating raised to "Local Support Act". I hope they mean that it is just for people in your living room though.

The songs in this set were
I Got Mine by The Black Keys, Me and the Bean by Spool, When I'm with you by Best Coast and Song 2 by Blur.
When I'm with you took a significant number of attempts to get my playing up to the target standard. I'm still refusing to accept dropping the qualification level. I kept gaining and losing levels as I was going through the songs, so consistency is something I need to work on.

Song 2

When it came to Song 2 I was expecting to spend weeks trying to get the 50,600 points needed to qualify. But I managed it first time through. Being totally honest, what I was playing sounded totally naff and not at all how I remember Blur playing it.
The only reason I can think of is there are long strings of repeated notes and I managed to get large parts of them accurately enough to gain the points required to qualify.

The Gig

This is my opportunity to wow the virtual audience. The first two songs, I Got Mine and Me and the Bean,  I totally bombed, I'm not sure if any of the avatars walked out, but I would have.

I did manage to wow the crowd with When I'm With You and Song 2. I didn't get Song 2 to sound much closer to the original, but did improve on playing a couple of the sections.

And now I'm a Local Support Act. I certainly don't feel like it, and suspect I have excessively high standards but that is probably the best way.

Tonight I'm hoping to get to the Ketton Ox in Yarm to catch an Acoustic Evening. The snow seems to be melting nicely, so fingers crossed.  The only downside is that I'll not get home until past midnight, and I have a 6am get up for work in the morning. Oh, and I've got an assessment in the morning. Perhaps going to the Ketton Ox isn't such a wise idea...

Mixing Desk

I've treated myself to a mixing desk as a combined Christmas and Birthday present to myself. The plan is that I will use it to record some of the songs I'm learning, both from the Guitar Smith program and from other sources I am (trying to) learn from.
There will be some singing involved too, mainly from me so be afraid, very afraid.
Lynn and I will be recording some songs under our Heron Hymn brand. The singing in that will be much better, but that's mainly because it will be Lynn singing and not so much me. As long as I am driving the desk, I can make sure of that (but don't tell Lynn!)

Qualified!

I've qualified with Play with Fire, finally, so I got to do a gig on the game.

The Muse track is still a challenging one to play, I don't think I would have qualified although I haven't played it for a few days now. If I was to learn to play this properly, I think I'd have to practice it frequently to keep the song playable for me.

I still like Jenny O's Well Ok Honey, and would have had enough points to qualify so I'm quite pleased with that. I did mess up a few times during the playing though.

Thinking about it, it might be worth the effort to play each song again two or three times to get the feeling for the song back before doing the gig, that might improve my RSP.

The new songlist is:
I Got Mine by The Black Keys qualify at 12,100.
Me and the Bean by Spool, qualify at 31,500.
When I'm with you by Best Coast qualift at 31,100.
Song 2 by Blur qualify at 50,600. I did notice something: the qualification score for this song has suddenly jumped!

I have two ideas about learning and playing these. One is to play in the order they give you until you qualify, the other was to play through them once, and then focus on the most difficult until you qualify and then do the next most difficult and so on.

I Got Mine

I scored 10,104 at the first attempt and the song introduced E7 and A. Second attempt at the song I got 14,578 so qualified nicely with that song. 

Me and the Bean

First attempt I got around 18,000 points which is a nice start. The game locked up after the third attempt at the song, and when the game was restarted I scored 35,319 which is nicely over the qualification level. I've played this one about half a dozen times.

When I'm With You

This song is more challenging, mainly with the shifts up and down the fretboard from 3rd to 12th fret. I earned 24,222 at my first attempt.

The E 'power' chord is introduced in the song.

I stopped playing after about an hour and a half on this session, mainly because my wrist was starting to ache and my shoulder was feeling uncomfortable. 

If anybody wants to donate an electric guitar, I'd appreciate it: I am playing on a Fender electro-acoustic guitar at the moment and the body is fairly wide compared to a pure electric guitar.