Thinking about how to Present

3/29/11

            I'm trying to decide on how I'm going to present this and put it all together. I know that I'm going to have a bunch of slide shows but I need to figure out what I'm going to put in each one, and get creative with it. I know I want to start off by saying why guitar? I want people to get a feel of who I am, understand my passion for singing, and my desire for always wanting to play the guitar. Then maybe another slide about how I choose the right song for me to learn and play. Then a slide show showing a video of me within the first month of learning so everybody could see how I improved once I perform my song. I'm going to make another slide show talking about what were my weaknesses throughout this experience, and then another slide show about my strengths. I'm also thinking about what we were told in class, how you should interact with your audience. I was thinking about having one of my friends come up, and me trying to teach them how to play a chord so the audience could understand how weird it is to hold a guitar and strum that chord for the first time. Then of coarse i'm going to perform the song I worked on for two months, and how much I grew. I will also have another slide based on my research about copyrights that I blogged about before this. I'm still going to look more into that. I'm still brainstorming ideas, but i'm getting a real feel to how this project will turn out, and i'm feeling confident.

Copy Rights?

3/24/11

      I've always wondered how it works when you want to take a popular song by a famous aritst, make it your own, and record it. I know that you get in trouble for doing it without permission so then how does it work? I researched information and found out that the right to record someone else's song is called "mechanical license", and you have to have one to do it otherwise its illegal. Usually its negoitated between the representatives of the copyright holder and the aritst of that song. If the negotiations fail, which is rare, the copyright contains provisions for a type of mechanical license called "compulsory licence" which gives anyone the right to record that song as long as notice is given to the songs copyright owners within 30 days after the recording is made and before it is distributed. This information can help me a lot in the future when I would like to make a demo cd.

First time performing in front of others

3/18/10

          Today I was at my friend Claude's house with a few other people and Claude was teaching me some things on his guitar. My friends really wanted me to show them what I learned so far so I performed for them my song. During mid way i forget completely how to strum and sing at the same time because it was very complex and hard for me to do. I now have to just practice really hard so I could be able to do it.

Progress

3/15/11

                  I've been thinking about my final project recently and how i'm going to put it all together. It makes me nervous thinking about it, because i'm not sure how i'm going to present it. I know that i'm going to do a slideshow but I've been brainstorming other ideas. So far i've been practicing the guitar for a month now, so I thought it would be a good idea to video tape me playing my song, and show the progress that i've made, and will continue to make.

                   I'm also setting a higher goal for myself. I'm going to try to learn another song on top of the one i'm learning now. I really hope that I can have time to take one of these songs to the recording studios and make a demo for myself.

Why Guitar?

3/8/11

                    I've only felt really strong passions for a couple of things in life and two of those are singing and music. I can listen to music all day long and never get sick of it. Music to me is like a way of life, and a deep understanding to everything in this world. Music is more than just sound. Ever since I was a little girl my favorite thing to do was to sing along to every song I loved. Growing up my voice just progressed and I knew that I was born to sing in this world. Playing the Guitar always intrigued me except I never did anything about wanting to play it. I think it's such a beautiful sound, and I always envied the people who could play and sing. For some reason I always thought that even if I took lessons I would never ever be able to learn, because it doesn't look easy. Then again one of the best things I know how to do is doubt myself. I'm so happy that I joined wise because it actually motivated me and gave me a chance to take lessons. I will never stop playing the guitar now that I started, its so addicting. Whenever I pick up the guitar I find that I've been practising for two hours and I didn't even realize. After I learned how to play the first thirty seconds of my song and was able to sing along with it, I felt so accomplished. It was one of the best feelings ever and I loved the way it sounded. I am going to keep practicing until I get to the point where I can look at any song and just learn how to play it in fifteen minutes! This will definitely be a life long hobby for me.

second lesson

3/4/11

      I had my second guitar lesson with Victor eighth period today and got to learn a little about strumming. It's starting to make a lot more sense and I'm seeing improvement! I wrote up some interview questions for Victor, and during our next lesson I'm going to ask him them because I forgot to bring them today :( I plan on practising a lot in the next week on what I've learned so far and try to get further into the song.

First Guitar Lesson

4/28/11

               I had my first guitar lesson with Victor this week! At first I was really overwhelmed when he was showing me all the chords and where to place my fingers. I felt like I would never get used to it because the placement of my fingers on certain chords felt really weird and awkward. After playing for a couple of hours the first day, I was able to put my fingers in the right spot and it felt natural. I practiced the chords and tried to strum a little bit on my own, but I need Victor to help me with that because it sounded off. I picked a song "Perfect" by Pink, and I learned how to play the first thirty seconds of the song. I'm really excited to have more lessons and become fluent in the guitar so I could sing along with it without having to concentrate so hard. Another thing I really had trouble with at first was switching from chord to chord because I had to think where to place my fingers next, but after practice it becomes easier everytime.