Musicianship Goal Action Plan: End of Semester Video Submission

Script:

According to my musicianship goal action plan, I will begin my video submission of my personalized learning project by stating what I have achieved throughout my musicianship journey since Midterm. I was able to find and re-create my own sheet music based on complicated and older sheet music for the song “Yellow Bird”, I also practiced the chords E, A and D. I made two adaptations to the sheet music one of which was that I remained playing the D chord with fingers one and two, excluding finger three (using only fingers 1 and 2 on strings 3 and 1). The other adaptation I made was instead of stating the song with a difficult strumming pattern, I would begin by playing the chorus of the song with only the down strum twice for each chord, except A, where I play it four times, along with the chords. After playing the chorus, I would begin the song again and adjust the strumming pattern back to down, down, up, drop hand, up, down. This some adaptation helped me stay on beat and rhythm with the song and ensured my chord transitions and strumming patterns were on cue. Although, this second piece was more challenging than the first song, I believe that I have made tremendous growth and progress since midterm on the acoustic guitar. I can now recognize that the amount of time and effort, I had put into practicing the guitar has lead me to achieve my overarching goal of performing my chosen song consecutively without any pauses, and without referring to my notes. Not only was I able to demonstrate the correct fingering, smooth chord transitions and two very different strumming patterns, I was also able to have the rare opportunity to perform in an instrument recital at my co-worker’s studio. Ultimately, this experience has taught me a lot about the process of self-teaching and reflection, but has also shown me that nothing is impossible. As before this journey began, I had no prior knowledge to playing the guitar and now I can play two songs on the guitar, just goes to show that hard work and dedication does pay off in the end. Below are two videos, one of which I am stating what I have achieved and the other video I am playing the song Yellow Bird.

Video #1:IMG_0529

Video #2: IMG_0741

As this is my last blog post before my video submission of the song Yellow Bird, I would like to discuss what I have achieved throughout my journey and also relate back to my personal growth action plan before sharing with you all what I have completed since my last blog post. According to my action plan, I have stayed on track throughout my journey and remained organized by achieving small goals each week (as discussed in my blog posts). Since my last blog post, I have spent numerous hours, practicing smooth chord transitions and playing the whole song without referring to my sheet music. I have successfully memorized the song: Yellow Bird. As stated in my blog post last week, I was struggling a bit with tempo and rhythm and I did adapt the sheet music with help from my co-worker. As she is a musical instrument instructor she normally has small concerts (10 people) in her studio for her students to perform what they have been working on. She extended me an invite as she knew I needed to practice in front of an audience, and it was very fun. I was able to learn a lot about a variety of instruments and it was a rewarding experience as I was able to show off what I had learned over a short period of time. It was truly inspiring for me to see as this was open to all ages, there were students from the age of 5 to the age of 85.

Since the last blog post, I have been focusing on learning the strumming pattern and also learning how to play my two new chords: A and E. I was very invested in reaching my personal goal this week of having the correct strumming pattern down as well as being able to play the chords accurately, therefore my total practice time per week was approximately 9 hours (a little over an hour of practicing a day). Although, while I was playing I lost track of time as I was dedicated, passionate and intrigued. Alternatively, for the strumming pattern (down, down, up, drop hand, up, down), some challenges I was facing was avoiding strumming down when I was to drop my hand. To avoid this, I was able to sing the strumming pattern while playing it and to challenge myself, I attempted to have a conversation with my grandma (multi-tasking) as I will eventually have to multi-task by playing the chords and the strumming pattern at the same time. After I was able to get the strumming pattern down, (ten times in a row) I moved on to learning the chords A and E. As I practiced the fingering for both chords, alternating between A and E, I added in the D chord fingering as well. Once I got in the groove, I began to play the strumming pattern, with the chords. However, I was struggling with staying on beat, and the strumming pattern was a bit faster than the previous one I had learned. After discussing my challenges with my co-worker; Paris, she suggested that I alter my sheet music and play the chorus of the song with only the down strum twice for each chord, except A, where I play it four times, along with the chords. After playing the chorus, I would begin the song again and adjust the strumming pattern back to down, down, up, drop hand, up, down. This small change worked wonders for me as I was able to change chords on cue.

