Session 6: Phase 1 Showcase

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 closes Phase 1 and starts nothing new for either hand. You bring the scales and chord changes of the phase to their figures, try an unseen TAB passage and the first pile of theory cards, and walk through the Phase 1 checkpoint, which you take after this week. The session ends with three of the phase’s four complete pieces played as a programme: the Seventh-Chord Blues in A, the Stop-Time Study in E and Amazing Grace.

Learning Objectives

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

Record the Seventh-Chord Blues in A, the Stop-Time Study in E and Amazing Grace in one take, each alone from your own count-in to its written ending: 3 pieces, with no stop and at most 3 wrong or missed notes in any one piece
Play a two-measure TAB passage you have not seen, after 30 seconds of study, at 50 BPM: 2 measures with at most 1 wrong note
Play the A natural minor scale from memory, up and down, in eighth notes at 60 BPM: 2 runs in a row
Pass the change test for G and D7, a new chord every 2 beats at 65 BPM: 8 chords, twice on the same day
Answer ten theory cards drawn from the pile you wrote, each before you turn it over: 8 of 10 cards

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
Your pile of theory cards from Sessions 2 to 4
Your two piles of note slips: the 24 of Session 2 and the 48 of Session 4
A sheet of paper and a pen, for marking your take
Four slips of paper for the chord cards of the checkpoint: A7, D7, E7 and B7
The page Phase 1 Checkpoint, open for Segment 3
Handout for this session: Performing A Programme (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

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  &

Play D D U U D U (Beginner Session 5) at 75 BPM: four measures on G, then four measures on C.

Copy of Session 3: the Stop-Time pattern

Chord:  E5
e|--------------------------------------|
B|--------------------------------------|
G|--------------------------------------|
D|--------------------------------------|
A|------2---2---2-------2---------------|
E|------0---0---0-------0---------------|
Count:  1   &   2  (&)  3  (&) [4] [&]
Strum:  D   U   D       D
PM:     PM  PM  PM      O

Then play the Stop-Time pattern (Session 3) on E5 at 70 BPM: four measures. This pattern is an item of the Phase 1 checkpoint.

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.

Barre presses:

The simplified F (Beginner Session 17): press, pluck four strings, release. Four presses.

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.

Segment 2 — Technique Focus: The Phase 1 Scales and Changes (10 minutes)

Scales

This is a showcase week. This segment starts nothing: it brings to their figures the scales the Phase 1 checkpoint asks for and the chord changes of Phase 1.

Copy of Session 2: A natural minor scale, one octave, open position

A natural minor scale, one octave, open position: up and down, eighth notes
e|--------------------------------------|-----------------------------------|
B|--------------------------------------|-----------------------------------|
G|------------------------------0---2---|---0-------------------------------|
D|------------------0---2---3-----------|-------3---2---0-------------------|
A|------0---2---3-----------------------|-------------------3---2---0-------|
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: -   2   3   -   2   3   -   2       -   3   2   -   3   2   -
Notes:  A   B   C   D   E   F   G   A       G   F   E   D   C   B   A

A natural minor scale, in eighth notes: two notes per click. The top A is played once. The last A lasts a full beat.

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.

Play the scale up and down at 55 BPM, two notes per click: two runs. That is today’s tempo. The line below is for the week’s practice: at 60 BPM this scale’s ladder ends.

Tempo: Start at 55 BPM, two notes per click (eighth notes) and work up to 60. Raise the metronome 5 BPM at a time, and only after three clean runs in a row. In one week, take two steps at most.

