Jen

Dec 23: Christmas

I played so long today that my strumming arm hurts.

I played both my songs. Then I played through all the Christmas songs I know in one of my books.

It was a lot of fun.

I definitely need to work on my rhythms.

Oh, and I think I’m going to be writing another song. It’s percolating, people!!

Dec 24: Attempt

I played only my songs today, without looking at the music.

I obviously know Get to Know You without any issues, although I made a couple mistakes.

However, this is the first time I’ve tried to play the wedding song without the paper. I did better than I expected, which was a pleasant surprise. I don’t know the fourth verse at all. I mixed up chorus 2 and 3, but that’s not a huge deal. And I forgot the different line in chorus 4. But I remembered everything else, including all the chords. So yay!

Dec 25: Happy Holiday!

Happy holidays, whatever you celebrate.

I was spoiled rotten, as you can see. These are just the music books I received. (8 of them!)

I also got a shark capo and picks (the picks don’t look like sharks; they just came with it), a string cleaner, and a guitar strap with Disney princesses on it.

I did not play today. Too many presents to open, what with the two kids, my sister, my parents, and husband and I. (We’ve bubbled together and don’t go anywhere or see anyone else.)

I am ridiculously excited to play from these books, you have no idea!!

The Queen is too advanced for me right now, obviously.

These are just the chords for Bohemian Rhapsody:

I mean, you expect Queen to be complex, right? But this is an entire PAGE of chords.

Needless to say, I am not going to be starting with this book. I’ll try out some of the Disney books tomorrow.

Dec 26: Over an hour

It has been a long time since I played for over an hour, but that’s what I did today.

I also played with a pick for most of that.

I don’t particularly enjoy playing with a pick, but I feel like it’s important to try it.

I don’t think I can play Get to Know You with a pick because it requires tapping on the guitar and I can’t hold the pick and tap on the guitar at the same time. At least, not right now. Maybe after practice.

Btw, the song Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious is super fun to play.

Dec 27: Second book

I played from the second book I was gifted for Christmas. (While technically it wasn’t the second one I was given, it is the second one I am playing from.) This book is the Deluxe Edition of The Lion King.

It is a beautiful book. It has pictures from the movie.

The chords are also unnecessarily complicated for no reason.

For example, I played Can’t Wait to be King yesterday from the other book. I was able to play it all the way through and it reminded me how to play D.C. Al Coda and D.S. Al Coda. (Because I know the lyrics by heart, naturally.)

But this book didn’t have the codas. Instead, it had a nasty key change right in the middle of it.

So I had to stop. I recognized none of them.

The only other song I was able to play in this book was Be Prepared. There were a couple chords in it that I didn’t recognize, but I muddled my way through them.

I think this book is a “play later when I get better” book. Not as complex as Queen, but definitely more complex than the last one.

I also played my songs. I made silly mistakes while playing them. I think I’m tired.

Dec 28: LOTR

It’s our annual rewatch of The Lord of the Rings today.

I did not have time to play.

Dec 17: Cool

There’s something about playing my songs on guitar that makes me feel so cool.

I am decidedly not cool, just to be clear. (Although my 5yo daughter says I am, so there!)

But there’s this aura around other guitarists that makes them look cool, so when I play a song, I feel like I might gain some of that aura as well.

I definitely need to work on my confidence.

Dec 18: My songs

I played today!

Yes, I know, it’s Saturday. But I won’t have time to play tomorrow because we’re making Christmas cookies, like, all day.

I only played my two songs though. I don’t think I got the rhythms right on the wedding song.

Dec 19: Sunday is the new Saturday?

I didn’t even touch my guitar today.

*reaches out and touches it*

There. I touched it.

No playing happened though. My chronic back injury acted up today, so it didn’t seem smart to play when that usually makes my back hurt.

Dec 20: The wedding song

When I wrote the wedding song, I tried to put myself in Tommy’s place (Tommy is my character who “wrote” the song) at the time in the story. At that point, he had seen the couple interact in person at Thanksgiving, Christmas, and over March Break, and over video chat. So I broke the song down into four verses, one for each season. And the second verse is the one set at Christmas. Every time I sing that verse I get this overwhelming urge to read that short story.

