Make the Map Available on Demand

Day 50 | about 25 minutes

Twelve-call audit

Focus: find out what is weak instead of guessing, and sort the misses by kind.

• 3 min: Prepare random calls of key, zone and task: scale, pentatonic, or I, IV, V arpeggio. Three slips to a call now: a key, a position and a task. The task is the full scale of that position, the five-note subset inside it, or an arpeggio. On an arpeggio, draw a chord slip too: I, IV or V. All four sets are on the call slips page below, or write your own. Write all twelve out before you start, so the audit measures your playing rather than your shuffling. The board draws all four zones in F, one of the keys an audit tends to find.
• 10 min: Draw 12; begin within 5 seconds and play for two bars. Two bars is about sixteen eighth notes, long enough that a lucky first note cannot save you. Read the call, start inside five seconds, play two bars of the task, stop, and mark it a hit or a miss before you draw the next one. Do not repair anything yet: an audit that stops to fix things has stopped being an audit.
• 5 min: Sort the misses: location, notes, time, or transition. Location means you could not find the zone. Notes means you found it and played a wrong one. Time means the pulse went. Transition means it fell apart at a crossing. Put every miss in exactly one of the four, because each needs a different repair and guessing wrong costs you three days of this week.
• 5 min: Repair the largest category with spaced repeats. Spaced repeats means going back to a call, doing two other things, then coming back to it, rather than drilling it five times in a row. The first way feels worse and holds. The second feels better and does not. Work only on the category with the most marks against it.
• 2 min: Record the score and the category. The number out of twelve, and one word: location, notes, time or transition. Those two things decide what Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday do, and ten out of twelve is the proof line.

How to audit rather than practice: An audit finds out what is weak; practice fixes it. Doing both at once gets you neither, because a call you repaired on the spot is a call you can no longer measure. Take all twelve cold, mark them as they happen, and only then start repairing. Most players find the weakness is not where they assumed it was, which is the whole reason this day exists.

Call slips to printThe keys, positions, tasks and chords sets: a key, a position and a task to a call, and a chord for an arpeggio.mandolintrainer.com/workbooks/fretboard/slips/#tasks

• End-of-day check: At least 10 of 12 first-attempt starts.

Day 51 | about 25 minutes

Repair FFcP

Focus: take the two weakest calls from yesterday and connect them to their neighbors.

• 3 min: Choose the two weakest key and zone calls from Day 50. Two, from yesterday's marks, and no more: the point of a repair week is that you fix what failed instead of polishing what worked. The boards draw two likely ones, Position IV in F and Position III in B flat. If your two were different, use yours and ignore the boards.
• 8 min: Full scale, 1, 3, 5, 8, and a middle-out start in each. Three things in each of the two zones. The full scale is the octave up and back. The 1, 3, 5, 8 is the arpeggio: in F Position IV that is F at the tenth fret of the G course, A at the seventh fret of the D course, C at the tenth, F at the eighth fret of the A course. The middle-out start begins on the 5th and goes both ways: in that same zone, the C at the tenth fret of the D course, up to D, E, F and down to B flat, A, G, F.
• 6 min: Connect each weak zone to both its neighbors. A zone with no neighbors is an island, and islands are what make a call feel like something to dread. Position III in B flat sits between II and IV, and it shares six notes with IV: B flat at the eighth fret of the D course, D at the fifth fret of the A course, E flat at the sixth, F at the eighth, A at the fifth fret of the E course, B flat at the sixth. Cross into each neighbor and back until the weak zone is somewhere you arrive rather than somewhere you go looking for.
• 6 min: Phrase through the repaired route over a drone. Open the F drone below, or build one for your own weak key with the Jam Builder, and play phrases that travel through the repaired zone and out the other side. A zone is repaired when you can pass through it inside a phrase rather than having to stop in it.
• 2 min: Retest after a two-minute gap. Two minutes of doing nothing, or of playing something else, and then the same two calls cold. The gap is the test: a call that works straight after the repair proves nothing, and one that works after two minutes away is a call you have got back.

Play an F drone with the bandEight bars of F going around, for the phrasing step. If your two weak calls were in another key, build that one instead: the Jam Builder opens on this and any chord can be changed.mandolintrainer.com/app/#jam?c=1~F~F%20drone~Chords.1.F%7CF%7CF%7CF%7CF%7CF%7CF%7CF&go=play

• End-of-day check: Both calls succeed twice, separated in time.

Day 52 | about 25 minutes

Repair pentatonic joints

Focus: the one joint that still pauses, plus a second route through it.