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

Copy of Session 4: E minor pentatonic, two octaves, open position

E minor pentatonic, two octaves, open position: up and down, quarter notes
e|----------------------|-------------------|-----------0-------|
B|----------------------|-------------------|---0---3-------3---|
G|----------------------|-----------0---2---|-------------------|
D|----------------------|---0---2-----------|-------------------|
A|--------------0---2---|-------------------|-------------------|
E|------0---3-----------|-------------------|-------------------|
Count:  1   2   3   4       1   2   3   4       1   2   3   4
Pick:   D   U   D   U       D   U   D   U       D   U   D   U
Finger: -   3   -   2       -   2   -   2       -   3   -   3
Notes:  E   G   A   B       D   E   G   A       B   D   E   D

e|----------------------|-------------------|-------------------|
B|------0---------------|-------------------|-------------------|
G|----------2---0-------|-------------------|-------------------|
D|------------------2---|---0---------------|-------------------|
A|----------------------|-------2---0-------|-------------------|
E|----------------------|---------------3---|---0---------------|
Count:  1   2   3   4       1   2   3   4       1  (2) (3) (4)
Pick:   D   U   D   U       D   U   D   U       D
Finger: -   2   -   2       -   2   -   3       -
Notes:  B   A   G   E       D   B   A   G       E

E minor pentatonic, in quarter notes: one note per click. The top E is played once. The last E lasts four beats: let it ring while you count (2) (3) (4).

Copy of Session 4: G major pentatonic, two octaves, open position

G major pentatonic, two octaves, open position: up and down, quarter notes
e|----------------------|-------------------|-------0---3---0---|
B|----------------------|---------------0---|---3---------------|
G|----------------------|-------0---2-------|-------------------|
D|------------------0---|---2---------------|-------------------|
A|----------0---2-------|-------------------|-------------------|
E|------3---------------|-------------------|-------------------|
Count:  1   2   3   4       1   2   3   4       1   2   3   4
Pick:   D   U   D   U       D   U   D   U       D   U   D   U
Finger: 3   -   2   -       2   -   2   -       3   -   3   -
Notes:  G   A   B   D       E   G   A   B       D   E   G   E

e|----------------------|-------------------|-------------------|
B|------3---0-----------|-------------------|-------------------|
G|--------------2---0---|-------------------|-------------------|
D|----------------------|---2---0-----------|-------------------|
A|----------------------|-----------2---0---|-------------------|
E|----------------------|-------------------|---3---------------|
Count:  1   2   3   4       1   2   3   4       1  (2) (3) (4)
Pick:   D   U   D   U       D   U   D   U       D
Finger: 3   -   2   -       2   -   2   -       3
Notes:  D   B   A   G       E   D   B   A       G

G major pentatonic, in quarter notes: one note per click. The top G is played once. The last G lasts four beats: let it ring while you count (2) (3) (4).

Play each scale from memory at 75 BPM, one note per click: one run of E minor pentatonic, up and down, then one run of G major pentatonic, up and down.

Tempo: Start at 75 BPM, one note per click (quarter notes) and work up to 80. Raise the metronome 5 BPM at a time, and only after three clean runs in a row. In one week, take two steps at most.

The Phase 1 checkpoint asks for the pair in quarter notes at 80 BPM and no more: the eighth-note form begins in Session 7.

Change Test: Five Pairs

This is the change test (Beginner Session 3) for five pairs. Start with G and D7, a new chord every 2 beats at 60 BPM: 8 chords, then 8 chords more.

Tempo: Start at a new chord every 2 beats at 60 BPM and work up to 65. Raise the metronome 5 BPM at a time, and only after three clean runs in a row. In one week, take two steps at most.

Then D and Am in the same form, a new chord every 2 beats at 60 BPM: 8 chords. Then D and C: 8 chords.

Tempo: Start at a new chord every 2 beats at 60 BPM and work up to 65. Raise the metronome 5 BPM at a time, and only after three clean runs in a row. In one week, take two steps at most.

Then Em and B7, a new chord every 4 beats at 65 BPM: 8 chords.

Tempo: Start at a new chord every 4 beats at 65 BPM and work up to 70. Raise the metronome 5 BPM at a time, and only after three clean runs in a row. In one week, take two steps at most.

Then A7 and D7 at the same figure, a new chord every 4 beats at 65 BPM: 8 chords. A7 and D7 has no ladder of its own: this week it is played at the figure of Em and B7. It reached 70 BPM in Session 3, beside G and D7, and it goes no higher this week.

