Phase 2 Checkpoint: Sixteenths, Sevenths and Two Voices
How to Use This Checkpoint
Section titled “How to Use This Checkpoint”When it is taken: after the last practice day of Week 12 and before Session 13, in two sittings: on one day with at least an hour between them, or on two days. These days are added to the week: the rest day stays a rest day, and Session 13 waits until the checkpoint is done. No sitting is taken on a practice day.
Sitting 1 takes 21 minutes, all 21 of them playing.
Sitting 2 takes 20 minutes: 9 minutes of playing and 11 with the theory cards and marking the two ear recordings.
The two ear recordings you made after Session 12 must be at least one day old when Sitting 2 marks them.
Most checks are of these five kinds:
- The click: the metronome clicks while you play, at the figure the item gives.
- A count said aloud: you count what the item names, aloud, as you play or on a recording.
- A recording followed on the page: you record the item, then listen with its page in front of you and mark what the item names.
- The change test (Beginner Session 3): items 2 to 4, by the rule printed above item 2.
- The recorded card test (Session 2): items 11 and 12. Its method is printed in full above item 11.
No item asks for a tempo above the figure its ladder has reached by the end of Week 12’s practice.
You need the guitar, a pick, the tuner, the metronome, a phone that records, your ten chord cards, the theory cards you wrote after Sessions 7 to 10, taken out of your pile (this is your second pile), the two ear recordings with their key piles, and Sessions 2, 10 and 11 open at their pieces.
Items 1 to 8 may be tried a second time on the same day, and the second try counts. There is no third try.
Items 9 to 13 are taken once in a sitting. Item 9 needs a passage you have not seen: its second try is after the one more week, on passage E. Item 10 is one draw of ten cards. Items 11 and 12 are answered from a recording that is new to your ear only once. Item 13 is one take, and there is one take a day.
A second try counts as playing, and a sitting holds at most 30 minutes of playing: when they are used up, the sitting ends, and what is left is taken on another day.
On the last two practice days before Sitting 1, end the Warm-Up row with the crescendo strum on Em, played once, at 65 BPM.
Begin each sitting with the movements under “Hand Warm-Up” in Segment 1 of any session, and tune the guitar: neither is counted in the sitting’s minutes.
Print this page, or copy the item numbers and the lines to write on onto paper, so you can write your marks.
Skills Checklist
Section titled “Skills Checklist”The pain rule comes before every item: an item that hurts is stopped and counted as not yet passed, and nothing more is played that day.
Read each sitting’s items through before you begin it: an item’s minutes are for doing it, not for reading it.
Sitting 1
Section titled “Sitting 1”Item 1 uses your ten chord cards: A7, D7, E7, B7, Em7, Am7, Dm7, Cmaj7, Amaj7 and Dmaj7. Shuffle them face down and lay a sheet of paper over the pile, so that the back of the top card cannot be read; draw them one at a time from under the paper. With the metronome at 60, draw a card and count the next three clicks: the chord is down when the third sounds.
Each chord card: place the shape once, pluck each string that should sound, let go.
Barre work: no more than 5 minutes a day in total. Pain rule: tender fingertips are normal. Pain in the wrist, forearm, thumb joint or knuckles, numbness or tingling, any sharp pain, or pain that lasts into the next day means stop. The full rule is in START HERE.
1*. (4 minutes) Form each of A7, D7, E7, B7, Em7, Am7, Dm7, Cmaj7, Amaj7 and Dmaj7 from its card, the ten cards shuffled. Dm7, the one card with a small barre, is pressed once and released. Check: the metronome at 60: the chord is down by the third click. Then pluck the strings one at a time. Pass: 8 of the 10 cards, every string that should sound ringing. If not: for each card that failed, look the shape up in the chord chart and place it three times a day, under “The Ten Chord Cards” in Session 12; take this item again after one week.
- Yes
- Not yet
Set the metronome to the tempo given; each click is one beat. Strum each chord once, with a downstroke, and let it ring. Play a new chord every 4 beats (on beat 1 of each measure) or every 2 beats (on beats 1 and 3), as the target says. Alternate the two chords until you have played 8 chords in a row: that is 7 changes. You pass when all 8 land on their click with every string that should sound ringing, twice on the same day.
In an assessment a change-test pair passes on one run of 8 chords in a row with no click missed. “Twice on the same day” is the pass mark of the weekly Self-Check Questions.
