This week I’ve continued focusing on learning Upside Down by Jack Johnson. I’ve gotten the picking part of it down a lot better. I can also move between the chords a lot quicker now. However, there are still a few chords that are hard to move between fast. Some of the chords are tricky because you have to put your finger all the way across and then use your other fingers below that. Some of those chords that are tricky to play are the f# minor chord and B Major chord.
I’ve started playing through the song by sight-reading it, instead of just learning it from a video. I’ve also gotten better at the strumming pattern for the song. It goes something like this, down-up-mute-up-up-up-down-up-down-up. This week I also learned to play the intro to a song called Banana Pancakes by Jack Johnson. The intro is picked and is very fun to play. It is pretty easy to play and it sounds nice. A few days ago I had a song called I’ve Just Seen a Face by the Beatles stuck in my head. I looked up a guitar tutorial for it and it looks like something interesting that I could learn. I think I’m gonna learn it after I finish learning Upside Down. It has an interesting strumming pattern. So far I have been able to consistently practice about 15-25 minutes per day of guitar, with the exception of a few days here and there. I’m satisfied with the speed at which I’m learning so far. I think I’ll probably be able to learn about 3-5 full songs. However, it is a bit hard to tell how much I’ll be able to learn during this project, as I haven’t gotten very far along yet. I would say the project is going pretty good so far, and I’m looking forward to how it is going to turn out.
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My genius hour project is focusing on learning to play guitar. I have an acoustic guitar that I will be learning with. I am using youtube videos to learn to play. I will measure my progress based on the songs that I learn. The first song I want to learn is Upside Down by Jack Johnson. Some days I will focus on learning the song and some days I will watch basic videos to teach me the skills I need to play the guitar effectively.
I have started learning the song Upside Down by Jack Johnson. I’ve been practicing it for about 2 weeks. I’ve learned the chords and I’m working on moving between the chords efficiently while strumming. I’ve learned the strumming pattern and I’ve been practicing it every day. I’ve also learned the intro to the song. The intro is not strummed, it is picked. It uses things like hammer-ons, and finger vibrato, and also involves sliding fingers down a string while it’s being picked. I have found that I enjoy playing the guitar fingerstyle or picking it more than strumming. It’s harder than strumming but it sounds better and is more fun. It reminds me of playing the piano. I think during this project I am going to try to learn how to play fingerstyle in addition to strumming. Yesterday I tried to see if I could sing and strum at the same time, and to my surprise, it was actually very difficult. I want to be able to sing and play at the same time, but I don’t know how long it will take. It reminds me of playing boogies on the piano because the left hand has to play a boogie pattern while the right-hand plays all sorts of stuff. This is hard to do because it takes a lot of practice to be able to do two different parts at the same time without messing up and while keeping tempo. Whenever I try to sing at the same time as strumming, my strumming just sort of falls apart. I’ve had a guitar for a few years but I hadn’t really decided to actually take the time to learn it until now. I have family members that can play the guitar and it makes me want to learn it. I think playing the guitar is a good skill and hobby that is definitely worth learning. I enjoy music and I want to be able to play songs on the guitar. I want to learn songs from the Beatles and some songs by Jack Johnson. |
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