Segment 3 — New Learning: A Programme and the Checkpoint (15 minutes)

What a Programme Is

Programme — The pieces you perform one after another in a single recorded take. The final programme is three complete pieces. (Session 6)

This week’s programme is three of the four complete pieces of Phase 1, in this order: the Seventh-Chord Blues in A, the Stop-Time Study in E, Amazing Grace. The fourth, the Seventh-Chord Blues in E, is played once a day in the same “Programme” row. In a programme you play each piece alone, as its page writes it, from your own count-in to its written ending, with no backing sounding.

You record the programme in one take.

Take — One recording, made in one go. A programme is recorded in a single take, which holds all its pieces. A take with a stop has not passed and ends at the stop, and only one take of a programme is made a day. (Session 6)

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 piece that begins with pick-up notes is counted in as its page prints it: the tune’s own counted measure is the count-in.

Amazing Grace is such a piece: count 1 2 and play its pick-up note on beat 3.

Two things come back from the beginner course. The recovery drill (Beginner Session 23): after a slip, keep counting and come in on the next beat 1. The routine “How to memorise a piece” (Beginner Session 6): split the piece into chunks of two measures and add one chunk at a time, always starting from the beginning. No piece is asked from memory this week: play each from its page.

Unseen TAB

Unseen — Written music you have not seen before a test: an unseen TAB passage, an unseen chart or unseen staff measures. You study it for 30 seconds and then play it; another name for this is sight-reading. (Session 6)

You take an unseen TAB passage by one routine, here and in the Phase 1 checkpoint alike:

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 pass mark, as the Phase 1 checkpoint has it: no stop and at most 1 wrong note.

Take the passage below now, by the routine at 50 BPM. When you have counted its wrong notes, play its two measures once more.

The block below is closed. Open it at step (2) of the routine, when the 30 seconds begin, and not before.

The passage for today

Unseen TAB, passage A
e|----------------------|-------------------|
B|--------------0---1---|---3---1-----------|
G|------0---2-----------|-----------0-------|
D|----------------------|-------------------|
A|----------------------|-------------------|
E|----------------------|-------------------|
Count:  1   2   3   4       1   2   3  (4)
Pick:   D   D   D   D       D   D   D
Finger: -   2   -   1       3   1   -
Notes:  G   A   B   C       D   C   G

TAB Passages for Your Practice Days

The two passages below are for the two days on which the “Checkpoint items” row of this week’s plan is an unseen TAB passage: the first block for practice day 1, the second for practice day 4. On its day, play the passage by the routine under “Unseen TAB” at 50 BPM, and mark it that day. The passage of the Phase 1 checkpoint is a different one and is printed only there. Open neither block today.

Each passage or chart below is in a closed block. Open a block only on its day, when its routine tells you to study it.

In a week you repeat, open the same blocks again on their days. They are no longer unseen, and that is expected: the routine is still the practice, and the next unseen passage is in the next session or assessment.

The passage for practice day 1

Unseen TAB, passage B
e|----------------------|-------------------|
B|----------------------|-------------------|
G|----------------------|-------------------|
D|------------------0---|---2---0-----------|
A|------0---3---2-------|-----------0-------|
E|----------------------|-------------------|
Count:  1   2   3   4       1   2   3  (4)
Pick:   D   D   D   D       D   D   D
Finger: -   3   2   -       2   -   -
Notes:  A   C   B   D       E   D   A

The passage for practice day 4

Unseen TAB, passage C
e|--------------0-------|-------------------|
B|------3---0-------3---|-------0-----------|
G|----------------------|---2-------0-------|
D|----------------------|-------------------|
A|----------------------|-------------------|
E|----------------------|-------------------|
Count:  1   2   3   4       1   2   3  (4)
Pick:   D   D   D   D       D   D   D
Finger: 3   -   -   3       2   -   -
Notes:  D   B   E   D       A   B   G

The First Theory Cards

Your pile holds the theory cards you wrote after Sessions 2, 3 and 4, from five handouts: Seventh Chords, Reading A Chord Chart, Rhythm Beyond Eighth Notes, Minor And Pentatonic Scales and The Blues.

