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.
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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 |