On October 19th, I started–in earnest–the first “unit” of Yousician’s fourth level. After two incredibly simple exercises, it’s a collection of four melodies, with an emphasis on picking down and up when playing eighth notes. Excluding five days during reading break, it has taken me until now to finish the last of the four songs. First was Scarborough Fair (electro), followed by Greensleeves (rock), then Aloha Oe (surf), and finally Anarchy in the AI. These four melodies were a bigger step up, in terms of complexity, than anything previous, and it’s no surprise that it took me several days to work my way up from 70% to 100% speed, before finally attaining a three star rating in each one.

Besides a deep satisfaction (and it is a DEEP satisfaction, considering how long I’ve spent with each song), my reward for completing this melodies is… four more melodies, this time with an emphasis on “picking control” (whatever that entails). After that I’ve got 12 activities (8 songs) further developing my use of power chords, then 14 activities (6 songs) teaching me new strumming patterns, and 2 new chords (F and Dminor). 10 more activities to test my knowledge, and I will have successfully completed Level 4… of 10.

I knew that only being able to play 15 minutes each day would eventually catch up to me, and it certainly has. It will almost definitely take me years to progress all the way through Yousician’s 10 levels, if that’s what I’m hoping to do. I’m not sure I’ll feel the need to do so, but I have a ways to go before I’m happy enough with my skill level that I can entirely learn and play songs I’m specifically interested in.

On that note, I’ve also been working on learning the chords to 2step by Ed Sheeran:

via a video tutorial by GuitarZero2Hero:

I fell in love with the song when I first heard it, and didn’t think the guitar sounded that complicated (oh how foolish I was). It’s definitely possible for me to play, but I’m gonna have to bang my head against it for another week or two at least before I get it sounding any good. I don’t even know the lyrics, which is another learning hurdle, but one I’ll tackle down the line.

For now, here’s Anarchy in the AI, the final melody of the first unit of Level 4. This is the best I’ve ever played this song–at 1:10, I start thinking I may actually be able to ace it. At 1:30, that dream is dashed. Enjoy!

Photo by Scott Broome on Unsplash