MY LAST POST

OH MY GOSH IT'S MY LAST BLOG POST

My goal for 20-time was to become a better-rounded musician and to learn how to play a really popular instrument that everyone loves. This was entirely for my own satisfaction as adding another instrument to my repertoire would make me a better rounded person. During the project, I learnt what the frets are and I know that given time, and sheet music, I’d be able to play anything on guitar. I recorded myself playing Many of Horror by Biffy Clyro and it was such a cool experience seeing me play this song that they play for stadiums of people. So I do think I’ve become a better-rounded musician with more experience in chord progressions and I looked really cool in that video. Don't believe me?

VOILA

So that was pretty cool. Don't worry I did in fact learn how to play "that part"!

So I'm sure you're all wondering what this project actually meant to me. This project had a very

positive impact on me because it gave me a lot of confidence in my own abilities. The fact that I could pick up a completely new instrument and learn how to play it for the most part in a couple of weeks lets me know that I can do anything if I set my mind to it. As far as the community goes, I could play in some bands or musical programs now. There are a lot of more qualified people than me, but I could do it and additional music is always beneficial to the community.

However, saying that I played for a few weeks is a little misleading. Earlier in the year when I did basically the same thing with piano, there were weeks leading up to the show where I'd spend up like 5 or 6 weeks practicing; not including the two weeks prior to the show where I was required to play where two or three hours per day playing. For this project I probably only spent a max of two hours per week playing this so that video is showing me on only my fourth chance getting to play that song. So that's my reason for playing terribly so DON'T JUDGE ME

One thing I regret is that I never completely figured out how to strum “like a guitarist”. By that I mean I was never able to strum smoothly according to any rhythm. Because of this, I never

got the rock sound that I would have like to have. But overall, there weren’t any parts of the project that were more difficult than I expected. Like I’ve said before, guitar came much easier to me than I expected.

Overall, this experience has been pretty great. I enjoy looking shweet while playing my guitar and I'm really proud of all the progress I've made for the most part. I went from knowing

absolutely nothing about playing guitar to being able t think my project was a success for theo play songs like Many of Horror. My goal was to learn how to play guitar and I definitely achieved that. To be a bigger success, I would have liked to learn how to play more complicated music before 20-time ended. 

This is not the end of my guitar playing. I intend to impress my brother by learning some cool guitar music in the future.

 Some great resources I intend to use: 

http://www.8notes.com/guitar/rock_and_pop/

http://www.guitarguitar.net/guitar-song-book.shtml

 Have a great life everyone; Peace Out

 

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

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!

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!

Week 3

Hi everyone!

Unfortunately it's been a really crazy week so I haven't had any time to practice my guitar. I don't see this as a really big deal because of how well it's gone but because of this, I'm not going to have much to say. I'm still learning the Green Day song but for the next couple of weeks, I'm only going to be able to play once a week in class on Friday :(

I couldn't get a lot done this past week because I only got about 30 minutes. So everything is status quo except for me finding a mentor in Scott Burr and I'll talk to you all next time!

Hi everyone! I'm here writing my second blog for my 20-time blog. So far, guitar has been going AMAZING! It has come so easy to me because of my experience with violin. I've learnt that out of all six strings on the guitar all but one of them is not also on the violin. The only one that's not is the B string.

I've spent some time learning the chords and now I now the G, C, and D major chords along with the E minor and A major chords. I googled it and these are the most common chords so I'm pretty far along on learning any song I want. Speaking of that, I also googled some sheet music and came across Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. It was such an amazing feeling when I learnt my first guitar song in only a couple of minutes!

I've mostly been playing without a pick and that's something I really need to work on. The strumming technique is really foreign to me and I need to perfect it.

Other than that, I think I'm on the right path! I'm fully confident that I can master any song thats put in front of me with just some effort because of my background in violin.

See you all next time!

My goal on this blog is to document my time learning guitar. The first week is almost done and I haven't even picked up a guitar yet. I'm pretty confident though that I can pick up guitar pretty fast. I've been playing music for 6 years so the only problem is learning the fingerings. I've gone through this process recently with the piano where I started playing after a few years. That process has gone pretty smoothly so I'm hopeful. Connor Reed has told me what the strings of a guitar are and it turns out that the low four strings are the exact same as a violin's!

My ultimate goal is just to learn to play some cool music. I'm sort of jealous of people that already know how to play guitar because it is a really awesome instrument with some chill music. I'll finish this project off by doing a duet with Rachel so hopefully I'll get to impress everyone. Ultimately, I just want to become a more well-rounded person and gain a better understanding of music.