Earlier this week I have been looking for different ways to play fingerstyle on the acoustic guitar, and I found something odd. I found fingerstyle ukulele. I was intrigued so for my birthday I bough me a ukulele. I don know how this is going to go but I think it will be a little bit easier than guitar because guitars go from 6-more strings. The ukulele can go to 3-5. The standard is 4. Even though the guitar is 6 strings you only use 4 of your fingers, the ukulele uses 3 fingers because its a little bit easier to hold and grasp the strings.
I watched videos of other videos like banjos because they are more difficult to play but they also have 4 strings like a ukulele, but there is a 5th string in the middle of the neck so you have to remember that it is there. Now you have to use picks for each of the fingers because it would be hard to just use the finger tips. Why am I talking about this? Well I am talking about this because even though fingerstyle is just a way of playing, there are different rhythms and how how to handle the instrument while doing it. Fingersyle is an art form of music not just using your fingers to play single notes. take careless whisperer for an example. You have to play and shape the music in order for people to be interested in the style. If you just sound like you are playing notes in the same way like forte or piano, then it will sound boring. In careless whisperer you shape it so you can hear what the player is actually doing so it can go through the audiences minds. Playing Guitar in this style is one of the hardest to learn to play and I am going to try my hardest to get the best sound out of my playing.
0 Comments
Over the last few weeks during this progression of my project, I have ran across so bumps in the path that could mess me up. So I looked up eight tips that could help me improve my progression over this time.
#1. Get into the groove of things. At the beginning of this project I really want down with the music at first. But when I kept playing it over and over I started liking it more and more. Once you get into the groove of things the first layer of the song would melt like butter. It started to seem getting better and better every time when I started getting into the groove of things. #2. Slow down when you practice. When you are practicing a piece of a song you need to get down in order to play the piece slow way DOWN so you can get it down. When I started playing I missed so many notes. So i slowed down the tempo that I was playing at and it worked! I've been working on " Time is running out" by MUSE, and I love the main rift but it was hard so I slowed it down. Learning songs are hard but slowing down the part you need makes a BIG difference. #3. Never give up on what you are trying to play. I've been wanting to change what I have been playing so far. I have played over 10 songs but only 2 have stuck, "I see fire" and "Time is running out." only one of them is Fingerstyle and the other is a different style. Later on I am going to tell the difference from Fingerstyle and Pick style. I've been wanting to change the style but I am committed to what I am playing. I never give up on things I am trying to get better at. But to everyone reading this NEVER give up. I decided to start working on the second part of the song " I see fire". So far it has been turning out the way that I thought it would turn out. The main rift is basically the main part of the song. You technically play that through out the whole song.
So the second part of "I see fire" is Just playing the 6th and 3rd string at the same time slowly. The second part deals with these chords, Am7, Bm, D, G, Em, and C. I never really played Am7 and Bm chords but I'm starting to get the hang of it. I am going to need to practice these chords alot to get them down. Anyone can play a popular song with just D, G, Em, and C. Why not with this one? well its more up on the difficulty scale so that's why you can't just play with just those 4 chords. Playing these chords sound amazing together. I think this song is going to be awesome! I cannot wait to prove myself that this can work out. My progression is coming slowly but surely. I put some on social media to get feedback and most of it has been really nice and inspiring me to keep pushing myself to become the best guitar player I can be. Previously on my last blog, I had to pick from "I see fire" or "Evil Morty Theme". So far I practiced the first main measures of the evil Morty theme. I liked how it started to sound but the main rift was pretty difficult. I spent half the week on this song and the other one. I decided to just stick with the first song I picked.
I see fire is one of my favorite songs due to the rift. I will be posting the main rift on the "My progression" page. I have not posted on the page due to difficulties of finding a way to get it from my phone to the page. I will be making this up to you guys. Now the melody of the guitar is the best thing in my opinion of a guitar. The melody of "I see fire" is the biggest part of this song. It's also the main rift. now I have been working on the hammer-ons and it seems to be getting better every time I play. I cannot wait to show you guys the progress. The second half of the song is on the way. I thought it would be better to work on the rift than the second half because you need the main part to be perfect. The next blog will be talking about the second part of the song. For the next part of this journey is how I am going to completely start adding the next few chords over the the ones that I've been learning at the same time. If you didnt understand that then it means if you play the 3rd string on the guitar then you add the 1st string with it so it sounds cooler. So I have been practicing the first main rift in the song " I see fire" because if I don't get this part completely pat down, then the song work work out. I really want to get this right cause if I do not, then what is the point for this project?
Why did I pick this song? Why i picked this song is because it is from my favorite movie from the Hobbit Trilogy. Also the singer who performs it is one of my favorite song writers and guitarist. Even though this song looks really easy in the tabs, it is really not. For how you have to keep the exact same tempo and moving your fingers on the different strings really fast is hard. I did not know that doing hammer-ons on the guitar would be different than an electric guitar. For adding the extra plucks of the strings on the guitar is pretty fun learning because if you are getting better at the guitar , then I feel like I am making a lot of improvement and I am proud of myself for that. This project for my genius hour is going to be fun. I was debating before writing this blog if I should change it because there is not a lot of finger style in the beginning of the song, therefore I was thinking of learning of playing the evil Morty theme from "Rick and Morty" which is an amazing finger style cover that you can look up on youtube. I know I have to pick one but I will try to learn both and figure out which one to play. Once I know which song to choose by the end of the week I will post it in my next blog. "Why learn finger style on guitar" some people ask me this all the time, well for my genius hour project I am learning this so I can prove to myself that I can become a better musician by learning this, and it is more of a challenge to shape the music to sound amazing.Most of my family members learned guitar over their lives and so I kinda got into it I guess. My mentors for this journey was my grandpa, and AcousticTrench. AcousticTrench is a famous Youtuber who plays finger style guitar and he makes it sound beautifully. Understanding the type of style by learning this could make me a better musician.
The difficulties of learning this style of guitar playing is remembering how you need to change the chords but also plucking the correct string so it sounds perfect. Also about this difficulty is keeping the tempo at the constant speed so you don't ruin the song and make it sound terrible. On my Progression page, I will be posting one video per week so i can look from the beginning of my progression to the final video. My materials that will be used in this project/journey will be my own acoustic guitar (recording kings), a capo and a guitar strap. the song I picked to play through my journey was " I see fire" by Ed Sheeran. How I will be defining my projects success is by playing the song cleanly and performing it to my class at the end of this project/journey to prove how finger style can work. I have started this journey by learning the intro "I see fire" cause you have to start somewhere. My main steps to learning this song over the next couple of weeks is keep practicing the same things over and over till I get them right in a short little clips so I don't overwhelm myself with learning a lot in one sitting. This is my first blog and i will keep you guys posted. |
|