Beyond the 3 x 3 Rubik's Cube

Now that I've more or less mastered the 3 x 3 Rubik's cube, I've realised that anything I set my mind upon doing is more or less attainable, provided that my physical and intellectual limitations are taken into account. If I wanted to, I could master the 4 x 4 Rubik's cube.

Maybe. Maybe not. It's a question of where I want to focus my concentration. A post I made on Thursday, 1st February 2018 stated that:

2018 is shaping up to be a year where I make some decisive improvement in my grasp of musical theory and proficiency in playing the guitar. I've began with the minor pentatonic scale which the beginning point for everybody and have been practising consistently.

That post is over two years old now. Well, it's true that I did make some progress but hardly enough. I remain disappointed in my musical development. Perhaps this is the area on which to focus next. However, I must be specific in what I want to achieve. For example, it's rather pointless and vague to say that I want to improve my guitar playing. Instead I should say that I want to master Travis picking. This is a goal that is realistic and that can be achieved in a reasonable short space of time. Mastering the 3 x 3 Rubik's cube was a good example of this sort of specific goal. There's nothing vague about. I either mastered the steps to solve the Rubik's cube or I didn't. Similarly, I'll master Travis picking or I won't.

Figure 1

I'll use old LickNRiff to get me started on the Travis picking. Figure 1 shows the Tabs for this lesson. Staying with music for I while, I have great difficulty remembering the lyrics and chords to songs. This is a source of frustration to me because I'd like to have a repertoire of songs that I could sing without the need to reference notes, physical or electronic. I've managed it for some songs but not many. It would be nice to know more. 

I have my Ultimate Guitar Tabs website of course but I'd like to know my favourite songs off by heart. Only practice of course will make that possible. Although I concentrate on guitar, I can play the harmonica and, at least to some extent, the tin whistle. Sadly, I quite neglect these two instruments which is a pity because they are both quite portable.

Apart from music, I'm still keen to memorise the first 100 prime numbers. I succeeded in memorising the first 50 and so I know that 100 is an achievable goal. I've made some starts toward it but have not followed through. 

Figure 2 shows a list of the first one hundred primes taken from Wikipedia:

Figure 2

I've made a series of 100 slides using Google Slides. Each contains a prime, starting with slide 1 (2) and finishing with slide 100 (541). This way I can practise until I get it right. Without creating and using reinforcement tools like these, no progress is possible.