Kim Richardson - Guitar

In today's lesson we recapped on what we did before half term. We reminded each other of the warm ups we did and practised them for a little while. I am finding the mechanical exercise easier since I practised it over half term. We also learned another chromatic scale which involved moving back a fret as you go up the strings. I liked this one as I felt it was a good challenge, especially trying to go back down the strings. It sounds a lot nicer to play than the other exercises too! We discussed our equipment for the second part of the lesson, including what equipment we'd like to have in the future. One of he important things when buying a guitar is the type of wood it is made from so we thought about what woods our guitars were made of. My Ibanez is a solid mahogany body with a maple neck and rosewood fretboard. It is painted and lacquered heavily so I think that affects the tone. In the future I would like a Fender Strat with an alder and an in-lacquered maple neck. For me

In the guitar lesson today we covered warm ups, maintenance and scales. I found the warm ups helpful as previously I've never really warmed up to play. We did three warm ups - diminished chords, hammer ons and pull offs and a mechanical one. The hammer on one was the simplest, it involved holding your first finger down on the high E string and hammering on then pulling off with each finger in turn. Then we moved on to the second finger and repeated the process, then a final time starting on the third finger. Our teacher suggested we could carry on this exercise on each string as well. I liked the diminished chord exercise because I learned two new chord shapes. You can also play these chords higher up the fretboard which could be useful in the future. The hardest warm up was the mechanical one because it involved the most movement. We used a finger per fret starting on the D string and then went diagonally up the strings. Then you change to going diagonally down the strings with yo