Session 1: Where You Stand: The Entry Check

Duration: 50 minutes

Break: Put the guitar down for 5 minutes at the end of Segment 3. No stretch of playing is then longer than 30 minutes.

This session is the entry check. With the page Entry Check open beside you, you take its eight items one after another and mark each one yes or not yet. In the warm-up you also test whether your phone can record with the metronome sounding and over a backing. You learn what this course means by a course tempo and by a complete piece, before its first new material. The session ends with a study of your choice from the beginner course, played from your own count-in to its ending.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this session you will be able to:

Keep D D U U D U going on one chord at 75 BPM without stopping: 8 measures
Pass the change test for Em and Am, for G and D, and for C and G, a new chord every 2 beats at 70 BPM: 8 chords, twice on the same day, for each of the 3 pairs
Play the C major scale and the A minor pentatonic in open position from memory, up and down, in eighth notes at 60 BPM: the C major scale 3 times in a row and the pentatonic 2 times in a row
Play one study of the beginner course from your own count-in to its ending with the metronome clicking throughout, and record it: 1 study, from its first measure to its ending, with 0 stops

Where an objective gives a tempo, it is the figure for the end of this week’s practice.

Materials Needed

Your Saga SF-600C-BK guitar
A guitar pick
A clip-on tuner or phone tuner app
A metronome
A phone that records sound
The page Entry Check, printed and beside you, and a pen (without a printer: the page open beside you, and a sheet of paper for your marks and notes); read its section “How to Use This Entry Check” before the session (5 minutes)
The session of the beginner course that holds the study you choose in Segment 4
A ruler, for the string-height check you read about after the session
Handout for this session: How To Practise At This Level (read after the session, 15 minutes)
Handout for this session: Warm Up And Playing Time (read after the session, 10 minutes)
Reference: Chord Chart, Glossary

Segment 1 — Warm-Up and Stretch (5 minutes)

Hand Warm-Up

Open and close both hands loosely five times. Circle each wrist five times each way. Touch your thumb to each fingertip in turn. Shake the hands out.

Tune Your Guitar

Tune all six strings (EADGBE). Before you look at the tuner, guess: too low, too high or right? Then look.

Warm-Up

Phone test 1, the metronome:

Your warm-up playing today is also the first half of a test of your phone. Start a recording on the phone with the metronome sounding, and play D D U U D U (Beginner Session 5) at 75 BPM: two measures on Em, then two measures on Am.

Copy of Beginner Session 5: the D D U U D U pattern

Strum:  D     D  U     U  D  U
Count:  1     2  & (3) &  4  &

A count in round brackets, such as (2), is a count on which you play nothing new: keep counting and let the note or chord ring on.

Stop the recording and play it back. On the page Entry Check, answer one question: can you hear both the strums and the clicks?

If your phone cannot record while its own metronome sounds, a second device or a separate metronome gives the click, set down where the recording picks it up. Every check of this course that is marked on a recording “with the metronome sounding” needs that click on the recording.

Phone test 2, a backing:

Start the recording of phone test 1 playing on the phone. While it plays, try to start a new recording on the same phone, and strum Em once on a ONE of the playback. The first recording is short, about 13 seconds (four measures at 75 BPM): if it ends before the new recording is running, start it again. The question is whether the phone can do both at once, not how quick you are.

If this test takes more than a minute, stop and finish it after the session: its answer is first needed in Session 4.

Play the new recording back. Are the first recording and your strum both on it? Write yes or no on the entry-check page.

If no: a second device plays the backing, and the two checks that are played over a backing say what to do with one device only.

If your phone cannot play the backing and record you at the same time, play with the backing sounding and judge it as you play; checking it on a recording then needs a second device.

The spider crawl is a finger drill: fingers 1, 2, 3 and 4 play four frets in a row on one string, one finger at a time, then the next string. Each finger lifts after its note.

Spider crawl: frets 5-8, one finger at a time, all six strings, up and down. If it pulls, stop the crawl; if it aches, stop playing for today.

