When I first started with Yousician, I learned how to play the individual strings before anything else. Then I learned the E, E minor, A minor, C, and G chords. After learning G and completing a knowledge quiz, I had completed all of the “missions” (exercises) of Level (unit) 2. For the past week, it’s been back to basics; the past week saw me working through 10 different four-finger melodies, the latter five of which really emphasized the use of the pinky finger.

What that translates to is a little over two songs per day to start out, before slowing down to not even one per day by the end; while I completed the first couple without practice, each song after those required more and more work to get right. I found myself slowing down a song to 90% before playing it at 100%, then slowing the next couple to 80%, before 90%, before 100%, and by the time I reached the “pinky challenge” songs, I defaulted to practicing at 75% (often several times) before moving up to 85%, then 90%, then 100%. The practice feature is so immensely helpful, because it gives you time to look and make sure you’re putting your hands in the right place between notes, something that isn’t always possible when going at 100% speed; practice thus gives you the chance to become familiar enough with the song you don’t always have to look at the screen, or familiar enough with the fingering that you don’t always have to look at the guitar.

By far the song that gave me the most trouble was Romanza, the last song of the pinky challenge. It took me just over two days to figure that one out, in part because one fiendish section requires you to briefly shift your whole hand down one fret, before moving it back up, without skipping a beat. In fact, there are very few respites in the song, as each note leads right into the next, and while that should help develop a sense of rhythm, the song as a whole features almost no repetition, at least compared to previous exercises to date. In fact, below you can see the three sections of the song, wherein the dots represent notes arranged vertically along the six strings, and the colour of the dot indicating which fret to play (i.e., which finger to use).

While the first and third sections are similar in many aspects, they also feature several tricky differences, while the second section is completely different from either of them, and contains that tricky hand switch. Not only was it probably the hardest song I’ve played to date, but it’s also one of the most fun now that I’ve (kind of) figured it out.

This coming week, I will be getting back into chords with D and A, and I hope to explore some open educational resources to see what they offer for guitar players like me. Thanks as always for stopping by, and I’ll see ya next time!

P.S., check out my playing another one of the pinky challenges–Ode to Joy–below!

Photo by Jefferson Santos on Unsplash, Colour Edited by Kinnon Haufe