Where'd you go, Keith?

     Hello! This week, I continued practicing "Sweet Home Alabama". Once you make it past the intro, the rest is pretty simple. On the DVDs I've been using, once Keith has explained the notes and basics of the song, the video goes to another musician, who actually plays the song with you. Not only does it help to see how the song is actually performed, it's also nice because these musicians probably are still starting their careers and this is a good opportunity for some more exposure and publicity for their music. However, when I first played along with someone else, I didn't see these positive aspects.

Thoughts I had when Keith practically abandoned me:

• Oh, okay we're going to play the song now. It's, like, two notes. This should be okay. I got this.
• Wait where did Keith go?
• Who is this guy? Who are you and what have you done with Keith???
• Doing the into now. C major, alright, first finger on first fret on string number, wait watcha doing Not Keith?
• Why is this so fast?
• The intro is already done. Seriously, how was that eight measures?
• Huh, you may not be Keith, but you're a pretty good singer.
• I'm not even sure where we are now...
• Can we just pick one note, maybe? Just one? I'm okay if I can just leave my fingers where they are on the strings.
• Then we switch back and forth and my fingers are just UGH, and they get super confused and trip over each other.
• Aw jeez, that was not the right note. 
• Alright Not Keith, you keep on playing, I'm going to observe. And practice more. Like, a lot more.

So, what I took away from seeing a song actually performed with normal speed was 1) PRACTICE because the time it took me to switch between chords was long and pathetic, and 2) the rhythm and tempo can completely change the song. When Keith went through the song earlier, I could hear it, but it doesn't really become the full on song until you add in the rhythm and changes in volume (which I think are called dynamics?). I'll be working on this, as well as transitioning between chords. 

Bye!

-Sarah

Where the skies are so blue

     Hello again!
     First off, I apologize for that photo that just doesn't want to cooperate and show up on the page. I didn't mean for it to be that mysterious. I will figure out this technology thing eventually, but for now, I will just tell you that it was just a photo of a box shaped like a trapezoid so it could hold a guitar. Nothing too exciting.
     Anyways, I have continued to make baby steps! The first Keith Urban DVD lesson used the two chords I learned  last week for the song, "Live to Love Another Day", by Keith himself.
     I'm going to be honest, this wasn't one of my favorites, because 1) I'm not familiar with this song (sorry Keith), and 2) it just had the two chords and even thought that was the extent of my skills at the time and it's still a good song, two chords was...not boring, but just...let's just say less engaging than desired.
     Although I wasn't overjoyed with the song, it was a very good one to start with. It was simple, but still good practice and it still made me feel like I was making music. I can't expect to pick up a guitar on day one and just magically start rocking out. Rome took a while to get built, people! And I'm pretty sure it'll take even longer for me to learn how to work this guitar thing. Just got to keep reminding myself: Baby. Steps.
     The next song, however, I did enjoy playing. I've heard it before, because it's "Sweet Home Alabama" for crying out loud and even people that aren't really into country (such as myself, I admit) have heard it. If you haven't, I beg of you, leave the rock you are currently living under and please go google it; it's a fun song.
     The other thing I liked about this song was that it was much more interesting and it was more complex than just a sad little pair of chords, without being so complicated that it made my head spin. When I finally figured out its famous introduction riff, I really felt like I accomplished something and made actual music.
     Keith was actually talking about this at the start of the lessons. He said that there's a moment for every musician when all the notes come together and you play a real song and something clicks. That's why the curriculum of the DVDs is focused on working on a song each time rather that doing boring old music theory and arpeggios  (not that those aren't just as important!) According Keith, that's when most people quit, so he's arranged the lessons to be quitter-proof, or at least quitter-resistant.
     So that was this week's baby step: finding my moment. I'm not an expert at the song yet. I'm still working out the chords and strings to pick (did I mention I've graduated from just strumming to picking strings as well? Yay!) The hardest thing for me at the moment is transitioning between chords, but I think I'll make that next week's baby step.

Two chords down....

     Hello again! It's been a week(ish) and I've learned exactly two chords! And now you're saying,  that's nice, I guess, but what's so great about two measly chords? I know, it's not much progress, but it's progress nonetheless, and more than I would have thought I could do a month ago, so I am proud of my little baby step of progress. Of course, it wouldn't hurt if I practiced more often  and learned faster, but I'm just going to take this small victory.

     Anyways, this week on our 20 time day, I did not actually bring my guitar to school. It was early in the week, rescheduled for a test that happened on Friday, so I hadn't made arraignments for keeping my guitar somewhere yet, since I can't exactly lug it around with me all day. That would either result in a very broken guitar, or some poor kid getting a tooth knocked out in the hallway (I'm rather clumsy). I'll bring it next time.
     Instead, I read a book that I found at the local library called  Idiot's Guide: Guitar Theory by David Hodge. Supposedly it's "as easy as it gets". I was going to use it for the SSR (sustained silent reading) time we get in class for this project, but even though it seems like a very useful book, I don't think it will really help me all that much. I would want a book for beginners, but after reading the first couple chapters, I got the sense it was geared toward guitarists who, you know, actually know how to play a guitar. Instead of lessons on playing, it was more about applying, like real notes and music theory to guitar music.
     I did, however, google the author and check out the website he's the managing editor of and that did seem pretty useful for my current goals. There's videos and articles with guitar lessons and tips. It also includes how-to's for specific songs that I'll definitely come back to sometime. You can check it out at http://www.guitarnoise.com/.
     Perhaps I'll return to the guitar theory book once I've learned some more, but for now I'll stick with my back up book: The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien. It doesn't have anything to do with playing the guitar, but when our teacher said the books had to relate to our project, she used the word "relate" extremely loosely.
     Here's how I justified it: guitars are used to accompany songs, and in The Hobbit, there are dwarves...who, like...sing songs. I know. It's a pretty sketchy, convoluted justification, and some would argue that the dwarves don't even use musical accompaniment because they sing a cappella, but those people would be wrong. In the book they totally do use instruments. Page 13 guys, go check it out. (Yes, I went and checked for a page number. In addition to an aspiring amateur guitarist, I'm also a nerd.) I don't know why they did it a cappella in the movie. Maybe the prop department didn't want to go find instruments? Maybe Peter Jackson's just a devout Pitch Perfect fan?
     But, I digress. Back to my reasoning behind reading this. This 20 time project is all about taking some time that you wouldn't normally have, to do something that makes you happy and both making music and reading about gallivanting across Middle Earth make me happy. So there.
     Oh, and by the way, MY GUITAR CAME! There was a delay due to the awful weather, but UPS came through for me eventually and after a whole weekend of sitting in some UPS facility in Lexington, Kentucky, the large, trapezoidal box arrived at my door. More details and pictures later, but this post has already gotten rather lengthy, so I'll leave you with this photo of the mysterious box.
 

Talk to you later,
Sarah