Status Updates From Guitar Aerobics: A 52-Week,...

I was a little disappointed with this week's level ups. In particular the string skipping and legato exercises have barely changed in 4 weeks. I had practiced those upside down and backwards in the first week and I think that should have been encouraged by the author so that the next exercises would be more unique.

The alternate picking exercise was a reasonable step up and the string bending was great this week.

Well the exercises are starting ramp up. In particular, the sweep picking exercise is starting to feel like sweep picking and something that could be used in music. The arpeggio is still basic but I liked that the pattern varied. The bending exercise started introducing pre-bends which is very cool and something I rarely consider. I'm enjoying it but still disappointed with the brief explanations accompanying each.

Two weeks done and we're still at very simple exercises but I've found some of the slight changes have been quite revealing. For example just playing the arpeggios upside down this week forced me to focus on my finger placement; landing my chords more evenly instead of landing the bass notes and letting the the higher strings catch up lazily.

With 50 more iterations of each exercise to go it's probably a good start.

It's not like I needed more exercises but I just love this kind of thing. A little every day goes a very long way and I enjoy the structured/measured approach.

Anyway, I've been at this for a week and my first impression is that this is great stuff. Each exercise has some good info and advice about it, but it is very brief and it could stand to go into a bit more detail.

Starts simple. I might update weekly.