2*. (1 minute) Play the change test for G and D7, a new chord every 2 beats, at 75 BPM. Check: the metronome clicks the beat: one strum on each chord, counted aloud. Pass: 8 chords with no click missed. If not: drop 10 BPM and climb back 5 BPM at a time, under “Change Test: Three Pairs at Two Beats” in Session 12; take this item again after one week.
- Yes
- Not yet
3*. (1 minute) Play the change test for Em and B7, a new chord every 2 beats, at 70 BPM. Check: the metronome clicks the beat: one strum on each chord, counted aloud. Pass: 8 chords with no click missed. If not: drop 10 BPM and climb back 5 BPM at a time, under “Change Test: Three Pairs at Two Beats” in Session 12; take this item again after one week.
- Yes
- Not yet
4*. (1 minute) Play the change test for Am7 and D7, a new chord every 2 beats, at 65 BPM. Check: the metronome clicks the beat: one strum on each chord, counted aloud. Pass: 8 chords with no click missed. If not: go back to a new chord every 4 beats at 60 BPM for two days, then every 2 beats at 60 BPM, under “Change Test: Three Pairs at Two Beats” in Session 12; take this item again after one week.
- Yes
- Not yet
Copy of Session 8: the plain sixteenth-note pattern
Count: 1 e & a 2 e & a 3 e & a 4 e & a Strum: D U D U D U D U D U D U D U D U
Set the metronome to twice the tempo, so that it clicks eighth notes. Every click is a downstroke, on a number or on an &; every upstroke falls between two clicks.
5*. (2 minutes) Play the plain sixteenth-note pattern on Em for four measures, counting 1 e & a aloud, then one more downstroke on the next count 1, at 40 BPM, the metronome at 80, clicking eighth notes. Check: the metronome: every click is a downstroke; record it, and count the measures aloud on the recording. Pass: 4 measures with no stop, and 1 more downstroke lands on the next click. If not: go back to 35 BPM, the metronome at 70; if your strumming hand or forearm aches, stop playing for today, under “The Plain Sixteenth-Note Pattern” in Session 8; take this item again after one week.
- Yes
- Not yet
Copy of Session 10: the crescendo strum
Chord: Em Count: 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & | 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & | Strum: D U D U D U D U | D U D U D U D U | Dyn: p cresc. Count: 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & | 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & | Strum: D U D U D U D U | D U D U D U D U | Count: 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & | 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & | Strum: D U D U D U D U | D U D U D U D U | Dyn: f dim. Count: 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & | 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & | Strum: D U D U D U D U | D U D U D U D U |
The Dyn row shows how loud to play: p = soft, mf = medium, f = loud, cresc. = get gradually louder from here, dim. = get gradually softer from here. Each mark stands under the count where it begins; cresc. and dim. last until the next mark in the row, also when the TAB or pattern goes on to a new line, or to the end of the TAB or pattern.
6*. (3 minutes) Strum Em in the down-up strum for the 8 measures of the crescendo strum, the first half getting gradually louder and the second half gradually softer, and record it with the metronome sounding, at 65 BPM. Check: listen to the recording and count the measures aloud, comparing measure 4 with measure 1 and measure 8 with measure 5. Pass: 8 measures with no stop; measure 4 is louder than measure 1 and measure 8 is quieter than measure 5, with no sudden jump in any of the 8 measures. If not: play only the four measures of the crescendo, each a little bigger than the one before with the same loose grip, under “Louder and Softer by Degrees” in Session 10; take this item again after one week.
- Yes
- Not yet
Item 7 is played from memory, so no scale block is printed here. Afterwards, follow the recording on the scale’s eighth-note TAB in Scales And Arpeggios, under “G major scale, two octaves, open position”.
7*. (3 minutes) Play the G major scale in two octaves from memory, up and down, in eighth notes, twice, and record it with the metronome sounding, at 60 BPM. Check: follow the recording on the scale’s eighth-note TAB in the Scales and Arpeggios sheet. Pass: 2 runs in a row with no wrong note. If not: go back to 50 BPM and play the scale once from its TAB and once from memory each day, under “The G Major Scale in Eighth Notes” in Session 11; take this item again after one week.
- Yes
- Not yet
Measures 1 to 16 of Giuliani’s Andantino are not printed again here. Play item 8 from the TAB in Session 11, and follow the recording on that TAB.
