Technology and Innovation - Alyssa

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Category: Free Inquiry

Final Demonstration Growth – Chasing Cars

This is my final demonstration of growth with the song Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol.

This song was very different from the last one I learned as it contains fingerpicking, an aspect of the ukulele I had never experienced or heard of before. I found it quite difficult. I found that my fingers were very sore, and I would have to take breaks quite frequently as all of my fingers were hurting from doing the chords and fingerpicking.

Chasing cars included the chords AMAJ, AM7, and D. I found it quite easy to navigate from AMAJ to AM7 but very difficult to perform the chord D.  I think that this was really difficult for me as it required to have three fingers on one fret, and it felt very cramped. As you can see in the video, it takes me a few seconds to get my fingers correctly to D.

I also found that I did not have enough time as I would have liked to perform this song successfully. The last part of the semester was extremely course-heavy, and I did not have much time to practice. If I had more time to practice my navigation from AM7 to D, it would sound a lot better.

The introduction and the verse required only fingerpicking with the three chords. Fingerpicking was very difficult for me, but when I started to get the hang of it, it was pretty cool to do, and in my opinion, I sounded much like the real song. The fingerpicking requirements were to play 8 times on each chord. It was the first finger, and then the thumb, the second finger, and the third finger at the same time to get the correct sound.

For the chorus, it was strumming, which I am confident in within my last song Riptide. The strumming pattern was down, down, down, down-up. I also found it very easy to navigate from AMAJ to AM7 but difficult to go to D when strumming.

All in all, this song was enjoyable to learn, and I am thrilled I had the opportunity to experience fingerpicking.

I am really proud of myself as I was anxious I wouldn’t be able to play the ukulele at all, but with practice, muscle memory, and perseverance, I got both songs done at a pretty successful rate. I am confident in my skills on the ukulele that I could teach elementary school students the ukulele’s basics due to having to do this assignment. I am proud and thankful!

Chasing Cars

As the end of term approaches, I am working a bit harder each and every day with this song. This song is much more challenging than I anticipated.

It is harder than I thought because I had gotten strumming patterns and the chords down from Riptide, but I did not have any experience with fingerpicking. The fingerpicking pattern and speed vary, and I find it rather difficult to change chords while fingerpicking.

Although it is much harder, it is a lot of fun. When I do get it going and accomplish it, it sounds so much like chasing cars! It is so satisfying to be able to create the sounds as the song does.

I have also had a hard time with chord D. The chord D requires you to put three fingers on the same fret. I find it very difficult to maneuver my fingers in the correct places without taking a few seconds to get them there successfully.

I have been working strictly with the chord D lately so I can master it. It is extremely frustrating not being able to get there as fast as the other chords. My goal for this week is to successfully go back and forth from D to other chords without hesitation. I am hoping my muscle memory will start to memorize the finger placements more smoothly successfully.

Ukulele Progress- Chasing Cars

This week I made a lot of progress with my ukulele song Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol.

I am using the same teaching style as I did with Riptide. I wrote down all the chords I needed to know, and which finger goes on what string and made diagrams for me to refer to as I go through the song. The diagram also includes strumming patterns.

One thing I am having a really hard time with is the finger picking aspect of this song. It is not like anything I have done before, which is why it is so challenging. The youtube video I previously linked shows how to finger pick, but it is going to take a lot of practice to get the hang of it. Focusing on finger picking and the changing of notes is the hardest part I am struggling with.

I have also noticed that my fingers are getting more used to strumming and holding down the strings, but the finger picking requires a different part of my finger so those parts of my fingers are quite sore when I practice, which means an even less amount of practicing as I usually need to stop after five minutes of practicing.

I also got the opportunity to play in front of a few friends. I was really nervous to do so, but they were very supportive and gave me a few helpful hints. They also wanted me to teach them some of what I have learned from chasing cars, which really helped with my learning. I think as teachers we are always learning and I was definitely learning when teaching my friends a few things I know about the ukulele.

I am excited to keep getting better and better at playing this song.

 

Ukulele – Chasing Cars

The second song I am going to learn this semester is Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol. The chords are A, D, and AM7. I am excited to do this song because I really enjoy it. It is much slower than Riptide but has different difficulties and aspects. Due to learning riptide, I now have the ability to teach myself this song rather than getting a professional lesson. The difficulty with this song is that there is some fingerpicking instead of strumming within the verses and intro. The chorus strumming pattern is the same, being Up, Up, Up, Up-Down. This song is difficult in a different way than Riptide was. The fingerpicking aspect is going to take some time. This video I have provided explains how to play this song really well and I have started practicing already.

Along with this, I have created my own spreadsheet on the notes, where each finger needs to be when fingerpicking, and the strumming pattern. It is going to be difficult to do this song consecutively without stopping, but we will see how it goes!

I am going to practice 10 minutes a day until the end of the semester to show my growth with this song.

Musical Growth Blog / Video

As a beginner on the ukulele, my musical goal was to learn how to read basic music sheets and learn two songs. This is the song I decided I was going to know how to play by midterm. The chords included are A, G, C, and F. I have been tracking my progress weekly on this website, and here re the results.

difficulties:

I had a tough time with this. For starters, I have arthritis in my left hand, which is the strumming hand. I found I could not practice for more than 5 minutes a day before it started to feel sore. I could have gotten a pick, but I thought that would be learning how to strum all over again. As you can see, I put on a compression glove that seemed to help with the pain and thankfully stopped my fingers from hurting from strumming as well as there was a piece of cloth between the chords and my skin.

