It is surreal to think that we are at the end of the school year and with that, the end of my growth plan. Looking back at the beginning of the semester, I was unsure about how learning the guitar would go and what the journey would be like. I set out to learn two songs on the guitar. For my first song, I learned Pumped Up Kicks by Foster the People. Having no prior music or guitar experience, this song proved difficult for me to learn but after a lot of practice, I managed to reach my goal of playing the whole song through!
While I enjoyed being challenged by Pumped Up Kicks, I decided to revise my growth plan and change my second song to Stand By Me. I made this decision because I wanted to learn a song that I could have a better chance of mastering and hopefully be able to play in one of my future classes. The process of learning this song was much less daunting, ultimately making the experience more enjoyable. Stand By Me uses some of the same chords as Pumped Up Kicks did, the familiarity of the chords allowed me to continue improving my skills. I also got to learn the new chord C and add a new strum pattern to my repertoire. I have been able to successfully play this song through for a few weeks now but, I believe there is always more room for improvement. There are times when I still struggle with my transitions from Em to C and other times when I struggle with transitioning from D to G. With quarantining and social distancing in effect, I find myself with more time throughout the day to pick up the guitar and work on those transitions.
To conclude, I am really happy to have gotten the opportunity to finally learn the guitar. I am pleased to say I can play both two songs on the guitar now, Pumped Up Kicks and Stand By Me. I hope to continue learning the guitar throughout the summer in the hopes of being able to play the guitar in my classroom one day.
Here is the link to my final growth plan video: https://youtu.be/trPjnCRZNBk