Segment 2 — Technique Focus: The Entry Check, Items 1 to 4 (10 minutes)

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.

How the Entry Check Works

Entry check — The eight tasks of Session 1, each with its own pass mark, that show whether you can already do what this course starts from. (Session 1)

The eight items are on the page Entry Check. This session takes them in order: items 1 to 4 in this segment, items 5 to 7 in Segment 3 and item 8 in Segment 4. After each item, mark it yes or not yet on that page.

Each of items 1 to 6 may be tried a second time straight away, and the second try counts. There is no third try. Item 7 is four presses at most, with no second try. Item 8 is taken once.

Nothing is taught in an item: a not yet is a result, not a fault.

Item 1: Tuning

You tuned the guitar in Segment 1. Pluck each open string once more, from string 6 to string 1, and read the tuner. Pass: every string reads its note (E A D G B E). Mark item 1. For a not yet, the item’s drill is the beginner course’s rule (Beginner Session 1): always tune from below. If the string is too high, loosen it until the tuner shows a note below the target, then tighten back up to it.

Item 2: Eight Open Chords

Play Em, Am, E, D, A, G, C and Dm from memory, in that order. For each one: place the chord, pluck one at a time the strings that should sound, and lift the hand. No diagram is printed here. The eight chords are in Chord Chart: look there only after the item is marked.

Pass: every string that should sound rings, for all eight. Mark item 2 and write down any chord that failed.

If a string does not ring:

These two fixes are for the second try, and for the “Entry items” row of this week’s plan.

If a string is muffled, the finger on the string next to it is leaning on it: arch that finger more.
If a note buzzes: (1) move the fingertip right up behind the fret wire; (2) stand the finger on its tip; (3) only then add the smallest extra pressure that clears the buzz.

Item 3: The Change Test

This is the change test (Beginner Session 3) with a new chord every 2 beats at 70 BPM, on beats 1 and 3. Take the pairs in this order: Em and Am, then G and D, then C and G. Play one downstroke on each chord and count aloud. Each pair is 8 chords in a row. A pair that misses a click gets its second try straight away. The rule in full is quoted on the entry-check page.

Pass: 8 chords in a row with no click missed, for each pair. Mark item 3 and write down any pair that failed.

Item 4: D D U U D U

This is D D U U D U again, in its wide form: the spelling this course uses under the Chord row of a chart.

Count:  1  (&)  2   &  (3)  &   4   &
Strum:  D       D   U       U   D   U

The bracketed & is this course’s way of writing the same pattern you learned in the beginner course.

Choose one chord from the eight of item 2. Play the pattern on it at 75 BPM: eight measures without stopping. If the strumming stopped, play eight measures once more. Mark item 4.

Segment 3 — New Learning: The Entry Check, Items 5 to 7 (15 minutes)

Item 5: C Major Scale

Copy of Beginner Session 14: C major scale, one octave, open position

C Major Scale — Up and Down

e|--------------------------------------|-------------------------------|
B|------------------------------0---1---|---0---------------------------|
G|----------------------0---2-----------|-------2---0-------------------|
D|----------0---2---3-------------------|---------------3---2---0-------|
A|------3-------------------------------|---------------------------3---|
E|--------------------------------------|-------------------------------|
Count:  1   &   2   &   3   &   4   &       1   &   2   &   3   &   4
Pick:   D   U   D   U   D   U   D   U       D   U   D   U   D   U   D
Finger: 3   -   2   3   -   2   -   1       -   2   -   3   2   -   3
Notes:  C   D   E   F   G   A   B   C       B   A   G   F   E   D   C

This is the scale up and down in eighth notes. The top C is played once; the last C lasts a full beat. In quarter notes the same notes are played one per click.

In a scale or an arpeggio the pick alternates on every note, down then up, whatever the count: in quarter notes an upstroke falls on counts 2 and 4. In a tune the pick follows the count: down on the numbers, up on the &s.

Look at the block. Then play the scale from memory with the block out of sight (scrolled off the screen, or a printed page turned over), up and down, at 60 BPM, two notes per click. Record each try. When the runs are played, bring the block back into view and follow the recording on it.

