It is the final week!! Honestly, it sneaked up on me a lot quicker than I thought it would. But surprisingly, I’m not worried or stressed. I’ve done a lot of work in the past week in terms of learning new songs and working on previous songs. Another one of my favorite artists is called ‘Daughter’ and they make indie folk music. One of their albums is music from Life Is Strange: Before The Storm (which is one of my favorite games ever) and I’ve started learning some songs from there. Most of them are instrumental, but some have some lyrical aspects to them.
Other than that, I’ve continued to work on some Nirvana songs, some Billie Eilish songs, and some other songs. I’ve also completed my slideshow for my final presentation! I think it looks pretty good and I’m hoping it is going to go very well. Also! One of the songs I’ve learned is ‘wish you were gay’ by Billie Eilish. I’ve got the whole song memorized on guitar. Next to that, Hannah (my girlfriend <3) can play guitar, saxophone, and trumpet. So, she has decided to help me with my project! She has started learning that song on trumpet so we can duet it together! We’ve been practicing and messing around with it in FLEX time over the past couple of days. But, if anything, we will record it and I’ll add it into my final presentation and then perform my song(s). And that is pretty much all I have got to report on for week 12! Over winter break, I’m going to keep working on guitar and practice my presentation MANY times. Hopefully my final presentation goes as well as I hope! :)
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Over the past week, my main focus has been my final presentation. I am pretty much done with my slideshow. The only things left to do now are to make sure it’s perfect, practice my presentation and what I’m gonna say, make flashcards to remember key points, decide what songs I’m gonna perform, and to just keep practicing as much as I can.I think my final presentation is going to go pretty well, but I’m just scared my anxiety is going to take control and I will get very nervous. But, I am going to do everything I can to remind myself that it’s going to go just fine and that there is nothing to stress over. I’m proud of myself and how far I have come in my guitar learning journey and that is all that matters.
For the last 2 or 3 weeks before this week, my mental health took quite a dip and therefore I didn’t have much time or energy to focus on guitar. But, I am gonna try and make up for that lost time over this week, next week, and over winter break (as much as I can). I’m gonna try and keep learning some of the songs I have already started on but I am also gonna look into some other songs I might be interested in learning. But, I’m learning that most songs are a lot more difficult than I think they are. And I like a challenge, but it can become quite overwhelming if I am being quite honest. Also, since this is week 11/12, are there any final song recommendations from anyone? I will try my best to get around to them and if I do manage to learn them, I’ll be sure to give credits to whoever made the suggestion! :) Sadly, I don’t have much to report on this week. I’ve been so caught up with school work that I haven’t had much time to work on learning and playing guitar. But, I learned ‘Hostage’ by Billie Eilish! And I can perfectly play ‘Wish You Were Gay’ by Billie Eilish - I’m even able to play the song and perfectly time up with it. So that’s all I’ve really got to talk about in terms of progress.
I won’t be home this weekend, so I need to get some time in on my project today (Wednesday), Thursday, and Friday. I also need to start working on my final presentation. I’ve found a template online that I’m going to use, but I need to actually fill it in and organize it. I also need to set a day or two next week where I can start filming some of the songs I’ve got done so far. I’ll also incorporate the little bits and pieces I have of some songs. A list of some other things that I need to do are: memorize some chords, update my website, watch some YouTube tutorials on some songs I’m learning/want to learn, and some more :). I don’t have much to report for this week, but I’ve just been practicing all week and learning some new stuff. I stayed at my dad’s over the weekend and we went to Guitar Center together and I also tried out a bunch of his guitars, so that was pretty fun. I also found an acoustic guitar I’m interested in saving up for.
STUFF I AM WORKING ON/FINISHED:
STUFF I AM CONSIDERING LEARNING:
I’m going to work on learning some new chords, music theory, and I’m going to work on scales and how those work. I’ll keep you all updated! :) I haven’t been able to practice much in the past week or two, but I’m hoping I’ll be able to get a bunch done this week and into next week. I haven’t learned any new songs lately, but I’m going to try and learn 2 songs by this time next week. Those two songs are: Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol and Hostage by Billie Eilish. Besides that, I’ve got Wish You Were Gay by Billie Eilish completed and I’m working on perfecting the intro to Come As You Are by Nirvana.
