Hello everyone, My name is Joel McLaughlin and I would like to welcome all of you to the final blog in my 12 week series. As sentimental as this is for me, I am excited to wrap things up here and to move on to play guitar in the future. This week we will essentially just be wrapping up everything in the blog, so without further ado lets get straight into the last blog.
This week I would just like to talk about what the end means for me, how I think the project went, and how I will continue to play guitar even when the project has officially ended. As much as I have enjoyed updating all of you every week (despite missing some weeks), I am excited to have a weight off of my shoulders that comes with making sure I have updated the blog every week. I love playing guitar and I have enjoyed updating this blog, but I am excited for the concept of not having to play guitar "for a project." I am excited to see what new things I can learn on guitar when it isn't about the project, but just about entertainment for me and those around me. I think the project went well. I learned a lot of strengths and weaknesses about myself when it comes to playing the guitar and when it comes to life. But every good thing has to come to an end, and I believe that even aside from the project ending that it is time to move on from this blog. I have enjoyed talking to all of you every week and I am glad at the progress I have made. I never would have taken the strides towards learning the guitar if it weren't for this project and I am forever grateful that I went through this process. That's all for this week, the final blog, I am Joel McLaughlin and I hope all of you have learned something and that you have a great future.
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Hello everyone, My name is Joel McLaughlin and I would like to officially welcome you all back to my blog. This week I will be briefly updating you on my progress and then going into more detail about my final presentation preparation. So let's just get into this weeks blog.
This week I would like to start of by talking about the progress that has been made on the solo for the song I am learning. I believe that the solo for "Broken Bones" by Kaleo is coming along very nicely. I believe that when the time comes in a couple weeks to present my project that I will be ready. More pressingly though, this week I would like to talk about a decision that I have made that relates to my final project. Due to the 5-7 minute requirement on my presentation, I have decided that I will only be playing a portion of the song I have chosen. I made this decision a while ago, because I believe that I won't be able to play the other parts of the song, but because I do not want to run out of time on my presentation. Now instead of the whole song, I will be playing the intro and the solo. This decision was a tough one, but I had to give myself enough time to present the information and play the song. This week I made the tough decision to cut part of the song for my final presentation. I know this sucks but it was a decision that needed to be made for the betterment of my final presentation. Other than this new decision, everything went week this week especially with the solo. So until our next and final week, I am Joel McLaughlin and I will talk to you all in the last blog. Hello everyone, My name is Joel McLaughlin and I would like to officially welcome all of you back to my blog. This week we will be talking about the progress I have made on the song, specifically the solo. We will also be talking about wrapping up the project and things I have been doing to prepare for that, so lets just get straight into it. Before I begin talking about the progress I have made this week, I would like to do something that I have been meaning to do for a while now. This is a picture of the guitar I have been practicing on, and it will be the one that I use for my final presentation. Now back to the progress I have made this week. I haven't really touched anything except the solo this week and honestly it is coming along really good. Like I said last week, I thought the solo might be easier than I had originally anticipated if I just sat down and played it with the song. Turns out I was 100% correct. Obviously the solo is not perfect yet because I am still in the process of learning it, but it is coming along really nicely. I have found out all the notes to the solo and I can't play it full speed yet but it is getting there. In the next couple weeks I think I will be able to play it enough to fully learn it, and put it with the other parts of the song. This week has also partially been about preparation for my final project. I have begun reflecting on how the overall project has gone, what I did well, what I could have done better, and other things of the nature.
Overall I am proud of the strides I have made this week towards my end goal of being able to play something for my class. The solo is coming along well and I believe that at the end of the project I will be able to play it extremely well. On top of that I have even begun reflecting on what the end product will be for my project. That's all for now, I'm Joel McLaughlin and I will talk to you all next week. Hello everyone, My name is Joel McLaughlin and I would like to officially welcome all of you back to my blog. This week we will be talking about some of the progress I have made on the song overall. There isn't as much information this week, so let's just jump into it.
