Session 19: The F Shape at the Fifth Fret

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 opens Phase 4. You take the simplified F shape up to the fifth fret, where it is called A (four strings), and press it there for the first time: press, pluck, release, and nothing more this week. You learn that a moveable shape is named by its root, and you play the Root-Finder Study at two beats to a chord. The session ends with Giuliani’s Andantino, a piece you know, played whole and recorded.

Learning Objectives

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

Press A (four strings) at fret 5 so that the tuner shows A, C#, E, A on strings 4 to 1 (press, pluck four strings, release): 3 presses, with all 4 strings ringing in 2 of them
Say the note on string 4 at frets 3, 5 and 7 without pressing, and say the name of the four-string F shape with its barre at fret 1 and at fret 5: 5 answers
Play the Root-Finder Study from its two-beat chart, one strum every two beats, lifting and placing the shape at 60 BPM: 8 measures, 16 chords
Strum the plain sixteenth-note pattern on Em with the metronome clicking the beat at 50 BPM: 4 measures
Play the D major scale from memory, up and down, in eighth notes at 60 BPM: 2 runs in a row

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
A ruler marked in millimetres, and the two figures you wrote down at the string-height check of Session 1
Guitar Setup Check, open at the section “The String-Height Check”
Your song map of “Planet Caravan” (Session 14)
Handout for this session: Barre Shapes Step By Step (read after the session, 10 minutes)
Staff reading this week: Reading Staff Notation 1, the section “Lines for Week 19”
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 85 BPM: four measures on G, then four measures on C, and the same again, without stopping between them.

Tempo: 85 BPM, D D U U D U pattern

On the practice days the D D U U D U pattern in the “Warm-Up” row may reach 90 BPM this week. 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 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

PM = palm muted. O = let the string ring (palm lifted).

Then play the Stop-Time pattern (Session 3) on E5 at 70 BPM, four measures, with the rest on count 4 made by the rest stop.

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.

There are no barre presses in this warm-up: today’s barre minutes are all in Segment 2.

Segment 2 — Technique Focus: The F Shape at the Fifth Fret (10 minutes)

Session day: the daily limits count today too. The limited work you do in this session is all you do of it today, also if you pick up the guitar again later.

Limited work today: barre work, 3 minutes: the presses under “Presses at Fret 5”.

Limited work today: three-string power-chord work, 4 minutes: the “Root-Finder Study” in Segment 4.

Before You Press (5 minutes)

Do the string-height check now, from Guitar Setup Check, the section “The String-Height Check”. Tune the guitar. With the ruler, measure at the 12th fret under string 6 and under string 1. Write both figures and today’s date under your figures of Session 1. Press one string with a fingertip at fret 1 and then at fret 5, once each. Then read your result off the two outcomes printed under the steps in that section. Nothing is played and no chord is pressed.

If the check sends your guitar to a shop, no barre work is done, in this session or in any week’s plan, until the shop has seen the guitar.

Go on with everything else. When the guitar is back, do the part “Presses at Fret 5” of this session on the next day, in place of that day’s barre rows, and count your weeks of presses from that day. Until then leave the Self-Check Question on the press unanswered: it is not a no.

In that case, go on today from “Finding the Root”.

How a Barre Works

Read the lead-in and the four steps aloud, with your fretting hand off the neck. Nothing is pressed.

A barre is not a squeeze. The pressure comes from the weight of your arm, not from pinching the neck.

Finger: lay finger 1 across the strings just behind the fret wire, rolled slightly onto its bony edge (the side nearer your thumb), with the tip reaching just past the last string it has to cover.
Thumb: rest your thumb lightly on the back of the neck, roughly behind finger 1 or finger 2. It steadies the hand. It does not press.
Arm: let your elbow hang close to your side and let the weight of your arm draw your hand gently back, so the finger sinks into the strings. Your strumming arm resting on the guitar’s body keeps the guitar still.
Press, pluck each string once, release completely, shake out the hand. Never hold a barre against a clock.

