#9: Back to the Routine

Progress:

In my previous blog post, I was blessed with the opportunity to learn guitar from my good friend Gigi Luu. She taught me how to play the chords for the song, Love scenario by ikon. although the task was too much for me to handle as a beginning guitarist, the experience exposed my bad habits and allowed me to reflect on my mistakes. After learning from an instructor that was physically there to fix my mistakes, I now have to go back to my usual routine of learning from YouTube videos. I decided to move on to the next lesson which taught me how to apply my basic knowledge of the major scale to the well known song, Happy Birthday.

In this lesson, i was taught how to play the song happy birthday in the key of a major. This song was played mostly on the 4th, 5th, and 7th fret. with the tab music pulled up in front of me, I started my attempt to play this song as smoothly as i could.

Reflection:

Before playing this song, i thought that i would have a hard time reading the tab music and transitioning between strings. however, I found it relatively easy to follow, and I didn't stumble upon strings as much as my previous experience playing the song Amazing Grace. it was easier for me to read what notes to play, and I also didn't have to put much thought in where to place my fingers. from this experience, i not only noticed progress but also some setbacks as well. i kept forgetting to alternate between down strokes and upstrokes. i also had a hard time transitioning between the 4th and 7th fret specifically. this makes my inflexibility more prominent and exposed. my tendency to forget to alternate between strokes also emphasizes my focus on just trying to figure out the basics such as where the notes are. despite this experience being easier than the previous ones, my bad habits are still my main struggles. these bad habits are slowly improving but not enough. tune in next time to see how i tackle these setbacks!!