Wednesday Weekly Progress - February 8

February is going well for me. Let's see what I've been up to this week...

1) This blog - ongoing: 

I'm continuing to work hard on the blog. Here are all the posts I did since last Wednesday:

Improvise Using Scales: Scales are important for improvising, which you can learn more about here.

The Basics of Playing Guitar: This post covers some of the basics for you beginners out there (I'll have a similar post for ukelele and bass soon).

Songwriting Sessions: Songwriting in Action (Lyrics First!), Part 4: An ongoing series of posts in which I show the steps I take writing a song. This week I recorded a demo of the song I've been writing.

No Excuse For No Practice: There is always the ability and the opportunity for practice, as I demonstrate in this post.

Cello-struck!: Thunderstruck on cellos? Check out this cool video by 2Cellos.

Introduction to Blues Music: A brief intro to the blues.

Practicing is Not Playing, Playing is Not Practicing: Learn to make the distinction between playing and practicing (they are not the same thing!)

Progress so far: 11% (these percentages are just my best guess, but it's probably close enough)


2) Songs For Ghosts (my 2nd album):

I've made some more great progress here. I have some vocal recording done, and although I'm not sure how many "one-take" recordings I got (I'm trying to record the vocals perfectly in one take), my voice is getting stronger, and I feel confident that vocal recording will keep getting easier.

Progress so far: 66% - vocal work going well


3) Poster for my office:

Just like last week (again), I believe I did 2 blog posts relating to my poster (Practicing is Not Playing, Playing is Not Practicing, and The Basics of Playing Guitar). As I mentioned last week, it is getting harder to do 2 posts relating to my poster each week. But that doesn't really matter, as I can keep putting the work in, and it will eventually get done.

Progress so far: 47% - solid progress

4) Other repertoire - ongoing:

3rd album songs - Practice on the 15 songs I have for this album is slow but steady. I definitely feel the need for lyrics on a few songs, as I feel stuck on the music until I have a better sense of direction for the song.

Cover songs - Of the five songs I'm working on, I practiced all of them (which is better than last week), but not much. I still don't know precisely when I should have these ready for, but I should come up with some sort of reasonable deadline.

Here's hoping you're making great progress as well! Never give up!