End of first semester google project.

It's difficult to say where I stand upon the project. It's a great idea and it's given me time and incentive to do something that I've always wanted to do. There have been problems such as broken guitar necks, strings, neck size and even time in which to practice, but I at least learned something. I take it for granted that I only have to coordinate one hand and my lips, coordinating my left hand with a rhythm is entirely new for me, and for the first few weeks I struggled immensely keeping my left hand in tandem with my right while skipping strings and moving my fingers blindly, it takes a lot of practice. I had to and need to keep practice each new note until I know it by muscle memory, which took a lot of practicing. Unfortunately, I didn't have such vast spaces of time during the past month, and my practice schedule was thrown out the window. I did learn quite a few things though, don't ever buy a guitar without checking the neck size (thank goodness mine was a rental) and that I really enjoy playing the guitar and I want to play more. If we were to get another semester of google project time, I would most definitely practice more and obtain the goals I set forth for myself. The Google project was enjoyable and exciting, I want to be able to experience it again.

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I am aware that it has been several weeks since I have last posted my progress on this blog. I'm not here to fish for apologies or even understanding but to inform the public and my teacher as to my progress on my project. I feel that I am far behind upon my project and that I am indeed behind the schedule that I had made for myself. Recent events since the thanksgiving weekend have not been ideal. It is not to say that I haven't had free time or that work has been especially difficult. However, i have been afforded so little free time in the past month that I have been unable to keep a schedule due to personal outside influences. Where as I have 30 minutes in a day to relax within the past 3 weeks and work hasn't been difficult, just plentiful and long, I have not been able to practice at all. Especially with current affairs, being sick halfway through a week into the end of a weekend, with extra work from absence that must be completed with time allocated for studies, my schedule has shifted and there hasn't gone a day where I haven't been somewhere, even if small, doing a task for hours on end.

With the issues I've had from the few weeks that have passed, I have fallen far behind in my efforts to practice. I will attempt to use this next weekend to the best of my abilities to practice and hone what I have been able to learn so far on playing the guitar. Wish me luck, I shall try my best and fill my time now that i have caught up and am free for a day.

11/15/11

Today a cracked upon my case and found my guitar terribly out of tune, spent a good ten or so minutes tuning it and another hour or so practicing my scales and exercises from the practice book I had picked out. After practicing the scales and the exercises for as long as I have, I found it much easier to move my fingers the way I desired across the strings and skip across the scale I had learned. I also tried my hand at the first 2 Chords that my book instructs me upon, the C chord and G7 chord respectively. I find it very difficult to switch between the two as I have developed a habit of keeping my fingers at rest when I am merely plucking, leading to undesirable tones as the back portion of my finger could hold another string part way down and ruin the chord. More practice is needed, and I will attempt to record my progress through a video, posting on YouTube when I get the opportunity. The link to my channel will come when the video has been made and posted.

11/8/2011

Going well on the fingering part so far. As I learn the notes and practice my scales, it becomes easier to keep my eyes off of the frets. Currently on the fifth string, so I only have one more untill I start learning the different chords that i'll need to play. After I learn those, it's time to memorize a song. Recording will come soon, and I will link them to my youtube account, where I will be uploading said recordings.

Ok...

Well, it's been a few weeks since I've last posted, and I thought I would share some of my progress. I went and got my replacement guitar at Tigard Music, it took a few days but I finally got a decent guitar with a good sound. I've practiced a bit and now can switch easily between the first 3 strings, I almost have a full scale memorized. Using my fingers in such a manner is very difficult for me, I'm still not used to it, I've never had to move my fingers like it before.

10/4/11

It's been a while since i've last updated my progress so I thought that I should do so now. Last week on friday I started my guitar rental from tigard music. I found a good deal where my rental goes towards a new guitar, so I decided upon renting as apposed to buying it flat out. Unfortunately, the guitar that I rented was terribly out of tune and today I finally go the chance to rectify that. I tuned the guitar to the best of my abilities, matching the individual string's pitches to an online metronome. The result, I tried. Tuning a stringed instrument is not my forte apparently, and neither is playing it.

Along with the guitar, I purchased a basic guitar method book by Hal Leonard, it's fairly good and has a cd track I can listen along with that plays the practice pieces. So far i've learned 6 notes, 3 on the first two strings, but i'm still having trouble jumping between the two strings. Moving my fingers blindly between the strings is very difficult for me and painfull! I need to start developing the tips of my fingers on the strings every day from here on out, or my fingers will bleed every time I pick the instrument up. I'm not terribly confident yet, but I plan on practicing a bit everyday that I can, if only to practice jumping between the strings for a few minutes.

Day 2: Setting up repairs

My older brother had his own acoustic guitar, but it's a little deprived right now. The guitar is missing a few strings and definitely needs a tune up, I'm not quite sure how to tune a guitar yet, so I will probably just arrange to have it repaired and re-stringed. While I set up the repairs at a shop, I'll be looking for a beginner's to guitar book that I can use to start my venture.

Edit:
Apparently we had shipped my brothers old guitar down to him in california over a year ago, but we all forgot. I do have a rental now, so it's not a huge deal.