I guess that’s a sign of good writing? 🤷🏼‍♀️

My kids asked me to sing it twice today. I’m glad they’re not bored of it yet.

I also played a couple Christmas songs from my books. Lots of C7 chords. I guess I need to cut my baby fingernail, because it keeps getting in the way.

Dec 21: Rhythm improvement

I played the rhythms in my Christmas book today and they came much more naturally. That’s really nice to see progress.

I’m still not sure what rhythms I’m doing for the wedding song. But my kids begged me to play it a second and then a third time, so I must be doing something right, right?

Dec 22: Ego and confidence

I played songs from my app first today. Tbh, I didn’t do as well as I’d like. It’s ok, I’m getting better slowly.

Then I played my songs. My eldest asked for a repeat of the wedding song, and then as I was about to pack up, my youngest asked for a repeat of Get to Know You.

You haven’t heard cute until you hear a 2yo ask for you to sing a song you wrote with big puppy dog eyes.

So obviously, I played it again.

It’s really good for my ego that they liked my songs so much. I know they’re heavily biased, but it’s still really nice.

I’m working on building up my confidence in my singing, mostly for the wedding song. If I don’t know a song really well, I sing quieter than I play. So I guess I’m getting more confident in my guitar skills, which is a positive.

Dec 11: Saturday strikes again

It’s Saturday. I think it’s the third or fourth Saturday in a row that I haven’t played my guitar. At this point, I think I should simply declare Saturday to be my rest day and not even try to play!

Dec 12: Anniversary

Sixteen years ago, my husband and I decided to officially date. Best decision ever! Married for 12.5 years, two amazing children, six published books, one published game, a fantastic business, and more! Love you so much, husband of mine.

This year, we took a giant step into the next phase of our relationship; in the middle of a pandemic, while homeschooling one child and the other having free reign, we decided to try to write a book together. It ended up working really well. Not only did we finish the first one in 2.5 months, but we got it betaed and submitted to our publisher before June. It was accepted before the end of summer and will be coming out next Fall (2022). Talk about a whirlwind!

But that wasn’t all! We so enjoyed our world that we wrote a collection of short stories in the spring, and then we wrote book 2 this fall. It took us 2 months and a week this time.

This summer, we also decided to both start learning an instrument. I chose guitar and my husband chose ukulele. We also bought a cheap ukulele for the kids to try out and for me to play when the metal strings on my guitar hurt me too much to play.

All of this, and we’re still very happily married and excited to work together again. Not only do we have two sequels plotted (bare bones), but we have a spin-off that we’re going to start writing in the new year.

I feel so privileged to be able to be creative like this with my husband. He challenges me to try harder and be better every day.

I played my songs today. I tried using a pick for strumming. Not sure I like it. Feels weird.

Dec 13: Rhythms

I actually did a lot today in my practice time.

I played several songs from my learning app. I even got some gold stars on some songs!

I played my two songs, the wedding song several times. I tried it with the capo in different places, too, to see if I could find a range that didn’t strain my voice. I like both no capo and 3rd fret capo (what I had originally). I’ll try both for the next little while to see which one I end up preferring.

Then I pulled out my Christmas book with rhythms at the front and tried to play the rhythms.

Wow. That was hard. But I got them, eventually. I look forward to them becoming more natural to play.

Dec 14: Enthusiasm

I got a high score (against myself) for We Three Kings. I’m very proud of myself.

My daughter has started singing along with me for the wedding song when I play.

Singing = scream shouting, in her lexicon.

I love that she cares so much about my songs that she works at memorizing them.

Dec 15: Filk?

I played a bunch of songs from my learning app. I got high scores on one, and three stars on several. I feel like I succeeded better on We Three Kings compared to previous days.

After that, I played my songs several times, the second time at the behest of my daughter.

Which brings me to the title of this post. Are my songs filk, because they’re based on a book? Or are they just considered canon because I wrote them and they’re included in the book?

Dec 16: Change!

The learning app CHANGED We Three Kings! The notes are shorter than before, and they changed the placement for some of them. They’ve also changed where the sections are separated.

