Hello,
Welcome to my fourth blog post for In-Depth 2022! For the last month, I have been practicing a lot (because of spring break). Here is another update for my bass guitar so far.
The only time me and my mentor meet up was during spring break. During the meeting session, we mostly focused on improving my music quality. The songs we practiced were the songs from the last post and the songs on this post. He was giving me tips and feedback on my skills and progress so far. I really enjoyed the practice times because there was no space for making mistakes. When I practice alone and make mistakes, I wouldn’t know, it would make it hard for me to let go of my mistakes.
Here are the songs I have been practicing on.
Things I need to improve on (same as last week):
Sliding
- Practice, practice, practice
Staying on beat
- Counting in my head
Cleaning notes
- Staying on beat
Questions to answer for today:
- What has been my most difficult mentoring challenge so far? Why?
One of my most difficult mentoring challenges so far is finding the best time for me and my mentor to meet. I know this is the case because like I said in my other posts, David had recently gotten a new job and ever since he had been busy with that. In the other hand, not only David is getting busier, but I get home late everyday which makes it difficult for me and him to find the perfect time that will satisfy both of us. Adding on the that, having Covid, and not being able to meet up a lot, communication had been quite difficult as well. It’s not impossible, but it takes both of us a couple of days to get back for each other. Luckily, during the break we’ve agreed on a time and day that fits for both our schedules. Hopefully, nothing gets in the way, and it can stay like that till the end of In-Depth!
- What is working well? Why?
I believe there are many parts that are working well for me. Obviously, the first one would be the time schedule. My mentor and I have a time we both agree on. I know it is working well because we both agreed on a time and continue maintaining the streak. Another part that is working well is communication in-person. When we meet in-person I feel we understand each other well for most part. The words flow smoothly, and I get to say whatever I need. I think this is because I’ve knew David since I was little and every Sunday, we do youth group meetings with other people. The last part that is working well is having skills to work on. During the meetings there are times when we’re doing nothing because we finished doing everything. Even though my ideas are all out, he still has ideas that makes the sessions longer and effective. This is working well because he had a lot of experience with the bass guitar and he know what is difficult, he is just sharing his knowledge with me.
- What could be working better? How can you make sure this happens?
One specific move that could be better is communication online. I think communication online is difficult for me because I don’t like going on my phone checking for messages. For David, it would be similar as well. When he sends me a message, and when I send him a message, it takes a few days to get back to each other. However, this can be prevented by making an alarm to check discord (communicating app we both use) or even just call them. There are simple ways communication can get fixed.