Presses at Fret 5 (3 minutes)

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.

A (four strings) is the simplified F moved up four frets: finger 1 across strings 2 and 1 at fret 5, finger 2 on string 3 at fret 6, finger 3 on string 4 at fret 7.

A (four strings)

EADGBe

Finger 1 (index) barres strings 2 (B) and 1 (high e) at fret 5
Finger 2 (middle): string 3 (G), fret 6
Finger 3 (ring): string 4 (D), fret 7
Do not play strings 6 and 5
Strum strings 4 to 1 (four strings)
Notes, string 4 to string 1: A, C#, E, A

Tuner check: Pluck strings 4 to 1 one at a time, slowly. The tuner should show A, C#, E, A. A different letter means a finger is on the wrong string or the wrong fret.

If a string is muffled, the finger on the string next to it is leaning on it: arch that finger more.

Rest the pick on string 4, then strum from there.

If a string is dead or buzzing:

What you hear	Cause	What to do
String 2 dead	Finger 1 does not reach far enough	Move it a little further across
String 1 dead	It has fallen into a crease of finger 1	Shift the finger slightly up or down and roll onto its edge
String 3 dead or buzzing	That is finger 2, not the barre	Move it closer to the fret wire
String 4 dead or buzzing	That is finger 3, not the barre	Move it closer to the fret wire

If the tuner shows the right letter but the note is dull or buzzing, do not press harder. Move the finger closer to the fret wire and try again.

Now the presses. Place the shape, pluck strings 4 to 1 one at a time, release completely and shake out the hand. Make the first press with the tuner check above, then 4 more: 5 presses in all.

This week the shape is pressed and released only: it is not strummed in time, and no piece holds it.

Then the simplified F (Beginner Session 17) the same way, at fret 1: place the shape, pluck strings 4 to 1 one at a time, release completely and shake out the hand. 3 presses.

F (simplified)

EADGBe

Finger 1 (index) barres strings 2 (B) and 1 (high e) at fret 1
Finger 2 (middle): string 3 (G), fret 2
Finger 3 (ring): string 4 (D), fret 3
Do not play strings 6 and 5
Strum strings 4 to 1 (four strings)
Notes, string 4 to string 1: F, A, C, F

The table above serves this shape too, row for row.

Finding the Root (2 minutes)

Moveable chord shape (moveable shape) — A chord shape that uses no open strings, so the same finger pattern makes a different chord at each fret. The chord is named after its root, wherever the shape is placed. (Session 19)

A moveable shape is named after its root. In the four-string F shape the root is the note under finger 3 on string 4: with the barre at fret 1, finger 3 is at fret 3 and the chord is F; with the barre at fret 5, finger 3 is at fret 7 and the chord is A.

Do not press. Touch string 4 lightly with the tip of finger 3 at fret 3, then at fret 5, then at fret 7, and say the note at each. Count up from the open D one fret at a time, by the rule of Session 17: a sharp note is one fret above its letter, and no fret lies between E and F. Then say the name of the four-string shape with its barre at fret 1, and with its barre at fret 5.

Answers: fret 3 is F, fret 5 is G, fret 7 is A; the shape is F with its barre at fret 1 and A with its barre at fret 5.

Segment 3 — New Learning: A Shape Named by Its Root (15 minutes)

Two Shapes That Move

Partial barre chord — A barre chord in which finger 1 lies across some of the strings, not all six. The simplified F is one: its barre holds strings 2 and 1. (Session 19)

You now have two moveable shapes. Each takes its name from its root, so the same shape four frets higher has a new name:

Shape	The root is held by	Its name, with the root at its lowest place taught	Its name four frets higher
The three-string power chord, root on string 6 (Session 17)	finger 1 on string 6	F5	A5 (string 6)
The four-string F shape	finger 3 on string 4	F (simplified), the barre at fret 1	A (four strings), the barre at fret 5

Write your answers to these three questions, then read the answer under each.

