Progress This Week
This week I have made it my primary focus to continue practicing the song Upside Down by Jack Johnson. I have nearly memorized the whole thing, I just have to glance at the music at a few spots to remember everything sometimes. I have been practicing when I get the opportunity to. I have had a very hectic week, but I have still managed to get in a decent amount of practice. Guitar Maintenance I have been noticing that some of my guitar strings are very worn out; The outside of the string is unwinding and broken in some areas. They have mostly been damaged from me sliding my fingers down them. It is a problem because it creates a slight buzzing sound from the vibrating pieces of broken string strands when I play the strings. I have replacement strings that I am planning on replacing the strings with. I just learned today that my guitar is meant to be used with nylon strings. However, I have been using nickel-plated steel strings, and my replacement strings are also steel. I don’t think that it’s that big of a deal, but it is definitely something for me to keep in mind if I replace them again in the future. But it might not be a problem in the future because my guitar is a very basic entry-level guitar, and I might be getting a better one soon, maybe for Christmas. Overall Progress and Outlook Upside Down might have been slightly too hard for it to make sense as the first song that I learn; It’s more of an intermediate leveled song. Nonetheless, I wanted to challenge myself and learn a song that was actually fun and interesting. I still have enough time to learn it all the way. But, if I had to go back in time and do this project again I would probably pick an easier song. I won’t be able to get much practice this coming week because I will be out of town for five days. And after that, I will have to start preparing my presentation for the project. So really I don’t have much time at all until this project is over. Which is a bit stressful, but I think I’ll be fine.
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I have still been focusing on practicing the same things. I have almost completely memorized the song Upside Down by Jack Johnson. I only have one part left to memorize, which is the picking at the end of the song. It is harder to memorize this part because it is different from the rest of the song and doesn't repeat any parts.
This week I did not get in as much practice as I would have liked. This is a bit concerning because it is important that I get really good practice in next week because after that I will be out of town and not able to practice for a week. After that, I will only have two weeks left, and by then I will have to start creating my presentation. So, I do not think that I will be able to accomplish all that I wanted to on time. However, I think that is okay because if it weren't for some unexpected challenges, I would probably be more on track with hitting my goals. Despite probably not being able to accomplish all that I wanted to, I think this was still a success and I learned a lot and developed important skills. The fact that I won't be able to learn all I wanted to on time is kind of a good thing because now I have motivation to keep practicing even after Genius Hour is over, so that I can continue to develop my guitar skills. I did not get much done this week, I had a hard week. I practiced for a while today. I mostly focused on practicing Upside Down by Jack Johnson. Despite not practicing for a while, I feel like I was able to switch between chords slightly faster than usual. I also played some Arabian guitar music today. It sounds nice but I am still having trouble with finger vibrato, which is when I vibrate the string with my hand at the top of the guitar. It creates a nice sound that gives more personality to the music. It has been a while since I have practiced the part of I’ve Just Seen a Face by The Beatles that I have learned. I might play a bit more today.
I am hoping to get more done next week. My goal right now is still to finish learning Upside Down. Which means I need to memorize it and play it through at the right speed with minimal mistakes. I think that I am on track to meet my goal. However, progress in the past 2 weeks has been low. I want to hurry up and finish learning Upside Down, so that I can record a video of me playing it for this project. Progress This Week
This week’s practice has been a bit less than usual. Partly due to a busy weekend plus Halloween, I haven’t had a lot of time to practice. Besides a few short practice sessions, I’ve only had about one solid practice session this week so far. I have still been focusing on practicing and memorizing Upside Down by Jack Johnson. I’ve also practiced the Arabian music a bit. I have been trying to get better at strumming without a pick. I have been doing this for 2 reasons: I might not always have a pick with me, and using a pick makes the music a lot louder, which isn’t always appropriate in all settings. I have found it difficult to strum without a pick, while still maintaining good sound quality. Future Progress I am not sure if I will be able to complete everything I wanted to on time. I might not be able to learn all of the songs I want to. However, I think that it could be feasible if I can structure my practice right. Thus, I am going to start developing better strategies so that I can get more efficient use out of my practice. Strategy I am going to start setting miniature goals each week so that I can stay on track to reach my larger goals. I think this will help me a lot by making sure that I am focusing on the right stuff. In addition, I would like to define what I want to accomplish each day, before each practice section. This coming week I want to finish memorizing Upside Down by Jack Johnson, continue practicing the Arabian song until I have minimal mistakes while playing, and learn how to strum better without using a pick. I think that setting specific goals and targets each week like this will help me to be on track of reaching my long term goals of learning 3-4 songs. Another thing that I have to keep in mind is that it would be better to get really good at 1 or 2 songs than it would be to just learn 4 or more songs, without actually mastering them. |
Logan TronsenI'm a 10th grader at Davie High. I'm learning guitar as part of a project called genius hour in my English II Honors class. Archives
December 2022
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Photo used under Creative Commons from chocolatedazzles