This week I began working on learning the notes that were not part of the main phrase of the song. This has been a difficult task to complete this week, but I feel like I have made great strides. In terms of the actual progress I have made, I have learned to play the first refrain. The most struggle I had through this process was having to do it all by ear. I couldn't look the notes up because websites that post the notes only post notes for the chords. Other than that, I didn't really have any other struggles when learning this part of the song. As of now, I can't quite take it at full speed but that is something that I have been working on. I have not worked on the solo any, but there is still progress being made frequently. I am starting to feel better about having to learn the solo by ear after this week. I have realized that while learning the notes by ear may be difficult, it is not as bad as I originally anticipated. I believe if I sit down and listen to the song with the guitar in my hand, I will be able to learn the notes in no time. Overall this week was actually pretty productive. I learned the first major part of the song that isn't the main riff in the song and it didn't take me as long as I initially thought it would. I haven't made any progress on the solo, but after my strides towards the main verses this week I am feeling better about working on it when I do. So until next time, my name is Joel McLaughlin and I will talk to all of you later. My name is Joel McLaughlin and I would like to officially welcome all of you back to my blog. This week we will be talking about progress that I have made so far on the song "Broken Bones". We will talk about things I have done really well, things I have had trouble with, things I am worried about learning, and much more. So let's get into this weeks update.
Over this week I have actually made a lot of progress towards being able to play this song. I'd say one of the biggest strides in progress that I have made is that I can now play the main chorus of the song on my guitar. This us an essential component to the song, and if you want to play the song so people can enjoy it then you have to be able to play it well. This phrase in the song is not necessarily difficult, but I do believe it will take some time to be able to play is full speed. I have Also begun to make some progress this week with listening to the notes that I need to play for the other verses. One thing I have realized this week is that it is going to be very difficult to learn the solo by ear. The solo itself has a variety of notes, is very rhythmically complex, and it very technically complex. Overall this week I am proud of the strides I have made towards my end goal. I got one of the key components to the song learned, and I began learning some of the other notes. Although I am beginning to think that the solo is going to take more work than I originally anticipated. So until next week, I am Joel McLaughlin and I will talk to you all later. Hello everyone, my name is Joel McLaughlin and I would officially like to welcome you back to my blog. This week I will be informing all of you on the good news and progress that I have made over this past week. The biggest thing I will be updating you all on is the song selection I have made since last week when I decided to play a song that I didn't have to sing along to. I will also give you general information on that song and how I will be playing it. So, lets get into it. The song I ended up deciding on was "Broken Bones by Kaleo". I have loved the feel and the overall passion in this song since I heard it for the very first time, and when my good friends mom offered to let me borrow an electric guitar, I couldn't help but thinking about playing it. Then the opportunity presented itself to legitimately learn the song due to my worries of not being able to learn singing and playing at the same time. I couldn't turn down that opportunity to learn something so amazing.
This song while technically not as difficult as the song I was originally going to do, makes up for it in other areas of technique that will make it just as difficult to learn. For example, this song has a lot of technical fingerings that have to be played in quick succession. This requires me to even further build up my finger strength. Another challenging task that will be faced in this song is related to the words being sang. Since I will not be singing the words that go with the song, I have decided to play the notes of words in certain places. The problem arises with the facts that those notes will have to be learned by ear considering that I can only find the notes for the chords online. I think the single biggest potential issue when learning this song is the guitar solo halfway through. The solo is easily the most technical and most difficult part of the song, so learning it will definitely take a lot of practice and repetition. Overall though I am very excited to learn this song that I have been in love with since I first heard it. I know it will take a lot of technical work, practice, and repetition, but I am willing to put in that work to produce a final product that will entertain those watching. That is all for this week, and as always, I'm Joel McLaughlin and I will speak to you all later. Hello everyone, my name is Joel McLaughlin and I would like to officially welcome you all back to my blog. This week I have some semi disappointing news about this project. Things that are disappointing can lead to even greater success s while I am slightly upset, I am also excited. So lets get into it. After this week I have come to the disappointing conclusion that I will not be singing and playing for my final presentation. As much as I would like to and as much as I believe that I could do it potentially with more time, I think the time constraint and the nerves would get to me too much to sing in front of multiple classes. I despise talking in front of one class, but multiple would just make my voice crack and then the entire project would be a bust. I am now leaning more towards the idea of playing the entirety of a more complex song, without singing the lyrics. I have a couple songs in mind that are technically difficult, and require me to learn some new skills from my brother in-law that I have never used before. some songs that I have in mind are "Broken Bones by Kaleo", "Life's Been Good by Joe Walsh", "Otherside by the Red Hot Chili Peppers", and "Hot Blood by Kaleo". Some of the technical things I would have to learn to play these songs include string bending, finger movements, alternate fingerings, and playing technique.
