- Pick something you'd like to improve - Set timer for minimum 10 mins - Share your results in the comments with a short video/audio file/comment about your observations Please Remember: - Showing up is the most important part - Fail often and learn from the failures - Sharing even when you're learning/sucking makes improving faster - Cheer each other on! Happy Practicing!

Hey everyone, Taking a page (or 5 more likely) from @Brad Simon 's book here to evaluate my journey last year. It will be a huge chunk of text, so feel free to ignore it ;-) I am mostly posting this for myself and maybe there is some helpful feedback or there is something that someone else can learn something from this. Thanks! Ivo My Guitar Journey in 2025 The Good ---- **Overall** The best thing is: I have most certainly improved! While I really think I am still a bit away from what I would personally call an Intermediate Guitar Player, I do not feel I am really a beginner anymore. Above all, I feel more confident. There is still no chance in hell I would play in front of people, but if my partner walks in the room I won't stop out of shame. **My playing** Purely looking back at some earlier recordings for the VIP community -- I wish I had made more! --, I am less 'stiff'. It actually sounds like music every once in a while. I pick up new songs and techniques faster than I did at the start of the year. Also, I played pretty much every day for 20+ minutes on average. Sometimes even 2+ hours in a row. So finding time is not a challenge. **Technique** Me and barre chords have been a bit of a love/hate relationship for the year. At first Bm was my easy go-to, then it was F and Bm was just the worst and now I am at a point where I hit them well more than 90% of the time. And, being less stiff (dare I say 'musical' in playing) helps hide some of the potential flaws, giving you time to adjust. Sure, it is not perfect, but it is perfectly listenable. Most of the time. Playing scales / solos is slowly getting there too, my fingers feel less and less like weird hotdogs with a mind of their own and more "nimble". Playing (improvising?) pentatonic scales to a backing track at 70-80 BPM is going pretty decent. **Scales & Fretboard Knowledge** It feels way less intimidating to look at the neck. I am starting to "see" spots (like the root notes / octaves) and I think I understand CAGED properly.

This is the simplest way I have seen modes explained that can actually affect your playing if this is something you like. Joshua is a beast, and if you haven't checked out his stuff, he is pretty inspiring. He does a lot of math rock, but he's played with people like Cory Wong before. He also has a really great diagram that is great for relating the modes to the scale, when you change the starting note to the tonic (1). 5 minutes is where that's at.

- Pick something you'd like to improve - Set timer for minimum 10 mins - Share your results in the comments with a short video/audio file/comment about your observations Please Remember: - Showing up is the most important part - Fail often and learn from the failures - Sharing even when you're learning/sucking makes improving faster - Cheer each other on! Happy Practicing!

- Pick something you'd like to improve - Set timer for minimum 10 mins - Share your results in the comments with a short video/audio file/comment about your observations Please Remember: - Showing up is the most important part - Fail often and learn from the failures - Sharing even when you're learning/sucking makes improving faster - Cheer each other on! Happy Practicing!