Strumming Pattern Only (No chords): 

Since my last blog post (video submission of my first song on the acoustic guitar), I have re-chosen my second song to increase the level of difficulty and demonstrate progress throughout my personalized musical journey on the acoustic guitar. After much deliberation and thought the second song I have chosen was Yellow Bird by Michel Mauleart Monton. This song was composed in 1957 and is quite unique as it is in the Key of A. Yellow Bird was a challenging song to find as there was not sheet music on the internet. Luckily, I was able to use the UVIC library as a resource and found sheet music for the song. I wrote out the sheet music and converted it into a way I would understand. (See images of sheet music below). The reason, I have decided to change from my original second song is because in Yellow Bird, I am able to learn two new chords: A and E and also learn a more difficult strumming pattern (down, down, up, drop hand, up, down). I will remain to play the D chord with fingers one and two, excluding finger three. As when I was born I was born with a rare hand condition where my fingers were stuck together, although this was corrected at a very young age. I do still struggle with bending my third finger a specific way. Therefore, this is one adaptation I will not be able to change. To begin learning this new piece, during the next week I will focus on learning the strumming pattern and also learning how to play my two new chords: A and E.

Images of Altered Sheet Music: (click link to open)

new doc 2020-03-04 10.17.59_

1 new doc 2020-03-04 10.17.59_2

Musicianship Goal Action Plan: Midterm Video Submission

Script: According to my musicianship goal action plan, I will begin my video submission of my personalized learning project by stating what I have achieved throughout my journey. As guaranteed, I am now able to hold the guitar properly, and I have learned two ways to tune my guitar, one of which is using the app on my iPhone called Guitar tuner (electronic) and the other way is on a manual guitar tuner. I was able to find and learn the sheet music for the “Lion song” and practice the chords: D, G and A7. Some adaptations I made to the sheet music was to instead of using all three fingers for the D chord, I adapted the chord to using only fingers 1 and 2 on strings 3 and 1. For the chorus of the song I also adapted the strumming pattern, therefore I had enough transition time in between chords, to ensure I was staying on beat throughout the entirety of the song. Ultimately, I have gained a vast amount of knowledge about the acoustic guitar and about the process of self-teaching and reflection. I can recognize that I have achieved my initial goal of performing my chosen song consecutively without any pauses, and without referring to my notes. Throughout this astonishing journey, I am able to demonstrate the correct fingering, smooth chord transitions and the appropriate strumming patterns of the “Lion song” on a classical acoustic guitar.

Video #1: Explanation & Script

Video #2: “The Lion Song”

As this is my last blog post before my video submission of the “Lion Song”, I would like to discuss what I have achieved throughout my journey and also relate back to my personal growth action plan. Thus far, I have followed my action plan in regard to step number one, and two. This past week, I focused on memorizing the song and practice in front of the mirror and audience. My audience was conducted of my nephews, nieces, grandma, uncle, aunt, cousins and some friends. Some challenges I faced this week was making sure I was on beat with the song, and leading with the strum to ensure I was switching chords on time. Something I discovered is that the reason some of the chords did not sound like they were supposed to was because I was playing too far away from the fret. After practicing the chords: D, G & A7, I am now able to confidently play the chords to my song on beat. Some adaptations I made to my sheet music was instead of playing the proper D chord, I adjusted it by taking out the third finger, although the sound was a tad different, this adaptation was made therefore, I could continue on with the song. This week, I really focused on the chorus and the strumming pattern of the chorus, to ensure I had enough time to change chords, I changed the pattern from up, down, up, down, up down, up down, to up, down, up, down, up, down, up. Below are my notes, along with my sheet music for the Lion Song:

This week, I was able to focus on extensive research and find the strumming pattern for the song Brown Eyed Girl by Van Morrison. I started off by practicing the strumming pattern while saying it out loud, before playing it on the guitar. This made sure I was staying on beat and correctly playing the strumming pattern. The strumming pattern for the song Brown Eyed Girl is as follows:

Some of the challenges I faced, while learning the strumming pattern was being able to stay on beat, and the fear of the unknown, which in this instance, was not knowing if I was playing the strumming pattern correctly. To solve this problem, I video-recorded myself playing the strumming pattern, and brought the video to my co-worker: Paris Russell who informed me that I was certainty off beat, however, the pattern was correct. She also offered to help me out with getting the strumming pattern on beat on Wednesday, February 5^th, as she recognized how hard it was to find videos solely focusing on strumming patterns and beat practice. On Wednesday, February 5^th, I went over to Paris Russell’s home, where we sat down and chatted about what I knew and what I did not know about the guitar. Unfortunately, there were several small basic things to go over first, for example; she corrected the way I was holding the guitar and informed me that we should start with an easier song before jumping to brown eyed girl as my basic guitar skills needed a lot of practice. We went through the lion song, as I got the strumming pattern down, I learned chords, and how to read sheet music. Unfortunately, while playing chords, we recognized that my guitar strings were close together, and I was not quite getting the sound I needed to get. Therefore, I tried using a classical guitar, which was easier for me. After chatting and playing with Paris, I have come to the decision to learn the lion song first and then brown eyed girl for my second song as both songs follow similar chords, although brown eyed girl is a bit more complex to learn. This will ensure I am still achieveing my goal before the deadlines.