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5/9/16
The latest thing we have worked on in Basic Guitar class is barre chords. When I was first introduced to barre chords, is wasn't sure how I felt about playing them. I didn't quite grasp the concept of how they were related to other non barre chords. I understood the fact that it was just another way to play chords, but I couldn't make a correlation between the chords. Once we began practicing a little more, I got a little more efficient. However, I wasn't quite to the point to where I could make a consistent sound using my barre chord. It was encouraging to hear a clean sound come out every once in a while though. Once we were assigned E and A root forms to practice, then I began to learn. I couldn't memorize the names very well, but if I wrote down what fret they were on I could get to them fairly easy. I think my biggest breakthrough was when I got down the Em and E7. I learned that to play a minor, your middle finger must be off. Middle, minor, I taught myself. To play a 7 chord you must remove your pinkie. It was a little hard at first, because your pinkie finger wants to do what the other fingers are doing, and it is hard to control by yourself. I got that down though, and I was able to pass the efficiency test with a good grade. It would have been better had I not trusted the previous owner of the book who wrote the wrong fret numbers in. I should have checked them myself and made sure I was playing the correct fret numbers. Anyways, I was happy with my performance. Even though I was not a huge fan, and it is definitely not my favorite part about playing the guitar, I was happy with the quick progress I made with barre chords.
4/8/16
Over the last two days of class we were assigned to create our own strumming patterns with our own choice of chords. My partner was Will, and on the second day Evan joined us. We wanted to choose chords that we were comfortable with, and chords that we could switch into fast and easy. We ended up going with D, A7, E7, and G. We chose D because it seemed like a standard chord in a lot of progressions and songs, and we were comfortable with it. A7 was an easy choice because it is so easy to get your fingers into it from D. I chose E7 because I really like the sound of it and it is an easy chord to play. We thought of a fourth chord for a while before deciding upon G. We went with G because we are incredibly comfortable with it and it sounds good. Before starting, we played all four chords together to see if they sounded well together, and I was surprised to hear how well they went with each other. Our first strumming pattern was Down-Up-Down-Pause-Down-Pause-Down-Pause. For the second strumming pattern, we did the exact opposite. Our third strumming pattern was Down-Up-Down-Pause-Down-Up-Down-Up. We had to practice this one a few times because it doesn't allow any pause to switch into the new chord, but it didn't take us long to get down. We played each chord through the strumming pattern twice, and we did that process with the D chord twice for each strumming pattern. We put our capos (sp) on the second fret, and went from there. I was very pleased with our progress we made so quickly for this small group project, and I enjoyed it very much.
3/31/16-4/20/16
3/31/16 - Today we were introduced to tablature. I wasn't sure about learning a new concept at first, especially because I still haven't mastered single notes. However, when Ms. Chase said that people who aren't from a music background and struggled with single notes might like it more, I think that intrigued me a little bit. I was eager to learn it, and it came easy to me. I think it was the numbers on the string that made it so easy. I was able to play the practice exercises almost immediately, even when we practiced difficult ones that others had problems with. I am confident in playing tabs, and I like playing tabs a lot better than I liked playing single notes. It is much easier to decipher music from the page, and my eyes, brain, and fingers all work together very well with tabs.
4/20/16 - Today we are expected to preform the Spanish Trio in our groups of three. We have been working on tabs for about three weeks now, touching on them a little bit each class. My group was chosen randomly for the Spanish Trio, but I was happy with it. It is Will, Hannah, and myself. I am comfortable working with Will because we have worked together on previous projects, and I was happy to have Hannah because she has a music background and she was able to help us out with any problems we had. She also provided a helpful counting tool for us to stay on beat. We have practiced the song many times now, and I feel comfortable with it. At the beginning the largest problem was going from the end of the last line to the beginning measure of the second line. There was a lot of finger movement going on and I couldn't quite move my eyes from the first line to the second line quickly enough to continue within the flow of the music. Part of fixing this was practicing moving my eyes quickly, but a large part of it was just memorizing the music so that I could just play it without having to move my eyes that quickly. I believe our group is ready to play.
Now that Ms. Chase has heard us play, I'm now able to reflect on that experience. We started out strong, and I personally did a great job with the last measure of the first line into the first measure of the second line. I was happy with that, but soon after I made my first mistake of picking the third string on accident once instead of the second string. I was easy to make a quick recovery, but I was still a little disappointing. As a whole, I thought that we stayed together very well. We all knew exactly what our pace was, and we could play without a count if we needed to. We were strong the entire way through, and we never really got off beat. When we played as an entire class I was a lot calmer, which I think led me to making a few mistakes, but it was a lot easier to mess up with the entire class because you weren't the only one playing your part, so you could pause and wait to find the timing again. I was happy with today and my overall tablature experience. After this, I am still able to confidently say that I enjoy tabs better than note identification.