I had a tough time changing from A to G in this song. It took a lot of practice and muscle memory to form my fingers’ memory to do this more smoothly. Although it is not perfect, I definitely got better as time went on.

Another hard part about this song was that there were 4 different strumming patterns between the verses, chorus, bridge, and in between verse strumming. This was ultimately too hard for me to do consistently, which is why in my video, I have demonstrated that I can perform all of the different strumming patterns but not consecutively straight through the song. This is why I decided to make a few different videos of me making the verse, the chorus, the bridge, and in-between notes.

growth:

Ultimately, I am really proud of myself. I was hesitant to start and was having a tough time with this. I got a professional music lesson and used youtube to help me through this song. I then made a music sheet of my own as such:

I did this because I am not confident in reading music. I looked at this as I played my song, remembering where each finger should be for each chord.

Although I could not perform the song consistently throughout, I am really proud of my growth.

Ukulele Blog Post

This week is a big week for the Ukulele. I had my one lesson with a professional teacher, and I did not feel the need to get another.

I can now go from A, to G, to C quite fluently and smoothly. I have the first verse of riptide down with the strumming pattern. This song is difficult as it is the same 3 notes, but it has different strumming patterns throughout. I think that this is the hardest part for me and something I have been working on everyday. I made a cheat-cheat for myself as I am playing what to look at.

I have the notes, the strumming patterns with a U and  D meaning up or down. In Riptide, you go through this pattern 4 times, then 6, etc. So, I have this on a piece of paper in front of me.

I also have found that my finger is really hurting if I play more than 10 minutes a day, which is hard because I still have a long ways to go. I also have arthritis in my hand, which makes the strumming that much more difficult as I am finding my hand is starting to hurt quite fast as I am trying to practice.

This week is also mid-term week for my music growth. I have to take a video of me playing my song. This will be difficult as I do not think I am ready, and I may have set my goal a bit too high with this song as it is much longer than most we had to choose from on https://musicplayonline.com/.

reading music

Ukulele Progress

First Lesson

I am so glad I decided to get lessons for my ukulele progress. As midterm approaches, I was feeling really unmotivated and frustrated with my progress. There are so many different aspects of the ukulele you need to work on to be able to play the songs I have chosen; strumming patterns, chord changing, pace to strum, etc. To mention as well, I do not understand how to read music. This makes learning an instrument and a song really difficult. Luckily, my music teacher wrote a way for me to learn Riptide without knowing how to read music.

I am not going to share this on here due to it being his writing and I do not have his consent, but I will explain how this is done for my future teaching.

Because this is a three-chord song, he wrote down each chord, and wrote the strumming patterns in ” U, D, U, D”, meaning up or down for strumming on each note. He also put a line for me to know there is a break. He also put the notes underneath with a picture of where they are on the ukulele, where which finger should go using numbers, and it has helped tremendously. I am thankful for this as I can use this in my future teaching if a student is having difficulty with reading music as well to start out. This is going to take some practice, but I believe I will be pretty close to being able to finish this song. The difficult part is the strumming pattern and pace changes, and going from A to G is difficult. Practice will help every day!

I now know what chords are, where my fingers should be, and how to strum along with this song. I just need to get up to the pace and work on changing the chords quicker with my fingers as this is really difficult for me at this time.

Photo by Zack Smith on Unsplash

Lessons

My lesson got cancelled due to the snow..

I have been attempting easier songs with only one chord and strumming along to get the hang of the chords but music is really hard.  https://musicplayonline.com/ukulele/ has many easy songs that I could learn, but I still can’t read music and it is hard!

Learning an instrument is hard. I am going to need these lessons to show any progress in the upcoming weeks before midterm.

 

ukulele strings

Ukulele Update

Ukulele Week 4

Now that the semester is at full speed, I am finding it hard to find time to teach myself the ukulele. I have now made the decision I am going to get lessons over the reading break to play catch up. I think this will be really useful because I need to learn two songs. I think if I get lessons for the first song, I will easily be able to teach myself the second one having the tools to do so.

I am also trying to teach myself the basics from the website our music professor has provided us with this awesome website. This website is really useful as it provides teachers and students with many music outlooks. It has activities, lessons, beginner songs, tuning, everything a beginner music teacher could learn is on this website. This website will be extremely beneficial to my teaching career for incorporating music into the classroom.

I am going to be getting ukulele lessons from a local shop here in Victoria. I have heard very good things and I am excited to get started with it.

I also have been attempting to teach myself off of youtube. I found a ukulele instructor that is quite helpful and has tutorials of the songs I want to cover.

Although this video is a little advanced for where I am right now musically, after I get my lessons it will be a great tool to master the song with. He also has many other tutorial videos for many different songs for various age groups and genres.

Photo by Nur Taufik Zamari on Unsplash

Ukulele

This week was a really busy week academically. I unfortunately did not have a lot of time to work on my ukulele talents. With that being said, in music class we had to come up with a personalized growth plan. This entials our success over the semester. I have made the decision to learn two songs this semester. One being Chasing Cars by snow patrol, and the other being Riptide by Vance Joy. Both of these songs are going to be challenging, but they are songs that I do enjoy. Hopefully because I enjoy them I will be motivated to learn them more quickly. My goal is to learn one song by mid term, and both of them fluently by the end of the semester. Stay tuned!

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