Wednesday, June 4, 2014

Final 20-time reflection







Questions:

1.    What did you intend to accomplish with your 20time project? What did you actually accomplish with your 20time project?
 2. Describe the impact of your project on yourself and others. How could you use what you learned to create a positive change in someone else or the community?

3.    What roadblocks did you run into? What were the areas of the project that were more difficult than you expected them to be?
4.   What new learning, if any, did you gain because of the roadblock? Did the roadblock give you new insight, change the course of the project, etc.? How?

5.    Finish this sentence: The thing about this kind of learning that works best for me is….

6.    Finish this sentence: The thing about this kind of learning that is a challenge for me is...

7.    Would you consider your project a success? A failure? Somewhere in between? Explain your answer.

8.    Estimate how much time you spent on your 20-Time project per week.

9.  How does what you did in 20-Time connect with the IB Learner Profile (see Moodle or Intro Packet for the IB Learner Profile qualities)? Discuss any and all qualities that apply.

10.  How does what you did in 20-Time show relevant learning in your English class? Things that may apply: written communication, oral communication, collaboration, research skills, technology/digital media skills, reading skills, etc.

11. What advice would you have for teachers who are doing 20-time projects in the future? What would you tell them that would make the project go more smoothly or more successfully

12.  What advice would you have for students who are doing a 20-time project in the future? What would you tell them that would make the project go more smoothly or more successfully?

13.  Will you continue with your independent learning/creating beyond this class? Why or why not?

14.  Anything else you would like me to know? (optional)




My answers:


1.         My plan was to improve my banjo-playing skills and learn more about the bluegrass style. I researched bluegrass music and history, but still have only a bit of a grasp on the mechanics of the actual style. I had a few songs in mind that I wanted to learn, but I was never able to. I did, however, get better at banjo-playing in general and learned basic chords and scales.

2.       Through this project, I was able to become a better-rounded musician and also a happier person every Friday J I could create positive change by possibly teaching others, but more likely I could play for others who might enjoy it and even create my own bluegrass band.

3.       It was difficult finding anyone to turn to for help because I couldn’t find anyone in the area who played banjo. Finding music to learn was hard because there isn’t much banjo tab available and trying to learn a piece by ear was difficult because I wasn’t that familiar with the instrument.

4.       I learned that sometimes it’s going to cost some money to get what you want done. There were a lot of handy books and lessons and music available online but I didn’t really want to spend the money. Had I not been a broke teenager, I think these would’ve helped me a lot.

5.       The thing about this kind of learning that works best for me is that it’s fun and it’s something I genuinely want to learn more about.

6.       The thing about this kind of learning that is a challenge for me is that sometimes I have too much fun and not enough learning. I think that I could’ve learned more if I were more focused.

7.       I’d say it’s somewhere In between. I definitely got better at the banjo, but not nearly to the extent to which I would’ve hoped to. 20-time didn’t miraculously give me all the time I wanted to work on my skill. I was so so busy this spring so that is definitely a factor. I also wasn’t able to learn all of the songs I originally wanted to.

8.       I spent the hour each Friday practicing banjo and I’d say I spent around 2 hours per week outside of class working on my project.

9.       Open-minded: learning the banjo and associated music opened me up to a variety of new genres of music that I otherwise wouldn’t know much about.

Inquirers: this trait is all about following your natural curiosity, which is what 20-time is all about – I genuinely wanted to know more about the instrument and music and that’s what I did.

Balanced: Even if I didn’t get as good as I wanted to, 20-time provided me with a creative outlet in an otherwise monotonous school week. I came to class every Friday excited and left class happy, which was a great change from the typical feelings of dread/stress constantly found during the school year.

10.   20-time taught me better digital media/technology skills as I had to figure out how to set up my own blog, create a nicely-done video, and upload said videos and other links to the blog. Additionally, I learned to share what I learned through not only the website but also at the pitch, where I had to speak with a lot of other peoples – friends and strangers alike.

11.   Do it! It’s fun! Also, get students really pumped up about the Pitch! I was really unsure about it at first, but I had a lot of time while I was there. Make sure the students are really passionate about what they’re doing. Blogs are awesome and fun.

12.    Pick something you really want to do and are passionate about. Don’t expect that the project will automatically make time for you – it’ll still be hard with school and everything, but keep it up. Also, create some clear goals for yourself and benchmarks in the beginning so you can continually make progress. Don’t be afraid to share your projects with friends and family!

13.   Heck yes, the banjo is a lot of fun and I always want to become a better and more well-rounded musician.

Monday, May 26, 2014

VIDEO(s). I DID IT.