4/20/16 - Today we are expected to preform the Spanish Trio in our groups of three. We have been working on tabs for about three weeks now, touching on them a little bit each class. My group was chosen randomly for the Spanish Trio, but I was happy with it. It is Will, Hannah, and myself. I am comfortable working with Will because we have worked together on previous projects, and I was happy to have Hannah because she has a music background and she was able to help us out with any problems we had. She also provided a helpful counting tool for us to stay on beat. We have practiced the song many times now, and I feel comfortable with it. At the beginning the largest problem was going from the end of the last line to the beginning measure of the second line. There was a lot of finger movement going on and I couldn't quite move my eyes from the first line to the second line quickly enough to continue within the flow of the music. Part of fixing this was practicing moving my eyes quickly, but a large part of it was just memorizing the music so that I could just play it without having to move my eyes that quickly. I believe our group is ready to play.
Now that Ms. Chase has heard us play, I'm now able to reflect on that experience. We started out strong, and I personally did a great job with the last measure of the first line into the first measure of the second line. I was happy with that, but soon after I made my first mistake of picking the third string on accident once instead of the second string. I was easy to make a quick recovery, but I was still a little disappointing. As a whole, I thought that we stayed together very well. We all knew exactly what our pace was, and we could play without a count if we needed to. We were strong the entire way through, and we never really got off beat. When we played as an entire class I was a lot calmer, which I think led me to making a few mistakes, but it was a lot easier to mess up with the entire class because you weren't the only one playing your part, so you could pause and wait to find the timing again. I was happy with today and my overall tablature experience. After this, I am still able to confidently say that I enjoy tabs better than note identification.
hannah_kendall_will.m4a | |
File Size: | 703 kb |
File Type: | m4a |
whole_group.m4a | |
File Size: | 892 kb |
File Type: | m4a |
3/17/16 - 3/29/16
Now that we got our natural scale down, we were instructed to implement our new skills onto actual short songs. We were given a packet to work through, and our latest assignment was to be able to play two of the songs out of the packet. I didn't really care what song I chose, until I started playing. Once I started playing, many of the songs became very difficult. I figured this was just a wall of frustration I needed to get over, but they continued to not click in my head. Most of the people in my area were playing "Ode To Joy," so I gave that one a try. It was fairly easy to play right away for me. The song only includes the first and second strings, which is the notes E, F, G, B, C, and D. My main problem is reading the music when the notes get mixed up in order. It is very difficult for me to make out what is says. I have worked on the basic songs, saying the note out loud as I play it, but it is just going to take more repetition before I get a well rounded grasp on it.
The above was typed before we went on spring break. Now that we are back, I am a little rusty. To be completely honest, going into spring break I could only play Ode To Joy, which is pictured. Coming back from spring break I was very rusty, and I tried to quickly relearn it, but it was hard to remember how to read the notes individually. I was only able to play the first two lines of Ode To Joy. I struggled a lot with the second string, but mainly bouncing back and forth between the two strings. With just a little more time and practice, I know I could get it back and play it again, but finding a second song to play would still be a struggle. I felt much more confident with progressions than I do with single note melodies, but it's all about getting over that frustration stage and learning how to find the correlation between my eyes, my brain, and my fingers on the guitar.
3/3/16
Recently in Basic Guitar class we have been working on our natural scale, in preparation for single note melodies. At first we just learned the numbers associated with the fingers we are using, but now we are getting into the letters, which directly correlates with single note picking. We were recently given a packet which holds a lot of practice lines and basic melodies. The first strings we learned to pick were E, F, and G. They are all located on the bottom, or highest string, string number one. For the E, we play it open, the F is the first finger on the first fret, and G is the third finger on the third fret. All of these came easy to me, because it was easy not to get lost in the wrong string. The only thing I would need to practice more is saying the letter of the string as I play it, to help instill it into my brain. We've also dove into the second string, or the B string. The notes on this string are B, which is open, C, which is the first finger on the first fret, and D, which is the third finger on the third fret. I learned these well, just a little slower than I learned the notes on the first string. My main problem with this is looking at the music and finding my fingers on the wrong string. With practice I'm confident I will get a better feel for the guitar and be able to look at the music and be able to place my fingers in the right spot. Just as in the first string, I need to continue to say the letter of the note as I play it so that I learn it a lot quicker, and easier.