Over the weekend, my Dad gave me some equipment to help with my guitar journey. He gave me a case for my electric, an amp and a new chord, and a capo. I tested out the amp and it seems to be working pretty well! I’m gonna mess around with some of the settings sometime this week to see how it affects the sound, if anything. Another thing I need to get on top of is deciding what I’m going to do for my final project/presentation. I’m leaning towards making a general slideshow with a brief description of my project along with a short performance of some of the stuff I’ve learned over the past couple of weeks. I’ll either film myself doing these performances or I’ll play directly in front of the class, but I’m learning towards the recording. And just so you know, no.. I won’t be singing! If anything, I’ll put the song’s voice-over over the video or I’ll play it in the background (if I perform in class). I’ll also bring in my electric guitar to show it off and I might even bring in my Dad’s acoustic that he is letting me borrow for this project (maybe I can convince him to let me keep it ;)). Also, a big shout out goes to Mr. Barker for being a mentor and a big help in my guitar journey! He’s helped me start to learn and understand music theory and he has also helped me with Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol. I’m thinking about bringing in my electric guitar next week so I can practice and maybe even get some additional help :). Just like I’ve put for the past couple of weeks, leave me some song recommendations down in the comments! I’ll try to get to them and if I do, I’ll be sure to give you credits for the inspiration :). So far this week, I’ve just been practicing and perfecting all that I’ve got done so far. Next up in my project is one of two things: either learning some new songs or filming what I’ve got done and then learning some new stuff. Either way, I need some song recommendations! Because although I love Billie, I don’t want all of my learned songs to be hers. I need some diversity, because all I’ve got so far is Billie and Nirvana. And honestly as I’m typing this, I’m considering some Arctic Monkeys songs that I could possibly consider trying to learn.
Although I don’t have much content for this week, I think my project is coming along pretty well! I still need to get some equipment from my dad, specifically for my electric guitar. I’ve also found some things on Amazon that might make my guitar-playing experience a little better! I’ve found a cool strap I like, a bunch of picks with different thicknesses (thin, medium, heavy, etc.) and a case for my picks. Again, I need some song recommendations! So please leave some down below in the comments and if I get around to them, I’ll let you know how it goes! Over the weekend, my girlfriend bought me a guitar! It’s a Squier by Fender Bullet Stratocaster in the color Sonic Gray. I started crying as soon as I unwrapped it, I can’t believe I have my OWN guitar! And if you’re confused, the acoustic Taylor guitar I’m using is my dad’s and he is letting me borrow it for this project. Either this year or next, I’m hoping to have purchased my own acoustic guitar (if I have the money for it of course). I showed it to my dad and he said the next time I go over to his house, he’s going to give me a case for my electric and also an amp + cable because he has SO many, both with him and in his storage unit.
Well, I’m reaching the halfway mark of this project and I think I might be a little behind. I think that since I’m working on learning one entire song, that’s been my main focus (along with learning chords, strum patterns, how to tune, etc.). So, I think that while I am continuing to learn ‘wish you were gay’ by Billie Eilish, I’ll also try to throw in some smaller songs that I can work on just for practice and to get better.
So, I figured since I’m currently working on learning ‘wish you were gay’ by Billie Eilish, I would plug in the chords, strumming patterns, and how much progress I’ve got done on the song!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- VERSE STRUMMING PATTERN: down, mute, down, mute, down, mute, down, mute CHORUS STRUMMING PATTERN: down down, mute, down down, mute, down down, mute, down down down down CHORDS NEEDED (throughout the entire song): G, Em, Gmaj7, d/f#, D7, Am -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- So, I’ve got the verses down and complete. But, I’m struggling with the chorus.. Specifically the build-up and also switching between chords fast enough to keep myself in rhythm and timing. And I’m also having trouble switching between some certain chords. But other than that, I think it’s coming together pretty well! My girlfriend is an awesome guitar player so she is also helping me with this project. I do not know whether I am going to use it or not, but my dad has sent me the login information for the Fender Play thing. But, I haven’t looked into it yet. So, I might work on that a little bit later and see if I want to use it or not! But other than that, I’m going to continue working on ‘wish you were gay’ and also maybe learn some smaller songs for some additional practice. It is week 3! And I have made a very drastic decision in terms of my final product - I have decided I am not going to make a video compiling all of my progress. This is for multiple reasons: it would be way too long, I would not be able to fit everything in and it still be in a reasonable time frame, it would likely be very awkward, and I honestly have been forgetting to film myself when practicing or trying out new things because I have been so focused on actually doing it.
Also, I have given up on learning ‘worldstar money’ by Joji since the majority of the song is like beats and created instrumental and there isn’t much guitar, except the first like 10 seconds (which is what I learned). But, I have started up on learning ‘wish you were gay’ by Billie Eilish since that’s fairly guitar centered (both the demo from 2017 and the official song from 2019). I’ve got the chords and the strumming patterns down, but I’m having a little trouble when it comes to switching between chords while keeping the rhythm and strumming pattern in time with the song. I think I’ll film myself performing multiple songs to show my final progress and ‘wish you were gay’ might be one of them! There’s some other songs I would like to learn, but I need to see how difficult they are. Some examples are: ‘TV’ by Billie Eilish, ‘hostage’ by Billie Eilish, ‘i love you’ by Billie Eilish, etc. And in case you couldn’t tell, my favorite artist is Billie Eilish :). But, this could change by the end of my project.. We’ll just have to wait and see what I end up doing and hopefully it’ll turn out well! |
AuthorHello! My name is Rylie, and my Genius Hour project is learning how to play guitar! Archives
December 2022
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