The test of the pile: shuffle it, draw ten cards, and answer each aloud before you turn it over. The pass mark, as the Phase 1 checkpoint has it: 8 of 10.

Now draw two cards and answer them in the same way.

If your pile holds fewer than ten cards, write the missing ones this week from the same five handouts.

The Checkpoint, Item by Item

Open Phase 1 Checkpoint and keep it beside this page. You take the checkpoint after this week’s practice and before Session 7, in two sittings, on one day or on two. It has twelve items:

The chord cards: four cards
The Stop-Time pattern on E5: four measures
The A natural minor scale in eighth notes
The pentatonic pair in quarter notes
An unseen TAB passage: two measures
The endings example of Session 5
The theory cards: ten cards
A programme: two pieces in one take
The melody of Amazing Grace over your own recording of its strummed verse
One chorus of your own over your recorded backing of the Seventh-Chord Blues in E
Your recording of Test 3, play it back
Your recording of Test 4, higher or lower

On that page a star after an item’s number marks a must-pass item.

Must-pass item — An item of a checkpoint or of the end-of-course assessment that has to pass. It has a star after its number. In a checkpoint, if every must-pass item passes you go on to the next phase; if one does not, you spend one more week on the practice plan of the showcase week and take that item again. (Session 6)

The result you fill in on that page names each item that is still open.

Still open — Said of an item that has to pass and has not passed yet. An item that is still open comes again at the next checkpoint that holds it or at the end-of-course assessment. An item that is only reported is never open. (Session 6)

The “Checkpoint items” row of this week’s plan prepares three of the twelve, one a day: the unseen TAB passage (item 5), the endings example of Session 5, which is its chart with repeat signs and two endings (item 6), and the ten theory cards (item 7). Day by day:

Day 1: the first passage under “TAB Passages for Your Practice Days”
Day 2: the endings example of Session 5
Day 3: the endings example of Session 5 once more
Day 4: the second passage under “TAB Passages for Your Practice Days”
Day 5: ten theory cards; then the endings example of Session 5 once, for Self-Check Question 7

You make the two ear recordings after this session and mark them at the checkpoint, at least one day later.

Get these ready:

For item 1: write the names A7, D7, E7 and B7 on four slips of paper now. With the metronome at 60, turn a slip over and count the next three clicks: the chord is down when the third sounds. These slips are for the checkpoint: the chord cards of the “Rotation” row begin in Session 7.
For item 10: your recording of the backing of Session 4. If it is gone, record it again before Sitting 2 by the three steps under “The Backing” in Session 4.
For item 9: nothing. It records its own backing.

Item 10 has no row of its own this week. The section “How to Use This Checkpoint” of that page says what you play for it on the last two practice days of Week 6: where the “Programme” row comes to the Seventh-Chord Blues in E, strum it once as the row says, then play one chorus of your own over your recorded backing of Session 4, listening through the first time round, and stop the backing when your chorus ends. Item 9 is prepared on one of the four section days of the “Programme” row: “The Phase 1 Programme” in Segment 4 says how. Take no item now.

Ear Drill: The Six Places

Play the six places of the table from the lowest note to the highest and back, saying each note’s name. Then turn over two note slips, play the two notes, and say which is higher. Put the two slips back and mix the slips. Do this five times.

This is a drill, not a test: you know each answer as you play it.

These six places are the E minor pentatonic notes on strings 3 to 1.

Note	String	Fret
G	3 (G)	0 (open)
A	3 (G)	2
B	2 (B)	0 (open)
D	2 (B)	3
E	1 (high e)	0 (open)
G	1 (high e)	3

A note slip names one place: write its string and its fret, such as “string 2, fret 3”, or “string 3, open” for an open string.

