Wow! I am already at the end of my learning project but I feel like it is still just the beginning of my journey. I truly feel like I have come very far in my journey and I definitely do not want it to end there!
Let’s take a second to look back at where I started, my introductory post I stated –
“When I originally heard about this project my mind quickly went to playing guitar. I have some minor past experiences with guitar that never turned out too well. That being said, I am hoping this one might turn out a lot better. I first found interest in guitar when I was in grade 6. I got a guitar as a Christmas gift and began some one on one lessons once a week. I was able to pick up some simple songs but was easily frustrated by the more challenging songs. This led me to stop playing after only a few months. The next time I picked up my guitar was in high school during Covid. Obviously being locked up and not having much to do I wanted to try something new out and already having a guitar I thought it would be a good idea. This again went pretty well at the start but I slowly started playing less and less until I no longer picked it up after a month or two. Fast forward to now, I am pretty much starting from the beginning, I do know simple things like how to tune a guitar and a few basic notes but can not play any songs at the moment. Overall I am excited to get back into this, I am going into it with confidence and excitement to challenge myself. I know I am going to be able to find a lot of great resources to learn from and grow within this journey.”
Reflecting on this I can definitely see the improvements that I made. I went from not being able to play anything to now where I can play at least the intro to about 10 different songs! I think my biggest improvement is my mindset overall. I definitely have developed a lot more patience and understanding of the time it takes to master a song. Having this patience has definitely made me want to play guitar more, and unlike previous attempts I definitely see myself taking this further than just a few months. I definitely think that finding all that tech has to offer through social media, websites and apps has made me a lot more comfortable and confident with this process. I honestly did not know how much tech had to offer, you can truly find so many different ways to learn absolutely any song you can think of. This has me excited to see how far I can go!
Here is my original plan vs how I went about it –
“Now looking at how I am going to go about this. I have the hardest part done in having a guitar available for me to play, now it’s looking at finding resources I will be able to learn from along with time to practice. As for time, I definitely have a busy schedule with work, training for football, and school. Having a bit of a background with playing I know that just a small amount of time a few days a week can go a long way. I plan to for sure set time aside Thursday nights along with weekends to find resources and practice along with using any small breaks I find throughout my week. For resources I have already started some research and found a lot to choose from. Just some of the many incredible techs I will use include Youtube, TikTok, iPhone apps, websites, online coaches, and so much more. I plan to begin with some simple songs and continue to challenge myself more and more to see how far I can go. I am excited to continue to find teaching resources and begin this process that I hope sticks long after I complete this class!”
Week 1 – Back to the basics – To begin I had to start with the simple steps, pulling my guitar out of the storage, finding a tuning app and tuning it, and doing some base research on the different techs I wanted to use throughout this process.
Week 2 – Chasing Cars – For my first week of learning I used the app TikTok to learn the simple song Chasing Cars! This was simple but a great start into my journey that inspired some more finger picking styles.
Week 3 – Every Breath you Take – For my second week I found out that the tuning app I was using was also a great learning resource. I used it to learn my second song which was the song Every Breath You Take. I was amazed by how great of a resource this was that I didn’t even realize was right in front of my eyes the whole time.
Week 4 – Love Yourself – For my third week I used an app I already spend a lot of time on being Instagram. I found a great tutorial on the song Love Yourself by Justin Bieber. I was able to learn this song pretty fast and add another resource to my list of great learning sources!
Week 5 – Fast Car – Week 5 was when I was introduced to Marty Music, who I would say was my favourite resource overall. Marty is on Youtube and does an amazing job breaking down songs on guitar. I was able to learn the quite challenging song of Fast Car through Marty’s video.
Week 6 – A Bar Song – For my final week I chose to learn the popular song “A Bar Song”. I used the app UltimateGuitar.com which was another great app. This app was definitely a bit more challenging and required some more experience before using. I was able to find this song that fit well with my skill set and learn it quickly!
As you can see, I used a wide variety of techs. All that I will definitely continue to use, but I also found a lot that I did not have the chance to get to that I can not wait to check out! Seeing how fast and easy you can learn something new when you find the right teacher/resource was eye opening to me. OveralI, I was glad I gave myself this challenge over the course. It makes me think of all the other things I could possibly learn to do just using the internet!
