lessons

Jan 22: Learning

I could hear that I was playing the chorus rhythm during the second verse of the wedding song today. I was able to change it back to the proper rhythm before the verse ended, so I call that a win.

I had some difficulty with strumming today; my fingers kept catching on the strings. It didn’t hurt, but it was annoying.

Jan 23: Nope didn’t happen

Guess what?

I didn’t play today.

I was totally planning on it, and then stuff happened and I ran out of time.

Jan 24: Progress!

I feel like I actually kept the correct strum patterns for the verses and choruses in the wedding song today. I tried really hard to pay attention to them and I think it worked. Woo! I love progress.

I also played all 4 Encanto songs that are on my song app (it’s the uke song app, but that’s only a problem if I don’t know the chord). It turned out better than I thought. I also played a couple other songs I hadn’t in a while.

It was a pretty good day today.

Jan 25: Shh quiet

My husband had a zoom meeting during my usual practice time, but he said I could still play, so I played quietly and tried to focus on my rhythms.

I also played a bunch of new to me songs from one of my Disney books, which involved learning songs new chords. I’m pleased with my retention of the chords from previous days. I can now reliably play C7, Cmaj7, G7, E7, and A7 as well as the ones I learned first.

In non-guitar news, I finished my second solo book, Winging It, last night. There are two songs in it; the wedding song and the ballad.

Jan 26: Earworms

After playing my songs, I decided to play some songs that have been in my head for weeks.

I mean, if they’re already there, I should find the rhythms easier to play, right?

Wrong.

But that’s okay, I’ll keep practicing them, because the Encanto songs are amazing and I love them.

Jan 27: Ooooh new music

I did a thing today; I printed out the lyrics for the ballad I wrote!

Meep!

No, it doesn’t have music on it yet, but by printing it out, I acknowledge that it will have music on it, and that’s a big step.

To me, anyways.

Now I have to figure out how rhythms go for a ballad…

I also printed out the music for a song that I adore: Ce mur qui nous sépare by Lou and Lenni-Kim. It’s beautiful. You can find it dubbed in English, but the French is just so perfect. You can listen to it here:

I can’t wait to try it tomorrow!!

I also played my songs today. I think I did well.

Jan 16: Audience again

I wasn’t going to play today. My back was in more pain than usual today.

And then I got to my parent’s house and was like… You know what? I’ll play for a bit.

So I borrowed my dad’s full-size, tuned it, and then played my songs. I also tried playing Mirabel’s miracle song from Encanto. I also played La Da Dee by Cody Simpson, just to get it stuck in my husband’s head. 😈 Mwahahaha!

Jan 17: Short

I had ten minutes to play today.

I played my songs (on my guitar) and wow, one day away from my thin, metal strings REALLY makes a difference. My fingers hurt.

After that, I only had time for one more song, and my daughter requested Kiss the Girl.

Well, technically, she first requested my new song.

I told her I needed at least twenty minutes to write the music for it.

I would say that’s a joke, but that’s how long it took for me to write the music for my second song.

Jan 18: Frustrating

Sometimes it feels like I’ve stalled; like I’ve hit the limit of what I can learn by myself.

Today was one of those days.

I played my songs, made mistakes, got frustrated.

Not a great day today.

Jan 19: Song stuck in my head

I have had a song stuck in my head since yesterday. It stayed with me even in my dreams.

Wanna know what song it is? 😈

It’s ok. I won’t tell you, no, no, no.

So I played La Da Dee to try to get it out of my head.

Spoilers: it didn’t work.

I also played my songs. I made a couple mistakes. I think I should record myself soon so that I can listen to the strum rhythms better and make sure that they’re actually doing what I want them to do.

My husband checked my posture while I was standing, and I’m doing it right! Well, most people seem to have the guitar slightly lower (like an inch) on their torso, but we decided that most of those musicians are shorter than I am.

Jan 20: Challenge!

My learning app had new challenges posted today. I did the chord and melody ones (lower level) and omg I did so well!? I didn’t even have to look at my hand when I changed chords! I felt so good about that.

Then I played the usual Sugar Plum Fairy song and I got gold stars on the middle part!!! First time I succeeded at that!! I’m so proud of myself!

I played my songs once each, trying to listen to the rhythms.

I’ve decided that the first song, Get to Know You, isn’t supposed to have a proper rhythm. I mean, the character wrote the lyrics in half an hour and didn’t even write music, he’s just kinda playing what feels right in the moment. So the chorus has a catchy rhythm, but the verse is a mess, exactly the way it should be.

However, the wedding song has had his music teacher critique it, both the lyrics and the music, and he’s been practicing it for two months, so the rhythm has to work properly and sound right. Fortunately, I have a lot of time to perfect it.

Today was a good day. I felt like I improved.

Jan 21: Attempt

I tried really hard to listen to my rhythms in the wedding song. I think I need to play all the verses one after the other so that I can make sure that my rhythms are the same, because I feel like I’m forgetting it when I play the chorus. I have been consistent over the days with how I play the rhythm for the bridge, so I’m pleased about that.