Pass: 3 runs in a row with no wrong note. A run with a wrong note ends the try. The second try is three more runs straight away, and it counts. There is no third try. Mark item 5.

Item 6: A Minor Pentatonic, Open Position

Copy of Beginner Session 16: A minor pentatonic, open position

A minor pentatonic, open position: ascending (twelve notes)
e|----------------------|-------------------|-----------0---3---|
B|----------------------|-------------------|---1---3-----------|
G|----------------------|-----------0---2---|-------------------|
D|----------------------|---0---2-----------|-------------------|
A|--------------0---3---|-------------------|-------------------|
E|------0---3-----------|-------------------|-------------------|
Count:  1   2   3   4       1   2   3   4       1   2   3   4
Finger: -   3   -   3       -   2   -   2       1   3   -   3
Notes:  E   G   A   C       D   E   G   A       C   D   E   G

Copy of Beginner Session 16: A minor pentatonic, open position

A minor pentatonic, open position: descending (eleven notes)
e|------0---------------|-------------------|---------------|
B|----------3---1-------|-------------------|---------------|
G|------------------2---|---0---------------|---------------|
D|----------------------|-------2---0-------|---------------|
A|----------------------|---------------3---|---0-----------|
E|----------------------|-------------------|-------3---0---|
Count:  1   2   3   4       1   2   3   4       1   2   3
Finger: -   3   1   2       -   2   -   3       -   3   -
Notes:  E   D   C   A       G   E   D   C       A   G   E

When you play up and then down without stopping, the top G is played once: after it, carry straight on with the descending TAB, which starts on the open string 1. That is why the descending TAB has eleven notes. The last E lasts two beats.

The count shown is for quarter notes (one note per click). In eighth notes, each printed measure lasts two beats: count “1 & 2 &”.

In eighth notes the last E lasts one beat.

These two blocks have no Pick row. Use alternate picking throughout, as the beginner course asks for them.

Play the scale from memory, with the two blocks out of sight as in item 5, at 60 BPM, two notes per click, up and down without a stop at the top. Record each try. When the runs are played, bring the blocks back into view and follow the recording on them.

Pass: 2 runs in a row with no wrong note. A run with a wrong note ends the try. The second try is two more runs straight away, and it counts. There is no third try. Mark item 6.

Item 7: Simplified F

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.

This minute is the whole of today’s barre work. No diagram is printed here: press the simplified F (Beginner Session 17) from memory, and look it up in Chord Chart only after the item is marked.

Press, pluck strings 4, 3, 2 and 1 one at a time, release completely and shake out the hand. Do four presses at most. There is no second try, because a minute of barre presses holds four.

Pass: all 4 strings ring, in 3 presses in a row. With four presses at most, that leaves room for one failed press only if it is the first. Mark item 7. For a not yet, the fix is in the placing: move the finger closer to the fret wire and roll it slightly onto its edge.

The Course Tempo

Course tempo — The tempo, in BPM, that this course sets for a piece or an exercise: the figure you work up to and are tested at; for a complete piece it is also called its performance tempo. Where a recording is faster, its tempo is not a target. (Session 1)

You reach a figure as you did in the beginner course, by the tempo ladder: a step is 5 BPM, and you take it only after three clean runs in a row.

A run is clean when every note or chord lands on its count, every string that should sound rings, and you do not stop.

A tempo line always says what the metronome clicks.

The entry tempos are the figures the beginner course ended on:

What you play	Entry tempo
D D U U D U	75 BPM
The C major scale and the A minor pentatonic	60 BPM, two notes per click
The change test	70 BPM, a new chord every 2 beats

This course starts from these three figures and no higher.

Now put the guitar down. On the entry-check page, for each of items 1 to 7 that you marked not yet, write on the line the page has under the item for it: the item’s drill, copied from its own “If not” part, and its entry tempo, copied from the item’s first part. Items 3 to 6 have an entry tempo, in that order: 70 BPM, 75 BPM, 60 BPM and 60 BPM. Items 1, 2 and 7 have none. You only write here: nothing is played.