As disappointed as I am that I will not be playing and singing for my final presentation, I am also extremely excited to see what new things I will learn and how this will help me grow as a musician. I have many ideas in mind and I'm excited to see what I can produce by the end of the 12 weeks. That's all for this week, I am Joel McLaughlin, and I will talk to all of you next blog. Hi my name is Joel McLaughlin and I would like to officially welcome you back to my blog. As excited as I am to give you an update, I regret to inform you that I don't particularly have too much to update you all on. This week has just been a lot of the same things that the past weeks have been, but a few things have changed that I would like to take note of.
One of the biggest things I have noticed over the last couple days of playing guitar is that singing and playing simultaneously is a very difficult thing to do. The only major thing that I have been playing whilst I sing is chords and I am still having trouble. I can't imagine what it would be like to actually be playing a complex rhythm and have to sing the words at the same time. I'll just have to see how my progress on that goes over the remainder of the project. Another big thing I have noticed this week is that I am having a little bit of trouble narrowing down one specific song that I want to practice. While I am focusing more of my efforts on a specific few song, I find myself constantly wanting to attempt to play new things. There are way too many songs out there that interest me which ends up diverting some of my practice time. Overall though I have still been making good progress on the music I am practicing, finger strength, cleanness of my actual playing, and remembering what each note is. This week has been pretty good, but I have began to notice a few more struggles that I have been having such as singing and playing at the same time and picking one specific song and playing it until I master it. Aside from those struggles, I have been generally improving my basic guitar skills. That's all for this week, I am Joel McLaughlin and I will talk to you all later. What is up guys, Joel McLaughlin back again with today's blog post. Today we will talk about the insane amounts of progress I have made on not only one but many other songs. We will also talk about something amazing that happened to me this weekend, so lets get into it. Lets start with the amazing thing that happened to me this weekend. I happened to be at my good friend Adams house when his mother brought out an electric guitar. This weekend she allowed me to borrow it for as long as I see fit. This opens up whole new possibilities as to what kind of things I can play, and even how I practice. Practicing later in the day can be difficult due to the loud nature of the acoustic guitar, but with the electric guitar you have the option of not plugging it up to the amp. When not plugged up to an amp the electric guitar is very quiet which is perfect for a day when say someone in my house has a headache. The electric guitar also opens up more genres to play such as more rock titles. In terms of my progress this week, it has been very plentiful. The chords and main part of "Morning Song" are coming along well. This week specifically I have been focusing more so on other songs that I will end up playing in some fashion in the future. Some of the songs I've been looking at are "Sweet Creature by Harry Styles", "Otherside by The Red Hot Chili Peppers", and "Broken Bones by Kaleo".
There hasn't necessarily been any other struggles in this week that I haven't already experienced. My finger strength is becoming greater and my skill is growing each and every day. That's all for this week, my name is Joel McLaughlin and I'll talk to you all soon. Welcome back everyone, my name is Joel McLaughlin and I'd like to start off with apologizing for getting this blog out late. Life has been pretty crazy and inconsistent lately so this week I will be doing this weeks and last weeks blog. First I'd like to start off with talking about last week 10/7/18. Last week I mainly focused on mastering the basic skills of the guitar, but also started to incorporate future songs (such as Morning Song by The Avett Brothers) that I will play in my free time, for my final presentation, and for this blog in the future. The song I focused mainly on this week was obviously "Morning Song" seeing as how I will most likely end up using that as my final project. In terms of what I practiced in that song, I mostly worked on the beginning riff and the chords that are played throughout the majority of the song. Then I began to work on putting those chords into practice with the song as to get a better feel for how and when to play them. I even began to start singing some of the words along with the song, while playing the chords.
I will say last week I had a few more struggles than I had in the beginning week, including previous struggles and new struggles. The recurring struggle throughout this process so far has definitely been in regards to finger strength and pain. Finger strength is something that will take weeks of constant practice to develop, so as of now my constant playing is painful on my fingers (especially middle). A newly arisen struggle with this whole project would be approaching singing. My brother in-law and guitar teacher Preston said it took him years to efficiently develop his skill of singing and playing at the same time, so that makes me begin to question how well I'd be able to sing in front of others and play at the end of 12 weeks. In terms of singing and playing I believe my biggest fault so far is not being able to as efficiently sing a specific pitch without the song being played in the background. The guitar lessons and practice have been overall going well. There haven't been too many major issues so far. In terms of whether or not I'll be able to grasp the singing and playing, only time will tell. That's all for this blog post, I'm Joel McLaughlin and I'll talk to you all soon. |
Genius HourMy name is Joel McLaughlin and this will be the website for my blog for the next 12 weeks. I will be taking lessons from my brother-in law to try and learn to play the guitar. Archives |