Confessions of the guitar player
In September for my Digital project for EC&I 831 class, I decided that I was going to learn to play the guitar!
I must confess that after hours and hours of practicing, I am still not an expert at playing this beautiful instrument, though I am proud of how far I have come.
For this project, the song that I am learning to play is Féliz Navidad. I have always wanted to learn how to play the guitar; I just never really had the time or took the time to try. With the snow on the ground and Christmas around the corner, I hope that by the end of this project, I will be able to play the whole song in its entirety.
I have never in my life played an instrument. Growing up, I was into a lot of sports like swimming, ringette and volleyball. I have been playing the guitar for close to 13 weeks now. I have been watching You Tube video’s and have been learning the beginner’s lessons on guitar playing with the Acoustic guitar. Some more videos that I have enjoyed learning from are from:
He speaks in full Spanish while he teaches, but because I am fluent in Spanish, I have no problems in learning from him:
Another great video has been from Christian from www.christianvib.com
He has been clear on the finger placements on the strings and as well as timing your rhythm.
I am finding that I am still very stiff with my wrist, so I have been trying to keep my wrist freer while strumming. I have also recently found a soft guitar pick and this has been helping me with the strumming. Because of my short man hand fingers, I have also been working hard on the placement of my fingers.
Here is my face to face supplement in helping me with my guitar learning: Mr. Brian Warren:
I work with Brian at Thom Collegiate. I have been going back and forth with Brian, having him listen to me play as well as receiving supports, tips and advice from him.
Brian is a guitar and Native Studies teacher by day and a musician by night. You will see him playing drums in the video bellow with an awesome band called Andino Suns.
Check them out:
Here is a little clip of my progress thus far and with humming….because I can’t sing. But eventually for my final video, I will sing along while playing the guitar!
Thanks!
Krista