I also attempted We Don’t Talk About Bruno for the first time. For a song that has been in my head for weeks, I’m shocked that I don’t know the rhythms better. It was a real struggle (other than Dolores’ and Isabela’s parts, for some reason?)

I noticed a huge improvement in my speed and finger placement for the chords in La Da Dee.

Overall, considering I had a short practice today, I’m encouraged by my progress.

Jan 10: Taking it easy

I’m still not fully recovered, although I feel much better, so I only played the abbreviated version of my practice.

First, the learning app melody song. It… Didn’t go as well as I’d hoped.

Then I played my two songs. They sounded off. I don’t know why, they just did.

And then, because both kids begged, I played the wedding song again. It sounded better the second time, but my voice started to hurt halfway through.

I’m falling apart. I blame being in my late thirties.

Jan 11: Revisiting favourites

Today I played my songs. I tried to pay close attention to the rhythms in the wedding song. I think I did better making the verse and the chorus distinct from each other.

I’m going to consider that a win.

Then I played a bunch of songs from the ukulele app (same chord progressions, different finger positions) that I haven’t played in a while.

Omg I am SO MUCH FASTER at switching between G, C, and D now! Like…I don’t even have to look at my fingers anymore.

I feel greatly encouraged by this.

Oh, and I played some songs from Encanto. If you haven’t watched that yet, I hope you will get the chance soon. At the very least, listen to the music. It’s brilliant.

Jan 12: Cheerful

Apparently, if I don’t know the strum rhythm, I strum everything too cheerfully.

Or at least, I do that for Disturbed’s The Sound of Silence and Rufus Wainwright’s Hallelujah.

I mean, that’s kinda funny, tbh.

I guess I just need to listen to more music.

Oh the horror.

I also played my songs today. Those are supposed to be cheerful. 🙂

Jan 13: Ten minutes

What can I do in ten minutes of practice?

Play my learning app.

Play each of my songs (still only two with music) once.

Play Cody Simpson’s La Da Dee.

I really enjoy playing songs that I actually know and that I haven’t played since November. I can feel the difference in both my strumming and finger positioning. I know I have a long way to go, but progress is encouraging.

Jan 14: Rocking out

I played some new-to-me songs today, including Bare Necessities.

Bear with me (pun intended); I didn’t think I liked that song much. But to play it is a completely different animal than listening to it (pun intended again).

I did a pretty good job, imho.

I had a pretty good practice session today, in other words.

I love that my song actually sounds like a proper song. At least, in my opinion.

I think I’ll record it for you sometime soon. I’m feeling so much more confident in it.

Jan 15: C chords

I’ve been working on C7 and Cmaj7 chords. C7 requires all 4 fingers, but it’s not super complicated. Cmaj7 requires 2 fingers, so it’s actually pretty easy.

Anyways, I pulled out Kiss Me by Sixpence None the Richer today, and it had those chords, and it actually sounded kinda right. It was pretty cool.

I played a bunch of other songs that I had stopped playing before Christmas, and I felt very encouraged by how well I was able to play them.

I also played both of my songs. They’re a lot of fun.

Jan 4: Over an hour

I played today. Started with my songs, tried to play the How to Train your Dragon songs but my back decided to start acting up.

So I switched to playing songs I know in my song apps, but haven’t played since November (because Christmas).

And omg.

I can play them so much better now?

Like, my rhythms are better?

And I can switch between chords faster?

I was feeling like I wasn’t improving, but wow! What a difference!

I’m very proud of myself.

Oh, and I played for over an hour.

Jan 5: In a groove

I played my songs today. I really love them.

I also tried to play the last book I was given for Christmas; Songs of the 2000s. This book is MASSIVE. Like… My music stand cannot handle its size. (Insert innuendo?) So I decided that I would not play it today.

I just didn’t have the spoons.

I’ll try again tomorrow.

I played more songs from my app.

I really need to learn how to do a bar. My fingers just don’t want to, and so many chords require it.

Oh, I thought you might like to see my capo.

Isn’t it awesome??

Jan 6: Bars will have to wait

I played my songs again today and made way fewer mistakes.

Isn’t it funny that I can make mistakes on the songs that I wrote?

Maybe funny isn’t the right word for it.

Frustrating?

Anyways…

I also played the challenges for the week in my music app. I did very well on the melody one, not so great on the chord one. It just sounded like a bunch of noise to me. 🤷🏼‍♀️

I didn’t play from a book today. Instead I looked for songs in my apps that had a bar in them.

I think I need a teacher to explain in person how they work, because I just could not get it.

Thank you very much to the person who commented on my last post about pulling back with the arm, but if my finger can’t straighten out over the fret board, what’s the point?

So yeah, I’ll wait until I have a teacher and then I won’t have to unlearn more bad habits. (Because I’m sure I have tons.)