Play back on the six places of the table only. No two of them sound the same, so a note you hear has one place.

Where two notes in a row are at the same fret on two strings, lift the finger and set its tip on the new string: do not lay it flat across both.

Play the drill once now. For its second sentence, take six note slips from your pile of 48 (Session 4), one for each place of the table.

Copy of Session 4: Ear Test 3, the four-note rhythm, four slips as an example

Ear Test 3, the four-note rhythm, four slips as an example
e|--------------0-------|
B|------0-----------3---|
G|----------2-----------|
D|----------------------|
A|----------------------|
E|----------------------|
Count:  1   2   3   4
Pick:   D   D   D   D
Finger: -   2   -   3
Notes:  B   A   E   D

The four-note rhythm is four quarter notes. The TAB shows it with four slips as an example: the notes of your phrases come from your own slips.

Test 3, play it back, four notes. The pile is 48 note slips, eight for each of these six places: string 3 open, string 3 fret 2, string 2 open, string 2 fret 3, string 1 open, string 1 fret 3. An item is four slips in a row from left to right: play their notes as four quarter notes. No metronome: count slowly and evenly, about one count a second. Play the phrase twice. If you play a note that is not on its slip, say “again” and play the phrase twice more. Record six items. To answer, listen to both playings of an item, stop the recording, play the phrase back once on the six places of the pile, and write the places you played, in order. If you hear “again”, answer from the two playings after the last “again”. Write each place as two figures, the string then the fret, such as 2-3; an open string is 3-0. To mark, deal the key pile four slips to an item. A phrase is right only if every note matched.

Ear Drill: Higher or Lower

Play string 2 open, then string 2 at fret 1, and say “higher”. Play them the other way round and say “lower”. Do the same with each pair of neighbours in the table, letting every note ring for about two seconds.

This is a drill, not a test: you know each answer as you play it.

Note	String	Fret
B	2 (B)	0 (open)
C	2 (B)	1
D	2 (B)	3
E	1 (high e)	0 (open)
F	1 (high e)	1
G	1 (high e)	3

A note slip names one place: write its string and its fret, such as “string 2, fret 3”, or “string 3, open” for an open string.

The table runs from the lowest note to the highest: of two slips, the one further down the table is the higher note.

Play the drill once now.

You make both recordings, of Test 3 and of Test 4, after the session with the recorded card test (Session 2), and you do not mark them this week. The two paragraphs that begin “Test 3, play it back” and “Test 4, higher or lower” are for those recordings: do not read them again in the session.

Test 4, higher or lower. The pile is 24 note slips, four for each of these six places: string 2 open, string 2 fret 1, string 2 fret 3, string 1 open, string 1 fret 1, string 1 fret 3. An item is two slips: play the first note and let it ring for about two seconds, then play the second and let it ring. If the second slip names the same place as the first, put it under the pile and turn over another. Wait about five seconds after each item. Record ten items; about four slips stay in the pile. No metronome. Your answer for each number is “higher” or “lower”: is the second note higher or lower than the first? To mark, deal the key pile two slips to an item. On one string the higher fret is the higher note, and every one of these notes on string 1 is higher than every one on string 2.

Break: 5 minutes. Guitar down.

Segment 4 — Piece Workshop: The Phase 1 Programme (15 minutes)

The Phase 1 Programme

No piece is printed again in this session: you play the three pieces of the programme from their own pages, in Session 2, Session 3 and Session 5. Today you play each piece once through with the metronome, at the figure it has this week. The take with no metronome is for your last practice day.

The “Programme” row of this week’s plan says: sections on four days, one recorded take on the last; and once a day the Seventh-Chord Blues in E. On one of the four section days, the section of Amazing Grace is Step 6 under “How to Learn This Tune” in Session 5: record the strummed verse and play the melody over it. That is item 9 of the Phase 1 checkpoint.

”Seventh-Chord Blues in A” (Session 2)

First try the count-in of a take, once: set the metronome to 70 BPM, listen to eight clicks, stop it, count one measure aloud and play measures 1 to 4 with no metronome sounding.