2/16/16
In this video, I am demonstrating all of the chords we have learned in Basic Guitar class up until this point. In the D progression, we have learned D, G, and A7. I am comfortable with all of these chords. In the A progression, we have learned A, D, and E7. I sometimes have a little trouble fitting all 3 fingers into the same fret while playing A, but I am starting to get the hang of it. In the G progression, we've done G, C, and D7. C is the hardest to get to out of these. D7 was new at first, but I could play it quickly. In the E progression, we learned E, A, and B7. I really like the sound of E. B7 seemed impossible at first, but I learned it after a while. In the Em progression, we learned Em, Am, and B7. I really liked how easy it was to get from Em to Am. In the Am progression, we played the Am, Dm, and E7 chords. Dm was tough to grasp at first, but I'm starting to get my fingers in the right place. Finally, the C progression. This includes, C, F, and G7. The toughest one out of these was F. I'm getting my fingers there easily but I can't get off a clean sound, It's getting better with practice though.
1/29/16
Recently in class we have been working on a lot of new progressions. We began by learning the D progression, which I talked about in my last entry. Since then, we have been introduced to the G, A, and E progressions. I am not a pro at any of them yet, but I am slowly getting the hang of them. My favorite to play is probably the G progression. I already knew the G chord. The C chord was easy to learn, although it is sometimes hard to get your fingers there quickly. The D7 chord was hard to play at first since it was hard to play the opposite of D, but after a little practice it was easy to get your fingers there quickly. I really like the way the G progression sounds. The A progression is my next favorite of the new progressions. A is tough to play, since my fingers are so wide. I'm still working on getting a clean sound when I play that chord. D is not new to us, however E is. I really like the way the E chord sounds. This progression hasn't had too many problems besides learning to fit my fingers inside one fret on the A chord. My toughest progression out of these three has no doubt been the E progression. The E(I) chord is easy to play, but from there I have to play the A chord again, and after that the B chord, which is difficult to move your fingers into quickly. We have ran through the progressions a few times in class, and I'm getting better every time.
We have also been putting the guitar down lately and focusing on Note Identification and Fret Identification. Since I have never taken a music class before, all of this was new to me. Ms. Chase taught us a short lesson on how to read music, and although it was a lot to grasp, I understood a lot more than I did coming into this class. At first I relied heavily on my book when practicing the note i.d. but I found ways to rely less on it. Ms. Chase had a lot of acronyms for us to use when identifying notes. FACE and CAF, among others, helped me out tremendously. I was happy with my score on the note identification practice. Now I can just work on cutting down my time. For fret identification, it didn't take me much time at all. It was very easy to get as long as I had my keyboard in front of me. I'm still unsure on how to practice without the keyboard but I'm confident I will get there in good time.
We have also been putting the guitar down lately and focusing on Note Identification and Fret Identification. Since I have never taken a music class before, all of this was new to me. Ms. Chase taught us a short lesson on how to read music, and although it was a lot to grasp, I understood a lot more than I did coming into this class. At first I relied heavily on my book when practicing the note i.d. but I found ways to rely less on it. Ms. Chase had a lot of acronyms for us to use when identifying notes. FACE and CAF, among others, helped me out tremendously. I was happy with my score on the note identification practice. Now I can just work on cutting down my time. For fret identification, it didn't take me much time at all. It was very easy to get as long as I had my keyboard in front of me. I'm still unsure on how to practice without the keyboard but I'm confident I will get there in good time.
1/12/16
In this video I am describing how to play the three chords in the "D" progression. We have slowly learned out to play these chords throughout the first three classes. As I explain in the video, I had a little trouble with G, but the D and A7 chords came somewhat easy. Through a lot of repetition and practice as a class, I am now able to play each chord and switch between chords quickly. I cap off the video by explaining some simple posture techniques that we learned the very first class. I am excited about the progress I've made so quickly and about everything I am yet to learn in this class.
1/6/16
Today was my first time playing the guitar in Basic Guitar class. I came in knowing almost nothing about the guitar, and quickly learned the basics. I learned the parts of the guitar, and how to hold it, how to tune it, and how to strum it. The chords we learned today were D, and A7. I had to look at my hands to ensure that I was playing the correct chord, but I was still able to play it by the end of class. With repetition I think I will be able to remember separate chords fairly easy.