Guitar - February 2013 - Always a joy

My guitar classes had temporarily come to a halt during the January examination period. However, after the exams, I have regularly attended my classes and continued independent practice. All my 1 hour class sessions were extended by a minimum of 30 minutes each for continuation of practice and this reflected my perseverance towards achieving my goal of becoming a fluent guitarist.

While the initial two classes this month were dedicated to practicing previouslty learnt skills on the same songs, the most recent classes were focused on developing new skills. These mainly included new classical guitar fingering and strumming techniques. As music is only limited by a man's creativity and ingenuity, there can potentially exist an infinite number of rhythm techniques which relate to a large variety of strumming patterns. I learnt three different strumming techniques and I practiced them with the pieces of musics namely 'Podmoskovnye vechera', 'Romanza' and 'Barcarolle'. I am also working on memorizing 7-8 guitar scales in order to increase my knowledge. However, this will take time not only due to the nature of tasks related to memorization, however, also (and mainly) because of my academic commitments in this last lap of my school career.

I feel that I am on track for achieving my semester and year goals. However, I feel that next month I must record some videos of myself playing music on guitar in order to create records of my development since the beginning of my guitar classes around one and a half years ago.

I am looking forward to guitar classes in March now. However, my independent practice continues irrespective of class timings.

Grade 12 - CAS goals

Major objectives for the year and goals for the 1st Semester

 
This post marks the beginning of the CAS programme for my final IB Diploma year. Returning from a refreshing summer break, I now plan to broaden the horizon for co-curricular activities by taking the previous year’s activities one step further.

 

Creativity:       

My main goal is to further develop my Guitar skills through continued lessons, learn new techniques to enhance and develop my music playing range, and increase my performance experience. 

Thus, I am going to continue learning to play the Guitar by attending hourly classes every weekend with my teacher Mr. Netaji and practicing on a regular basis. In this, I will:

• Be punctual - Attend classes regularly.
• Practice regularly.
• Enjoy the learning process!

To become a confident player, I will start recording some of the music I learn to play. For the first semester, I will upload at least 5 such videos onto my CAS blog. In addition, I will take part in at least two performances, either inside or outside (or both) of school. Both these tasks will be new challenges and shall help me to achieve my main objective.

Action:
The main goal I aim to achieve is improving my physical fitness level by increasing my stamina and improving my physique through Badminton, swimming, and regular exercises at home.
  

Hence, I am going to continue to attend Badminton sessions at the D.S. Senanayake twice every weekend. This activity has helped me to improve as a player as well as a sportsperson. Thus, I wish to continue these sessions as they provide a nice exercise environment between busy school days. They will also help me to fulfill my ‘Action’ criteria comfortably. By attending these sessions, I will become a more tactical and physically capable 'skilled' badminton player. The timings for these badminton sessions will be:

• Saturday – 7:00 am to 8:00 am
• Sunday – 7:00 am to 9:00 am 

For this activity, I will:

• Be punctual - attend class regularly.
• Utilize free time to do light exercises.
• Participate actively.
• Learn more and enjoy.

In addition, I will take part in at least one competition inside or outside school or attempt to represent my school in SAISA badminton.

Also, I plan to attend hourly sessions at the Thurstan College Swimming Complex at least twice every month. This program will continue to help me to improve my swimming as well as achieve my goal, i.e. to improve my physical fitness. I will always:

• Be focused.
• Be active.
• Raise the bar, i.e. try to do better every time.
• Work hard and have fun!

Service:        

My main objective for this domain of the CAS programme is to be well-involved with a particular service program at OSC and give my best efforts. I will achieve this by initially understanding the ethical implications and global importance of my actions, and subsequently taking responsibility, helping my peers, and planning and initiating activities in collaboration with them. 

Therefore, I will take part in the school’s Recycling service activity supervised by Mr. Ian Lockwood. The following tasks must be accomplished in order to succeed in accomplishing my goals:

• Be punctual and committed.
• Be focused.
• Participate actively.
• Help my peers.
• Take up new tasks and challenges.
• Learn and develop new skills.
• Enjoy!

In addition to these tasks, I will post monthly reflections with constant updates about my CAS related activities.

I look forward to a busy final year with lots of new experiences!

Creativity (May - 2nd June) - Guitar - No breaks needed when having fun!

