Week 7

Well folks, I am deeply saddened to inform you that I will not be playing Folsom Prison blues as I will begin practicing an easier song with simpler chords and an easier strumming pattern. The part that stumped me was a chord called the B7 chord. I could not get that chord to sound right for the life of me, and that is not to mention the strumming pattern was kinda tough also.  The new song that I have chosen is one that that you have probably heard a time or 2. It is an 80's song called Bad Moon Rising by CCR. This a 3 chord song that has a fairly simple strumming pattern that I feel I can get the hang of.

Blog 6

As Trump once said "we are gonna build a wall!!". Well, there may not be a wall on the southern border yet, but there is dang sure one in my guitar learning process. I feel as though I have not learned much from the past week, or even the past two weeks. I will admit I do enjoy the guitar but this has to be a time that I am the most discouraged. I am in need of one more breakthrough and i feel that I will really have a good start. One thing that I HAVE learned recently is how to do an A chord. My uncle has been playing guitar since he was my age and he showed me an easy way to do the A chord. Instead of trying to cram 3 fingers onto one fret, you can can just smash your index finger down on the middle string and get all three of them with 1 finger. Besides that I have hit that wall, and this wall that I have hit was quick and free to build.

week 5

With week five coming to a close it is easy to feel like I am making no progress as I still cannot fluently play a full song, or even part of a song, but the other night I sat down and thought about where I was skill wise when I started. I have really improved in just the five short weeks that i have been practicing. From everything from being able to bend my hand in weird ways to make chords, to begging to get the hang of strumming rhythms and being able to get the hang of moving from chords fast enough. I still have a long way to go to get to where I wanna be but i feel that i am a close to a breakthrough in skill and really being hooked from there on out. As far as the song, there is only 3 chords but one of them is the A chord which is hard for me to get because 3 fingers have to be on one fret. This is hard to fit all of them on there without interfering with another string and getting a crisp chord. I believe with some more practice and perseverance I will have it down in no time.

Post Vacation week 4

Tonight is the first night in almost two weeks that I have actually had time to sit down and play. I will say I can see how people get to really liking to play. After a really busy or fast paced week it feels good to just sit down and try to play. I am honestly surprised with how much stuck with me. Another thing that I am noticing is how much less TV I am watching. It is nice because when it comes to one of those times that you think you have nothing to do and you are just gonna sit down and watch TV, you have another more productive option. While I was gone we went to a talent show that really sparked some ideas. I have decided that the song i am going to try and do is called "Folsom Prison Blues" by Johnny Cash. I heard a kid sing it last week and I really liked how it sounded so I am going to give it my best at trying to play it.

Week 3

This past week I have not had enough time to actually be practicing on my own with my guitar. One of the harder parts about trying to be consistent in practicing is when you get busy or especially when you are traveling. I have spent the past week in Indianapolis so I have not been able to do much physical practicing because it is not practical to bring your guitar along on a trip. That does not mean that I haven't thought about it. At national FFA there is a big talent show with a lot of the kids playing the guitar. I have been watching them and have a lot more respect for their skill because I know how hard it is to learn, but it definitely helps to keep your morale up to see kids my age that are that proficient at the instrument. This has been a slower week so I will have to really get with it next week.

week 2

The  first week of this major endeavor has been tougher than expected. One of the major problems I have is remembering the chords and trying to transition fast enough. I will admit it is hard to stay motivated as it seems that I am making no progress. It has been said by many people that if you just stick with it for at least 2 months you will begin to see progress and be way more likely to play guitar for the rest of your life. A positive is that the more that I play the less the tips of my fingers hurt. Also just the thought of being able to play a tune is a major key to stay motivated. I am just waiting on on the work to and time to pay off so I can see some of the skills to play that tune. It is easy to get down on yourself because you see videos of people playing some truly amazing things and I wish I was half that good but I have to think back to when I first picked up the guitar and how clueless I was. I have made some progress but it is gong to be a long and tough road to get to the skill level I want to be.

The Plan

How many times have you heard some one older than you say "I wish I would have learned how to play and instrument"? I have heard it my fair share for sure. That was one of my major motives for choosing my genius hour project of getting the basics of how to play the guitar. I had a couple of ideas of what I wanted to do but I settled on the guitar because when i am a scrolling through Facebook and see some kid strumming away on a 6 string, I always say to myself "It would be so cool to be able to play the guitar. I don't plan on being a full blown guitar master by the end of this * week period, but I hope to have a good foundation to build on and "get over the hump" of the blocks that beginners usually have. And I mean the chicks dig the guy who can strum the 6 string.

When I decided that this was going to be my goal, I took a step back and tried to think how i was gonna go about learning this new skill and what would be some of the major hold ups. That was i realized i didn't even know enough about a guitar to tell you what was gonna be hard about learning to play. That is a pretty simple fix with today's technology, a few quick taps into the google search bar and i had a whole page full of reasons why this was gonna be hard. I know this is not going to be easy, but I think the hardship is worth the reward.

I was not as worried about my shark tank pitch as others. I do not have as much of a problem of getting up in front of people as some, in fact i somewhat enjoy it. The slide show was not much to look as extravagant as other but that was because I didn't feel like i needed much writing on the board to help me with the presentation. It was simple, my plan was to get up there and answer the prompted questions off the top of my head. I feel like this encourages quick thinking and makes you more comfortable when you get up in front of people.