I didn't have very much knowledge about guitars coming into this class. I knew how to play a couple of basic songs that my brother taught me a while back, but I didn't know the names of chords or what anything really meant for that matter. I am hoping this class will be able to teach the the basics to where I will be able to learn songs on my own free time and accomplish what I couldn't before. I have always had great interest in guitar music, and learning how to play the guitar. This was a great opportunity for me that I didn't want to pass up and am really looking forward to what the rest of this semester has to hold.
Projects
recording_clipchamp_480p__1_.mp4 | |
File Size: | 6324 kb |
File Type: | mp4 |
Above is my project where I worked on just a few basic chords with the guitar. We started out learning the D, G, and A7 chords where I then gave a basic tutorial on where the frets are and where I placed my fingers. I don't have any knowledge guitar wise coming into this, so I aam very happy to just have these basics down. I have better ability now to understand chord placement, and can read notes much better. I am really looking forward to what the rest of the class will do for me, and looking forward to learning new chords.
"Sometimes you'll want to give up the guitar, you'll hate the guitar. But if you stick with it, your gonna be rewarded"-Jimi Hendrix
I am currently working on the process of trying to recognize the note names. The notes are shown either on, above, or below the ledger lines that are on the staff. I don't have quite a saying yet that helps me to memorize everything completely, but I am starting to figure it out a bit. Just by constant repetition and practicing of this I will be able to memorize what each note represents. each note that's located on the staff has a different pitch depending on it's location. Coming into this having zero knowledge on it, I understand that it's going to take some serious practice to properly memorize it. I am looking forward to continuing working on this to help me with my guitar skill.
The G, A, and E progressions
We are working on our progressions and how we learn guitar chords through this process, in basic guitar. Practicing the A and G progression I find the easier of the two just because of the fact that they both include chords such as the D chord and G chord that we have learned in the past. The process started when I first was able to identify the chords that I knew from practicing earlier. Using the G progression I found was easier thanks to this. I then spent time just to focus on the new chords that I knew I have never done before. By doing this, I then was able to move on to working on the next progressions. Constant repetition was used and this helped me to accomplish the task of learning the progressions. The E progression uses three new chords making it the most challenging to me. I really enjoy working on these because not only do they force me to challenge myself, but they really help me out with basic technique and is a great method in simply teaching the guitar. The toughest chords I think are the A(I) which is found in the A progression, and the B(7) Chord in the E progression. The A(I) forces your fingers to be extremely close to one another making it easy to get them off track and mess up the chord. The B(7) is just a new chord I have learned that puts your fingers spread out in different spots which is the main reason it's difficult for me at the moment. But with practicing these progressions I plan on being able to smoothly play these chords without any issue. I am new to playing an instrument and I really look forward to the challenges that it presents me with.
recording_clipchamp_480p__6_.mp4 | |
File Size: | 7979 kb |
File Type: | mp4 |
Above, I have a video of all the chords that we have been using so far throughout this semester. The process of me getting the hang of not only getting a feel for the guitar and playing the chords, was definitely going over the progressions. The way the progressions work is, you have a series of three chords that you play in order going at a slower pace with the pace steadily increasing. The progressions that I have been doing to start out the semester were the ones I found easiest such as the D and E progressions. I continued to practice the ones that I wasn't as familiar with. By doing this I was then able to practice all the chords and get muscle memory through my fingers and I didn't have to stare at my fingers as much by going through it. I am very happy with the progress that I have noticed in myself playing the guitar and by doing these practices it has really helped me out a lot.
Single Notes Intro
We just started to learn a few basic single notes and how we can use them to play songs. Overall I think this is going to take some getting used to when I have zero experience when it comes to playing an instrument. I am very happy with the progress I have been able to make this far playing the guitar and I look to build on it even when this class is over. The one thing I struggle with the most is looking at my fingers. I am trying to break that habit because if I am staring at my fingers I can't read the music then. Although I have gotten better with it, I can still notice it happening every now and then. We learned only a few basic single notes and I can now use them to practice a couple of basic songs. I look to continue practicing my single notes, and look forward to what more I can learn here.
Single Note Progress
I've been spending a lot of time in class practicing my single notes. I have been practicing just a few basic songs, two of them being Ode to Joy and Yankee Doodle. For some reason the app "Clipchamp" was unable to work so I can't upload a video of myself practicing these songs. My biggest concern coming into learning these songs was just simply learning the chords. If I can memorize the chords I feel much more comfortable with myself playing a fluid song. To learn the chords I started out finding the most basic one which for me, would be one where you just use an open string. I found which chord that was on the staff for each song, and practiced that. After learning one chord it made the next one easier for myself to learn. Although I have not yet mastered the songs where I can play them smoothly repeatedly, I am happy with the progress that I have been able to make and plan on practicing over break as well.