All since yesterday!

It’s actually a tiny bit easier now.

I played my songs once each. I really need to work on my rhythms. Maybe I’ll try to figure out how to write the rhythms down so that I don’t forget which one belongs with the verse and which with the chorus!

It’s a problem.

Dec 5: New learning songs

The learning app I use added a ‘Holiday Favourites’ tag, so I played a bunch from that today. I did a lot better than I thought I would, tbh. It was nice to see (hear?).

Then I played both of my songs, the wedding song several times to try to get the different strum patterns into my head.

I am honestly having trouble even noticing what strumming patterns I’m doing. I just play what sounds right.

That’s probably why the verse and the chorus sound too similar to my ear right now.

Dec 6: Two books

My wonderful husband bought me two books of Christmas music, one called Easy and the other has 50 songs, including some classics from Rudolph (which, tbh, is the best part of that animated short).

So I played mostly from the 50 song book today, but every once in a while there’d be a carol that had unnecessarily complicated chords, and I’d switch over to the Easy book and play the song from there instead.

I also played my songs. I’m feeling more confident now, which is nice.

Dec 7: Troubles

In my learning app, there’s a song your probably familiar with; We Three Kings. It’s a level 5 difficulty and it’s really hard. I got kicked out of it four times before I managed to complete it.

I remember having difficulty like this with the Sugar Plum Fairy, another level 5 song, and now I’m regularly getting 3 stars on it, so I know that I will eventually get there, it’s just frustrating right now.

Which I guess is a good thing, in a way. Modelling frustrated behaviour and all that jazz.

I also played my songs. I fumbled the chords several times, especially when I was switching to the D chord. I need lots of practice, but I’m getting there.

One of the things I’ve noticed that I am actually getting better at is switching in and out of the C chord and G chord. So that’s encouraging.

Dec 8: Rhythm

I seem to have figured out a semblance of a rhythm for the wedding song I wrote.

By the way, it has a name. It’s called Shadows Live for the Light.

I also played some of the songs in my learning app. I managed to get two stars on one of the parts of We Three Kings. That feels like a giant victory. I also managed to make it all the way through on the first try.

On a slightly personal note, I finished the chapter of Monsters! Incidental Wedding Guests with the wedding song. That means that all we have left of that book is the epilogue. 👀

Dec 9: Sore throat

I don’t know what it is about the wedding song, but about halfway through, my throat decided that it was too hard to sing. Must not be in my perfect range of something. That’s ok, I know practice will help extend my range and it’ll stop hurting.

The funny thing is that I played some Christmas carols right after, and I had no problem with them at all.

🤷🏼‍♀️

I did very well in my learning app songs and got several personal best scores.

Dec 10: I ain’t got rhythm

That’s a reference to a Phineas and Ferb song, by the way.

I have absolutely no idea what I’m doing with the rhythms for the wedding song. I don’t know how to write them down. I’m not even sure if I’m sticking to what I decided I wanted.

I think I need to work on rhythm. Somehow.

I got three stars in two of the parts of We Three Kings today, so that was exciting.

Nov 29: The wedding song

I practiced the songs I’ve been working on in the learning app; some got better some got worse. It’s a very picky app (pun not intended).

I played Get to Know You next. I’m still really happy with it.

Then I played the wedding song again. I am quite happy with it, but it’s not quite right. Hopefully my music mentor can point me in the right direction.

I fiddled with some of the chords today, trying the 7th versions of them (C7 instead of C, for example) for the final chorus. I’m not sure I like it.

The wedding song is much longer than the first song. It’s got 4 verses, rather than two. And the chorus is repeated four times, with the second line changing each time. There’s a bridge, too.

Funny story, but I was really nervous about putting music to these lyrics. I had asked another music mentor (my music mentor’s wife, actually) to help me tighten up the lyrics back in October or November, and then I kinda just… Let it sit?

And then yesterday, I strapped my capo on the third fret and worked through the chord progression for the entire song in less than twenty minutes. 👀

It needs to be tightened up, but the base is there.

Nov 30: Practicing

I am super happy with the chord progression for the wedding song.

