Category: Free Inquiry

I created this video of my roommates at night. The music is me playing Blackbird which I recorded on my phone, then emailed it to myself and added to imovie.

I wanted to create this film because learning how to make these short videos has been a major take away for me from this course. I enjoyed  many aspects of learning how to use different technologies however what has so far been most useful to me has been the ability to make these video’s. They are both enjoyable and educational to make.

After playing around with Garage Band on my Mac for a while I have come to the conclusion that things would sound a lot better with a proper microphone. I feel as though the background is very empty and only the sharp sounds of my guitar are picked up.  I played around with the program trying to get it to focus on all the sounds of my guitar evenly but no matter what it seems to only focus on the high, sharp noises. It does not help that I am not very good at playing the song. But since taking my roommates advice the song sounds a lot better.

I am also running into a lot of difficulty uploading what I have just created on Garage Band to this blog post. I was hoping to add my recording on Garage band and compare the sound to what I recorded on my phone but I am unable to. I will continue practicing and continue adding other forms of recoding until I learn how to upload what I have done on Garage Band to this blog.

My roommate is a very talented musician. After hearing me practice the song the wrong way, he showed me the proper way of picking the tune so that I would sound better. I can already tell the song sounds much more like the Beatles version. Although now I have an entirely different element to practice. I do not think i will be ready to sing this song anytime soon as singing while picking can be difficult for me. Once again this recording is not the best but I have improved from last time.

In terms of recording I would very much like to  practice using Garage Band to record myself. I have heard a lot of great things so I am thinking I will research it, learn how to use it and then for my next recording use that tech on my Macbook.

Although I had been practicing the song using the youtube video I have already posted, this was my first recording. This recording was from November 18th. Only at this point did I feel I could play the song fast enough to record. Even from this point I still needed to practice a lot.

Unfortunately I have not practiced as much as i would have like to. I need to start putting practice into my daily routine. This is a beautiful cover of the song. Watching this has inspired me to pick up my socks and start practicing more.

When trying to learn a new song by using a tutorial on youtube, the first 5 minutes are usually dedicated to finding one where the teachers style is matched to the learners preference. For me, I prefer the teacher to get right to the point. I don’t want an in depth explanation of who they are, their interpretation of the song, or any other information aside from how to play it. Fortunately I found a great youtube video which I have linked bellow. Although this gentleman talks a bit at the beginning, his instruction of how to play is very clear. Furthermore I don’t find him annoying, which is very important since I will watch this video repeatedly while I master the song.

For my free inquiry project I have decided to learn the song ‘Blackbird’ by The Beatles. This song has been on my bucket list since I started playing the guitar over ten years ago. For this project I plan to use Youtube tutorials where musicians post lessons on how to play the song. I can sing certain songs well now so I believe eventually, with practice, I will be able to sing and perform the song for the class.

Generally I play songs which primarily require strumming. ‘Blackbird’ is different in that it requires more finger picking with no strumming. I believe practicing this song will further my guitar playing skills as well as satisfy my desire to be able to sing this beautiful song.

I am looking forward to this process!