My guitar grade 1 results came yesterday. I was astonished to see that I had actually done pretty well. I scored 87 out of 100, which is a distinction, as the distinction range was above 87 (just made it :)).

Here's a copy of the examiner's report:

Right after my exam I started practicing the grade 2 scales and they were incredibly easy. I was practicing these scales until today when Dhinesh sir finally told me to just jump straight to grade 5.

I started practicing the grade 5 scales today after a coming back from school and before I ate dinner I could play all 7 grade 5 scales effortlessly. I will be learning the grade 5 pieces tomorrow (which is very exciting as the last time I tried to learn sheet music was at the start of grade 1.

Me and my friends (Aniruddha: Grade 8 Pianist, Nishanth: Beginner Drummer, Me: Grade 1/Grade 5 noob guitarist / lead/back up vocalist) have also started a band (kind of) and we can play a two songs completely: Demons by Imagine Dragons and Counting Stars by One Republic.

We are still in search of a vocalist. I can sing pretty well but its hard to sing while playing the guitar so maybe if I get better I could actually try.

Practice session timings: (have 't been keeping track of my practice sessions for                                           over a month)

I haven't been keeping track of my practice sessions for a very long time, but I have been practicing a lot. I'm having a lot of trouble finding time to write posts.
My guitar grade 1 exam is on the 23rd of June, less than a week away, and I'm feeling pretty confident. My guitar teachers have conducted a couple of mock guitar exams in which I passed with flying colors but I'm still going to be a bit of cautious about the final exam.

I have almost perfected playing barre chords and i can breeze through normal chords. My lead guitar playing skills have improved considerably.

The most exciting news is that my friends and I are planning to start a band. One of my friends is learning to play the drums and another one of my friends is a grade 8 pianist. Malli is learning how to play the bass guitar, but we are still looking for a lead singer. I also think that I can be a backup vocalist.

I will be posting videos of me playing very soon.

Total no. of hours put in:  142.75
                                          (I have done way more than 250 hours but I havent recorded any of the hours :( )

Practice session timings: 3:00pm - 5:00pm, 7:00pm - 12:00am
Total hours: 7

Today I mainly practiced "Let Her Go" by Passenger and "Counting Stars" by One Republic. "Counting Stars" required me to switch between lead and chords and this very difficult. I am still far from mastering this.
I have almost mastered playing the B major chord but barring all six strings is proving to be an obstacle.

Total no. hours put in: 142.75


11/5/15
Practice session timings: 3:00pm - 6:00pm, 10:00pm - 2:00am
Total hours: 7

 Today I started to learn the "Let Her Go" by Passenger and this song needed a B major chord and this one of the hardest chords other than the F major chord. It's hard because you have to bar all six strings with one finger plus play three other notes.

Today I tried playing "The Beginning" on the electric guitar while listening to the actual song and I found that it was actually easier to play while doing so.

Total no. of hours put in: 135.75

Practice session timings: 3:00pm - 5:00pm, 11:00pm - 3:00pm
Total hours: 6

I haven't been updating my blog recently because I have been preoccupied with homework and I guitar practice. Unfortunately I didn't keep a log of my practice sessions.

On 4/5/15 my parents finally bought me an electric guitar after a lot of pleading. The model is the Cort X6 and with it came a free electronic tuner, earphones, spare strings and a stand. I also bought the VOX Amplug metal sound filter which was a small device which converted the normal electric guitar sound into a grating heavy metal sound.

I've been practicing a lot in the past couple of days. I can now play "A Fistful of Pesos" fully and at the correct beats per minute (160 bpm which is pretty fast).

Total no. of hours put in: 128.75

Practice session timings: 3:00pm - 4:00pm, 7:00pm - 9:00pm, 10:00pm - 12:00pm
Total hours: 5

Today I just kept playing all the songs I knew randomly I was mainly focusing on the lead parts, trying to get my fingers faster and nimbler.

Total no. of hours put in: 127.75


May 1/5/15
Practice session timings: -
Total hours: -

I forgot to record the timings at which I practiced yesterday but I did some similar practice that I did today.

Total no. of hours put in: 122.75

Practice session timings: -
Total hours: 0

Did not practice today.

Total no. of hours put in:122.75


29/4/15
Practice session timings: 10:00pm - 12:00am
Total hours: 2

Today I just went through all the songs I knew a couple of times.
I found out about a band called "The Gazette" who were considered the best rock band in Japan. There music was really good but I still like One Ok Rock's music better.

Total no. of hours put in: 122.75

Practice session timings: 10:00pm - 1:00am
Total hours: 3

Today I started learning another song by One Ok Rock called "Answer Is Near". This song consists of mainly lead roles and so I found it very difficult (because I suck at playing lead). I did not manage to finish the song and the parts I know are far from perfect but my lead playing is improving drastically.

Total no. of hours put in: 120.75