I definitely need to practice it though. I’m not very quick changing to D. I figure I have plenty of time to get it down, since the book this song is in probably won’t be published until 2025 at the earliest.

Jeepers, that sounds so far away.

Hopefully I’ll be more used to playing in front of an audience by then.

Dec 1: Gold stars

I got gold stars on one of the parts of the Nutcracker Suite in my learning app!! It’s the first time I’ve managed that and I’m so ridiculously proud of myself.

I played both of my songs as well. The wedding song is almost two times longer than Get to Know You. I’m still working on changing to the D chord faster.

Dec 2: Minor changes

Pun intended.

My music mentor got back to me today. He suggested I add an Am in between the chorus and the verse. I tried it during my practice session and it sounds really nice.

I’m so proud of myself for managing to write the music for this song.

For Get to Know You, I was so overwhelmed and had no idea how to put music to my lyrics. I barely knew three chords and couldn’t strum more than a basic single strum down. I also didn’t understand how to harmonize the guitar to my voice.

I have learned so much since then. From the beginning of August to the beginning of December. I’m very happy with my progress.

Dec 3: New Christmas books

My husband ordered Christmas books, both guitar and ukulele with chords and lyrics and everything. So I played the guitar one today. The chords sounded great and I’m very happy with them.

I also played both of the songs I wrote. It still boggles my mind that they came from my brain.

Dec 4: Saturdays

Saturdays seem to be super busy in our house. I did not play today.

So I’m going to spend a few minutes trying to memorize the wedding song.

Nov 23: Melodies

I feel like I’m taking a crash course in learning what notes are where on the treble clef and where they are on the guitar.

I’m still super slow, but I could hear the tunes well enough today. I played Christmas music.

I should pull out my flute music and try playing it next time. That would be nice to hear it again.

Nov 24: Not much to report

I enjoyed playing today. I did the learning app songs first and then played songs with chords.

My kids seem to have gotten used to me playing and they spent most of my practice time upstairs in my daughter’s room playing with puzzles.

I guess I’m not interesting anymore. 🤣

Nov 25: Greensleeves

The challenge for the week in my learning app is a level 4 chord version of Greensleeves.

It’s so super fast and doesn’t sound like Greensleeves at all to me. And it has the dreaded F chord in it.

But I passed it on the first try, which I consider quite an accomplishment, tbh.

I didn’t have much time to play today, so I mostly played songs from the learning app and then Get to Know You.

Nov 26: Piano music

Today I brought up my Fellowship of the Rings piano music book. I have it because I would play the melody on the flute, way back when I was playing flute.

I very slowly played several of the songs. I feel like it’s getting a little easier to read both the music and the fret board.

I also played Get to Know You. Because of course I did.

Nov 27: Christmas ukulele

I forgot to play during the day today, so I grabbed the soprano uke after dinner tonight, and my husband grabbed our tenor, and we played some Christmas songs from our ukulele app together for about twenty minutes.

It was a lot of fun and I really enjoyed it.

Nov 28: I wrote the chords!

I decided that bringing the guitar to my parent’s tonight involved too many spoons, so I played it before we left instead.

I started off with the learning app before played a few Christmas songs from the ukulele app.

I played Get to Know You twice and then I mustered up the courage to try to figure out the chords for the wedding song.

And omg I did it!!

I sent it off to my music mentor to take a look at, but omg it sounded so nice. I think. I recorded it once, but I haven’t listened to it, and no, you don’t get to listen to it either because I made a lot of mistakes.

But soon, hopefully!

Nov 17: Pleased

Practice went well today. I’m feeling very pleased with how well my strumming is coming along. It feels almost easy, which means I’m probably missing something lol

I feel almost ready to start putting a tune to the wedding song. I’m excited. Still not completely memorized, but that will come with practice.

In other news, I finished the mini basket I made! I’m really pleased with it!

The notes are the first five notes from Get to Know You.

It fits my things perfectly and I’m really happy with it!

Nov 18: Relearning

When I was in high school, I played flute. I was actually pretty good. But I haven’t played in almost two decades (ouch, that made me feel old) and I barely remember how to read music.

Therefore, after playing my song, I decided to work on that.

