( lO1: Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth; LO 3:Demonstrate how to initiate and plan a CAS experience; LO 4: show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experience )

I have always been a keen learner when it comes to knowing more about music. From listening to music I decided to step up and take up the challenge of learning an instrument, Guitar. I even decided to take up learning vocals with guitar. I started this experience on 20th July 2021.
Throughout the period I tried to improve my skills, learn more about music, and practiced to make sharpen my skills. My goal was to learn and improve playing guitar and singing.
While starting the class, I had to organize myself and my schedule. I had to plan when I am going to have classes and I also had to take out time from my schedule for daily practices. It was very difficult to find a perfect schedule as I had many other extracurricular activities and academic work to do side by side. Planning my whole schedule made my work easy and punctual.

In the starting, I learned the basics of guitar, the strings and discovered the 12 notes of music. I learned various chords and strumming patterns on them. For singing, we started by practicing the notes on one scale every day. I used to sing the “‘Swaras” every day and also discovered different throat warm-ups to help me improve my vocals. After learning the basics, I practiced singing while playing the guitar to build my coordination with them together.

While learning guitar, I found out a lot about my strengths and weaknesses. When I started learning guitar, I did a lot of finger exercises to improve my grip and flexibility of my fingers. The exercises helped me a lot and helped me create a strength of having a very strong grip on the guitar. On the other hand, I also found out my weaknesses which were the bar chords. To improve my weaknesses I practiced, I took appraisals from teachers and worked on them. Vocals were my weakness from the start as I wasn’t able to hit a lot of high notes from the start. To improve my vocals, I used to practice vocal warm-ups for 10 minutes three times a week.

Throughout the process, I had to be consistent and persistent and continue this process for the long term. There were days when I wanted to bail out and just take a day off as it was difficult to commit 2 hours three days a week. Sometimes I wasn’t in the mood of attending music classes or sit down for my regular practice but I still had to force myself to work. But all the work at the end pays off as my regular practice makes singing and playing guitar easy and I get better and better at it.