Break: 5 minutes. Guitar down.

Segment 4 — Piece Workshop: A Study of Your Choice (15 minutes)

A study of your choice from the beginner course

Complete piece — A piece printed whole, which you play from your own count-in to its written ending. An exercise, or a part of a song, is not a complete piece. (Session 1)

Item 8 asks for the same thing with a piece you already have: you play it from your own count-in to its ending, with the metronome clicking throughout.

Choose your study by these four rules:

Choose one study from the table below; the choice among them is yours. Nothing else in the beginner course counts for this item: not a song, not a medley, not an exercise that has no ending, and not a study shorter than sixteen measures.
Choose one that you have already played in the beginner course. Nothing new is learned for the entry check.
Play it at a tempo from its own tempo line in the beginner course, and never above the figure in the table.
Keep the same study for the row “Your study” of Session 2.

Beginner Session	Name, as the beginner session prints it	Key	Time	Tempo ceiling there	Length there
8	”12-Bar in A”	A	4/4	75 BPM, D D U U D U pattern	36 measures and a final A
15	Em–D arpeggio study	not stated there (Em and D)	4/4	60 BPM, two notes per click; its end-of-week check is 50	16 measures and a last thumb note
19	Arrangement study in E minor	E minor	4/4	70 BPM, one note per click in the melody	20 measures, the final chord among them
21	Showcase Study in A minor	A minor	4/4	60 BPM, two notes per click	27 measures, the final chord among them

No block of any study is printed here: open the beginner session that holds your study. Choose now. On the entry-check page, write the study’s name and a tempo from its own tempo line in the beginner course, never above the ceiling in the table.

Item 8: Your Study

Set the metronome to the tempo you wrote down and start the phone recording. Count yourself in for one measure, play from the first measure to the ending with the metronome clicking throughout, and stop the recording. A wrong note is not a stop: keep counting and come in on the next beat 1.

Then listen to the recording once with the beginner page open, and mark item 8. Pass: no stop, and the last note lands with the click.

Item 8 is taken once. An item 8 marked not yet is practised in the “Entry items” row (the measures round each stop) and comes again in the “Your study” row, on the last practice day of the week.

Your Result

Put the guitar down. Count the items marked yes on the entry-check page and read your result there:

All eight pass. Start the course
One to three not yet there. Start the course and work on those items in the Entry items row of Week 1; an item that is still not yet at the end of that week goes into your Warm-Up until it passes
More than three not yet there. Go back to the phase of the beginner course that teaches them first

With one to three not yet there, those items fill the “Entry items” row of this week’s plan, each with the drill you wrote on the entry-check page and with its entry tempo where it has one. Items 1 and 7 do not go into the row: item 1’s drill is done at the start of every practice day, and item 7’s in the minute of presses of the “Warm-Up” row. With more than one item in the row, its 10 minutes are shared equally among them. The “Entry items” row is a row of this week only: an item that is still not yet on your last practice day falls under the “Any no” line under the plan.

Segment 5 — Review and Practice Plan (5 minutes)

What You Learned Today

Your result in the entry check, item by item
What a course tempo is, and the three entry tempos
Whether your phone records with the metronome sounding, and over a backing

Common Mistakes

Taking an item faster than its entry tempo — Set the metronome before you touch the strings and let four clicks pass: D D U U D U at 75 BPM, the two scales at 60 BPM, the change test at 70 BPM. A faster run does not count.
A string is silent in one of the eight chords — The finger on the string beside it is leaning on it. Arch that finger and stand it on its tip, right up behind the fret wire, then pluck the string again.
Stopping the study to put a wrong note right — A wrong note does not fail item 8 and a stop does. Keep counting aloud and come in again on the next beat 1.

