Kim Richardson - Guitar

Over the weekend I made a draft of what I wanted to say for my video because I felt it wasn't as good as it could've been. I wanted to talk more about changing strings because that is the most common maintenance procedure that you carry out with a guitar. Most people know how to change a string but they might not be comfortable with adjusting the action or intonation. I wanted to be detailed with what I was talking about because that would show that I understand it more than someone else for example. Also by doing my video a second time I would be more relaxed and comfortable because I am more sure of what I am supposed to be doing. I am happier with my second video recording because I don't feel I rushed it like last week. I approached the video with the same structure but by being more secure on what I was going to say I could pace it better, rather than rushing to get all my ideas out. I was calmer because I knew what to expect and overall I feel it was more successful

Today we recapped over everything we've done this term because had to start filming our video assessments. We warmed up using the chromatic scale and the mechanical chords and made sure we knew what woods our guitars are made of. Warm up 1: Chromatic E |-------------------------------------------------1-2-3-4-|-4-3-2-1------------------------------------------------| B |---------------------------------------1-2-3-4-----------|---------4-3-2-1----------------------------------------| G |-----------------------------1-2-3-4---------------------|-------------------4-3-2-1------------------------------| D |-------------------1-2-3-4-------------------------------|-----------------------------4-3-2-1--------------------| A |----------1-2-3-4----------------------------------------|---------------------------------------4-3-2-1----------| E | 1-2-3-4--------------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------4-3-2-1-| Warm up 2: Mechanic

Today our lesson was highly technical and required a lot of thinking. I enjoyed it! To start, we recapped over health and safety but thought about it in a lot more detail. We distinguished between environmental and physiological hazards when playing guitar. Physiological hazards included repetitive strain injury, hydration and posture. Repetitive strain injury can damage your wrist in the long term so it is important to have good technique and to not play for hours on end each day. Similarly, posture is important because playing in a slouched position and damage your back and can prevent you from playing longer, better shows. Hydration is crucial to keep your mind fresh in rehearsals and on stage, since both settings can become super warm. Dehydration can hinder your concentration too, which could lead to making mistakes or even fainting, at the most extreme. For environmental hazards, we identified tripping over wires, water around electricity and heavy lifting. Tripping over wire

Today in our guitar lesson we practiced our warm ups, including our A minor pentatonic. We discussed maintenance again and Kyle changed a string since he wasn't here last week. We talked about what we are planning to do in our video assessment. For mine I would like to change one of my strings to demonstrate that I can do it successfully and I will clean off my fretboard with lemon oil. I might also talk about how you shouldn't use lemon oil on a maple neck to show my understanding of different guitar woods. I will talk about my guitar's truss rod, how and why you adjust it and how important it is to be careful because your guitar is ruined if you break the truss rod. When I've changed my string and tuned it up I will demonstrate some of the warm-up techniques we have been practicing in these lessons. I will probably demonstrate my favourite ones and the ones that I feel have helped me the most. My preferred warm ups are the chromatic scales where you move back a fret

We began the lesson by re-capping about warm ups and health safety. In the last week I have hurt myself on string ends twice so in terms of health and safety this is something I need to watch. Cutting string ends as short as I can is something I need to remember to do. One of the main activities for today's lesson was guitar maintenance so we each changed a string on either Tom's or Mia's guitars. I found this task easy since I change guitar strings as part of my weekend job. I was glad to be able to help my classmates who had only ever changed their strings a couple of times. The second activity was discussing our personal goals for these guitar lessons and the most common goal was learning the fretboard off by heart. The most common way to learn guitar now is by videos and tabs on the internet but a lot of online teachers miss out the theory parts to playing guitar, which is the downside to not having proper lessons. Because of this, our main goal as a group is to lea

In today's lesson we recapped on what we did before half term. We reminded each other of the warm ups we did and practised them for a little while. I am finding the mechanical exercise easier since I practised it over half term. We also learned another chromatic scale which involved moving back a fret as you go up the strings. I liked this one as I felt it was a good challenge, especially trying to go back down the strings. It sounds a lot nicer to play than the other exercises too! We discussed our equipment for the second part of the lesson, including what equipment we'd like to have in the future. One of he important things when buying a guitar is the type of wood it is made from so we thought about what woods our guitars were made of. My Ibanez is a solid mahogany body with a maple neck and rosewood fretboard. It is painted and lacquered heavily so I think that affects the tone. In the future I would like a Fender Strat with an alder and an in-lacquered maple neck. For me

In the guitar lesson today we covered warm ups, maintenance and scales. I found the warm ups helpful as previously I've never really warmed up to play. We did three warm ups - diminished chords, hammer ons and pull offs and a mechanical one. The hammer on one was the simplest, it involved holding your first finger down on the high E string and hammering on then pulling off with each finger in turn. Then we moved on to the second finger and repeated the process, then a final time starting on the third finger. Our teacher suggested we could carry on this exercise on each string as well. I liked the diminished chord exercise because I learned two new chord shapes. You can also play these chords higher up the fretboard which could be useful in the future. The hardest warm up was the mechanical one because it involved the most movement. We used a finger per fret starting on the D string and then went diagonally up the strings. Then you change to going diagonally down the strings with yo