Back To Work! // January
- Abhay Liginlal
- Feb 7, 2018
- 4 min read
Oh Hello There...
So…. These posts have been a long time coming.
I haven’t updated this blog in a long, long time, and while some of that can be attributed to an extremely annoying work schedule, laziness had its fair hand to play in my inactivity.
Though my posts haven’t been as continuous as I would have liked it to be, I did make a lot of progress in my guitar learning over the last months, it’s just I haven’t shared it with all of you, so let’s get to it! (image)
In complete honesty I had next to no time to play actual guitar over the course of January, and that’s really down to how much work I had over the course of the month. From Cross Country practice, to debate tournaments, to THIMUN, to AP Biology to Forensics prep, I really didn’t have enough time to invest in learning something really cool on my guitar.
So I got thinking, how could I do something cool with my quest if I didn’t have the guitar itself? What could take little time, but still have a huge impact on my blog? My answer came to me in the form of one of my best friends complaining to me. (image)
Changing up my Style
Sahej Panag and I sit together during chemistry, and she was fussing constantly about how her blog ‘didn’t look nice’ and ‘was trash’, so she set out to make it look pretty. I thought this was a waste of time, but after seeing her blog I was amazed how a bit of editing could go a long way! Sahej’s blog turned out great (you can check her out here!), so I decided to give it a go myself!
I messed around with the color scheme and gave my blog a title, (update as of March, I changed it again woo!)
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the addition of the original music video to my song of the month,
and changing the organization of the writing in the blog itself to make it more cohesive and organized, with titles and dividers.
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I also started thinking on what I needed to improve on when it came to my content, especially in voice. For the last year it’s really just been me talking and rambling, so I wanted to spice things up a little bit by being far more quippy and funny. That’s a huge part of my personality in real life, and it’s unfair to myself if I don't that shine in these posts. Basically what i’m promising all of you is that I won’t be flat!
The musical note? Anyone? No? Alright fair enough…
Anyway, even though I didn’t do too much on the guitar over this course of time, I still wanted to play and improve. So I decided to practice something that would be beneficial to me in the long run, though not as flashy as stuff I performed in the past. (image)
The Bar is High
Every guitarist dreads the bar chord, where you put your entire index
finger over a fret. I’ve been putting it off for a while, but I decided to start practicing it, mainly using two songs. It doesn't take much time and is easy to practice. (image)
I’ve mentioned before in my posts that I’m obsessed with K-Pop. But while most foreign K-Pop fans love bands like BTS and EXO, I’m a sucker for solo artists. Two of my absolute favorites are G-Dragon (left) and Taeyeon (right). Both of these singers have popular songs that utilize the bar chord in such a way that a beginner can use them. It always helps when you learn a song that you're familiar with. (image)
So, in a special episode of Abhay Tries to Record Himself Playing the Guitar and Not be Embarrassed (ATRHPGNE for short), we have two songs of the month! Enjoy!
Song(s) of the Month!
'Untitled 2014' - G-Dragon
First off I decided to play the two basic tunes of the song 'Untitled 2014' by G-Dragon. While they are originally performed on the piano, they are converted to guitar quite easily. They use the two basic chords of Am and A, but also the bar chord G#7m. It has the pattern Am, G#7m, A, A. The song uses this pattern for both the opening and the chorus, but the chorus is at a faster pace. This song was perfect for me to get used to bar chords, and after a while I got the hang of the pattern, and it was time for me to get a bit more complicated. (album image)
'Fire' - Kim Taeyeon
'Fire' by Taeyeon is a song that has electric guitar, drums, a shaker and only uses acoustic guitar as a beat. I wish there was more acoustic, but the rhythm already in the guitar is super useful for learning bar chords! So in 'Untitled 2014', you just have a down motion for the strumming all the way through, but in 'Fire', there's a strumming pattern, DDUUDU. now if you've been reading the blog, you'd know that it's the same strumming pattern as seen in 'I'm Yours', which I played a couple months ago! Incorporating a strumming pattern with a bar chord is basic, but tricky. It'll be super useful for me going forward. (album image)
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