Category: EDCI306a
This is my blog for my Musical Growth Journey
Final Musical Growth Upload
I hope that you enjoy my final growth! I have worked hard this semester to develop my skills in chord transitions, practicing different strumming patterns, and playing more difficult songs than I’ve ever played before. I am really proud of the growth I have made over the semester, and this journey has made me more passionate about exploring my musical abilities. I hope to take what I have learned into my future as a teacher and as a musician.
While adventuring into the world of playing with another person, I discovered how difficult it can be to ensure that two of you are playing at the same tempo, as well as ensuring that both of you are executing the same strumming patterns. Although there were difficulties while playing with another person, I also think that I had a lot more fun playing and had more personality in my performance. David brought out a more musical side in me when we were playing together, and I am so happy to have had the opportunity to “jam” with him. Playing with other people is something that I’ve always shied away from as I was not confident in my abilities, but it is something I definitely want to explore further in my future.
I am incredibly thankful that this class and assignment reignighted my love for music, and I can not wait to bring that passion into my future classrooms.
Musical Growth – Busy Times and Busy Minds
These past couple of weeks have been incredibly busy for everyone, and I have been struggling to find someone to sing and play with. After some asking around, I have found a couple of friends that I am going to play Riptide with. I am looking forward to the recording process, and know that it will be tricky to ensure that everyone is playing at the same tempo.
In terms of Somewhere Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World I have been working incredibly hard to keep my tempo up, and executing my strumming accurately. When I am strumming as quickly as the song requires, I find that my hand is still struggling to follow what my brain is telling it to do, and my strumming can sometimes come out slightly messy. I hope that more practice will help my accuracy and flow.
Can’t Help Falling in Love has been both fun and slightly frustrating to practice. I am enjoying the fingerpicking, but the strumming for the bridge has been a slight struggle. I have never tried to incorporate dynamics into my playing, and the D-d-d-D-d-d patter has been difficult to execute. I have been working on playing through the bridge slowly, and then slowly speeding up the tempo, and I have found this process fairly helpful.
I am overall fairly happy with the progress that I have made over this semester, and I am excited to show you my growth in the upcoming video upload.
Music Growth – Falling in Love
Over the past couple of weeks, I have been working on playing the ukulele with a capo for Somewhere over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World, as well as learning Can’t Help Falling in Love with You. I have also been playing a lot of new songs to try and figure out what final song I would like to learn for this assignment. I am thinking that for my last song, I would like to find a one that I can play as a duet with a classmate. I have never really sung and played a stringed instrument with another individual, and I think that it would be a powerful experience for me to have.
Playing the ukulele with a capo is a bit of an adjustment. The strings are harder to strum, and you have less space on the ukulele to execute chord transitions. I find that it makes strumming slightly different as the strings are stiffer and it takes more power to execute strong strumming patterns. I have also begun to attempt to play the song up to tempo and I am finding it a challenge to gracefully transition between chords as well as strum with as much accuracy. Though, the more I practice the easier it gets.
Can’t Help Falling in Love has been a lot of fun to learn; it has always been one of my favourite songs. Finger-picking is a whole new concept to me and ensuring that I strum the right strings has been one of my biggest challenges. In addition, the transition from finger-picking to the strumming pattern has been slightly odd. Getting my finger and hangs to execute what my brain is trying to tell them is a bit of a struggle. The best thing about the song is it is in my tessitura and has been a lot easier to sing than my previous song.
I am excited to learn a final song and show my final growth.
Musical Growth – New Beginnings
Today we received our midterm assessments. On mine, it was recommended that I try using a capo in order to help with the range of the song. I have tried singing an octave higher and it’s pretty difficult for my voice, but the capo has made such a difference. When I have the capo on the second fret and play the song with a slighter quicker tempo it allows me to sing more on key and feel confident in playing Somewhere Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World.
It was also suggested that I attempt a couple of new songs for the final. I have selected Can’t Help Falling in Love with You. Ever since David taught me how to fingerpick, I have been obsessed with how beautiful it sounds. I have been using a YouTube tutorial in order to learn the strumming and fingerpicking pattern. The new chords that I am learning are B7, G7, and A7. The song is in 6/8 time, meaning that there are 6 beats per measure. If you are numbering the strings from the top (closest to your chin when playing) of the ukulele down, the fingerpicking pattern is [ 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 3 – 2] per chord when playing the verses. The strum pattern for the bridge is [ D – d – d – D – d – d ] per chord. “D” stands for hard strum down, and “d” represents a soft strum. The strumming is done with the thumb and is something I am struggling with a little given the fact that it incorporates dynamics, and the chords are also slightly difficult in that section of the song.
