Journaling...

I've recently been participating in challenges that are posed by the online guitar school I subscribe to (classicalguitarcorner.com academy).   The latest one was "scales".  Which scale?  Well, any scale you are working on -  you post the scale, what your focus will be, and a one minute (or less) video of you playing the scale at your starting point.   I picked a 2-octave G scale in 6ths with a goal of legato shifting because I have to learn it.  It's hard, so I try it for a few days, get back to where I was last time, then give up!  The motivation to keep working on it in the scales challenge was the requirement to post an update video every week for 4 weeks... 

What happened?  Fear of exhibiting no progress on the weekly videos caused me to practice it each day for around 10 minutes.   And I not only conquered those awkward intervals above the 12th fret, but got the whole thing up to tempo - yeah!  Which got me thinking - maybe I need to do something similar to make me apply concentrated daily effort to other gnarly challenges, like that D# slur in Adelita - or maybe almost any part of Adelita come to think of it - i.e. some personal accounting. 


I  wasn't thinking to do weekly videos though.  Instead I decided to try dot journaling (AKA bullet journaling) - much more attractive to us female types than a spreadsheet (it used to be called a diary in my day,  and had lines, not dots, but what the heck).  And it doesn't require logging in to fill out!   I've seen some absolute works of art online - but my journal is rather more prosaic and pretty much reflects my usual state of mind (scattered).   I am finding coloring in those little pink squares can be quite satisfying...  I started out thinking I would list all the things I need to practice, but I'm refining it as I go on.  I've seen it needs modification - there are not only the larger chunks (practice running through that piece!  learn that section!) but also smaller challenges, like practicing a single shift.  And there needs to be a spot for notes, such as 'moving the thumb makes that work.' So maybe I'll rearrange things on the next page.  Finally I might get a journal that already has the lines connecting the dots!

I've found just glancing at it before I start practicing gives me a good idea of what I might have been missing out on, it remains to be seen whether it will actually make me practice the tough stuff 😆