A song that I am sure we all  have started hearing absolutely everywhere is A Bar Song (Tipsy) by Shaboozey. This song has absolutely blown up, which makes sense for how catchy it is. After hearing this multiple times a day I could not seem to get it out of my head. I decided I wanted to try to learn it on guitar. With a simple google search I was able to find a website called UltimateGuitar.com. My first impression was this was a very good looking website which really sucked you in and made you want to look further. This website included Tabs, courses, songbooks, articles, forums, the option to publish tabs and the option to purchase the pro versions that opens up even more options. 

This was definitely a switch up for me from being used to learning through videos. I was happy to challenge myself in this way and force myself to do something I wasn’t as comfortable doing in reading music. To be honest I still would not say I am very comfortable with it and got lucky finding chords that I am confident with. As for now I think sticking with tutorial videos is best for my learning style. I hope to continue to improve on my skills and as that happens I get more comfortable reading music and learning that way. Overall this was definitely a great website but not the best for where I am currently at and my learning style. I would still recommend this especially to someone a bit more experienced than me. I will definitely keep this website in my back pocket and hopefully come back to it as I continue to improve.

On another note related to my guitar journey I decided to take a trip to Long and Mcquade this week to get some guitar picks. I did not realize how many options there would be so I decided to buy myself a variety pack and try them out to see what I liked most. I took a minute to walk through the acoustic guitar section in the store. I was amazed by the variety and different shapes and kinds of guitars. A few that stood out to me that I do not think I have ever seen in person were the 12 string guitars along with the electric acoustic guitars. I took a few minutes checking out all the guitars in there and even picked up one and played a few songs with it. I was amazed with how good this guitar sounded and how much clearer the sound was compared to my guitar. As much as I fell in love with this guitar and wanted to take it with me, it was much outside my price range. If I continue learning and getting better at guitar a purchase like this could definitely be something I look into in the future!

Right from the beginning of my research I found that this guy named Marty kept popping up, I even had a classmate mention to check him out. After looking through Marty’s Youtube page I quickly found out how great of a resource he is. He has over 3000 total videos that are all guitar related! A large amount of these are song tutorials which he seems to have one for every song you could ever imagine along with a lot of other guitar teachings. I truly can not say enough good about Marty. You can tell how passionate he is about what he does, making him so great at it. You can also find Marty on his website, Patreon, TikTok, Instagram, Reddit, X, and Facebook.

I will say learning this song was probably my biggest challenge so far but being able to learn from Marty definitely made it a lot easier! I have always loved the song Fast Car, especially Luke Combs version he made which inspired me to learn it! With a quick google search Marty’s video popped up and I decided to check it out. I really like that all his videos will begin with him playing it so we as listeners see exactly what we will be learning. He takes his time with these videos which I really like. Usually I find that when watching videos I will have to pause or go back often but the pace he goes at you can usually play with him and learn at that pace. You can tell Marty has a lot of patience and takes the time to really break down each aspect of playing. He often discusses within his teaching different ways to flair up the song a little bit making it as easy or challenging as you wish.

Overall, if anyone every brings up that they are trying to learn how to play guitar I will definitely tell them about Marty. I really think he is a great teacher for absolutely every level go guitarist. I know whenever I find a song I want to learn he will be the first resource I go to check out.

While scrolling through instagram this week I came across a video that really stuck out to me. It was the song “Love Yourself” by Justin Bieber being taught on guitar by Thibault. I instantly went to pick up my guitar and started learning. It was a pretty simple song keeping the same shape for the most part, but it took a while to memorize the movements and the picking pattern. Going back to this picking style that I did in my first week was a lot of fun, I definitely plan to go back to this more often. 

For me personally I found that watching someone play a song and being able to pause, slow down, or rewind to see the chords they play and how they transition along with their strumming or picking pattern has been a great way for me to learn. For someone with a similar learning style to me I would definitely recommend using a good mixture of videos along with website and apps such as GuitartTuna to learn quick!

Being a beginner I find some of the apps and websites very tough to use as they need you to be able to read music or already know how to play. It is nice seeing these videos made where people take the time to break it down on apps that I am used to and comfortable with. I have found that the videos I am seeing on Instagram and TikTok almost all the people on the apps teaching have a great pace and take the time to really break down each aspect of the song. I will definitely continue to keep taking the time to watch these videos that have seemed to take over every app I am on. Even if it is not a song that I want to learn, I know I can definitely pick up a thing or two from listening to new people. Overall I am having a lot of fun learning guitar along with finding all these cool resources to help me!

Check out me playing here!

This week I tried out a resource that I did not realize was right in front of my eyes since the beginning of my journey. I downloaded an app at the beginning of my journey called guitar tuna. I strictly just used this to help me tune my guitar, but this past week I decided to explore it more and see all that it had to offer. I found out this is a great tool for learning    songs at all skills levels.

The app not only assists you in tuning your guitar, it also has thousands of songs that can be chosen in which it will walk you through the background of the song, and all the steps you need to know to learn hot to play the song. Each song has an option to learn the simplified version or the intermediate version. Each song includes six steps to learning – video (song background, chords, and strumming), Trainer tool, verse chord trainer, chorus chord trainer, strumming trainer, and the play along. You can go through these steps in any order you chose.

Overall this was a great tool, especially for a beginner! I found the steps easy to follow and allowed me to quickly learn the song. It was nice being able to take each step as slow or fast as I wanted and always being able to go back to any step. I definitely would recommend this tool and plan on using it often throughout my journey.

Check out me playing here!

To begin the guitar journey I wanted to start with a teaching tool I am quite familiar with being TikTok. I definitely spend more time on the app then I would like to admit. TikTok has a large variety of different types of videos on it, some being great teaching tools for almost anything you are interested in learning. I have always came across a few guitar tutorial videos on the app in which I usually skip over. Having this as my learning project I now take the time to watch and learn from these videos. While on TikTok I came across this video that I knew would be a great start. It was extremely simple but I was happy to be able to learn it and have my first song in the books. I really enjoyed the picking guitar style over strumming which was a bit newer to me. I definitely want to continue to focus on this picking style and see how good I can get with it. I think this was a great way to start and am excited to continue on this learning journey!

Music has been one of those things that I have always been very interested in but never seemed to be very good at. I have attempted many different instruments throughout my life including guitar, piano, drums, trumpet, and more. Looking back I never seemed to be able to stick with it for more then a few months.

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.

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 chose 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!