This month, due to various holidays such as Poya day and Victory day, my weekly Saturday guitar class schedule was altered slightly. I had a single class in the first weekend, a double class in the second weekend, no class in the third weekend, and a single class in the third weekend. I punctually attended all the classes and was able to spend at least 1-2 hours per week for practice even though the dark clouds of exams were shadowing my time schedule. The main reason for this was that I enjoy playing the guitar and thus, spent my breaks practicing. Hence, I am wholeheartedly committed to becoming a nice and independent guitarist with the help of regular practice.

In my classes in May, I mainly learnt two new techniques. These were: using familiar chords while playing classical notation to play fluently, and using bass guitar chords and chord progressions for 'beginners' improvisation. I have been able to keep up with these and am satisfied with my progress.

As this month marks the end of Semester 2, this school year's Creativity programme (a part of CAS) also comes to a close. However, I am not going to miss any of my enjoyable guitar sessions during the two month summer, and am additionally planning to practice more in order to become a confident guitarist, strong enough to take part in school programmes next year. Also, I will be performing in a second programme with my guitar class peers during the summer and will be working towards that as well.

Creativity - Guitar (April, 2012)

Guitar was quite special this month. The classes this month were both 2 hour sessions in the first two weekends due to the important Vesak break in the country. I have been consistent in practicing my guitar skills and also punctual at attending all classes. In the recent classes, I have been learning and practicing a new blues tune. Its notation is given below.

I have succeeded in being able to read, understand and play the music fluently now. However, after listening to the original song, and as advised by my teacher, I need to improve in learning the various unique aspects of playing blues using classical notation. These include stretching notes at the end, improvising, and the use of tremolo. I have yet to learn all three of these and thus, I will be starting these next month. However, I have started to practice and learn these on my own using online tutorials, and have succeeded to an extent. I have to still gain speed in it though. Hence, I have been able to challenge myself by identifying areas of growth and working on them.

I am looking forward to continuing guitar practice in a similar fashion with new things to learn next month.

Creativity - Guitar: Stage performance - preparations start! (March, 2012)

March was a rigorous month for me as it was full of school assignment deadlines, test dates, and major project due dates. Amidst this pressure, I saved time to practice guitar at least two times a week for half an hour. With my commitment and dedication towards learning this instrument and fulfilling my passion, I improved in most of the guitar techniques and strengthened my playing skills. I attended all Saturday hourly sessions punctually and showed my improvement to my teacher as well. He was able to help me in analyzing my new strengths and recognizing areas of improvement. 

Other than that, another class stage performance will be coming in a few months time. Hence, I, with my classmates, practiced 8 new songs that will be performed with chord progressions and the strumming technique. They are:

• Unchained melody
• Always on my mind
• Nobody knows you when you're down and out
• It keeps rainin'
• Night shift
• Hotel California
• New Kid in Town
• Knocking on Heaven's Door

Other than these, I have been memorizing chord scales such as C Major, G Major and D Major.

I will also be performing 3 classical notations. These are:

• Purple Blues
• Boogie Blues
• A moderate shuffle blues tune (No name)

I have also been practicing classical notations such as Apache, Rasputin and Scarborough Fair.

Overall, I feel that I have practiced and done well this month. I hope to continue this next month as well and improve further by increasing practice during the April break! :)

Creativity - Guitar (January - February, 2012)

Guitar has become a new passion and hobby for me. I have practiced all the techniques that I have learnt, and can play all classical notations in one flow. I believe that this is a large accomplishment as I will now implement my playing techniques to strengthen my notation reading efficiency. 

During the vacation, I spent most of my time on classical tunes as it is a very complex method of playing the guitar, and this style is the one I will need to become very fluent and comfortable with. On the other hand, playing songs with chord progressions has become very simple for me as I have memorized all the chords and have also practiced quick transitions between them.

The classes in both the months were full of new and very interesting knowledge. I have practiced more than 10 chord songs in the class, and by commiting and dedicating myself to this activity, I have learnt to play many tunes and songs independently that I am passionate about. I have been punctual in attending all the classes and I am moving smoothly through this moderate phase of learning to play complex techniques on the guitar. It has been an exciting semester for me and I really enjoyed improving my previously gained knowledge with practice, and developing new guitar skills after accomplishing my goal of perfecting all the basics required.