I pulled out my cheat sheet for the guitar (to know which notes are where on the frets) and opened the Christmas music book. I actually ended up doing fairly well with finger picking. I think this will help me both with familiarizing myself with the notes on the frets and with relearning how to read a treble clef.

So I’m going to alternate this new method with playing songs with chords.

I am satisfied with this plan and I’m looking forward to implementing it.

Nov 19: Christmas chords

I went hunting for Christmas music in my guitar app. I found a couple songs that worked pretty well. It’s strange playing songs that I know so well with a harmony that I don’t particularly know well.

I’ll have to pay more attention when we start playing Christmas music in our house this year.

I’m very much enjoying playing. I know I say that a lot, but I really am.

Nov 20: Nope

Decorating happened today. No guitar.

Therefore, as penance, I will try to memorize the wedding song.

Nov 21: Audience for uke

So today we visited my parents for our traditional Sunday dinner. I decided to bring the tenor ukulele, since my guitar hurt me so much last week.

It proves just how important comfortable seating and a stand for music is.

The uke went well, from my perspective.

According to my husband, it sounded like I was playing at a whisper. I don’t know if it’s because I was more hesitant (secondary instrument) or if it was because I wasn’t strumming as hard because I’m used to the metal strings of my guitar…

I don’t know.

I still feel awkward performing for them.

Nov 22: Some new songs

I played my guitar again today. Some of the songs I played were new to me, and my husband pointed out that I played them much quieter than I did the songs that I knew well.

So I think that solves yesterday’s question with the ukulele.

I didn’t even really notice that I did it.

Shows what confidence will do.

Nov 11: I keep forgetting to do these

I play at 10am until 11am, because that’s when my daughter’s first recess is (she’s in virtual school and in Sr kindergarten, so I have to supervise). But sometimes I don’t remember to write my post about it until 9pm.

Today was understandable, it was Remembrance Day. At 11, when she returned to the classroom, it was time to honour the soldiers that fought for our freedom.

Thank you.

Nov 12: Lemonade Mouth

Yesterday, I put on the Disney TV movie Lemonade Mouth for my kids. I intended to write while they watched it, but it hooked me, even though I’ve seen it before.

And it made me realize I didn’t have any of their music saved in my apps.

I fixed that before the movie was over.

So I played it today. It rather, attempted. It’s really hard to play a song if you aren’t super familiar with the melody or harmony. I’ll work on it.

On the plus side, my learning app, my song, and the random songs I played went well today

Nov 13: Memorizing

I didn’t play today. Too much life stuff going on.

So tonight, I worked on memorizing the wedding song.

It’s getting there, slowly. A melody is starting to form. We’ll see how that goes. I find it a little bland right now, so I’ll tinker with it for a bit.

Nov 14: Arranging

I played at my parent’s again today. My sister was there too. I don’t know why an extra person makes me even more nervous, but it did.

It went well though.

We rearranged my corner today.

My corner is the spot next to where I sit. It had a lot of kids books (still does) and art that my kids gave me (which have now been moved somewhere else) because I really wanted to put my guitar there. It looks so pretty and now I get to see it.

My daughter helped me build the bookshelf. It was fun to do it with her.

Nov 15: New week

Our routine is always all over the place on the weekends, so often I don’t have a chance to play guitar, or I only play a bit.

It means that when Monday rolls around, and I play from my learning app, my scores end up being really low.

It’s kinda frustrating, but I try not to pay too much attention to the scores.

I found a bunch of Christmas songs in my guitar app. I’m enjoying them.

Nov 16: Not feeling well

I wasn’t feeling great this morning, so rather than play guitar, I worked on the melody line for Get to Know You.

Because I don’t know if you know this, but I’m very extra.

(Says the person who learned how to play guitar so that she could play the song she wrote for her book.)

I’m crocheting myself a tiny basket to hold my guitar accessories like my capo, picks, and cleaning cloth.

And I got this brilliant idea to make it look like a music staff, but of course I can’t just throw music notes on there, they have to actually play a song!

So I’m trying to figure out the melody in order to put it on this basket.

I downloaded a piano app on my phone, which worked quite well, tbh.

So that’s what I did during my music time today.