• 3 min: Name the weakest shape joint and a second-choice route. The weakest is whichever of the four crossings still pauses, from Week 3's row of scores or from Monday's audit. A second-choice route is another note at the same joint: two shapes always share four notes, so if the crossing you use is on the A course there is another on the D or the E. Name both before you play, the one you use and the one you will use when a phrase arrives from the other direction.
• 8 min: Loop both routes on different strings and beats. Both crossings, each landing on a different beat of the bar and on its own course. The first board draws Shapes 4 and 5 in B flat, and their four shared notes are all at the tenth fret, one to a course: F on the G course, C on the D course, G on the A course, D on the E course. Four doors in a straight line, and the day asks for at least two of them.
• 6 min: Full five-shape chain with no more than four notes per shape. Up and down the whole road in B flat, four notes to a window at the most, which means a dozen crossings rather than four. The second board draws the road, and B flat is the one key where the brackets read 1 to 5 straight up the neck. Shape 1 uses the open G and the open D, so watch that the open strings do not ring on into the note after them.
• 6 min: Diagonal phrases in two keys. Phrase-length diagonals, four to eight notes each, traveling from a low register to a high one across at least two windows, in B flat and then in one other key. Two keys is what proves the repair went to the joint rather than to one memorized route in one key.
• 2 min: Re-score the joint. Out of five, the way Week 3's Saturday scored it, and write the new number beside the old one. The proof line is no pause in either direction, and a joint that only works going up has not been repaired.

• End-of-day check: No pause in either direction.

Day 53 | about 25 minutes

Repair harmonic targets

Focus: the chord function you miss most, found in three keys and pre-heard before it is played.

• 3 min: Choose the chord function and zone missed most often. One function, I, IV or V, and one zone, from Monday's audit or your Week 6 notes. It is usually the V, because it carries the 7 of the key and that note gets deliberately left out for a whole week in the middle of this workbook. The two boards draw the V in two keys inside Position II, which is the most common answer to this step.
• 8 min: Locate its 1, 3 and 5 in three keys. The same function in three keys, so what you learn is the shape of the job rather than three sets of frets. The V in G is D, F sharp and A, and inside Position II in G they are D at the seventh fret of the G course, F sharp at the fourth fret of the D course, A at the seventh, D at the fifth fret of the A course, F sharp at the ninth, A at the fifth fret of the E course. The V in D is A, C sharp and E, and inside Position II in D they are C sharp at the sixth fret of the G course, E at the ninth, A at the seventh fret of the D course, C sharp at the eleventh, E at the seventh fret of the A course, A at the fifth fret of the E course. The third key is yours to pick and to find with no board, which is the exercise.
• 6 min: Pre-hear the target, then approach it with two pentatonic notes. Pre-hearing means the note is in your head before your finger moves. Hum it if that helps. Then arrive on it from two notes of the key's five-note subset, so the approach belongs to the key and the landing belongs to the chord. Two notes, not five: a long run at a target hides whether you knew where it was.
• 6 min: Run a I, IV, V chorus in the weakest zone. Eight bars with the band, and the link below plays D, G and A. Stay in the one zone the whole way through and land on the repaired function every time it comes round. There are eight changes in a chorus, which is where the count in the proof line comes from.
• 2 min: Count the first-beat landings. A first-beat landing is a chord tone of the new chord, on beat one of its bar, that you could have named before it arrived. Seven out of eight is the proof line. Write the number.

The eight bars of D, G and AA I, IV, V chorus in D under a recorded bass and guitar. Eight changes to land on, which is where the count in the proof line comes from.mandolintrainer.com/app/#jam?c=1~D~D%2C%20G%2C%20A~Chords.1.D%7CG%7CD%7CA%7CD%7CG%7CD%20A%7CD&go=play

• End-of-day check: At least 7 of 8 deliberate landings.

Day 54 | about 25 minutes

Tune performance 1

Focus: three choruses with an arc: melody, development, then a peak and a return.

• 3 min: Choose the strongest tune and state your route aloud. The strongest is the one you would call at a jam without thinking about it. Say the route out loud before you record: this zone for the melody chorus, that one for the development, home for the last. The boards draw Position I in D, where a melody chorus usually sits, and Position III in D, lower on the neck, where a development chorus can go instead of staying put. Saying it out loud is the step, because a route you only thought about is a route you will abandon.
• 12 min: Record three choruses: melody, development, then peak and return. An arc means the three are not three attempts at the same thing. The first states the tune. The second takes an idea out of it and does something with it, in another zone. The third goes to the highest or most intense point of the whole solo and then comes home. Record all three in one take, and spend the twelve minutes on two or three whole attempts rather than on fixing the first chorus.
• 5 min: Listen for form, time, target tones, space, and position use. Five things, in that order of importance. Form: the right number of bars. Time: a steady pulse. Target tones: audible changes. Space: any silence at all. Position use: zone changes that sound chosen. Mark each one as it goes past rather than trying to remember it afterwards.
• 3 min: Re-record the weakest eight bars. Eight bars only, whichever eight the listening picked out. Not the whole thing: the point of an arc is that the good parts are already good.
• 2 min: Score the rubric. The same five headings, each 0, 1 or 2, written in a row. Ten is a clean performance and eight is a good one. Tomorrow runs the same rubric on a tune you are worse at, and the two rows side by side are what Sunday reads.

