Blog Post 4-Third Lesson 3/30/16

As most guitar players focus on using chords to play music, I decided to start working on those. This meant that we would be able to play basic songs with similar chords, varying strumming patterns. As of right now, Talia knows the basic chords such as F, Am, Em, G, and C. Chords like sharp chords or any form of B chords are more complex and often require using a capo (a clamp fastened across all the strings of a fretted musical instrument to raise their tuning by a chosen amount). I myself am not yet comfortable playing these chords, so I think I will wait on teaching them to her. She is very eager to start playing with chords, because it is more common and really fun once you get the hang of it. The next step is continuing to play chords and learn various strumming patterns that will turn basic chords into songs. I am personally really excited to start playing songs with Talia. 

* There are a variety of different strumming patterns and options for different songs are endless. When I was teaching myself different patterns, I used a video I found on YouTube by a guy who does online guitar tutorials. He went over a few basic strumming patterns and gave song examples, so I used this video to help teach. For anyone who is interested in learning guitar, I highly recommend his channel youtube.com/RipTard. https://youtu.be/r5MxIANvsA8* 
Many different types of capos used to play more difficult chords: 

Blog Post 3- Second Lesson 3/23/16

To follow up on our first lesson, I taught Talia the top 3 (Low E, A, D) strings of the guitar. She now knows the basics of the note names and how to place her fingers. We also reviewed the contents of last weeks lesson, because she didn't feel entirely comfortable with the what we learned last week. I quizzed her on different notes and now she can play each note correctly in order. Along with learning the notes, we also went over 2 basic chords; C and G7. This is a little bit of an introduction into our next few lessons where we will be working on how to play different chords. I am also going to go over strumming patterns with her because they are unfamiliar. Personally, I am getting more comfortable teaching guitar and I am finally getting the hang of phrasing things in an understandable way, which is something I am trying to work on. Although, I have not taught very much yet, I felt very accomplished when she began to really grasp the concept and play notes without hesitation. So far, I have not thought a lot about my final product, but I know that I will include a video of us playing both a song with notes and a song with chords. This will showcase what I have taught her throughout the duration of the project.  

Blog Post 2- First Lesson 3/16/16

I had my first official lesson with Talia yesterday. I brought 3 books with me that I taught from: a book on chords, a book on basics, and how to teach yourself guitar. We started by tuning both guitars, and then got started on the first lesson: Notes on the G, B, and E strings. I explained how to place your fingers over each fret in the guitar for different notes. The placement and the note names "clicked" with Talia, but when I asked her to play some practice lines in the book, we realized something; she played trombone in middle school band, meaning that she only knows how to read music on the bass clef even though guitar notes are treble. This lead to some confusion, but I know that as we continue to learn more notes, it will become muscle memory for her, and she will know which string to associate with the written note. As of now, I have very high hopes that this will go well. I did not mind going over the sheet music and note names because I really enjoy playing guitar and helping others understand new concepts. Because that is basically what I am doing for my project, I am very excited to continue lessons. As of right now, I believe that I will be on track with my proposed action plan, but if I end up falling off track, I will just double up lessons and get help on catching up on the work.

Blog Post 1- Introduction 3/8/16

Hello and welcome to my Genius Project blog! On this blog, I will be documenting the progress of my project: "Pursuing Music as a Passion." For this project, I am teaching my friend Talia, a Summit Prep student, how to play the guitar. I am doing this in hopes that the positive effects that come from learning instruments will influence her to continue playing guitar even AFTER my project is over. I am very excited to share my passion with her and with those who view my blog, and I hope that I can encourage you all to also get involved in playing music, as it has many positive effects on overall intelligence, it makes you happier, and it's fun to do. 

My project: 

For my actual project, I will be meeting with Talia every week to teach her music lessons. She was in my middle school's band with me, so I do not need to teach her note names or how to read sheet music. However, I will be starting with simple things such as playing individual strings and basic chords. As we get further into the lessons, we will work on harder chords and begin working on a song, which I will record and present as part of my final product. Along with lessons, I will have my "student" fill out a reflection after each lesson to track her thoughts and feelings towards learning.