In-depth Post #5

Progress Update:

During the two weeks since the last post, I have been working on learning some new songs. These songs are more difficult because they are either in four-count rather than three or they are played at a different tempo than the songs that I have previously learned. At first, it was quite difficult for me to adjust to playing in a four-count because my fingers have gotten used to playing three bass notes at a time, but after some practice, I got the hang of it. One of the songs that I have been working on called Aura Lee is quite different from all the other songs that I have learned because it is played very slowly. In the song, all the notes are blended together rather than with a short pause between them.

Between now and the next blog post, I want to continue to work on the songs that I have been learning and if am able to get good at playing them, I could move onto playing a waltz-style song. I also want to look into purchasing a metronome or maybe finding an app with one so that I can use it to make sure that I am staying in one tempo for the whole song.

Below is the music for two of the songs that I have been working on.

How to Have a Beautiful Mind:

Parallel Thinking – The Six Hats

In this section of the conversation, my mentor and I are going over a new song and writing out all the notes:

“Now that you’ve gotten good at playing all the easier songs, we can move onto some more difficult ones.”

This part of the conversation mainly involves the blue hat, because it defines the purpose of the conversation and sets up for the other hats to be used.

Me: “Ok, so what song would you recommend learning next?”

I believe that this part of the conversation included the green hat because it asks for ideas and advice from my mentor.

(flips to page of a song called Our Boys)

“This song would probably be good to play next because it’s played in four-count and has some more challenging parts.”

I think that this part of the conversation involves both the white and yellow hats. This is because it includes hard facts about the song and also includes why this song would be a good choice for me to learn next.

Me: “Ok, so should I just start with writing out all the notes first?”

“Yeah sure. That would be a good place to start.”

(writes out all the notes)

In some ways, this part of the conversation includes the black hat because it involves using judgment and critical thinking to figure out what the best approach to learning the song is.

“Do you want to hear me play it first so that you know what it sounds like when played?”

Me: “Yes, that would be helpful, so that I know what to aim for while playing it.”

This part of the conversation involves the yellow hat because it discusses the benefits of hearing the song before trying to play it.

(plays the song and realizes something in the notes is off)

“I think there might be a few notes written wrong. This line doesn’t quite sound right, so you should just check over the notes.”

In this part of the conversation, the red hat is being used, because my mentor has a feeling that something is off with the notes. Her thinking is based on intuition rather than facts.

Me: “Oh ok, I’ll look over all the notes and double-check them.”

(looks over the notes and figures out that a G is actually an A)

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