You know that video I pinky promised you I would upload several weeks ago? Well here it is! Now you can't yell at me anymore.

Definitely not my best banjo playing, and it's also a tricky piece. And my music kept flying away, although I somehow managed to play better when it did -.-

The song is Foggy Mountain Breakdown, if you had forgotten, and it actually goes a lot faster but, hey now, I'm trying.


Credits to Davis Purtell for shooting and editing the video because he's forcing me to thank him.

So anyway, for this piece my goal is to clean it up and then pick up the speed a ton just for the heck of it.

Moving on!

Progress so far this week:
I looked at a version of Bon Iver's "Skinny Love" as arranged by happybanjodude. It's super chill and super easy, as it's all just strumming chords...also not very interesting if no one else is singing. I then turned to his arrangement of Birdy's cover of the song, which is pretty and also trickier, so I'll be working on that. I've yet to learn an entire song, so I hope to do that by the end of the year.

Other things I've learned? Maybe not from just this week, but I've learned tidbits of other songs. AND I QUICKLY RECORDED VIDEOS FOR YOU. WOW IM ON TOP OF THINGS. I apologize for the low quality, low effort, messiness of my house, my own awkwardness, and everything that may be going wrong in your lives . Blame it on Davis.



"Same Love" riff (Macklemore & Ryan Lewis). Messed up because first take and ain't nobody got time for second takes. Kind of cute riff on the banjo, though.





"Little Lion Man" chords and chorus roll (Mumford & Sons). I'm a little rusty so it's sloppy, but what I can work on is not whacking the strings with my picks when I try to go fast, and also to make sure certain strings don't pop out louder than others.









Lastly, "Babel" chorus bit (Mumford & Sons). Interesting thing about this song is you have to tune the drone string (the short one that's usually tuned to G) up to an A.




The end of the year's coming up O.o ....so what's my goal? Where should I be heading? So far I've learned quite a few songs and have definitely gotten more comfortable with the instrument in general, and I'm on my way to memorizing the scales. I have yet to learn more than a few tidbits of Paint it Black, and I'm not sure how feasible it will be to try to have the whole song prepared for you by the final presentation. I guess at this point I'll keep doing more research about bluegrass (including listening to the plethora of old bluegrass artists a kind fellow at our 20-time pitch suggested to me) and just keep working on different songs and cleaning up my playing. And maybe I'll get another *nice* progress video posted soon :)

Sunday, May 11, 2014

Hi guys!

This past week has been about the same - I've been busy with the musical and haven't had a ton of time for the banjo, but I did get to spend 6th hour on Friday alone in a choir practice room with my instrument, which was quite nice :) I do think I'm getting a better handle on the instrument and becoming more comfortable with the fingerpicks.

Lately I've been working on various scales on the neck so I could begin to figure out the cool runs in the Paint it Black cover I linked to in my very first blog post. What I've learned: pentatonic scales, which are super duper easy to play and use on guitar, are actually pretty tedious on banjo. I guess that's why you don't usually see people shredding up and down a banjo neck like you'd do on guitar.Anyway, I'm determined to have some semblance of knowledge regarding scales on a banjo, and I found a nifty site that will tell you basically any scale you've ever even thought of and then some and show it to you on the neck of the banjo (or any other instrument...cool.) 

And lastly, we've got our pitch this Tuesday! For anyone who's reading this who isn't already participating in it, please come to our 20 time presentation on Tuesday 7-8 at the Northwood Hach Center! Maybe I'll play a little bit for you :)

BYE

Sunday, May 4, 2014

Hello again

I wish I could think of creative titles for my blog posts.

Anyway, not much is different this week, except I've been working on the invitations for the project fair (which I won't actually be at.. :[ ). To add to that, I'm still struggling to find a mentor.

So I'll post the video (I pinky promise!) either tonight or tomorrow night. For next week, I want to be able to play the entirety of Paranoia in Bb Major and I'll try to get a video posted of that, too :) I'll also try to get back to work on the Rolling Stones' song!

In case you're curious, the video I'll be posting soon is my very terrible rendition of "Foggy Mountain Breakdown", the quintessential banjo piece of all banjo pieces. Earl Scruggs basically defined the bluegrass style with his three-fingered picking style. I was at first going to link to the original song, but I thought I'd share this version, played by Scruggs himself 50-60 years after he first wrote the song, along with some of his friends. Why? Because Steve Martin is a bomb-diggity banjo player, and Scruggs was still rocking it at over 80 years old.