I am now looking forward to continuing guitar classes in March!

"Creativity" - Second 'double' Guitar class!

It was a fun class today! In the beginning of the class, I revised all the classical guitar melodies that I had practiced. I was able to play all of the tunes except for "Lambada" quite fluently. This was because "Lambada" had been given to me in last week's class and due to 4 exams this week, I was only able to practice once. Hence, I spent time playing this tune correctly. Also, as this tune requires knowledge about counting beats, the teacher taught me the way to count beats by identifying notes. Later, I learnt to identify musical notes without using numbers. Learning to understand the notes will require memorization and constant practice. Hence, I practiced and memorized a few of these notations and their proper counting. After that, I learnt the difference between the Upando and Tirando techniques for the classical guitar. It was interesting to learn that stressing on the strings in different manners creates different sounds.

After practicing guitar for one hour, I spent half an hour doing finger exercises with my peers. The I then practiced playing a song called "Unchained melody" using the chords given by the teacher. After practicing the song for 10 minutes, I spent the rest of the session practicing the songs that will be played in the next performance. We practice these songs in every class in preparation for a program that will be organized by our teacher; however, the date of this show has not been decided yet.

Reflection:

As this was the last class for this semester, I believe that there has been a large progress in my guitar skills. I started learning guitar from the base level about two months ago, and now I have completed the basics of guitar and am moving towards the moderate level. I have been able to tackle this challenge successfully. I adhered to my CAS goals of the year as well as the goals for the first semester, and I have been successful in achieving my goals. It has been an exciting semester for me and I really enjoyed developing new guitar skills. 

I am now looking forward to continuing guitar classes in January after a practice-filled vacation!

"Creativity" - The 'double' Guitar class!

Today was a special guitar class. As there will not be any guitar classes in the last two weeks of December due to Christmas, there will be two hour session classes in the first two weekends. Hence, today was a two hour guitar class. In the beginning of the class, I practiced and performed the song 'Morining has broken' using the classical guitar notes. Then, after 15 minutes, I wrote down and practiced playing the famous tune 'Lambada' using the classical guitar.

After around 10 minutes, the teacher Mr. Netaji taught me and my peers the basics about counting notes and the different beats indicated by the symbols/notes. These were: Semi-breve, Minims, Crotchets, Quavers, and Semi-quavers. I was able to gain new knowledge about the instrument and also learnt more about the background of the classical guitar!

After the first hour, the rest of the session was dedicated to practicing acoustic guitar. We started by doing finger exercises such as the 'finger roll' which we had learnt last time, and other exercises which involved quick finger movement for changing chords. After this, we practiced playing a few songs using chord progressions. I learnt a few new chords today too, such as A minor and F# minor. After this, the class ended with an entertaining session of learning how to play the 'strong' chord progressions. These are chord progressions used by in rock songs by guitarists, who mostly use electrical guitars. However, the only difference between acoustic guitar and electric guitar in this case is that the electrical guitar can be connected to an amplifier to distort the sound!

Overall, it was a fun session in which I learnt about the background of classical guitar and also practiced well (committed) in order to be focused towards my semester goals for this activity. I am now looking forward to next weekend's double class in which I will continue to learn more about the classical and acoustic guitar, while also gaining experience by playing them with the proper technique.

"Creativity" -Guitar

It was an entertaining session today! The class began with strumming and chords practice. I learnt new strumming techniques which involved the 'finger roll' as well as pauses. I also learnt new chords today which I practiced by playing different songs with the class. After this, the teacher went into depth about the different types of cultural links of the instrument. While doing this, we enjoyed listening to our teacher play difficult Spanish Flamingo rhythms and Blues tunes. I also later learnt a few of these strumming techniques which require practice in order to become fluent.

Later, I spent 15 minutes of the session practicing classical guitar. I did not learn the chord progression playing technique for the classical guitar today. Instead of that, I practiced playing the tune of 'Morning has broken'. The teacher also taught us the proper technique of and posture for playing the classical guitar.

Towards the end of the class, we all spent time doing finger excercises. These excercises are important for getting the fingers fluent and strong. This would help for varying the volume of the tunes as well as the frequency/speed.

I am now looking forward to practicing during the week and then learning new strumming techniques for different cultural songs in the next class.