Which finger holds the root in each shape?

Answer: finger 1 in the power chord; finger 3 in the four-string F shape.
On which other string does the four-string shape sound its root a second time?

Answer: string 1, under finger 1. The Notes lines in Segment 2 show it: F, A, C, F and A, C#, E, A, from string 4 to string 1.
How many frets did the shape move from F to A?

Answer: four.

In this course the four-string shape is pressed at fret 1 and at fret 5 only. Nothing is played in this part.

Sixteenth Notes with the Click on the Beat

Fast strumming: if your strumming hand or forearm aches, that is tension. Stop playing for today, and next time loosen your grip on the pick.

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.

Tempo: 50 BPM, four strums per click (sixteenth notes)

The metronome clicks the beat: four strums to each click, the first of them with the click.

Four strums per click at 50 is exactly as fast as two strums per click at 100.

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

Play the plain sixteenth-note pattern (Session 8) on Em at 50 BPM, the metronome clicking the beat. Let four clicks pass and play four measures. Do this three times in all, with four clicks before each play. The tempo does not go up this week: only the click changes.

The D Major Scale at 50

Copy of Session 15: D major scale, one octave, open position

D major scale, one octave, open position: up and down, eighth notes
e|--------------------------------------|-----------------------------------|
B|--------------------------0---2---3---|---2---0---------------------------|
G|------------------0---2---------------|-----------2---0-------------------|
D|------0---2---4-----------------------|-------------------4---2---0-------|
A|--------------------------------------|-----------------------------------|
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   4   -   2   -   2   3       2   -   2   -   4   2   -
Notes:  D   E   F#  G   A   B   C#  D       C#  B   A   G   F#  E   D

D major scale, in eighth notes: two notes per click. The top D is played once. The last D 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 D major scale (Session 15) up and down three times at 50 BPM, two notes per click.

Tempo: 50 BPM, two notes per click (eighth notes)

On the practice days the “D major scale” row may reach 60 BPM this week. 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.

Your Song Map

Take out the song map of “Planet Caravan” that you wrote in the week of Session 14, and read it through, section by section: point to each section, say its name and say how many measures it has. This week the “Eight measures of your own” row asks for this on one day, in place of its second play: choose that day now and write it on the map. Nothing is played.

Break: 5 minutes. Guitar down.

Segment 4 — Piece Workshop: Root-Finder Study (15 minutes)

“Root-Finder Study”

Three-string power-chord work: no more than 5 minutes a day in total.

If your hand, wrist or thumb aches during the study, stop playing for today: the pain rule comes before the plan.

Credits: Written for this course.

What this is: A study: an original exercise written for this course. It is not a song. It is 16 measures of three-string power chords in E minor, one chord to a measure. Each chord is named by its root and the string of its root, and you find its place from the name. You strum each chord once and let it ring, then lift the shape and place it at the next root; you never slide it along the strings. The study uses eight of the nine roots of Session 17. Every root in the study is a note of the E minor scale. C#5 (string 5) is left out because its root, C sharp, is not. At 55 BPM the study takes 1 minute 10 seconds. Not yet play-tested.

From this session the same sixteen chords are played two to a measure, on counts 1 and 3: 8 measures, 32 seconds at 60 BPM.

Key: E minor

Time: 4/4

Tempo: a new chord every 2 beats at 60 BPM all week. It does not go up this week: two beats to a chord is new.

Strumming pattern: one strum every two beats, in every measure.

"Root-Finder Study" - one strum every two beats
Count:  1  (2)  3  (4)
Strum:  D       D

Let each chord ring for one beat and move during the next.

This shape has no open string, so its sound ends when you lift; that is expected.

Read the lines above first. Then, with your fretting hand off the neck, count 1 2 3 4 aloud for two measures and strum the open strings 6 to 4 on counts 1 and 3. No power chord is placed yet.

