Guitar Genius {research focus}

The first step I needed to accomplish was to dust off my guitar case and get this musical beauty set back up on it's rightful place on her stand. Yes, I personify my guitar. I spent 33 minutes searching through all the electronic cords in our house looking for the power cord and auxiliary cord to connect my Taylor T-5 to my Fender Mustang I amp. Guess where I found it... yeah, in my bag of guitar supplies.

Once I got my guitar unpacked and plugged in (which took 31 minutes longer than I expected), I had to tune my guitar. Despite being a recluse in it's case for over a year, it wasn't as out of tune as I expected. The first strum still made my ears burn, but it is relatively painless to correct. No, I cannot tune by ear. I can tell you when it's off, but don't have the skill to correct it.

Alright, power source ready, tuned guitar, and now it was time to warm up. Ay. Ay. Ay.

My fingers are out of shape! Compared to what I used to do, they are slow and I felt like I could only get them moving one tempo and trying to swing notes got me mixed up. However, I successfully made it through two warm-ups both with a pick and finger style.

After this warmup, I did my first research step: examined what I already know. While in college, I took a year of lessons, one semester with a small group and one semester private lessons. Luckily, since I was earning a minor, my program of study wasn't as intense as music majors. Did you know they practice THREE to FIVE hours EACH DAY?! Anyway, I started looking at all the scales and arpeggios I had memorized about six years ago, and yikes! I feel like I don't remember any of it anymore.

Copies of scales memorized while in college.

It's intimidating to feel like I've lost all of this knowledge and skill, but then I returned my thoughts to my goals of this project:

Short term: Learn the settings on my guitar and amp to create different sounds.
Long term: Feel comfortable to play at church.

This helped me narrow the focus of what research I need to do. I want to be able to play notes and chords at different speeds and create different sounds for different genres of music; I'm OK with not being able to improvise over a jazz piece. There's no reason to stress over my scale proficiency.

Now I've been working on learning and relearning settings on my guitar and amp.

This video has helped me understand my own guitar better:

This ten minute tutorial explains the different pickup settings on my guitar. I found it really helpful to set my amp on a neutral setting, watch the video, and pause and change the settings along with Corey Witt. These are sound changes I can adjust right on my guitar without changing the settings on my amp at all. Note, I have to connected to an amp for these, not playing my guitar acoustically.

There's a disc with settings that came with my amp and direction booklet for my amp, so I started looking into this but haven't done much with it yet. Turns out my amp has pre-programmed settings and then I can also create my own once I know what I'm doing.

This next week, I plan to pick out my song to play for students and to learn the settings that are on my amp.

Thanks for following my Guitar Genius Journey!

Becoming a Guitar Genius {one note at a time}

Genius Project is one of our major units in 7th grade, which is an adaptation of Genius Hour. Rather than focusing on one hour each week, we set aside 4-6 weeks for students to brainstorm, research, create, and present their own projects. This year we have decided to switch from keeping journals to writing blog posts, so I will model with my own! This first blog post is to describe what topic I have chosen and why.

This years Genius Project for me is to become a Guitar Genius! I admit, I have been playing guitar since I was 6 years old, but adulting has gotten in the way and I haven't played for a few years. Specifically, my short-term goal is to learn how to use my amp and it's settings to create different sounds. I also have the long-term goal to play in church when I'm more comfortable with these settings and back in a routine of practicing consistently.

My guitar {one of them actually}
 This is a Taylor T5, which I saved for one summer during college to buy.
If you ever buy a guitar or piano, go here: Carlson's Music World
Amazing service!!!

I miss playing my guitar! This is the most important reason why I chose this topic for my Genius Project. I fell in love with guitar at a young age and thankfully had supportive parents who arranged lessons for me, and I continued to use my guitar to help me earn a music minor in college. I have been meaning to be more consistent with practicing, and this project will help me do that! Another reason I chose this topic is because my music ability is not natural, but requires lots and lots of practice. I related with one of my colleagues when she said, "I can play notes, but playing and creating music is not my talent." I know that practicing will help me feel more comfortable.

My Mustang GT amp {I have very little idea how to use this}

For my creation I plan to learn a new song (maybe one my 7th graders will recognize?!) and play the chorus in a variety of settings on my amp. In four or five weeks, I don't think it's realistic for me to learn multiple songs with the settings on my amp. Perhaps my song will be a holiday tune with holiday break coming up. I know this part of my project may change as I research more information.

I hope you enjoy reading about my Guitar Genius Journey!

For any readers wondering, last year I modeled learning the basic skills of crocheting by creating a blanket for my car and have grown to making a triangular scarf. Here's the Pinterest inspiration of the scarf I'm currently working on: Caron Cakes Triangle Scarf

Embracing an "Innovator's Mindset"

Back in July, our teacher book club tackled reading George Couros' The Innovator's Mindset. 

https://georgecouros.ca/blog/the-innovators-mindset-book

Though it's been a few months since I've read this book, it has been inspiring me throughout the first quarter of the school year, not with specific plans, but with the idea that it's not only "ok" to try something new, rather applauded and necessary! This is why I want to share my reflective takeaways of this book. 

George Couros has over 17 years of educational experience, and you can read about him here on his website. 

The back of this book advocates that any leader in a school will benefit from reading this book, and I definitely agree. In our book club, our principal joined us and he exclaimed that this book had him ready to go back to school and excited to make a difference. Teachers of any level or content will be encouraged from this book.

As a teacher, I felt that the messages were inspirational. It didn't necessarily spark specific lesson plans that I wanted to add to my curriculum (which is sometimes a relief!); however, it helped me see my current curriculum with new eyes to see which ways I have tried to innovate and those that will benefit from innovation.

It also had me thinking about what I have my students reading and writing in my class: "In our world today, what is a student more likely going to need to be able to write: an essay or a blog post?" One of my projects throughout the year is to have students read independent books, completely their choice: novels, nonfiction, chapter books, or short biographies--it's completely up to them, and I ask them to write reviews on Goodreads or our Google Classroom. However, this year I had them read a blog post from a writer about why they should write reviews and what they should you include. I'm wondering what other blog posts I could have them read before asking them to write one themselves...

Another recommendation from Couros that I want to embrace is collaboration. He explains the importance, "Innovation (and enjoyment) flourishes when teachers collaborate to learn and practice new strategies. Isolation is often the enemy of innovation." I have been in the position of being the only teacher of my grade level and now with shared classes, and there are many benefits to collaborating! Sometimes collaboration requires us to compromise, but our relationships grow stronger because of this.

Much more could be said about The Innovator's Mindset! If you're considering a teacher book club, this needs to be on your list. George Couros also has resources for you to use on his website.