Nov 5: Short today

My daughter spent some extra time at virtual school today, so I only had 15 minutes to play this morning. I played the songs I’ve been working on in my learning app and did pretty well, and then I played my song.

I think I’ll work on memorizing the wedding song this afternoon, since Tommy and Carter’s book 2 has caught up to Kennedy and Jason’s book 2 and I don’t want to start writing ahead.

Time to start thinking about what I’m going to write next for Kennedy and Jason. Should be a fun one! 😉

Nov 6: Short ukulele

Today kinda got away from us. I played a couple ukulele songs with my husband tonight before we put the kids to bed.

Nov 7: Full size

I played guitar at my parent’s today, which meant using my dad’s full size guitar for the first time since early July.

O.M.G.

What a difference!

I am so happy that I chose to go with my ¾, and that I went a bit more expensive and got the Fender because the neck is narrower, because wow my fingers hurt from the stretch!

This also means I played for a bigger audience than just my husband and kids.

Ngl, it was hard. At least I could blame any problems on the larger guitar!

I might do it again next week.

I could use the practice.

Nov 8: Back to normal

Going back to my guitar was so nice after playing my dad’s giant one last night.

The sounds are different too, because the strings are different.

I like mine better. Shh, don’t tell him.

It was nice to go back to normal.

Nov 9: Noel

My daughter requested I play Jingle bells today.

You know, it’s not as annoying when you’re learning how to play it rather than listening to it.

Sorry husband!

So after practicing the songs on my learning app and playing Get to Know You, I played a bunch of Christmas songs.

My fingers are really getting a workout, switching from G to D, let me tell you!!

I’m sure I’ll get faster at it soon, right?

Nov 10: Interesting thought

I played my usual learning app, my song, and a few other songs.

But peeps?

My 5yo daughter has been trying to memorize my song?

And she almost has all of it?

And you have no idea how it makes me feel that my daughter cares so much about this song that I wrote that she is memorizing it.

I almost cry every time she sings it to me.

Oct 30: Ukulele time!

We bought an album by Cody Simpson the other day and I’ve been kinda obsessed, so today I played ukulele again (his song La Da Dee is played on uke and it just doesn’t sound right on guitar).

I also switched my learning app over to ukulele, just to see the differences. That was a genius idea! It was so interesting to see how the exact same song was at a different level.

I dreamt about the wedding song all night, however, I don’t have it memorized yet, so it wasn’t very productive.

Oct 31: Happy Halloween

I picked up the tenor ukulele and strummed a few chords while my husband was putting together a new-to-us bookcase.

That was the extent of my playing today.

Good night!

Nov 1: Holiday music

It’s November! Which means I can start playing Christmas music! Don’t come at me, I’m not going to make you listen to it.

I will subject my family to it for half an hour every day, though.

We’re not going to be listening to our Christmas music playlist until we finish our book, so I gotta get my holiday fix somehow!

Makes me kinda want to set a book during the holidays though…

Sorry, I tangented.

I found my Christmas flute music book, and in the centre was a set of photocopied guitar music! So I played that. It was great. I need to figure out how to strum for each song.

That’ll be fun to do.

Nov 2: Singing along

My learning app was having issues hearing my guitar today. It was very odd.

I played a bunch of songs that my daughter could sing along with me today. She’s very enthusiastic and I love it.

She even sang along with the song I wrote.

Seriously one of the best feelings in the world.

Nov 3: Emotions

My daughter has been learning about emotions in school and how to describe what she’s feeling.

I am incredibly happy with how my guitar playing went today. I attempted to play some of the more complicated songs in my learning app, with some success. I played the songs in the binder I found, which makes me REALLY happy. I also played the Christmas songs I found, and tried to play the chords a little smoother, with moderate success. And I played my song, which went really well. My song makes me happy.

Overall, I am very happy with how my guitar playing is going.

Nov 4: Not much to say

I played guitar this morning. I did very well in my learning app, better than the last couple days. I played my song. I played requests from my kids.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m writing chapter 7 in Tommy and Carter’s book 2, and there’s a performance that I’m almost finished writing and I’m looking forward to finishing it.