Also, hi new people! Glad you like my capo. Sorry if I’m boring. I won’t be offended if you leave. 😉

Jan 7: Short but painful

Today I played one song from my app and both my songs.

That’s it.

My right shoulder has been hurting and I didn’t want to aggravate it further.

I did try to keep my rhythms steady. Not sure I succeeded…

Jan 8: Music in books

I don’t remember if I’ve told you why I started playing guitar. Buckle up, because this is a ride in being extra.

I wrote a novella at the beginning of April 2021, about a boy named Tommy who went to a science camp over March Break, and while there, he discovered he was gay. Originally, I had him play a song on guitar to the boy he had a crush on. I don’t even remember which song it was. (I think it might have been Stand by Me?)

About a month after I finished writing that novella, I was searching for how to properly include lyrics in books and that led me to an article that explained that if any lyrics were included in a book, royalties would have to be paid.

Like, 4-5 digits.

Lol.

Yeah no.

So I removed the lyrics and just wrote around the music.

It worked.

And then….

Oh, and then!

My husband said, “Wouldn’t it be cool if you wrote a song?”

I dismissed it, of course. And then I started thinking, “It’s not like you found the perfect one when you were looking. But you could write one that would be perfect for them!”

At 3am, naturally.

And then it proceeded to write it for me, in about half an hour.

I repeated it over and over until I fell asleep and lo and behold! I remembered it the next morning (mostly) and wrote it down.

Then I changed the novella around to fit the new song.

And all was quiet for about a week. Then my husband made a comment like, “You know, you could write the music for your song.”

Ummm, what? The last time I played any music was when I picked up my flute like, a decade. And I don’t know how to write a song.

And then I thought about it for about two weeks, discussed learning the guitar with him for two days and asked to borrow my dad’s guitar.

A week after picking it up, I was hooked and went and bought my own guitar (¾ size rather than full). After about a month of learning, (during which the novella became an entire novel) I tried to write my song and I had zero idea what I was doing. So I asked for help from my music mentor.

Keep in mind, I had the melody set in my mind, so I sent him that file and he worked music around it. Chords I could play, too, with a little practice.

And poof! I had a song!

And that’s why I started playing guitar.

I played my songs today, once each.

Jan 9: Booster

I got my COVID booster yesterday. I thought I was fine, but I have a severe headache today, so I’m not going to play today.

I will look at my third song again today, though, and see if I still like it.

Dec 29: Fancy

I got a guitar strap and a shark capo for Christmas. They make me feel super cool, you have no idea!

Look at my daughter dancing. She’s so fast the motion capture couldn’t catch her hair or her hand.

I played my songs while standing today. I need to strengthen my back muscles (chronic injury) because I hurt now.

Ooooh and look at my cute shirt! It’s the title of my first solo book (fingers crossed the publisher accepts it!)

Dec 30: Ow

I played my two songs standing up today and my back pain went from a 2 to a 9.

To give you reference, normally when I’m playing guitar, it goes from a 2 to a 4 or 5. This is while sitting.

So … Ow.

Dec 31: Happy New Year

Someone told me that things we do on the 31st of December and the 1st of January set the stage and pace for the whole year.

Well, today I played my songs while standing and it didn’t hurt too badly, and then I played a bunch of Disney songs while sitting.

My kids sang and/or dancedalong.

It was fun. 🙂

I also plan on writing today and tomorrow, because I want that to continue in the new year.

Husband and I aren’t going to start our next book until our daughter’s virtual school restarts, so I’ve got another week to finish Tommy and Carter’s book 2, but I’m not stressing out about it too much.

Jan 1: First day

I played my songs today. And a bunch of Disney songs.

My parents arrived for new year’s day celebrations (within bubble) just before I started to play, so that added a level of anxiety.

I don’t know if I can play for an audience in the future. I’m going to need to play a lot more before then.

Jan 2: Ow again

I played my songs standing today. My pain increased a bit during the second song.

Then I played from the second Disney chord book I was given for Christmas.

This one:

There were lots of chords that I had to learn. Most of them were feasible, but I didn’t know them, which meant I had to spend a little of time bent over towards the music stand, trying to see what chord I needed to play.

So.

Ow.

I only played a couple songs before I had to give up.

I only have a few books left to try out before I’ve tried all of them.

And then, I think, my goal should be to focus on becoming more consistent with rhythms and memorizing more chords.

Because, you know, it’s hard to sight read if you don’t know the chords very well.

Jan 3: Friends

Picks and I are not friends, I have decided. I like the sound better without them, I keep my wrist looser, and I just find them annoying.

The Frozen 2 music book and I are not friends either. The chords are way too unnecessarily complicated. It will be a “once I’m better at this” book.

On a more positive note (ha! accidental pun), I wrote my third song yesterday night and tidied it up this afternoon. I’ll let it sit for a couple days/weeks and then put music to it.

It’s a ballad, a love story about the Phantom and the Wraith and how they met, except fictional. So my character is writing filk about two other characters.

Which I find hilarious.

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.