My Final Blog Post!

What I Learned About Myself Upon completion of my Genius Hour project, I am now able to reflect on this experience and consider how my professional learning has grown as a result. Throughout constant engagement in my Genius Hour project, I was able to learn a lot about myself on a personal level. Learning how to play guitar was always a goal of mine and I seemingly never found time to do so as sports and my social life took precedence instead. Completing this project taught me that if there is something in life that I want to achieve, there is always a way to accomplish it, no matter how busy you may be. I learned that I need to chase my goals in life and not allow anything to stand in the way of what I want to achieve. As a result, I find myself looking at life through an entirely new lens, motivated to try new things and step outside of my comfort zone. What I Enjoyed While completing my Genius Hour project, I found a great deal of joy in learning how to play guitar with Marty Music. I found his videos to be very easy to keep up with and felt that he provided me with a plethora of beneficial tips that made learning how to play guitar much easier than my previous experiences. Additionally, I really enjoyed learning to play from Youtube videos. An online platform allowed me to rewatch videos or certain aspects of Marty’s videos that I did not fully grasp the first time. I found this to be instrumental for my learning and an opportunity that I would not have with in-person lessons. Moreover, what I enjoyed most about learning how to play guitar was the benefits it had for my mental health. I found that playing guitar, even if it was for 15 minutes, would allow me to decompress from the stress of school and clear my head of anything negative that was happening in my life. Overall, I found this entire experience to be extremely joyful and I am glad that I chose this topic for my Genius Hour project. What my Challenges were After watching Marty Music’s first two acoustic guitar lessons, I found that transitioning between chords was a great challenge for me. I would constantly have to remind myself of where my fingers should align on the fret board in order to smoothly transition between different chords which would bring down my confidence. While this was an extremely challenging aspect of my learning, Marty emphasized in each of his videos that this skill would only evolve and become second nature through constant practice and time which enlightened my spirit and kept me motivated. What I Would Change If I had to change anything regarding my project, it would certainly be my expectations with learning how to play guitar. I was quick to assume that I would pick up the guitar and learn how to play in no time, however this was not the case. Learning how to play guitar is a lifelong skill and my goal of learning how to play two songs in such a short period of time was simply unrealistic. If I had an opportunity to travel back in time, I would change this goal and make it something that was more achievable such as learning how to play three different strumming patterns with the 5 chords that I learned how to play. I feel that having an easier goal to obtain would be extremely beneficial for my motivation to continue learning and would allow me to learn how to play at a pace that does not exceed my skill level. Where I go from Here Although my Genius Hour project has come to an unfortunate end, I have made a commitment to myself to continue learning how to play guitar. This project taught me a lot about myself and the benefits that playing guitar has in my life. As such, I will continue progressing through the rest of Marty Music’s instructional videos and ensure that I find at least 15 minutes every day to practice. Through completion of this project, my expectations with regard to the progress I make playing guitar has become more realistic and I feel that this realization is vital for my motivation to continue playing in the future.