8. (3 minutes) Play measures 1 to 16 of Giuliani’s Andantino from the TAB in Session 11, from your own count-in of three clicks to beat 1 of measure 16, and record it, with the metronome sounding at 55 BPM. Check: follow the recording on the TAB and mark each wrong or missed note. Pass: no stop, and at most 3 wrong or missed notes in the 16 measures. If not: play the phrase with the most marks four measures at a time at 50 BPM; if the picking fingertips sting, stop fingerpicking for the day, under “How to Learn This Piece” in Session 11; take this item again at the Phase 3 checkpoint, with the whole piece: this item is reported and holds nobody back.
- Yes
- Not yet
The Unseen TAB Passage
Section titled “The Unseen TAB Passage”9*. (3 minutes) Play unseen TAB passage D once, by the unseen TAB routine printed with it, and record it, at 50 BPM. Passage E, for a second try, stands at the end of this page under its own heading, in a closed block: do not open it now. Check: follow the recording on the passage and count the wrong notes. Pass: 2 measures with no stop and at most 1 wrong note. If not: in the 30 seconds, say the string and the fret of every note aloud in order, under “Unseen TAB” in Session 12; take this item again after one week, on passage E under “Unseen TAB for a Second Try” at the end of this page, and not on passage D again.
- Yes
- Not yet
The unseen TAB routine: (1) Set the metronome to 50 BPM. (2) Study the passage for 30 seconds without playing: the strings it uses, its lowest and highest fret, any eighth notes, and the count of its last note. (3) Start the recording. (4) Count one measure aloud. (5) Play the passage once, to the end, without stopping. (6) Follow the recording on the TAB and count the wrong notes.
The block below is closed. Open it at step (2) of the routine, when the 30 seconds begin, and not before.
The passage of item 9
Unseen TAB, passage D e|--------------------------------------|-----------------------------------| B|--------------------------------------|-----------------------------------| G|--------------------------------------|-----------------------------------| D|----------------------0-------2-------|---0-------------------------------| A|------0-------2---3-------------------|-------3---2-------0---------------| E|--------------------------------------|-----------------------------------| Count: 1 2 & 3 4 1 & 2 3 (4) Pick: D D U D D D U D D Finger: - 2 3 - 2 - 3 2 - Notes: A B C D E D C B A
Sitting 2
Section titled “Sitting 2”10. (3 minutes) Shuffle your second pile of theory cards, draw ten, and answer each aloud before you turn it over. Check: turn each card over and read the answer written on its back. Pass: 8 of the 10 cards. If not: read again the handout section of each card you missed, under “The Second Pile of Theory Cards” in Session 12; take this item again at the Phase 3 checkpoint, with ten cards drawn again: this item is reported and holds nobody back.
- Yes
- Not yet
The recorded card test
You need a phone that records sound, some slips of paper, a pen and a sheet of paper for your answers. A test that needs the metronome says so.
- Make the pile of slips the test describes. If you made it for an earlier recording, use it again. After you have marked a recording, put all its slips back into one pile.
- Shuffle the pile face down. Start recording. For each item, turn over as many slips as the test says and lay them in a row from left to right: say the item’s number aloud (“one”, “two”, …), play the item, and put its slips face down on a new pile, one at a time from left to right. Keep the pile in order.
- Stop recording. Put the slips you did not turn over to one side: they are not part of the key. Put the new pile away without looking through it. The new pile is your answer key.
- Wait until the day you take this assessment, at least one day later, so that you no longer remember the order.
- Play the recording once through. Write your answer for each number. Stop the recording after an item if you need time to answer, but do not play any item again.
- When every answer is written, turn the key pile over, so that the first slip you played is on top. Deal the slips out in order, as many to an item as the test says, and mark your answers.
If someone else can play the items for you where you cannot see their hands, that works equally well: skip steps 2 to 4.
Before the first item, record five seconds: say “test” and make the sound of the test once, a strum, a note or four claps, with the metronome sounding if the test uses it. Then listen. If you cannot hear your voice, the sound and the click, move the phone and record the five seconds again.
The number you say aloud is the item’s place in the recording (“one” for the first item), never anything written on a slip.
If you play or clap an item wrongly while you record, say “again” and do the item again. On marking day, answer from what comes after the last “again”.