Self-Check Questions

Play D D U U D U on one chord for eight measures at 75 BPM, then one more downstroke on the next beat 1, and record it with the metronome sounding. Check: listen to the recording and count the measures aloud. Pass: 8 measures with no stop, and the 1 downstroke after them falls with its click. If not: go back to 65 BPM and climb 5 BPM at a time, each step after three runs in a row with no stop, under “Item 4: D D U U D U” in Segment 2, and try again the next day.
Pass the change test (Beginner Session 3) for Em and Am, for G and D, and for C and G, a new chord every 2 beats at 70 BPM. Check: the metronome clicks the beat; count aloud; each chord lands on its click with every string that should sound ringing. Pass: all 8 chords, twice on the same day, for each of the 3 pairs. If not: take the pair that failed at 60 BPM and climb back 5 BPM at a time, under “Item 3: The Change Test” in Segment 2, and try again the next day.
Play from memory, up and down, in eighth notes at 60 BPM, the C major scale and then the A minor pentatonic in open position, and record both. Check: follow each recording on the scale’s TAB in Segment 3 and mark every wrong note. Pass: the C major scale 3 times in a row and the pentatonic 2 times in a row, with 0 wrong notes. If not: play the scale that failed in quarter notes at 60 BPM, one note per click, for two days, from its TAB (the pentatonic’s is in the next part, “Item 6: A Minor Pentatonic, Open Position”), under “Item 5: C Major Scale” in Segment 3, and try again after those two days.
Play your study from your own count-in to its ending with the metronome clicking throughout, and record it. Check: listen to the recording with the beginner page open and make a mark at every stop. Pass: 0 stops, and the last note lands with its click. If not: lower the metronome by 5 BPM, play the four measures round each stop three times, then play the study once through, under “Item 8: Your Study” in Segment 4, and try again the next day.

Practice Plan for Week 1 (each practice day, 30 minutes)

The session day is not a practice day: do not add the week’s plan to it.

Sitting — One of the parts in which a day’s practice or an assessment is done. Two sittings on the same day have at least an hour between them. (Session 1)

This week’s plan is one sitting a day.

Notes on the rows:

The Entry items row: it holds only the items you marked not yet. If you marked none, leave this row out.

Block	Time	Activity
Warm-Up	4 min	Movement warm-up, tune; then D D U U D U on two known chords, four measures; then the spider crawl at frets 5 to 8. Then simplified F: press, pluck four strings, release, for 1 minute
Entry items	10 min	each entry-check item marked ‘not yet’: its own drill from the beginner course, at its entry tempo (D D U U D U at 75, the scales at 60)
Change test	4 min	Em-Am, G-D, C-G: a new chord every 2 beats at 70
Scales	4 min	C major scale, then A minor pentatonic in open position, eighth notes at 60
Your study	8 min	the beginner study you chose, with the metronome throughout

Barre rows this week: “Warm-Up”, 1 minute. Total: 1 minute a day.

This is your plan for the whole week. On your last practice day, answer this session’s Self-Check Questions as you play the rows that hold them: a question adds no minutes to a row and nothing to a daily limit.

All yes: go on to Session 2.

Any no: repeat this week’s plan for up to one more week and check again. If it is still no after the second week, go on, and add that item to your warm-up until it passes.

Guitar Tip — Saga SF-600C-BK

The string-height check of Guitar Setup Check measures how high the strings of your guitar sit above the frets: with a ruler, at the 12th fret, from the top of the metal fret to the underside of the string, under string 6 and then under string 1. It comes this week because this course goes further up the neck than the beginner course did and asks more of finger 1, and both are more difficult on a guitar whose strings sit high above the frets. So you measure before the course adds any barre work to the one minute of presses. The check is not done in this session: it belongs to the reading after it.

After the session (not part of the 50 minutes)

Read: Entry Check, the section “What Your Result Means”. (5 minutes)
Read: Guitar Setup Check, the section “The String-Height Check”. (5 minutes)
Read: How To Practise At This Level, the sections “The Pain Rule”, “The Tempo Ladder”, “The End-of-Week Check” and “The Practice Log”. (15 minutes)
Read: Warm Up And Playing Time, the sections “The Hand Warm-Up”, “The Spider Crawl”, “The Pain Rule” and “The 30-Minute Rule”. (10 minutes)