"Creativity" - Guitar

It was a fun guitar session today! In the beginning of the class, I played the tune of the song 'Streets of Laredo' which was given to me the previous weekend. I was able to play the tune quite fluently. Hence, my teacher gave me a new tune called 'Morning has broken'. I practiced playing this tune for approximately 20 minutes. My teacher has told me that I will be learning to play the classical guitar with chords from next class onwards as I have now been able to play classical guitar tunes by plucking quite fluently.

After this, I practiced playing different songs using chords and strumming techniques. This activity was intended to help me to both revise my chords as well as learn some new ones. I spent the rest of the guitar session doing strumming exercises that would help me strengthen my fingers. These exercises will help me to enhance and improve the sound quality while playing tunes and songs.

I am looking forward to gain new knowledge and learn more in the next class.

"Creativity" - Guitar

Guitar has become a new passion for me. In the one week only, I have become quite familiar with playing notes. I now know how to play the tune of "Love me tender" by heart at a speed comfortable for me, however, at this stage, I have not learnt to play it with chords. Presently, I feel that I need to practice regularly in order to improve and enhance my guitar skills. Here is a clip of me playing this tune:

A video of me playing my first newly learnt tune of a song called "Love me tender".

Duration : 46 seconds.

In class today, I continued my lessons on classical guitar. I practiced a tune called "Streets of Laredo". Its notations are shown below:

The musical notes for "Streets of Laredo".

After spending half of the session today practicing the new tune, I dedicated the remaining time to practicing playing chords, doing exercises to make the movement of fingers quick and fluent, and also attempting to play using different strumming techniques. I felt that today's class was quite motivating for me as at the end, I promised to myself that I will pursue guitar as a life-long hobby. For the next class, I will learn the tune called "Streets of Laredo", practice all the chords I have learnt, and also do the finger exercises in order to be able to enhance my guitar technique.

"Creativity" - Guitar

It was my 5th guitar class today. I had spent a fair amount of time practicing this week (showing commitment to my activity and my goal). Hence, as we started to practice playing the songs for the next performance, I enjoyed the session very much. I learnt a few new chords today too. These were C7, D minor, D7, E7, A minor and A7. Today, I started to learn to play tunes using the Classical Guitar technique. This was a new skill I developed. Hence, I started learning to play music manuscripts with the help of the string number and fret number indicated beneath the notes. I played the ode called "Ode to Joy" written by the German poet, playwright and historian Friedrich Schiller in 1785 using the notations as shown below:

The notation of "Ode to Joy" from my manuscript notebook.

While teaching classical guitar technique, the teacher Mr. Netaji emphasized on the practice required to make the plucking fingers strong and the tune more fluent. Hence, the rest of the class session was spent practicing different techniques to make the thumb (called 'p'), the index finger (called 'i'), the middle finger (called 'm'), and the ring finger (called 'a') stronger, to make the tunes produced by each of them more melodious, and to make them faster.

For the next class, I will practice all the chords I have learnt till now. Additionally, I will also learn some new guitar chords which involve the use of 'i', 'm', and 'a' fingers. Also, I will continue to practice the music notes in order to become more fluent with them, while also doing all the recommended finger exercises taught by Mr. Netaji today.

"Creativity" - Guitar performance!

It was a very exciting day for me today! There was no guitar class from 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. as my guitar teacher had planned a 2 hour guitar program in which all his students were participating (a total of 31 different songs were performed tonight!). The program named "Guitar Rhapsody" started at 7:00 p.m. in the Russian Cultural Centre Auditorium. However, there was a 2 hour practice before the start of the show. In the two hours, I practiced the chords and tuned the guitar that I will use. I enjoyed being part of the show as it enabled me to gain confidence while performing in front of a quite large audience. I performed "My Girl" by the Temptations and "Wonderful Tonight" by Eric Clapton with my class group. Hence, I developed a new skill by undertaking a new challenge. During the performance under the guidance of Mr. Netaji (my teacher), I was able to change the chords quite well (I have improved since the beginning), even though I did miss a few of the transitions which were to be done at a fairly fast rate. However, I believe that with practice I will be able to improve and enhance these skills, and by the end of the semester become quite familiar with the transitions between the first 10-15 chords I have learnt.

A photograph of me (seated first from the left side) and my class group performing!