Then start the metronome again and play the piece once through in the D D U U D U pattern at 70 BPM, its performance tempo, from a count-in of four clicks. That takes 2 minutes 10 seconds.

”Stop-Time Study in E” (Session 3)

Play the piece once through at 70 BPM, its performance tempo, from a count-in of four clicks. That takes 1 minute 29 seconds.

”Amazing Grace” (traditional; the course’s arrangement in G) (Session 5)

Play the tune once through today at 65 BPM, alone and with no backing sounding: count 1 2 and play the pick-up note on beat 3; then the melody, the strummed verse and the melody again.

Tempo: Start at 65 BPM in 3/4, the click on the beat and work up to 70. Raise the metronome 5 BPM at a time, and only after three clean runs in a row. In one week, take two steps at most. The performance tempo is 70 BPM in 3/4, the click on the beat.

”Seventh-Chord Blues in E” (Session 4)

This piece is kept going this week. It is not part of the programme.

Tempo: Start at 60 BPM, D D U U D U pattern and work up to 70. Raise the metronome 5 BPM at a time, and only after three clean runs in a row. In one week, take two steps at most. The performance tempo is 70 BPM, D D U U D U pattern.

In this piece one time round the 12 measures is one run: once through with no stop is three runs.

Play it once through today at 60 BPM in the D D U U D U pattern, from a count-in of four clicks. That takes 2 minutes 32 seconds.

Marking Your Take

You record the take on your last practice day. To mark it, listen to it once for each piece, with that piece’s page in front of you. Make a stroke on paper for every wrong or missed note, and count the strokes piece by 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.

This week that holds for the Seventh-Chord Blues in A, the Stop-Time Study in E and the strummed verse of Amazing Grace.

The pass mark: no stop; each piece reaches its written ending; at most 3 wrong or missed notes in any one piece.

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.

Segment 5 — Review and Practice Plan (5 minutes)

What You Achieved in Phase 1

Four seventh chords
The rest stop
Three scales beyond the beginner course’s
Four complete pieces, three of them in today’s programme
A chorus of your own over your own backing

Common Mistakes

The take is stopped after a wrong note — A wrong note is one stroke on the marking sheet; a stop ends the take. Keep counting and come in again on the next beat 1.
A piece of the programme is begun with no count-in, at a guessed speed — Use the count-in of a take before every piece, as “What a Programme Is” in Segment 3 gives it.
An unseen passage is read one note at a time, with stops — Use the 30 seconds as step 2 of the routine under “Unseen TAB” lists them, then count as its step 4 says. Then play at 50 BPM without stopping, also through a wrong note.