BOMB-DIGGITY CLICK HERE TO LISTEN

Wish I had more to say! Things will get more interesting soon, I promise!

Sunday, April 27, 2014

I love you all

Reading through everyone's blogs makes me so happy. And also makes me wish I could write poetry. Shout out to Cindy Tae and her blog. It's lovely.

Here's a screenshot of the video I'll post later. Fun fun fun fun. Big thanks to my little brother Davis for shooting the video (and who insists on editing it first, so that's why it's not being posted right now).




Saturday, April 26, 2014

No time for 20-time

I've been ridiculously busy these past two weeks so I haven't been able to touch my banjo as much as I'd like to. But...I'm going to try and upload a video of me playing tomorrow. Get excited.

I've been really struggling to find a mentor. I don't know anyone else who plays the banjo and I've searched online for people but the nearest banjo instructor is several hours away. I know there's a really cute bluegrass band that used to play at Journeys every other Monday night. Maaaaaaybe I could try contacting Journeys and try to get the name of the band and then the name of the banjo player and gahhal;sdlkjdfs this is hard.

I'll stop by next Monday I have a chance and see if they're still around. They're a group of retired men who get together and play bluegrass for fun and they're a genuine joy to listen to: they're always talking to each other and laughing and occasionally yelling at one another what the next chord is supposed to be, then making fun of the one that forgot because he's old and forgetful...all the while creating some of the greatest bluegrass one has ever heard. Nothing quite makes me as happy as well-executed bluegrass harmonies - something, unfortunately, I won't be able to do by myself for my presentation...anyone want to sing with me? B)

For now, my backup plan is the happybanjodude guy/website I linked to earlier. I have no idea where he lives, but I can always contact him if I have questions and maybe I'll have a Skype lesson or two with him.

Sunday, April 13, 2014

Blog Post Number Two

So I've been messing around with my banjo a bit and I've been having a lot of fun with it! I found an awesome website that has a lot of tabs to banjo arrangements of popular songs, along with YouTube tutorials of each of the songs - pretty nifty. Not only that, but the guy who runs the site offers Skype banjo lessons and also has some learn-to-play banjo books published! I probably won't do the Skype lessons, but I probably will end up purchasing one of the books. From his website, I've learned to play the Avett Brothers' "Paranoia in Bb Major", which - although it's not bluegrass- is pretty...and also easy to play if you have the tab.

I'm still working on trying to figure out the Rolling Stones song. I've been able to figure out a couple bits of it by ear, but I'm not familiar enough with the neck of the banjo or the style of playing to even know how to approach it yet.

While a guitar in standard tuning is EADGBE with all strings a fourth apart (with the exception of G to B being a major third), I've learned that a 5-string banjo like mine is normally tuned GDGBD. This is actually pretty handy because it makes a lot chords really easy to play. I mean, if you just strum the instrument without even putting any fingers down on the fretboard, you have a G chord!

The biggest struggle I've had while learning to play besides the unfamiliarity of where the notes are on the neck is the fingerpicks. You don't normally strum a lot of chords with the banjo; you typically finger a chord with your left hand and then you perform a roll with your right. To play in the proper twangy bluegrass style, you do this while wearing fingerpicks. I'm adequate at fingerstyle guitar, but placing these strange metal contraptions on my fingertips and trying to play music is not unlike placing Bugles snacks on your fingertips, pretending you have witch nails, and trying to go about your regular activities.


My banjo, Kazooie.

Fingerpicks


Monday, April 7, 2014

Starting things off

Hey guys!

Like millions of other people in the world, music is one of my passions. Over the years I've learned to play a variety of instruments: guitar, saxophone, and piano being my main instruments, plus others I've added to my collection such as numerous ocarinas and ukuleles.

Inspired by the surge in popularity of banjo-incorporated pop (slash indie folk rock music? who knows what genre) such as Mumford & Sons and the Avett Brothers, over the past few years I've become fascinated by the 5-stringed, raucous, old-timey instrument. I had to have one.

I was ecstatic when I received a banjo for my 17th birthday. Unfortunately, as a junior in high school with a chronic over-scheduling issue (what is sleep?), I've rarely had time to even touch my beloved present.

This, my friends, is where I hope to change things! If you haven't already figured it out by now, my 20-Time project is to learn to be a proficient banjo player. I hope to be good enough by the end of the semester to perform a song for you.

As a passionate lover of good ol' rock n' roll, I found this bluegrass cover of one of my favorite Rolling Stones songs to be especially neat-o, and I think it would be cool to learn. I'm still looking at different songs and various styles of playing, so we'll see.

Thanks for reading; wish me luck! :)