Music has been my passion since a very long time. I am already learning keyboard since 7 years and I wanted to expand my musical knowledge into a new instrument, guitar. So I made my mind to start learning the guitar. I decided to take up guitar in my AS class in school. This was a CAS experience in which I was motivated throughout and did not need any external motivation due to my passion for music. I also purchased a guitar to practice at home.
LO 1: The strength I had here was that since I have played keyboard for so many years, I knew the basic music theory. I knew things such as all the notes, and what notes are needed to make up chords. This made it very easy for me understand how the same theory is applied in this instrument. With such understanding, I was also able to easily remember the basic open chord shapes such as C, A, A minor G, E, E minor, D and D minor. I was also able to understand how these same shapes can make barre chords. My only weakness was that I did not have enough finger strength at the beginning but with practice, I was able to overcome this weakness too.
LO 2: Playing the guitar for the first few days was exceptionally challenging as pressing the strings with the left hand made my finger tips pain. However, as I played more and more, the skin in my fingertips became rough and the pain reduced. The second challenge I face was fluently shifting between chords. I was taking so much time between shifting chords that I was missing the beat. But with practice, the muscle memory in my fingers kicked in and chord shifting became easier. Lastly, I was having a lot of difficulty playing barre chords such as F and B minor. I was not having enough strength in my index finger to barre the chords. But again, I was able to do it with practice. I overcame all these challenges by practicing more and more and overcoming these challenges made me feel very good as I could progress by overcoming these challenges.
LO 4: Commitment and perseverance was necessary for this experience as I got a bit frustrated at the start when I was not having enough finger strength to press the string properly so that it is not muted or buzzed when played. Also, learning to play difficult chords such as the F chord took more time and perseverance was needed in order to learn it and not give up. I practiced, stayed committed and was able to play such difficult chords.
All in all, learning to play the guitar was a really fun experience for me. I will continue learning this instrument as I am still very much interested in it and have a lot more to learn. Guitar helped me grow my musical knowledge and learning it made me feel very good.
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