How to Learn This Study:

"Root-Finder Study" - two beats to a chord

Key: E minor        Time: 4/4 (four beats in a measure)

         | E5 (string 5)   D5 (string 5)  | C5 (string 5)   D5 (string 5)  |
Beats:     12              34               12              34

         | E5 (string 5)   F#5 (string 6) | G5 (string 6)   A5 (string 6)  |
Beats:     12              34               12              34

         | B5 (string 6)   A5 (string 6)  | G5 (string 6)   B5 (string 5)  |
Beats:     12              34               12              34

         | C5 (string 5)   D5 (string 5)  | E5 (string 5)   E5 (string 5)  |
Beats:     12              34               12              34

Strum each chord once, on counts 1 and 3, and let it ring.

Step 1 — Find the roots without pressing: Take one line of the two-beat chart at a time. Say each chord’s name aloud and point to the fret of its root on string 6 or string 5. Do not press.

Step 2 — One line at a time: Play each line of the chart at 60 BPM as the strum block shows, twice: place the shape, strum once on count 1, lift it, place it at the next root and strum on count 3. Each chord rings for one beat and the hand moves during the next.

Step 3 — Join the lines: Play lines 1 and 2 joined, then lines 3 and 4 joined; then all four lines in order, two times. Each time after four clicks.

Today, do Step 1 for all four lines, then Steps 2 and 3 at 60 BPM, each playing after four clicks: in all, the chart five times through. These 4 minutes are all of today’s three-string power-chord work.

What it should sound like: With the metronome at 60 BPM, every strum falls with a click: counts 1 and 3 of all 8 measures. Count 1 2 3 4 aloud through all 8 measures without stopping. On a recording, count the strums: 16, with no strum between two clicks.

The shape is lifted and placed, never slid along the strings.

With the root on string 5, one more line holds:

String 6 must stay silent: let the tip of finger 1 lean lightly against it.

A Piece You Know: Giuliani’s Andantino (10 minutes)

Giuliani’s “Andantino”, Op. 50 no. 1, from Sessions 11 and 14. Its four blocks are copied below; its lines are not printed again. It is plucked with the fingers, each on its home string.

The piece is in 3/4 time.

Play the whole piece once at 55 BPM, its performance tempo, from your own count-in, and record it with the metronome sounding.

Copy of Session 11: Giuliani, Andantino, Op. 50 no. 1: measures 1 to 8

Giuliani, Andantino, Op. 50 no. 1: measures 1 to 8
e|------------------|---------------|---0---1---0---|---------------|
B|------1-------1---|---3-------3---|---1---3---1---|---3-----------|
G|------------------|---0-------0---|---------------|---0-----------|
D|------2-------2---|---------------|---------------|---------------|
A|------------------|---------------|---------------|---------------|
E|------------------|---------------|---------------|---------------|
Count:  1  (2)  3       1  (2)  3       1   2   3       1  (2) [3]
Finger: pm      pm      im      im      ma  ma  ma      im

e|------1-------3---|---0-----------|---------------|---------------|
B|--------------0---|---1-------1---|---3-------0---|---1-----------|
G|------2-----------|-----------2---|-----------0---|---------------|
D|------------------|---------------|---3-----------|---2-----------|
A|------------------|---------------|---------------|---------------|
E|------------------|---------------|---------------|---------------|
Count:  1  (2)  3       1  (2)  3       1  (2)  3       1  (2) [3]
Finger: ia      ma      ma      im      pm      im      pm

