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This week, being the final week of my genius hour project, I have been fine playing my song to reach its highest potential. I have memorized the song and have been able to play it perfectly. I have practiced it a lot, but I haven't been able to get it to the speed I'd like to take it. With basketball practice starting this week, I'll have to adjust my practice days outside of the project.
My friends and family are the only reason that I have been able to make it this far in my music playing efforts. Jake has really encouraged me to show up to practice throughout the twelve weeks. Without him, I wouldn't have anything to put for this project. Both Noah and Tori, the people I play with on Wednesdays, have built up my ability to read music for the bongos and play them. Due to all of these people, I was able to successfully complete my genius hour project with a skill I've never though about having.
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This week on my genius hour project, a lot of our songs are ready and finished. Noah, Jake and I have practiced to the point where if you ask us to play, we can play any song in our book with perfection. I can't wait to soon be able to play in front of the older people in the sanctuary rather than the youth. I am confident in both myself and the other band members to play our best.
Playing in tune was probably the hardest challenge I faced in the whole twelve weeks that this project took place. The bongos can't always be in tune, due to their lack of tun-ability, but I have to play soft in order for them to blend in with the guitar and Noah's voice. In the end, playing soft sounds neat with all of the little offbeats here and there. This week on my genius hour project, my bongo playing is almost completely finished. The deadline for this project is coming up fast, but I should be able to achieve my goal by the deadline. I wish for my bongo skills to be heard by other people outside of my church. To do this I will need to have a full band to play along with me, and I play with people at church, so I might ask them if they would permanently play with me
I want to take a moment to thank all the people that have helped me get to where I am with this project. My abilities to play the bongos have developed, and without having people to help me, I wouldn't have been able to do it without them. When I started this project, I was planning on playing the trombone; something I'm already good at. It fascinates me how much I have learned playing the bongos, and I can take what I've learned and apply it to playing the trombone. This week, Noah handed out five new pieces for me to learn with him; these pieces give me multiple solos throughout different parts of each piece. Now that I've gotten the hang of playing them on a regular basis, Noah and I are more confident in my bongo playing, rewarding me with more solo playing time. There are some cons to this, however.
One con on playing more is the average human's hands will begin to hurt after obsessive playing. I, being an average person, will develop a painful sting in the hand that plays the offbeats. I have come up with a solution, which is applying a washcloth to one bongo. Doing that prevents the majority of the stinging sensation in my right hand, allowing me to play my solo with better efficiency. Another con is bongo placement. Normally, with one bongo, I lean it back a little, just enough so it's not completely covered by the floor. It's difficult to do so with two bongos. My solution to this was to lean the the bongo that is played for the offbeats back, while the single beat one is placed vertically onto the floor. Leaning the bongos back projects sound, and the offbeats are more important than the single beat. Coming near the end of my Genius Hour Project, I look back and say "Dang, I've accomplished a lot." I've learned so much about the bongos and how to play them, and I can't wait to use this skill in the future possibly. This week, as stated in the title, I've mover up a step. While I was playing the bongos, Noah came over to me and added a second bongo to play along with the first one.
It was hard to adjust to at the beginning, but after roughly thirty minutes into the lesson I found it easier to play. One bongo is used for the beat, while the other is used for all of the offbeats in a piece of music. I've found that my hands begin to hurt faster than just playing with one, but like always, I will eventually get the hang of constantly doing that instead. I feel like my progression in playing the bongos has reflected the amount of time on the project. I have watched many videos on YouTube of people learning the bongos and they all seem to have the same talent that I have after six weeks of practice. I learned some new beats and practiced previously taught beats. The new beats are much faster than the previous one, but after about thirty minutes of practice, I easily got the hang of it.
The song I'm good at is called "Amazing Grace", because it is a very easy song to learn. That is just one of the handful of songs that I have been practicing since the beginning, and they are all beginning to become some-what entertaining. I am satisfied with my progress so far and I am hoping to keep it going well for the rest of the project. This week I feel that I made pretty decent progress. I found it easier to play and practice when I am by myself, so I have started to play the bongos outside because I find it pleasurable to play there. It is nice to not have someone putting pressure on you and to be able to critique yourself. However, the weather has been getting both cold and muggy, so I do not know how long this outdoor practicing will continue.
I am also able to play some more songs. The bongos are an easy instrument to play and it is proving more easy than I assumed it would. I shall continue to keep working to try my best at getting better each week. Although I am able to play some more songs, there is currently a stand-still skill progression. It is a very tedious process, and as frustrating as it is, I am going to keep a positive attitude and hope that things start to progress at a higher pace. This week on my project, the band and I just played our normal routine. It has become easier for me to recognize the cues for my entrance when playing the bongos now that I have been playing them for a while. I feel like having knowledge on how to play the bongos will also benefit me when playing my trombone by keeping the beat in my head as I play a tune.
The next step I need to work on is different types of notes to play. Examples are sixteenth and triplets. I find it harder to play with your hands rather than your mouth when playing a trombone. This is quite a change for me and I will watch a variety of internet videos to improve on my bongo-playing. The more I watch experienced people play, the more motivation I have to completer my goal. This week there wasn't really anything new. I just started to try and learn a few more simple beats with a couple new add-on's as well. Repetition is a key point in my progress. Creating muscle memory in my hands is very important so I can play and transition the beat regularly.
This is a lot easier said then done. I still am catching myself misplaying the beat after playing the song for a couple seconds. One day, I discovered some new ways to play a cool beat. Instead of the normal ways of playing one, this way allows me to have one hand, preferably my right one; to keep a beat all by itself. I am able to play multiple neat beats using this way. I learned it off of YouTube, and I like it better because it makes it easier to play a beat a lot longer without both hands starting to hurt, due to the constant switching of both hands. This week on my project, I did more rhythm work with multiple pieces that is required. I did more of the rhythm stuff with Noah, for he plays the music really well, so it’s easier for me to follow along and play along with him. He also taught me a little bit more about the bongos. He said that bongos often don't have written music, and it's the player that is creative with it.
This past Wednesday during Genius Hour day I practiced with Jake, the second guitarist for the band. He got out his sheet music so I could listen and discover what I need to play. I discovered that I need to work on a little bit of my rhythm for the song and to learn the solo parts for the acoustic guitar, so that away I don't play accidentally during one of their parts. Right now I’m able to keep the beat with the song really well. I can keep up with the band while they are playing, and add in additional parts to the song, it's great! Next week I want to understand all of the rhythm patterns and try to work on mastering the solo parts. Then I will be able to play the song with the band from memory. I want to use my time this week practicing playing along more with the song and by practicing with other people I know that can help me, such as Noah and Jake. |
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December 2017
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