Menu
This is the last week of the Genius Hour blog posts and needless to say, I'm honestly kind of sad to see it go. I've learned so much about myself during the duration of this project. I learned that I shouldn't force myself to do anything and I also learned how to prioritize my busy schedule better. This week was just as busy as ever. The life guarding and CPR/AED Certification course takes so much time. It's split up into modules that you must take and then you have to take a big exam. I'm currently on module 30 out of 49. The whole course is pretty boring and stressful, so since I didn't have anything to do in between, I played some guitar. It relaxed me instead of getting mad about missing questions. I have to turn in all of my school lacrosse uniforms and equipment on Thursday right after school. It's crazy to believe how fast this project has gone by. This whole year has gone by so fast. I can still remember starting my first blog post and being so confused about what to do. I can remember the first time I picked up a guitar and wondering what the heck I was doing. I can remember how much my fingers hurt after the first few weeks from playing guitar. There were so many memories made in this project. My favorite has to be in Boone over spring break whenever I was sitting on the porch just playing guitar looking out over the mountains. I didn't come anywhere near my goal of being able to play guitar, but I won't let that stop me from learning how to play. You know, I hardly know how to do any chords and can only imagine playing an actual song, but I don't really see that as a failure. I'm so proud of myself for pushing myself out of my comfort zone and trying something new. I managed to stay patient throughout the duration of the project (well.... maybe). I will definitely continue to try to learn how to become a better guitar player. Playing guitar has helped me learn new things about myself, and I've only been playing for a few weeks. I can only imagine what playing guitar will teach me with a year of time. With all of that said, that concludes my Genius Hour project blog page. I've truly enjoyed this project will take all the things I have learned with me throughout the rest of my life.
0 Comments
This week was a little bit better than last. I decided to change a little bit. I played only when I wanted to. I didn't force myself to play at all, not 30 minutes per night. Instead, I played whenever I was wanting to. Whether that be 15 minutes or 45 minutes and whether it was every other day or a few days later. I wasn't as stressed this week although it was still a stressful week. Lacrosse for high school ended which was so good. I love lacrosse and I love playing for the school but the practices for the high school sometimes drag and by the end of the it, everyone's ready for the season to be over. This season was much better than last. We broke so many records this year and made it to states for the first time ever. Of course, we got destroyed in a 20-1 loss against Northwest Guilford, but it was still a historical moment in Davie County Lacrosse. Of course with that ending, I'll have more time to practice for these last few weeks of Genius Hour. I'll still be busy though because I literally have no break from lacrosse because summer lacrosse practices start next week and also I have to do a lifeguard and CPR/AED Certification course so that I can have a job over this summer. Overall, I'm having more fun with the project. Not forcing myself to play makes it so much more enjoyable. Just doing it on my own time seems so much better.
This week was a little bit more busy than I would have liked it to be. I was fully expecting to be done with lacrosse by now, but by some miracle we made the state playoffs. We play Northwest Guilford Thursday night and we've had practice everyday since. I'm not trying to be a downer about the game or whatever, but we'll probably lose to Northwest on Thursday which will conclude the lacrosse season. On the bright side of that, I will have more time to focus on guitar and overall just school in general. With all that said, this week was pretty rough with me playing guitar. I didn't learn or improve at all I feel like. I kept getting mad at myself while playing for not being able to play good. I can hardly play at all, and this week it truly showed. I was so disappointed and stressed out about it that I just wanted to give up and quit. I know we have only a few more weeks of Genius Hour though so I'll stick it out. I know I won't be able to perform at all in front of the class or even be able to show pictures/videos of my progress. Firstly, I just can not remember how to play a chord for the life of me. I don't know what it is or why but I am just physically incapable of doing it. Secondly, I'm almost embarrassed to show anyone and also I don't have anyone that can record me due to the fact that most of the time I practice is late at night or after practice when no one is home. Overall, this week was pretty aggravating for me. I'm sticking with it though and am ready for the project to be over. I'll continue to try to learn even after the project. It's just becoming more of a stress now than anything.
This week was a very laid back week as I worked at my own pace. I practice probably 10 minutes a day, mainly working on chord transition and chord recognition. Lacrosse will be over with on Wednesday (if we don't qualify for the state playoffs), which will leave me with a lot of more extra time to practice. Even though it'll just be the last few weeks of the project, I plan on taking advantage of them. I started getting better but after this week, I noticed I began sliding my fingers over the strings in the middle of chord transitions. That's my worst habit whenever I play. I imagine it'll get better the longer I play because I plan to keep learning even after the project has finished. Playing guitar is such a nice relaxation for me and it almost takes me to another place. This next week I will continue to work on chord transition and will really focus on not moving my fingers across the strings while playing. I don't know where I'll be at the end of this project, but I would love to know most of the chords by the end of it. I've really enjoyed this project because it's helped me find another thing I enjoy doing in my free time. Playing guitar can actually be fun, as long as you don't force yourself too.
This week was a little slower than I would've liked it too be. I wasn't able to practice as much as I would've liked too because of lacrosse and my birthday coming up. I still got a decent amount of practice in and this week was the first time I've ever got mad while playing guitar. I think the main reason I got mad was because I was almost forcing myself to play whenever I really should just be playing whenever I'm wanting to do it or feeling up to it. Overall though, I was pretty happy with the progress I made this week. I was somewhat struggling with the chord transitions this week. It seems like every time I take a day off of something like that, I get really rough. The main thing I need to work on it my chord transition and chord memorization. I'm hoping to be able to have most of the chords memorized by the end of this project. If I can do that, I will be very proud of myself. I'm pretty happy with the progress I've made throughout the whole project but I know I still have a long ways to go. These next few weeks I'll be really pushing myself to get better with all the chord transitions and memorization and hopefully have most of those at the end of the project.