Copy of Session 11: Giuliani, Andantino, Op. 50 no. 1: measures 9 to 16

Giuliani, Andantino, Op. 50 no. 1: measures 9 to 16
e|--------------0---|---------------|-------1---0---|---------------|
B|------3-------1---|---3-----------|---3-------1---|---3-----------|
G|------0-----------|---0-----------|---0-----------|---0-----------|
D|------------------|---------------|---------------|---------------|
A|------------------|---------------|---------------|---------------|
E|------------------|---------------|---------------|---------------|
Count:  1  (2)  3       1  (2) [3]      1   2   3       1  (2) [3]
Finger: im      ma      im              im  a   ma      im

e|------0-----------|---------------|---------------|---------------|
B|------1-------3---|---1-------3---|---1-------0---|---1-----------|
G|--------------1---|---2-----------|---0-------0---|---------------|
D|------------------|-----------3---|---------------|---2-----------|
A|------------------|---------------|---------------|---------------|
E|------------------|---------------|---------------|---------------|
Count:  1  (2)  3       1  (2)  3       1  (2)  3       1  (2) [3]
Finger: ma      im      im      pm      im      im      pm

Copy of Session 14: Giuliani, Andantino, Op. 50 no. 1: measures 17 to 24

Giuliani, Andantino, Op. 50 no. 1: measures 17 to 24
e|------------------------------|---------------------------|
B|------1---------------1-------|---3---------------3-------|
G|----------0---0---0-------0---|-------0---0---0-------0---|
D|------2---------------2-------|---------------------------|
A|------------------------------|---2---------------2-------|
E|------------------------------|---------------------------|
Count:  1   &   2   &   3   &       1   &   2   &   3   &
Finger: pm  i   i   i   pm  i       pm  i   i   i   pm  i

e|------0-------1-------0-------|---------------------------|
B|------------------------------|---3-----------------------|
G|----------0-------0-------0---|-------0---0---0---0---0---|
D|--------------0---------------|---------------------------|
A|------3---------------3-------|---2-----------------------|
E|------------------------------|---------------------------|
Count:  1   &   2   &   3   &       1   &   2   &   3   &
Finger: pa  i   pa  i   pa  i       pm  i   i   i   i   i

e|------1---------------3-------|---0-----------------------|
B|------------------------------|-------------------1-------|
G|----------0---0---0-------0---|-------0---0---0-------0---|
D|------0-----------------------|-------------------2-------|
A|----------------------2-------|---3-----------------------|
E|------------------------------|---------------------------|
Count:  1   &   2   &   3   &       1   &   2   &   3   &
Finger: pa  i   i   i   pa  i       pa  i   i   i   pm  i

e|------------------------------|---------------------------|
B|------3---------------0-------|-------1-------------------|
G|----------2---2---2-------0---|-----------0---------------|
D|------3---------------0-------|---------------2-----------|
A|------------------------------|---3---------------3-------|
E|------------------------------|---------------------------|
Count:  1   &   2   &   3   &       1   &   2   &   3
Finger: pm  i   i   i   pm  i       p   m   i   p   p

Copy of Session 14: Giuliani, Andantino, Op. 50 no. 1: measures 25 to 32

Giuliani, Andantino, Op. 50 no. 1: measures 25 to 32
e|----------------------0-------|---------------------------|
B|------3-----------------------|---3-----------------------|
G|----------0---0---0-------0---|-------0---0---0---0---0---|
D|------------------------------|---------------------------|
A|------2---------------3-------|---2-----------------------|
E|------------------------------|---------------------------|
Count:  1   &   2   &   3   &       1   &   2   &   3   &
Finger: pm  i   i   i   pa  i       pm  i   i   i   i   i

e|--------------1-------0-------|---------------------------|
B|------3-----------------------|---3-----------0---1---3---|
G|----------0-------0-------0---|-------0---2---------------|
D|--------------0---------------|---------------------------|
A|------2---------------3-------|---2-----------------------|
E|------------------------------|---------------------------|
Count:  1   &   2   &   3   &       1   &   2   &   3   &
Finger: pm  i   pa  i   pa  i       pm  i   i   m   m   m

e|------0-----------------------|---------------------------|
B|----------------------3-------|---1---------------3-------|
G|----------0---0---0-------1---|-------2---2---2-------2---|
D|------------------------------|---------------------------|
A|------3---------------2-------|---0-----------------------|
E|------------------------------|-------------------1-------|
Count:  1   &   2   &   3   &       1   &   2   &   3   &
Finger: pa  i   i   i   pm  i       pm  i   i   i   pm  i

