Let's Play Some Guitar.

I chose to look into a certain style of the guitar today instead of doing something very normal. I looked into the blues. I watched a few videos and read an article on this type of music. They were quite interesting. The blues is a great genre to express emotion and feeling. I have never listened to much Blues before. The videos and article can be found here:

http://www.guitarlessons.com/guitar-lessons/guitar-styles/about-the-blues/

http://www.guitarlessons.com/guitar-lessons/guitar-scales/blues-guitar-scale/

http://www.guitarlessons.com/guitar-lessons/guitar-styles/12-bar-blues-progression/

As we continue on…

Today I am writing about the other “Special Blog Post” for this week. One less traditional form of reading that goes with my topic of learning to play guitar is not reading words, but reading sheet words or music. Now, I attempted this type of reading but it was quite difficult because I don’t really know any notes yet. This is a great video to learn how to read sheet music: http://www.guitarlessons.com/guitar-lessons/guitar-theory-ear-training-and-reading/how-to-read-sheet-music/.

It didn’t really resinate with me because I am such a beginer. Hopefully one day I will be able to read the sheet music. It would take me a while to master this skill though. 

Day 5

This post is in response to the “Special blog posts” part of the assignment. I found a blog that is similar to my topic and use RAIDS to analyze the blog posts. The blog that i found is called “Learning How to Play the Guitar Blog”. The link can be found here:  http://learntoplayguitarblog.com/

Revision: The author is trying to inspire ideas for his audience who is obviously wanting to learn how to play the guitar. He posts a lot about the art of learning to play the guitar and the best ways to go about it, such as the best places to learn, the best online lessons, and other tips. He seems like he is very motivated to help people learn to play the guitar. 

Arrangement: His ideas seem to be organized in a way that helps the reader through the posts. He seems to go into detail about one certain part of the post, then bring up another idea. His style of writing doesn’t seem to vary.

Invention: The author had to engage in research in order to create the posts - especially about the best places to learn and the best online lessons. He also has alot of knowledge from first hand since he himself is a guitar enthusiast and plays the guitar.

Delivery: The text is delivered online in blog posts. The context effects how the audiences will read this by making the information readily available whenever a reader chooses. This creates a very laid back sort of following of the blog, as well as a great way to get information on learning to play the guitar.

Style: His style is informal. I like reading his posts because the way he writes is very interesting and relatable. Its almost as tho he is actually speaking, which is a style that usually appeals to me. 

Day 4

I began today feeling like I really wanted to learn a few chords. I watched a video all about the 5 major chords (http://www.guitarlessons.com/guitar-lessons/guitar-chords/essential-guitar-chords/). 

All of the chords I learned are “open” chords, meaning that they are in the first position  and also that when you play the chord, there will be one open string. These chords, along with the two minor chords, are very important to learn because of the fact that they are the foundation of the chords that will be learned later on. The major chords are C, A, G, E,  and D. Each of the chords are changed by finger positioning on the neck and also by which strings that are strum.

I need to find some more time to practice, otherwise it will be hard to learn by the end of the 30 days. I’s like to know more than just the basics. Hopefully I will keep progressing. Have a fun weekend!

Day 3

Today, I decided to learn all that I could about the parts to the acoustic guitar. I also practiced for a while. There were a few videos that taught me about the parts. One can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fs5RjfUDRmM&feature=bf_next&list=SP308001EEAAC80A6A&lf=list_related

It is a good thing to know the parts for hand placement. I learned about the strings, fret, headstock, post, nut, soundhole, body pick guard, bridge and a few other things. Here is a great picture of all the parts to the acoustic guitar.

Day 2

Today, I continued with a couple more videos in the same location as yesterday. I learned a few over things about rhythm, but it was very very basic stuff, so I searched elsewhere. I came upon a site by the name of guitarlessons.com (you couldn’t have guessed it). There, I found a few videos to watch.

From one of the videos, I learned the names of the guitar strings. From the top to bottom, the names go “E”, “A”, “D”, “G”, “B”, “E”. There is a good and easy way to remember the string progression: “Eat All Day, Go to Bed Early”. Not only does the acronym help, it is also a good life lesson. Haha. But, hopefully this will help me in the future.

I also watched another video on this site and started to learn to play a couple things. I attempted to learn two chords called D and G minor. I would be lying if I said it was really easy. It’s really pretty basic stuff so I was hoping that it would be. When I play it sounds messed up because my fingers get in the way. 

In all honesty, this is going to harder than I thought. I knew it wouldn’t be easy, but I hoped I would pick it up. I would really like to be decently good at playing the guitar. I think it would be fun. But hey, I just started ha. We will see how it continues. Either way, I’m learning. And I’m excited to keep learning. Take care. Peace.

Day 1

Today is the first official day of me learning to play the guitar. Yesterday, my RA Kyler offered to let me use his acoustic guitar for the 30 days that I will be learning for this class, which is very cool. As I thought about the most convenient way to go about learning to play, I realized that lessons with an actual instructor daily may not be right for me. So, I began to look on the internet for lessons. After searching for a while, I found a youtube instructor that I felt that I could learn well from. The link to where I began is here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ndg0sJ2dXUM
What I learned today was very basic, but good for my knowledge and skill level since I have never played guitar before. I started learning the 6 strings and the fret spaces, as well as a few chords. I am going to need a lot more practice time, but I hopefully will keep progressing over this next 30 days. 

My First Post

My name is Jordan Medellin and I am a Freshman at Michigan State University. In my WRA150 course we are doing an assignment in which we must take something that we want to learn and learn about it every day for 30 days, using tumblr to document what and how we learn. I have chosen to learn how to play the guitar - something in which I have always wanted to do but never actually committed to. Hopefully by the end of this I’ll be able to know the basics and a few songs, and maybe it’ll get me a few ladies. Haha. Let’s do this.