Ode to Joy
recording_clipchamp_480p__8_.mp4 | |
File Size: | 4393 kb |
File Type: | mp4 |
We were to work on two songs to post on weebly, but I ran out of time and had to only post one of them. I had a very difficult time I thought personally learning these songs, so this was to the best of my ability. I tried to memorize the single notes and play them in a solid rhythm, but it just seemed to take me longer than it did most others to comprehend that so I struggled. I couldn't quite get the hang of the project quick enough and really struggled with trying not to look at my fingers as I played. That was one of the main things that I couldn't really figure out for whatever reason. The main thing I need to improve on is my ability to look at a note on a staff, and simply play it. It just took me like I said, a longer time than most others to get the hang of this so I posted what I could within the time I had.
Tabs
Today we took time to learn how to play tabs. I thought going into it, that it looked somewhat confusing but later figured out that I was fully capable of doing this. We practiced it over and over when I noticed myself finally starting to get the hang of it. I have yet to master any of it but I can definitely see the improvement with myself as I work on it. The process of me getting to get good at this I think is just simply practicing it. The most difficult part for me was moving my finger from one string to the next without looking at my hand. That part gets a little bit frustrating but I can see the improvement already and hope that I can continue to practice this and get better as time goes.
Strumming Patterns
recording_clipchamp_480p__4___1_.mp4 | |
File Size: | 9608 kb |
File Type: | mp4 |
Today we spent time in the first part of class working on our strumming patterns. We started out with a group and we created our own pattern how we wanted to strum, and we used our own chords we wanted to. I really enjoyed doing this project because of the fact we were able to use our own creativity and do the things how we wanted to. I really enjoyed the fact it was based off of how we wanted to play the guitar. The process of doing this method first included us agreeing on what chords to use and how we wanted to play them. Then it was just a matter of playing them in sync with one another and we were in good shape. I enjoyed working on this piece and look forward to continuing learning more on the guitar.
Tabs
nic_shelby_evan.m4a | |
File Size: | 1034 kb |
File Type: | m4a |
We have been working on tabs for a while, and I am really enjoying them. We have had the time to work on different songs and sometimes use the website songsterr, to help us learn the tabs. I have actually used that website plenty of times at home and learn songs. We worked on the Spanish Trio song, between a couple of others using tabs. The only issue with this was that every time we have had time to practice, one person was never there at school to play so we may have been a little out of tune. After we performed it I felt better about the outcome and realized we did better than we actually did when we practiced so that was nice. It shows how important practice is and why you need to play with each other for a while before you can master it all. Overall I really enjoy using tabs and look forward to using them even more when time goes on.
Barre Chords
We spent this last work working on our ability to use barre chords. Personally, barre chords aren't my favorite and I have a tough time with playing them. It's much different from what we have done in the past and took some practice to get used to. It's similar to playing some of the chords we have practiced before, you just have your pointer finger laying across all the strings on a fret to play the barre chord. I didn't have any knowledge previously on this so it was weird getting my fingers to be put in the right locations and sliding them across the strings. Also lifting up specific fingers for different chords was something that I needed to get used to. This is something I definitely need to continue to practice with and hopefully will be able to play it better as time goes.
Final Weebly
Starting out in this class, I had zero knowledge when it came to just about anything with the guitar. I always wanted to learn it. I knew it wouldn't be easy but I told myself I really wanted to take this class so I can get a better understanding on the guitar and how I can learn enough about it to get a start in learning songs for the future. I was happy at first knowing that I had my hands in the right location and I could then have the ability to play it properly. I really thought early on the chord progressions were a great start for me, not only learning to play chords but get a feel for strumming and shifting my fingers along the guitar. Practicing these was definitely what made me to become capable of learning more things on the guitar. After we learned these and practiced them we moved on to the natural scale where I remember thinking to myself that it was going to be super difficult for me to learn this. Now looking back at that, I realize that it has become pretty simple for me to play. This shows how the constant repetition and practice on the guitar can go a long way. My personal favorite part about this class was working on the tabs. You don't necessarily need to know chords and they show where your finger should be placed in which fret in order to play a certain tune. I really enjoyed this because not only does it make you capable of playing a decent tune, you can learn just about any song you want to play simply based off tabs. After we worked on tabs, we got to what was honestly probably my least favorite part which was the barre chords. It was kind of difficult for me to get my fingers placed correctly and quickly, not to mention strum the chords with it sounding halfway decent. So with that it wasn't something I was really looking forward to working on and more frustrating I would say than anything but that just makes for motivation to get better at it. Towards the end, we touched on finger picking which is something that I want to work on more this morning because I can see that it is very cool and has potential of being pretty fun. We also around this time were being showed the different techniques when it comes to strumming chords. We learned to pull off, palm mute, hammer on, slides, and string bends. Of these my favorite was the string bends. I really liked how you could strum chords and bend the strings to create a cool different sound to go along with it. In this class, I have learned so much about the guitar and I am very happy I took it. I can't wait to bring my guitar home for the summer and continue to build off what I have learned in this class.