Self-Check Questions

Record the programme in one take, each piece alone from your own count-in to its written ending: the Seventh-Chord Blues in A, the Stop-Time Study in E and Amazing Grace. Check: listen to the take once for each piece with its page in front of you and make a stroke for every wrong or missed note. Pass: no stop, each of the 3 pieces reaches its written ending, and at most 3 strokes in any one piece. If not: work for two days in the Programme row on the piece that failed, four or eight measures at a time with the metronome, then record the take again, under “Marking Your Take” in Segment 4, and try again after those two days, before you take the checkpoint.
By the end of this week’s practice: play the Seventh-Chord Blues in E once through at 70 BPM in the D D U U D U pattern, from a count-in of four clicks, and record it with the metronome sounding. Check: listen to the recording with the chart of Session 4 in front of you and count the measures aloud. Pass: 38 measures with no stop, and each new chord is down by its count 1. If not: go back 5 BPM for two days and take a step only after three runs in a row with no stop, under “Seventh-Chord Blues in E” (Session 4) in Segment 4, and try again after those two days, before you take the checkpoint.
By the end of this week’s practice: play from memory, up and down, the A natural minor scale in eighth notes at 60 BPM, and E minor pentatonic and G major pentatonic in quarter notes at 80 BPM, and record them. Check: follow each recording on the scale’s TAB and mark every wrong note. Pass: 2 runs in a row of each of the 3 scales, with 0 wrong notes. If not: take the scale that failed 5 BPM lower and take the step again only after three runs in a row with no wrong note, under “Scales” in Segment 2, and try again at the Phase 1 checkpoint.
By the end of this week’s practice: pass the change test (Beginner Session 3) for G and D7, D and Am, and D and C, a new chord every 2 beats at 65 BPM, and for Em and B7 and A7 and D7, a new chord every 4 beats at 70 BPM. Check: the metronome clicks the beat; 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 5 pairs. If not: take the pair that failed 10 BPM lower and climb back 5 BPM at a time, under “Change Test: Five Pairs” in Segment 2, and try again the next day, before you take the checkpoint.
Read the mark you gave your second practice-day TAB passage on the day you opened its block: played at 50 BPM by the routine, after 30 seconds of study, and recorded. Check: that day’s recording, followed on the TAB, with the wrong notes counted. Pass: no stop and at most 1 wrong note in its 2 measures. If not: read the line of the routine aloud once more, under “Unseen TAB” in Segment 3, and try again at the Phase 1 checkpoint, on its own unseen passage.
Shuffle your pile of theory cards, draw ten, and answer each aloud before you turn it over. Check: turn each card over and read the answer on its back. Pass: 8 of 10 cards. If not: read aloud the backs of the cards you missed, once a day, under “The First Theory Cards” in Segment 3, and try again at the Phase 1 checkpoint.
Strum the endings example of Session 5 from the page, one strum to a measure at 60 BPM, saying each chord’s name as you strum it. Check: the metronome clicks the beat; after each chord’s name say its number, from 1 to 14. Pass: 14 chords in this order: G, Em, C, D7, G, Em, D7, then G, Em, C, D7, G, Em, G. If not: read the chart aloud twice without the guitar, pointing at each box, then strum it (the chart is in Session 5, under “First and Second Endings”; here it is item 6 of the list), under “The Checkpoint, Item by Item” in Segment 3, and try again at the Phase 1 checkpoint.

Practice Plan for Week 6 (each practice day, 30 minutes)

Notes on the rows:

The Programme row: a section is four or eight measures of one piece, played with the metronome at the figure the piece has this week. “The Phase 1 Programme” in Segment 4 gives the one section that is fixed.
The Checkpoint items row: the item of each day is in the list under “The Checkpoint, Item by Item” in Segment 3.

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
Programme	13 min	Seventh-Chord Blues in A, Stop-Time Study, Amazing Grace: sections on four days, one recorded take on the last; and once a day the Seventh-Chord Blues in E, from 60 up to 70
Scales	5 min	A natural minor scale in eighth notes; the pentatonic pair in quarter notes
Change test	4 min	G-D7, D-Am and D-C at 2 beats; A7-D7 and Em-B7 at 4 beats
Checkpoint items	4 min	one of these a day: an unseen TAB passage at 50; a chart with repeat signs and two endings, strummed from the page; the first ten theory cards. (Tests 3 and 4 are recorded after this session and marked at the checkpoint.)

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: take the Phase 1 Checkpoint next, on another day, before you start Session 7.

Any no: take the Phase 1 checkpoint all the same: its own rule decides what happens next.

Guitar Tip — Saga SF-600C-BK

Tune this guitar again just before you record a take. Between two pieces of the take, look at the tuner once more: if a string reads low, tune it before you count in the next piece.

After the session (not part of the 50 minutes)

Read: Performing A Programme, the sections “What a Programme Is”, “The Count-In” and “Recording One Take”. (10 minutes)
Read: Phase 1 Checkpoint, the section “How to Use This Checkpoint”. (5 minutes)
Record: the recordings for the Phase 1 checkpoint. Use the recorded card test (Session 2), but do not mark them this week: you mark them when you take that checkpoint, at least one day later. Test 3, play it back; and Test 4, higher or lower, as Segment 3 gives them. (5 minutes)