Update

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.

Oct 24: Strumming

I played a lot of the songs from in my binder from my dad today. I’m really enjoying playing these songs and I’m glad I remembered that they existed.

I went hunting for Avril Lavigne songs. Joke intended; the chords are complicated, so I didn’t play any of them.

I haven’t memorized the wedding song yet, but I printed out the lyrics and it’s next to my chair. Maybe I should try highlighting it.

Oct 25: Incomplete

My back was hurting a lot today because instead of my daughter (5yo) attending virtual school today, she made a stop-motion movie. It meant that I wasn’t sitting comfortably, but helping her with the script, storyboard, making props, recording dialogue, and taking pictures. My husband helped her stitch the pictures, dialogue, and music together.

I’ll share the movie tomorrow, I think.

Anyways, all that meant that my back was hurting a lot so I didn’t play guitar for more than fifteen minutes.

To make up for it, I’m going to memorize the first verse of the wedding song.

Oct 26: Music

I had a really good music day today. I made no mistakes at all on the two Halloween songs from the learning app, which was awesome. I did no better or worse on the high level sugar plum fairy song in the learning app, which made me happy.

I played the newly discovered songs again and then recorded one. Here is I Can See Clearly Now by Johnny Nash:

Oct 27: Memorizing

I played the usual songs from the learning app. I actually got 3 stars on all the parts for the sugar plum fairy!

I played several songs from the binder, plus my song. I’m really enjoying having these songs printed and am getting kinda annoyed with the song apps I have. They’re really tiny.

It’s ok. I’ll switch back to liking the apps later on because there’s more variety.

What? I know how I think!

I’m going to try to memorize the chorus of the wedding song today. I’ve got the first verse pretty much down.

I’m hoping that once I have the first verse and chorus memorized, the tune will pop into my head.

We’ll have to see.

Oct 28: I didn’t memorize

I didn’t bring up my binder today, or my song.

I did play my song though. From memory. With no mistakes. So that was pretty great.

I mean, I’ve got a year and a half to get it performance-ready, assuming my book is accepted by my publisher. So I feel like I’ve made good progress lol

I did NOT memorize the first chorus for the wedding song yesterday like I said I would.

I have time.

Provided we finish writing the book by the end of 2021 and it gets accepted by the publisher, it wouldn’t be published until 2024, so I’ve got a LOT of time.

Oct 29: Easy?

I’m finding some of the exercises that I do on guitar are getting easier. It’s really nice.

I think I dreamt about the wedding song last night.

I didn’t have much time to play today.

Oct 18: Chords

I had two minutes to play today. I practiced my chords.

Oct 19: Wedding song

I played a bunch of songs from the app, mostly melody lines. I feel like that helps my finger coordination and individual string picking.

Then to work on chords, I played Get to Know You and a couple Disney songs.

In other news, my music mentor’s wife is also a musician. Since her strength is in words, I sent her the lyrics for the wedding song. She took a look at it yesterday and helped me tighten up the chorus and bridge. She said she loved the story of it.

So I think the lyrics are done! Now I need to figure out the melody.

As I think I’ve mentioned, Get to Know You appeared fully formed in my head, including the melody. So I really feel like I’m starting from scratch with this one.

Should be an interesting ride!

Oct 20: Nervous

I played several melodies from the learning app; 2 Halloween ones, Mozart, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, and Vivaldi.

Then I took requests from the family. That’s always interesting because my daughter always asks for songs I don’t have at first. I ended up playing Puff, Kiss the Girl, and Get to Know You.

Why am I nervous?

Because I’m nervous to try to put a melody to the wedding song.

I think my first step is to memorize it. Then maybe it’ll be less intimidating.

Oct 21: Requests

Today I asked my family for requests after I played a few songs from the learning app.

My daughter makes very difficult requests.

I have two song apps, one for guitar, which has a lot of older songs, and one for ukulele, which has more variety and a lot of newer songs.

Lately, I’ve been playing a lot of the uke songs on the guitar, because it has the same names for chords. It’s been working pretty well and I often forget that it’s not a guitar app.

Until today.

My daughter asked for Star Wars songs. The Imperial March sounded like it would be fun to play, so I went looking for it.

I found a lot of tabs (single string picking) and no chords. Makes sense, I thought. So I opened a tab.

And then I realized that I was in the uke app because it only had four strings.

Needless to say, I did not play the Imperial March today lol

Oct 22: Procrastinating

I keep delaying printing the wedding song. I’m so nervous about trying to put music to it.

Today I played some melodies from the learning app, some songs, and Get to Know you.

I realized that despite being able to sing along with one of my favourite Taylor Swift songs, I don’t actually know the melody.

So that was interesting.

And by interesting, I mean hilarious.

Oct 23: Old songs

I remembered that I had a binder of several songs that my dad had photocopied for me back in high school when I first tried learning guitar.

So after my learning app, I pulled out the binder. There were some songs that I was very happy to see, most especially The Rose by Amanda McBroom. I had forgotten how romantic that one is.

I think it was a song that I sang in high school choir, because the tune came really easily to my mind as I played. I really enjoyed my playing time today.

Oh, and I printed the wedding song. I’m going to start memorizing it.

Oct 12: Short

I had less than half an hour to play today. I played the two Halloween-ish songs from my app, which made the kids happy.

I played my song twice… My allergies are really bad today so my voice sounded terrible. It was kinda funny.

Then I played a couple songs from my song app. Pegasus was very happy to hear Puff the magic dragon. It’s one of his bedtime songs.

Oct 13: New song!

I played about five different songs in the learning app. The two Halloween ones, of course, and then I played a Mozart and a couple Beethoven. Lots of fun. Very hard. But fun.

Then I played my song, and a few others.

Lastly, I messed around with different chords for a NEW song that I wrote last night. I don’t have a tune for it yet, so it’s coming together quite different than the last one, which felt like it popped into my head fully formed. Should be interesting.

Oct 14: Playing for fun

I played a challenge on the learning app and did decently. It was called Skeletons.

After playing a few other songs from the learning app, I moved on to the other app and asked my son which song he’d like to hear.

He requested Puff the Magic Dragon. Zero surprise there lol!

I’m rather impressed with how much easier that song is to play now. Especially the strumming. It’s feeling so much more natural.

I played my song once. I still love it.

I didn’t work on the new song today.

Oct 15: Repeat

My practice session today was almost identical to yesterday’s, except I did worse on some songs and better on others. I had forgotten how frustrating Youcisian is as an app for chords. If you’re not perfectly on the string, it doesn’t register properly.

I played my song twice because I felt like the first time wasn’t good enough.

I sent my new song off to a musician friend to look the lyrics over. I’m not going to start trying to put music to it until I get feedback from her, because I told her that I wasn’t attached to it. Once I start memorizing it, I will get attached.

I’m going to need to name these songs so you won’t get confused.

The first song is called Get to Know You.

The second song doesn’t have a name yet, so I’ll refer to it as The Wedding Song.

Oct 16: No playing

I didn’t play today.

Sorry.

I’ll try to make time tomorrow.

Oct 17: Today

I played a bunch today to make up for not playing yesterday.

I started on the learning app, played a bunch of the classical stuff. It was fun.

Then I played Get to Know You twice. Sometimes I feel like I’m getting worse at it…

I then played a bunch of other songs from my uke app and guitar app. I consider this to be strumming and chord change practice.