Gah! Life has been busy and I hadn’t had a spare moment to transfer my music progress notes to a blog post, but now is the time. I’ll be uploading a new blog marking my past month’s progress every 2 days (or so) to get myself caught up.
So, without further ado…
Goals
This is my first time learning an instrument since a sad attempt at recorder in grade 5, so needless to say, I have a lot of learning to do. I’m going to be tackling guitar, which I know is a bit of a toughy to get a hang of, but I’m motivated and I think the payoff of being able to play will be worth it.
By the midterm on October 30th, my goal is to be able to understand guitar notations of common chords within G Major and be playing these chords: G C D D7 Em Am
I will demonstrate this new knowledge and know-how by playing the song “Alouette” using the chords G/D7 in the 4/4 time signature.
Perceived hurdles
At this stage, being a complete beginner, my greatest measure of success will be being able to read the notes on the page or screen, then translate them to a finger position on guitar, all the while being mindful of the timing of the song.
Week 1 – Basic Music Theory
Notes from Sept 27th – Oct 3rd
This week I budgeted for time to begin understanding basic music theory. I have absolutely no prior knowledge in reading music or understanding what to do with the notes and symbols on sheet music, so there will be a lot of learning for me to do.
From what we’ve learned in class so far, I already feeling like I’m getting a better start that I’d planned for. This gave me a headstart in already being able to identify different note values (whole, half, quarter, and eighths), time signatures, and rests (I had no clue what those symbols were before!)
To build upon this, I began the process of learning the notes. I found a simple photo showing the notes with the acronym FACE and the mnemonic “Every Good Boy Deserves Fruit” to help remember the notes.
Then I looked up simple pieces of music and would try to identify the notes in the songs as a way to practice and get used to which notes are where.
It’s only been a week of practice, and I have yet to even touch the guitar other than making sure it’s in tune, but I’m feeling pretty confident about how much I’m understanding so far. Hopefully this feeling will translate into next week when I get playing.
-Megan B.