A String of Bad Luck

Hello again,

It has been one heck of a ride this week. I started and basically hit a wall. I started to recognize that I needed to be working longer on some of the previous skills. I feel like FenderPlay kind of fell short here. Although they do a really good job with the sequence of learning, this felt like I was completely unprepared. I am also impatient and need to pick up things quickly in order to survive.. uh, I mean continue with a skill. Although I am not giving up, I felt like I didn’t get as much quantity this week as the previous weeks, however, I did get quality.

MY FINGERS HURT!

My hands are small, to begin with, so the stretch to play specific notes is tough for me already, however, my fingers got into some serious soreness after playing some of the notes this week. Of course, along with the tough lessons, I felt a bit down. I felt like I was on such a really good path (I still could be) and it felt like this week stole that feeling of doing well from me. Due to my experiences in the past, I know that things are usually harder before they get easier. I am sticking to this thought and pushing through because I am getting excited about learning to play Maroon 5’s “She Will Be Loved“. I have also bit the bullet and paid to download the correct tabs and follow-along help. It wasn’t too expensive but totally worth it to keep the dream alive.

A Summary of Learning

COURSE 8: Peter Gunn by Henry Mancini

This was actually really fun to play and I picked this up quickly and worked on playing it at the same tempo, listen here.

COURSE 9: First Time Chords: E minor and A minor

This is where things took a turn for the worst. I just struggled so much with getting my fingers to do the right thing, placed in the right spot, at the correct pressure, and without hitting any other strings. I found that I had to pluck each string to make sure I wasn’t getting a dull sounding noise (meaning I was pressing on other strings or didn’t have enough pressure on the string). This made things a bit lengthier than I was anticipating which ultimately led to not completing as many courses this week.

COURSE 10: Shimmy Shimmy Ko Ko Bop by Little Anthony

Sometimes they put practice riffs of songs that I know nothing about. This leads me to Spotify so that I can listen to the song itself then transfer that new information to learning the riff. I did not record myself doing this one mostly because it’s embarrassing that I cannot play it yet and sounds like a 5-year-old could play it better (this is highly likely and I am aware of such sadness).

Do you play an instrument? Was it also this difficult for you?

Anyways, that is all for this week. Keep following along!