  

A video of me (seated first from the left side) and my class group performing "Wonderful Tonight" by Eric Clapton. 

Duration : 4 minutes.

"Creativity" - Guitar

Today, I attended my fourth guitar class. It was a regular class in which I continued practicing the chords and playing various songs with the class. I felt that I had been able to focus on both my hands at the same time, i.e. by continuously strumming with the right hand and continuing to play with that hand while changing the chord with the left hand. This was a small accomplishment though as I will have to continue practicing this in order to make these chord changes more fluent and effective. For the next week, my task is to practice the songs "My Girl" by the Temptations and "Wonderful Tonight" by Eric Clapton. I will be performing these songs on Saturday next week in the Russian Cultural Centre Auditorium with my whole class group. This will be a new challenge for me and to undertake it, I am determined to raise my level in guitar by practicing well this week.

"Creativity" - Guitar

I attended the guitar class today at the regular timing, i.e. from 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. In the class today, I started by practicing playing the different chords. Then, I understood the concept of using numbers to play tunes. I learnt this notation as it was the first step towards learning to read the musical notation for guitarists. After this, I spent the remaining 30-40 minutes doing finger exercises. These finger exercises are given extra emphasis by my teacher as these are really important for one to be able to play confidently with perfectness. The finger exercises require one to focus completely on using all the fingers and to strengthen them in order to get the desired tune at a desired volume. At the end of the class, my homework was to keep practicing the chords and to learn the new chords such as D, A minor, A7 and B7. Also, I will be practicing to play the song "It came out of the sky" by Creedence Clearwater Revival this week using the chords given to me by my teacher. Hence, I hope that the practice I do this week will help me improve in playing the guitar.

"Creativity" - Guitar

It was my second guitar class today. As I had my previous class two weeks ago (last weekend was a holiday), I had a lot of time to practice at home. Hence, I dedicated a few hours to memorize the chords as assigned by my teacher.

Today, the class began with some chord exercises. I revised the chords I had memorized and learnt in the past 2 weeks. After that, I played some songs using the basic chords I learnt along with the whole class. I enjoyed this experience very much. 

Also, today I found out that playing a guitar requires both perfect hand and mind coordination. Also, to be successful, one needs to first practice with dedication. When playing a guitar, the right hand and left hand both have different roles. As I am right handed, my left hand is dedicated to holding the chords, whereas my right hand is dedicated to playing the guitar. The chords set up the tune for the sound to be produced and various techniques are used for the right hand to produce different frequencies and types of sounds. Both, the number of chords to be used and the playing techniques gradually develop with practice. Hence, the task to coordinate both the hands requires good focus.

Similarly, playing the guitar is sometimes hard for beginners (me too!). My left hand is positioned on the neck of the guitar and hence while holding some chords for a long time (these will become simpler in the future with more practice), the fingers get tired. Today, I got a blister on my thumb (which is "a sign of a good beginning" - as the teacher said).

I practiced 6 main 3 finger chords today. These are C, G, G7, D7, F and D. My task for this week is to practice these chords and play the song "My Girl" by 'The Temptations' using the chords advised by my teacher. In the next class, I will learn about the manuscript used to play a guitar and the meaning of the different notations. This will be my first class about musical notes. I will practice well this week in order to succeed in achieving my goal.

"Creativity" - Guitar - 1st class!

Today, I attended my 1st guitar class! It was quite an interesting experience for me to enter into my future classroom where a song was being played in chorus many students while the teacher led them by singing in a jolly tone. The class began with me learning about the basics of an acoustic guitar. I learnt identifying the strings on the guitar with my fingers. Then, I learnt the various guitar chords. I spent the whole class practicing the first four chords, i.e. C, G7, F and D7. I was able to understand the hand positioning by the end of the class. My task till the next class on 8th October is to learn and practice the chords: C, G7, F and D7.

"Creativity" - Guitar

I have successfully been able to arrange a guitar tutor. Mr. Netaji Wickremesooriya will teach me 4 days each month on Saturday's from 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. starting on the 24th of September, 2011. I believe that this new task that I will undertake will enable me to learn the instrument as a form of art by heart, while also gaining knowledge about the culture(s) from which the Guitar originated!

Mr. Netaji's personal blog - http://netajiwickremesooriya.blogspot.com/