I am incredibly excited to learn more songs, and will hopefully learn more than just one new one.
Midterm Video Upload
I am excited to show you the progress I’ve made so far this term. Although I know that I have a lot more to learn, and listening to the recording of myself definitely highlighted that for me, I am far ahead of my growth plan! I am eager to hear the feedback, recommendations, and tips for improvement given the fact that I’ve taught myself ukulele and have not sung (other than in my car and around the house) for quite some time. I would love to add one or two more songs to my growth template for the remainder of the semester and see what else I can learn!
Musical Growth – Blog #3
Over the past couple of weeks, I have been focusing on playing and holding my ukulele properly. During the class time to practice our assignments, Anita came into the room full of my peers and I who were all practicing ukulele and let us know how to properly hold and play the ukulele. Since the beginning of my self-taught ukulele journey, I have held my uke on my lap, resting on my chest, and strumming in the middle of the body of the instrument. We learned that the proper way to hold the ukulele against your chest with your right forearm across the top edge of the lower bout. Your strumming finger should be able to comfortably reach almost to where the neck meets the body. With your left hand, you put the pad of your thumb on the top half of the back of the neck somewhere between the nut and third fret. Since adopting this new technique I have found that my ukulele stays in tune for longer and sounds crisper, and allows me to switch to new chords with more ease.
I am still having a small amount of difficulty singing the song, but have found that playing and singing along with the song, or a cover, helps me stay in tune throughout. I believe that I have stayed fairly on-track when it comes to following my growth template, and have learned some additional skills that were not outlined on the template. I am both nervous and excited for the video upload in a couple of days and hope that the process is relatively painless. I know that there is room for growth throughout this process, and I am intrigued to see where the rest of the semester will take me.
Musical Growth – Blog #2
This week we had time to work on our musical growth in class. It was such a wonderful experience to have peers that were working towards a similar goal as mine in the same room practicing. I was able to help some classmates out with their ukuleles, strumming patterns, and helpful tips for switching between chords. I find that helping and teaching others also helps me to learn and grow. I also got to learn some new fingerpicking techniques from my classmate, David. It was to one of my favorite artist’s songs, Breakdown, by Jack Johnson. I’ve always struggled with fingerpicking and learning those types of techniques from online or youtube videos, and I found it incredibly helpful to learn in person. I have overall learned so much from being able to collaborate with classmates, sing and play songs together, and learn from others.
For Somewhere Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World, in particular, I am still finding the chord Dm7 a battle. I find that it doesn’t necessarily sound pleasant within the song, and I tend to hum or sing out of tune when attempting to play it. I have watched a couple of different YouTube videos in order to try and play the chord properly, and think that the transition into it also needs some work. I have also attempted to watch more YouTube videos of different individuals singing the song, as well as listening to the original more often. Immersing myself in the song and rhythm is assisting me in my journey, as it allows to me have a clear idea of what I should be doing in order to excel in my performance of it.
Somewhere Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World
I have spent the last couple of weeks working through the chords and new strumming pattern for my growth project. I have found a couple chords in particular to be fairly difficult to remember and execute: Dm7 and E7. These two chords are both new, and tricky to transition smoothly into. I have watched a few YouTube tutorials on how to strum the song the way that Israël Kamakawiwo’ole does while he plays, and although I have used the “island strum” before, I have never tried to adjust to playing it with the first “down” just plucking the G string; I have found that I stumble from time to time to keep up that pattern. When the song transitions from Somewhere Over the Rainbow to What a Wonderful World the strumming pattern and chord progression changes slightly, and that is a part of the song that I have to pay more attention to. Another difficutly I am having is with the beginnings of trying to hum and sing the song. Some parts of the song are within my tessitura and others are quite difficult to sing in tune.
Overall I am thoroughly enjoying this musical growth journey, and love that I get to take time every day to develop my musical abilities and play such a beautiful song.