It has happened. It is the FINAL countdown (or the final learning project post). I have appreciated this course more than any other because I have been able to pick up my guitar and learn to play enough to feel confident in continuing the skill. This final learning project post is meant to conclude all of the learning that has happened over the last 11 weeks and to share resources that I have experienced and will be valuable to others. I hope that this post gives you motivation and confidence to learn an instrument. I will be grateful for this experience because of how valuable this will be in the…

As the weeks go by sometimes I feel like learning to play the guitar has shifted from being easy to hard, and vice versa. I have used MANY resources to ensure my success in playing Payphone by Maroon 5. Last week I felt good about my path and thought I would ride that idea out until the end. Now I feel incompetent with that path and have moved back to a previous resource: the video below by Fingerstyle Guitar Lessons. To recall, the difference between fingerstyle and strumming is that fingerstyle uses fingers and single strings are played and strumming uses a pick and usually requires you to play all…

If my title reeled you in again, I am happy you fell for it and welcome back! This week was delightful for my guitar skills. I am starting feel competent at something musical. I did have to enlist in some help this week from a few family members: my sister, Danica, and my cousin, Madison. They both have played the guitar and/or had lessons for quite some time now. Resources used this week: Payphone Tabs from Ultimateguitar.com JustinGuitar from Youtube: Stop Struggling with Strumming! Breaking up the skills This week I decided to start to pick (pun intended) away at the skills involved to play the song. I started with…

I am clearly not at a payphone, however, I AM writing to you guys about playing the song Payphone by Maroon 5. This week I wanted to do something new and create a very fast, chipmunk-y version of myself learning to play. Check it out below. WATCH ME LEARN TO PLAY PAYPHONE BY MAROON 5 I hope you are beginning to understand the frustration behind learning an instrument. I played the clarinet and saxophone in my elementary and middle years and I DESPISED it. I didn’t care enough to learn the notes. I just used to copy where people’s fingers went and it got me through to grade 9 when…

I may have misled you with the title of this blog post. I entirely DO NOT know how to shred… yet haha. I am truly not sorry because my heading got you here and I am certainly glad to have you here! I am holding onto hope that the goal of playing a Maroon 5 song is a possibility. In fact, I have a renewed sense of hope because I have found the app and website, Ultimate Guitar. If you watch my walkthrough, you will see exactly how the app works and how I intend to use it. Please note that I had a goal, I wasn’t feeling confident about…

Welcome back to my guitar journey! As always, I have used FenderPlay for the purpose of this week’s lessons. I am definitely in need of some adjustment to my goals. When I first started I said that I would spend 3 hours a week learning the guitar, however, after understanding the pain I would go through from playing so much (see GIF), I think we need to dial that back. As of today, I will practice a course until I memorize the sequence of the notes and play to the tempo. I am finding that by not spending the extra time on these courses, I am falling behind on skills…

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…

Hello and welcome to another week’s worth of learning compiled into today’s blog! I feel like I learned WAY more this week because I did not have any previous knowledge on these topics. This week, I learned how to warm up my fingers, how to play a Batman theme song riff (small portion of the song), setting good habits, reading chord diagrams and tabs, and how to play a ‘Can’t Get Enough of Your Love Babe’ riff. So, yeah, I got a lot in this week! COURSE 3: WARM UP This course helped with starting “fretting” notes. I learned how to hold my fingers to aid in the spreading of…

If you understood the title of this blog post, I assume you have played the guitar at some point in your lifetime. I would love to know if you understand it so make sure to comment below if you do! This week was fairly introductory for me. The Fender Play app is a slow-paced learning app. I feel like I just learned the basics but it is the beginning! I will struggle with not being good at this right away but I am starting to pick up on specific things which is exciting for my ego. As you can see on the screenshots, I did quite a few lessons this…