e|------------------------------|---------------------------|
B|------1---------------0-------|---------------1-----------|
G|------------------------------|-----------0---------------|
D|----------2---2---2-------0---|-------2-------------------|
A|------------------------------|---3---------------3-------|
E|------3---------------3-------|---------------------------|
Count:  1   &   2   &   3   &       1   &   2   &   3
Finger: pm  p   p   p   pm  p       p   p   i   m   p

Listen to the recording with the page open and mark each slip in pencil: a wrong note, a missed note, a stop. Count the marks, and write the number and the date. Choose the four measures in a row that hold the most marks.

Play the four measures you chose three times at 55 BPM.

Then play the whole piece once more at 55 BPM, from your own count-in to its last measure. This is what the week’s “Giuliani: Andantino” row asks for each day: the whole piece once.

Segment 5 — Review and Practice Plan (5 minutes)

What You Learned Today

The string-height check comes before barre work.
The shape called A (four strings) is the simplified F at fret 5, pressed and released.
A moveable shape is named by its root.
The Root-Finder Study at two beats to a chord, and sixteenth notes with the click on the beat.

Common Mistakes

String 2 is dead in A (four strings) — Finger 1 does not reach far enough: move it a little further across, so that its tip lies just past string 2, and roll it slightly onto its bony edge.
The thumb pushes into the back of the neck during a press — The thumb only steadies the hand. Let the elbow hang and let the weight of the arm draw the hand back; release completely after each press and shake out the hand.
The power-chord shape is slid along the strings from one chord of the study to the next — Lift the shape clear of the strings and place it at the next root. The sound ends at the lift, and that is expected.
In sixteenth notes the strum after a click comes late — Count 1 e & a aloud: the downstroke on each number falls with the click. Loosen the grip on the pick.

Self-Check Questions

Press A (four strings) at fret 5, pluck strings 4 to 1 one at a time, release completely and shake out the hand: 3 presses. Check: the tuner shows A, C#, E, A, string by string, and each string rings when it is plucked. Pass: all 4 strings ring in 2 of the 3 presses. If not: find the string that did not ring in the table and, adding no pressure, move the finger as its row says, under “Presses at Fret 5” in Segment 2, and try again the next day, inside that day’s barre minutes.
Without pressing, touch string 4 at frets 3, 5 and 7 and say the note at each; then say the name of the four-string F shape with its barre at fret 1 and with its barre at fret 5. Check: press each of the three places with one fingertip and pluck it: the tuner shows the letter you said. Read the two chord names on the line of answers in Segment 2. Pass: 5 of the 5 answers. If not: count up string 4 from the open D one fret at a time, saying each letter aloud, under “Finding the Root” in Segment 2, and try again the next day.
Play the Root-Finder Study from its two-beat chart at 60 BPM, one strum on counts 1 and 3 of each measure, and record it with the metronome sounding. Check: listen to the recording and count the strums against the clicks. Pass: 16 chords with no stop, each strummed with its click. If not: play one line of the chart at a time for two days, under “How to Learn This Study” in Segment 4, and try again after those two days.
Strum the plain sixteenth-note pattern on Em for four measures at 50 BPM with the metronome clicking the beat, then one more downstroke on the next beat 1, and record it. Check: listen to the recording and count 1 e & a aloud with it. Pass: 4 measures with no stop, and the 1 downstroke after them falls with its click. If not: set the metronome to 100, clicking eighth notes, as in Session 16, for two days, under “Sixteenth Notes with the Click on the Beat” in Segment 3, and try again after those two days.
By the end of this week’s practice: play the D major scale from memory, up and down, in eighth notes at 60 BPM, two notes per click, and record it with the metronome sounding. Check: follow the recording on the scale’s TAB. Pass: 2 runs in a row with no wrong note. If not: go back to 55 BPM for two days, under “The D Major Scale at 50” in Segment 3, and try again after those two days.
By the end of this week’s practice: play D D U U D U on G for four measures and on C for four measures at 90 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 85 BPM for two days, under “Warm-Up” in Segment 1, and try again after those two days.