Soldier's JoyIn D, with the band to play the form under all three choruses.mandolintrainer.com/tunes/soldiers-joy/

• End-of-day check: No loss of form, and at least three zones used.

Day 55 | about 25 minutes

Tune performance 2

Focus: the tune you are least comfortable in, with a target plan simplified on purpose.

• 3 min: Choose the least comfortable tune and simplify its target plan. The least comfortable is the one you would not call. Simplifying means fewer targets rather than more: one note per chord change instead of one per bar, and the root wherever you are unsure rather than the 3rd. The board draws Position II in A with the I chord filled in, and a simplified target plan is exactly that much information and no more.
• 12 min: Record three choruses with the same arc as Day 54. Melody, development, then peak and return, on the harder tune, one take. It will be worse than yesterday's and it is meant to be: the arc is the thing being practiced, and a tune you are shaky on is where you find out whether you have it or whether yesterday was the tune carrying you.
• 5 min: Listen; identify one navigation issue and one musical issue. A navigation issue is getting lost: a wrong bar, a missed change, a zone you could not find. A musical issue is something that was in the right place and still did not sound good: no space, a flat ending, every note the same loudness. Name exactly one of each.
• 3 min: Fix only the navigation issue today. That one, and leave the musical one written down. Navigation is what stops a performance dead, while a musical problem is worth a week rather than three minutes. Salt Creek's half-bar change and the G that is not in the key are the usual candidates.
• 2 min: Score the rubric. The same five headings as yesterday, each 0, 1 or 2, written underneath yesterday's row. The gap between the two rows is the honest measure of how much of this is the map and how much of it was one familiar tune.

Salt CreekIn A, with the half-bar change in the A part and the G that is not in the key: the sort of thing a simplified target plan is for.mandolintrainer.com/tunes/salt-creek/

• End-of-day check: Recovery occurs without stopping.

Day 56 | about 25 minutes

Final test

Focus: every core standard in one sitting, then choose what you are keeping alive.

• 5 min: Ten random key and zone calls: the pentatonic subset plus I, IV and V chord tones. Draw them from the call slips page below, or from your own. Each call is a key and a zone, and the answer has four parts: the five-note subset out of that hand, then the 1, 3 and 5 of its I chord, its IV chord and its V chord, all without moving the hand. Ten calls in five minutes is thirty seconds each, so there is no time to work anything out. Mark each one as it goes.
• 5 min: One full FFcP four-position pass in a random key at a quarter note of 100. Draw a key, then play all four positions, the octave up and back in each, two notes to the beat at a quarter note of 100. The first board draws the pass in C, where Positions I, II and III all start from the C at the fifth fret of the G course and Position IV sits an octave up on the D course at the tenth. One pass, no restarts.
• 5 min: One five-shape pentatonic round trip in another key. A different key from the last step. Up through all five windows and back down with no pauses at the joints. The second board draws the road in G, where the brackets read 3, 4, 5, 1 then 2 from the nut up, so Shape 3 is the lowest window on the neck and Shape 1 does not turn up until the ninth fret.
• 8 min: Three improvised choruses on a tune, using three zones and deliberate targets. Any tune whose form you know. Three choruses, at least three zones, and a chord tone landing at every change that you could have named beforehand. Keep the recorder running, because the note under the scorecard says a box gets ticked only when the result survives being recorded.
• 2 min: Complete the scorecard and choose your maintenance priorities. The four headings at the foot of this page are the scorecard: FFcP access, pentatonic navigation, fusion and harmony, musical use. Tick only what the recording proves. Then pick which of the three maintenance sessions above you are going to run each week, and write down the four things the closing note asks for: your strongest key and zone, your weakest, the phrase you would take anywhere, and the next tune you are going to put this on.

Call slips to printThe key and position set for the ten calls, and the keys set for the key the second step draws.mandolintrainer.com/workbooks/fretboard/slips/#key-and-position

• End-of-day check: Pass every core standard, or repeat only the module that failed.