If you cannot make out an item on the recording, cross out its number: it counts as wrong. If two or more numbers are crossed out, do not mark the recording: make a new one the same day and mark it on your next practice day. If that day is the last practice day of the week, mark it on the first practice day of the next week and answer the self-check question then. The new recording and its marking are not part of the practice minutes. You do not repeat the week for it.
At a checkpoint, mark the new recording on the day after you make it, and mark its item then: the result waits for it.
Write the result as a count, such as “7 of 10”, with the test’s number and the date, at the foot of your answer sheet, and keep the sheet: a self-check question or a checkpoint item will ask for the figure.
Test 5, rhythm recall
Section titled “Test 5, rhythm recall”Test 5, rhythm recall, one measure with the four-sixteenths cell. The pile is 38 cell slips: the 30 of Session 3 and 8 marked “four sixteenths”. An item is four slips in a row from left to right: the four beats of one measure. Record with the metronome sounding at 50 BPM, one cell to a click. For each item say “1, 2, 3, 4” with four clicks, then clap the row twice through without a break. Count in your head while you clap: if you said the count aloud, the recording would tell you the answer. Record six items. On each click the claps name the cell: none is “rest”, one is “quarter”, two are “two eighths”, four are “four sixteenths”. To answer, listen to an item, stop the recording, clap the rhythm back once, and write the cells you clapped, in order. Write each cell as the number of claps on its click: 0, 1, 2 or 4. To mark, deal the key pile four slips to an item. A rhythm is right only if every cell matched.
11*. (5 minutes) Mark your recording of Test 5, rhythm recall, made after Session 12 at least one day ago: clap back each of the six one-measure rhythms and write the cells you clapped. Check: the key pile, dealt four slips to an item, against the cells you wrote. Pass: 4 of the 6 rhythms, a rhythm counting only if every cell matched. If not: play the drill once a day, then shuffle the pile, make a new recording and mark it at least one day later, under “Ear Drill: Clap the Cells” in Session 12; take this item again after one week.
- Yes
- Not yet
Test 6, major, minor or dominant seventh
Section titled “Test 6, major, minor or dominant seventh”Test 6, major, minor or dominant seventh. The pile is 18 chord slips: each of these nine names on two slips: E, A, D, Em, Am, Dm, E7, A7, D7. An item is one slip: play one down-strum and let it ring. If you hear a muffled string as you strum, say “again” and strum the same chord once more. Wait about five seconds after each item. Record ten items; eight slips stay in the pile unseen. No metronome. Your answer for each number is “major”, “minor” or “dominant seventh”. To mark, deal the key pile one slip to an item: a name that is a letter alone is major, a name with m is minor, a name with 7 is a dominant seventh.
12. (3 minutes) Mark your recording of Test 6, major, minor or dominant seventh, made after Session 12 at least one day ago: write major, minor or dominant seventh for each of the ten strummed chords. Check: the key pile, dealt one slip to an item, against the answers you wrote. Pass: 8 of the 10 chords. If not: play the drill once a day, then shuffle the pile, make a new recording and mark it at least one day later, under “Ear Drill: Major, Minor, Seventh” in Session 12; take this item again at the end-of-course assessment, on a new recording: this item is reported and holds nobody back.
- Yes
- Not yet
The Programme
Section titled “The Programme”No piece is printed again on this page. “Evening Sevenths” is played from its page in Session 10, and the “Seventh-Chord Blues in A” from memory: its page is in Session 2, and stays closed until you mark the take.
13*. (9 minutes) Record your programme of two pieces in one take, the two that the week of Session 12 rehearsed: “Evening Sevenths” (Session 10) from its page, then the “Seventh-Chord Blues in A” (Session 2) from memory, each played alone to its written ending with no backing sounding, by the rule of a take printed under this item; the eight clicks before each piece are at 70 BPM. Check: follow the recording on the page of each piece and mark each measure in which the chord is wrong, late or not played. What a stop is stands in the rule of a take under this item. Pass: no stop, each of the 2 pieces reaches its written ending, and in any one piece at most 3 measures with the chord wrong, late or not played. If not: play sections for a week: the middle part of Evening Sevenths, and the Blues in A once round from memory, under “A Practice Take” in Session 12; take this item again after one week, with one take on one day, which begins with the first piece.
- Yes
- Not yet
No metronome sounds while a piece of a programme is played. Before each piece, with the recording running, set the metronome to that piece’s performance tempo, listen to eight clicks and stop it, then count one measure aloud and begin.