Practice Plan for Week 19 (each practice day, 35 minutes)

Notes on the rows:

Rotation this week, the change-test pairs: G and D7, a new chord every 2 beats at 80 BPM; Em and B7, a new chord every 2 beats at 80 BPM; Am7 and D7, a new chord every 2 beats at 75 BPM; C and G7, a new chord every 2 beats at 65 BPM; D and Bm, a new chord every 4 beats at 70 BPM. One of them a day, in turn.
The Staff reading row: this week’s lines are in Reading Staff Notation 1, the section “Lines for Week 19”. They are not printed in this session.
The D major scale row: when the scale has passed at 60 BPM, its card joins the rotation pile next week.

Block	Time	Activity
Warm-Up	4 min	Movement warm-up, tune; then D D U U D U on known chords, and the Stop-Time pattern for four measures; then the spider crawl at frets 5 to 8
Rotation	4 min	One scale card, played twice. One change-test pair, played as the test at the figure its ladder has reached (80 once it is there). Two single chord cards from the pile of E1, as far as its chords have been taught, with the Bm (four strings) card and the nine power-chord cards of E5. Each chord card: place the shape once, pluck each string that should sound, let go. These are the cards the end-of-course assessment uses. A chord that holds a barre is not in the pile, and that keeps Dm7 out: it is a barre chord, practised as presses, not as a card
Staff reading	3 min	today’s line from the staff handout, then its answer
Barre presses	3 min	A (four strings) at fret 5: press, pluck four strings, release, 2 minutes; simplified F and Dm7 the same way, 1 minute
Root-Finder Study	4 min	now one chord every 2 beats
Eight measures of your own	4 min	over the Em and D backing you recorded in Session 14; on one day, in place of the second play, read your song map of Planet Caravan through, section by section
Sixteenth-note strum	3 min	the plain pattern at 50, the metronome now clicking the beat
D major scale	3 min	eighth notes
Giuliani: Andantino	4 min	the whole piece once
Down by the Salley Gardens	3 min	once through

Barre rows this week: “Barre presses”, 3 minutes. Total: 3 minutes a day.

Three-string power-chord work: no more than 5 minutes a day in total.

Power-chord rows this week: “Root-Finder Study”, 4 minutes. Total: 4 minutes a day.

Fast strumming: if your strumming hand or forearm aches, that is tension. Stop playing for today, and next time loosen your grip on the pick.

Two sittings this week: Sitting 1 is the rows from “Warm-Up” to “Root-Finder Study” (18 minutes). Sitting 2 is the rows from “Eight measures of your own” to “Down by the Salley Gardens” (17 minutes). Leave at least an hour between them. Begin Sitting 2 with the movements under “Hand Warm-Up” in Segment 1, and tune again: neither is counted in the minutes.

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 20.

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.

If the item is barre work, slur work, little-finger work or three-string power-chord work, do not add it to your warm-up: play it inside the row of next week’s plan that holds that work, in that row’s minutes. The daily limits do not change.

Guitar Tip — Saga SF-600C-BK

Keep the two string heights you measured on your Saga today, written with today’s date under the figures of Session 1, in the notebook of your practice log. They are measured once more in this course: in Session 28, before the first full barre, when you write the new figures under today’s and see whether they have changed. Until then you do not measure again; the rule for the result is the same each time.

After the session (not part of the 50 minutes)

Read: Guitar Setup Check, the section “A Job for a Guitar Shop”. (5 minutes)
Read: Barre Shapes Step By Step, the sections “How a Barre Works”, “The Daily Limit” and “The Four-String Shape at Fret 5”. (10 minutes)