This week has been pretty good. At my lesson last week, I began learning how to play G, C, and D chops. A chop on a mandolin is like a chord on a guitar, but you lift your fingers and stop the sound instead of letting it ring. I also started learning how to play Amazing Grace at last week's lesson. I have been practicing these chops and Amazing Grace this week and have gotten a lot better at them. I went to this week's lesson yesterday and was told that I was doing good so far. I began to learn the A chop and how to play a song called Salt Creek. I have started practicing these and have gotten a little bit better at each. The songs Amazing Grace and Salt Creek do not use chops, but instead, you pick one set of stings at a time. However, I was given a song called Blackberry Blossom, which uses chops instead of single picks. Since I am taking the PSAT on Saturday next week, I will not be able to have a lesson. Therefore, I was given extra material to practice so that I would not get bored and have something to be working on during the extra time. Also, this week, I continued learning about how to read music and began to learn the parts of the mandolin. I am continuing to have a hard time with the bass clef and an easier time with the treble clef. I started to look at the timing of music and have a little better understanding, but I am still having a hard time keeping things straight. I am having an easier time understanding the parts of a mandolin though. I think the reason that I am having a much easier time learning the parts of a mandolin is that many of the parts are on other instruments. Frets are on guitars, banjos, ukuleles, and other instruments. Pickguards are on all sorts of guitars, and soundholes are on acoustic guitars. I am having a great time trying to learn the mandolin and am looking forward to continuing to learn more about it.
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This first week of Genius Hour has been great. I have made a lot of progress playing Mandolin, I went from barely knowing how to pick a string to start to learn my first song. I have been to two lessons and have learned a lot about the instrument and about how to play it. Two weeks ago I went to a lesson and learned how to hold the Mandolin, where to anchor my wrist, and I also learned the G-Scale. Today, I went to a lesson and learned that I had been anchoring my wrist good, but I wasn't playing close enough to the fretboard and was getting sharp sounds when I should have been playing further up the instrument and getting more mellow sounds. Something else that I have learned since I have been taking lessons, that does not pertain to me as of now, is the versatility of the Mandolin. It's like the Swiss-Army Knife of instruments! With a Mandolin, you can play anything from Rock and Reggae to Bluegrass and Country music. I am really looking forward to learning more about Mandolin and continuing to learn some music. However, I am not looking forward to learning more about how to read music. So far I have looked at the Treble Clef and Bass Clef. I have had prior experience with the Treble Clef, so it is relatively easy for me to read and remember which note is where. I have never seen a Bass Clef in my life until Wednesday. I spent a few minutes taking notes on it and trying to remember a mnemonic to help me remember the placement of notes on the staff, but I can only remember something about cows. My saving grace when learning the Mandolin is that I am currently reading off a sheet of paper that has four lines, for the 4 sets of two string on the Mandolin, and it tells which fret to put my finger on, on each corresponding string. I have no idea what this is called, but I hope that it sticks around for a while.
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