Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Biffy Clyro

Hello everyone!

So I've been continuing to learn Many of Horror by Biffy Clyro. It such a good song! I first heard it awhile ago and I've loved listening to it ever since. I was browsing YouTube and I came across a guitar tutorial to Many of Horror taught by the lead man for Biffy Clyro. So obviously I jumped at the chance to watch this tutorial and learn how to play this song.

To be honest, I was really intimidated by this song because of the amount of chords. However, it's really not that bad! There are a ton of chords but the chord progression follows a consistent pattern and the melodic line is very simple. I wasn't totally getting what the tutorial was telling me about that part and I managed to figure it out for myself. 

Probably the funnest part of that song is sliding the notes. There's a part in the song where you have to slide from the second to the seventh fret and back to the fourth fret. It makes a sweet sound when I actually hit every fret cleanly which has not been very often. But obviously practice makes perfect.

Which brings me to my next thought about this whole experience. I've only just realized that my final exam is in two weeks and this project will then be over. I definitely feel like I've learned a lot so I'm very excited about performing something in front of my classmates. I'd say I know 70% of Many of Horror after only like 3 days seriously learning it which I'm really proud of. That's like the same pace that I learn music with piano or violin which I was not expecting given how much more experience I have in those instruments. 

I finally got to do my 20-time pitch (a week late)! It was a little bit strange because I had to do my pitch for kids who had ZERO idea what I was doing in the hallways during lunch. I played some tunes for kids who were passing by. Some freshman came and played something amazing but when I played him my modest arrangement, he told me I was really good for how long I was learning it. That made me feel amazing and it also accomplished one of my goals of this entire project. I wanted to be looked at as more musical like my friends Jasmine and Jeremy. That freshman recognizing my musical talents really confirmed that for me. Everyone else was really nice and I was pleasantly surprised at how many people were curious enough to stop and ask me questions about my 20-time project. I had to educate most of them on what 20-time was and they were all super impressed and excited for me.

I'll be posting a video of me playing next week so see everyone soon

Monday, May 12, 2014

Week Something because I can't remember

Hello everyone!

I actually got time to practice in class on Friday which was so nice because I got a lot done! Jasmine showed me that I was playing Good Riddance by Green Day. She corrected my strumming so everything is cool now. It's a pretty basic song so I still think I can learn it before the progeny is over next month

I'm also happy because I saw some flute music that someone was playing and I decided to try and sight read it. I was actually able to do it which just shows how much progress I've made!

Sunday, May 4, 2014

All Quiet on the Guitar Front

Hello everyone!

If I had my choice I probably wouldn't be writing this right now because I did literally NOTHING for my project this week, but for the sake of my grade, here it goes...

I've been super busy with pit orchestra rehearsals for the school musical, studying for the SAT and AP tests, and writing papers so I didn't have time to sit down and play guitar. I was also sick on Friday so I didn't even get to spend my class time doing anything. So the only I have to report is my brother telling me to try learning Nothing Else Matters by Metallica.

I'm hoping that after the musical is done next Saturday I'll be able to spend some time trying out more music so fingers crossed!