Blog Journal #1: Re-Learning and Development

Jasper Nielsen
04/02/2024

What have I started?

Over the past two weeks, I have been developing my skills in singing and playing the guitar by
researching and playing popular songs with different styles of music. Some of the songs I
practiced included “Radioactive” by Imagine Dragons and “Wonderwall” by Oasis, I also began
to learn the song “Hey Jude” by the Beatles as it is a song that was praised for changing up the
structure that many songs followed at the time it was written. I also took time to recruit friends
who I know enjoy music to help make changes to music or lyrics and record the songs for the
album.

In the coming two weeks, I plan to continue refining my skills by singing and playing the guitar,
practicing the songs I’ve already started learning, and also trying new more complex songs.
These new songs would have different rhythms, lyric styles, emotions, strumming patterns, and
chord progressions to keep things fresh and push understanding. I also plan to keep a journal
with lyric ideas as well as the full songs, so that I can have easy access and quickly jot down
ideas during the upcoming weeks. I would also like to record clips with friends or adventures for
the final progress video. I need to make at least a half-hour a night of time to practice the guitar
and take extra time to sing outside of school as well so I can figure out different styles and which
suits me best. I also plan to bring my guitar to school and work with Mr. Grey to help me
understand my musical ability and the style(s) I should write my music. I would also like to have
my microphone ordered sometime in these two weeks, however, I don’t plan to use it at least
until after Blog Journal #2. I anticipate that my busy schedule will be an issue in the coming
weeks, however, I continue to work on the issue with my parents and also have a free weekend
this week to practice and brainstorm ideas. I also know that my tendency to procrastinate will not
help with my tight schedule, especially when I know that there is still a ways before the deadline.
I’m hoping that breaking the whole process up into sections with these blogs will help keep me
on track for the next two weeks. Procrastination is already a challenge I faced over the break,
leading me to get a lot less done than I had hoped. With the amount of time off and myself not
kicking into work mode until the last few days before the break ended, there was only so much I
could do with other assignments needing to be finished. The main core competency I focused on
during the break was Personal Awareness & Responsibility as much of the practice I did was
on my own, besides when I would ask my family for tips or to judge a song. I mainly focused on
understanding that learning takes patience and time as I was learning new songs, that I had never
tried before. Having to take half hour increments throughout the day because my fingers would
begin to hurt after playing for too long. I also had to take time to understand that my decisions
and actions can affect me as I was having a bit of a stress attack after getting less done than I
would have liked over the break, taking into account that I am the only one that can take the
steps to get everything done in the end, no matter how much help I get. Once I fully understand
this, I feel my capstone will begin to flow more smoothly through the steps.