A stop is a break in the count inside a piece: going back, beginning a measure again, or waiting a whole measure or longer before coming in. Keeping the count and coming in on the next beat 1 is not a stop: its notes are counted as missed.
A take with a stop has not passed and ends at the stop. One take a day: the next is made on a later day and begins with the first piece.
In a strummed piece, and in the strummed verse of a tune, one wrong or missed note is one measure in which the chord is wrong, late or not played.
Overall Phase Assessment
Section titled “Overall Phase Assessment”Must-pass items passed: _____ of 10. Still open, by number: ______________________________
Reported items: item 8 __________, item 10 __________, item 12 __________
Ten items must pass. Items 1 to 7 and 13 must pass because their exit criteria (E1, E3, E7, E11, E12 and E26) are in the Grade 2 set, which Course Overview lists under “Exit Criteria”: the chord cards, the change test for each of the three pairs, the plain sixteenth-note pattern, the crescendo strum, the G major scale and the programme. Item 9 (E16), the unseen TAB passage, must pass as the one reading item this checkpoint holds, and item 11 (E23), Test 5, as the one ear item of the Grade 2 set that it holds.
Items 8, 10 and 12 are reported and never have to pass: the Andantino of item 8 (E15) is passed at the Phase 3 checkpoint, the criterion of item 10 (E20) is the course’s own, and item 12 (E24) is a start on Grade 3 skills. On the second line of the result, write a Yes on one of them as “started” and a Not yet as “not yet”.
If every must-pass item passes, go on to the next phase. If one does not, spend one more week on the practice plan of the showcase week, with the failed items in its “Checkpoint items” row, and take those items again. After that week, go on to the next phase whatever the result: the checkpoint’s result names each item that is still open, and it comes again at the next checkpoint that holds it or at the end-of-course assessment. Nobody is held at a checkpoint for more than one week.
An item that is only reported holds nobody back: if it is not passed, go on to the next phase all the same, do what its If not line says, and meet it again where that line says.
Here the next phase begins with Session 13, and the showcase week is Week 12, the week of Session 12. In the one more week, each failed item’s own “If not” part says what to do in the “Checkpoint items” row, and only the failed items are taken again.
Still open after the one more week, each with where it comes again: ______________________________
Where each item comes again
An open item comes again at the next checkpoint that holds it or at the end-of-course assessment. A reported item is never open: it is met again where its own If not line says.
| Item | Where it comes again |
|---|---|
| 1. The chord cards | The Phase 3 checkpoint |
| 2 to 4. The change test, three pairs | The Phase 3 checkpoint |
| 5. The plain sixteenth-note pattern | The end-of-course assessment |
| 6. The crescendo strum | The end-of-course assessment |
| 7. The G major scale | The end-of-course assessment, as a scale card |
| 8. The Andantino, measures 1 to 16 (reported) | The Phase 3 checkpoint, with the whole piece |
| 9. Unseen TAB | The Phase 3 checkpoint |
| 10. The theory cards (reported) | The Phase 3 checkpoint |
| 11. Test 5 | The Phase 3 checkpoint |
| 12. Test 6 (reported) | The end-of-course assessment |
| 13. A programme | The Phase 3 checkpoint, with that phase’s two pieces |
The result is a count of what you can do today against this course’s own marks: it is no exam result and promises none.
Unseen TAB for a Second Try
Section titled “Unseen TAB for a Second Try”The passage in this section is for a second try of item 9 only, after the one more week that “Overall Phase Assessment” gives.
This section is for a second try only. Each passage in it is in a closed block: open a block only when you take its item again, at step (2) of the routine.
Passage E is taken by the same routine as passage D, at 50 BPM, with the same pass mark: 2 measures with no stop and at most 1 wrong note.
Second try at item 9
Unseen TAB, passage E e|--------------------------------------|-----------------------------------| B|--------------------------------------|-----------------------------------| G|--------------------------------------|-----------------------------------| D|--------------------------0---2-------|---0-------------------------------| A|--------------0-------2---------------|-----------2---0-------------------| E|------3-------------------------------|-------------------3---------------| Count: 1 2 3 & 4 1 2 & 3 (4) Pick: D D D U D D D U D Finger: 3 - 2 - 2 - 2 - 3 Notes: G A B D E D B A G