Originally Posted by: KasperowEDIT: Revised goals for June:
1: Improve Picking Hand technique.
2: Improve Posture.
3: Improve Legato Playing.
4: Learn more scales in general, including the Pentatonic ones.
5: Master Barre Chords.
6: Make progress on my song-writing.

Now that we only have 10 days left of this month (and a week left before summer holidays begin in Denmark), I thought it would be a good time to take a look at my progress with my June-goals.

So far, I've further improved my Picking Hand Technique, which is a very good thing. Not only is it more efficient, I've also learnt to control how much force I pick with, as well as having learnt to strum while Palm Muting the strings (until now, it felt more or less impossible. Somehow, I just managed to do it nearly perfectly yesterday...). In general, my Picking Hand technique is better than it used to be.

Secondly, my posture has improved tremendously, no surprise there. It helps to practice standing/walking or sitting on a piano-bench or bar-chair... Much better posture than an armchair or couch.

Thirdly, Left Hand Technique has also improved tremendously, along with my fingertips having hardened up (especially the middle-finger, despite the skin cracking earlier this month due to too much practice. The finger's gotten used to it now :) ). The previously semi-muted pull-offs are now much more clean.

I'm still a bit slow on the scales, since I apparently have a hard time memorizing those patterns... But I've managed to memorize the Major Pentatonic scale in my head, just not the positions on the fretboard.

Barre Chords... Gotten used to playing with them. Still takes some time to fret them, but once I have the Barre Chord shape fretted, it's easy enough for me to play them more or less cleanly. The B-string is occasionally muffled, but I'm getting better at playing them.

And finally, Songwriting... Progressing slowly but steadily. For the last long time, I've mostly been practicing left-hand and right-hand techniques while making up riffs or licks, to save a bit of time (and give myself an excuse for playing made-up licks or riffs when I should be practicing technique).

For the rest of this month, I think I'll focus more of my effort on actually nailing down that darned B-String in the E Major and E Minor Barre Chord Shapes... And of course, continue messing around with songwriting. I hope to have my first song ready by Mid-July, although I lack a band to add some cool drum-rhythms and Bass-lines to the song.

Maybe I should try finding some dedicated band-mates to play with. That could take some time, though, since I'd have to find the right people to form a band with. Well, that'll be one of my goals for next month :)