During this week I was able to practice a pretty decent amount. I honestly discovered some things about myself this week. First, I figured out how much the sound of a guitar can relax you. I can't even play a song (I can only play a few chords), but it just makes me feel so calm and relaxed listening to the sound of a guitar. Another thing I realized was how small my hands are. I was looking a some new chords and realized it was so hard to play them because of how small my hands are. To put it into context, there are multiple girls with hands that are bigger than mine. I feel like that is somewhat of a disadvantage for wanting to learn how to play guitar. Since my hands are so small, I can't reach as many strings as I'd like. I've accepted the fact that I most likely won't be able to perform or demonstrate what I've learned throughout this project in front of the class. That's for two reasons. Firstly, I can only play like a G and C chord consistently. Secondly, I can only imagine how much pressure I would have playing in front of a group of people. Overall, this week was pretty good. I'm beginning to learn how to balance out my schedule with all of my classes, work, and lacrosse. I'm really happy with what I've gotten to so far. I'll try to keep this schedule up for the next week.
This week was the week of spring break and I feel like I got a decent amount of work done. I'll be honest, the first few days I didn't do anything but sleep. On around Monday or Tuesday I began focusing on practicing and I was practicing for a good hour a day for the rest of that week. I got to really focus on my chord transition and I was pretty happy the progress I made. My fingers were very sore from practicing so much and they still are kind of sore. My favorite thing was the last day in Boone, just looking out over the mountains and being able to practice. It was so peaceful and easy to concentrate. This break from school and lacrosse was very much needed. I was able to take my time and enjoy myself. I also got to focus on the Genius Hour Project, which I haven't been able to these past few weeks. I found out over this week that playing guitar is somewhat of a sort of stress reliever for me. It makes me relax and just feel calm. This next week, I know we've got three games so hopefully I'll be able to make some time for practicing. I'm still somewhat struggling with chord transition due to sliding my fingers across the chords during transition, but I'm definitely making progress. Also, I've began playing Guitar Hero again to work on my hand eye coordination and just help me get somewhat used to moving my fingers.
This week was once again a super busy week for me. We had our first conference game this week so I put a lot of focus on getting ready for that game. I tried to make as much time for practicing guitar but I still wasn't able to practice as much as I would have liked too. From what it's looking like, I am beginning to think that I'm not going to be able to reach my goal of learning songs. My chord transition is still pretty rough, I still haven't even looked into learning songs, and I'm beginning to run out of time. I'm going to try my hardest to fit in time to play and practice, but with such a busy schedule due to lacrosse and all the classes, it will be pretty difficult. I knew starting this project I might be setting too high of goals and that I should've mainly just tried to work on getting all the chords down. Overall, I still have a lot of work to do and with spring break coming up, I think I'll definitely be able to practice a good bit. Hopefully over spring break I will be able to focus on my chord transition as well as take a few deep breaths from all the stress from being so busy in my life. I'm going to Boone for the weekend we get out for spring break so I hope to be able to practice a good amount up there.
Over these past few weeks, I have hardly been able to practice playing guitar at all due to all the work the teachers have been piling on us and lacrosse. Whenever I have lacrosse games (which has been 3 games a week), I don't get home till at least 10 PM, sometimes 11 PM. With Born a Crime being assigned, I've been drowning and falling behind in so much school work just trying to keep my head above water. This week, I may have gotten a total of an hour of practice time. I didn't make any progress this week due to just being so busy. I tried to focus on my chord transitions but it still is not where I wanted it to be. Over spring break, I plan on practicing playing guitar a lot. I want to get my chord transition to where it sounds great and I would like to actually focus on playing some songs. The main thing is I just need to figure out how to balance my super busy schedule. I've got an AP class along with 2 other honors classes. With the quarter coming to an end, the work is piling up tremendously. I hope to be able to play some songs at the end of this project, but if I can't figure out how to balance my schedule than I don't think that it'll be possible.
This week was another extremely busy week for me so I didn't get to practice playing the guitar as much as I would have liked too. I got home at 11 PM on Tuesday because of the away game at South Iredell. This week I mainly focused on chord transition and I can go ahead and tell you that I have a lot ways to go. I keep struggling with my fingers sliding over the strings through transitions which makes the next chord sound rough. I've learned a lot of chords and I'm pretty comfortable with where my fingers need to go for certain chords. If you read my post last week, you would know I was struggling with trying to play the chords without looking because I was under the impression that playing without looking would make me learn faster. I have given up on that practice technique because it just made me more confused than anything. I feel a lot more comfortable playing while looking at the chords I play. This upcoming week will be very busy though, with 3 away games and one of them being at Mooresville (which is like an hour drive) and it starts at 7:30 so I wouldn't be surprised if I was getting home around 11-12 PM. I'm going to try to learn how to play songs this week and I'll document my progress with the songs in next weeks blog post.
|
AuthorJust your average teenage kid trying to learn how to play guitar. Archives
May 2019
Categories |