Thursday, February 25, 2016

My American Dream

The American Dream
To begin, what is an American Dream? According to Wikipedia, “the American Dream is a national ethos of the United States, the set of ideals in which freedom includes the opportunity for prosperity and success, and an upward social mobility for the family and children, achieved through hard work in a society with few barriers.” Or in layman’s terms, the main goal in your life, what you ultimately want to achieve. Some common American Dreams are: to make a name for themselves, to retire and not have to go back to work. Some people in the world do not believe that the American Dream still exists. These people might say, “The economy or the job market prevents the majority of Americans from achieving their dream.” That might stop some Americans, but not all of them. For example, a person's American Dream might be to have a family, have a good job. Most of the time the only thing that prevents people from achieving their dream is one thing; hard work. As long as I work hard in school and college I can achieve my American Dream. More specifically, to retire from the mechanical engineering field with enough income to support my addiction with cars and guitars. My passion of guitar playing heavily influences my American Dream. The main point of influence is on my job’s income. Without a steady income, either from retirement or steady job; I will not be able to buy a guitar that I want, or be able to afford parts for my classic car. A lot of my dream comes from how I was raised. For example, I was raised around a bunch of motor heads, working on classic cars, racing them and then fixing them again. After growing up like this you start to want your own classic muscle car so you can go fast and be loud.   

Friday, January 29, 2016

Major scale

While playing guitar there are many scales that experienced players improvise on. When you are listening to a rock song  and the solo comes along, it isn't a jumble of notes. They are playing a scale. In this case, the scale is in the key of A. The red 2's are to be played on 5th fret and the red 4 resides on 7th fret. While you play this I urge you to stay in position. Position playing is when your first finger stays on the desired root. Here, on this scale you have to use your pinky. You might not be albe to play it fast at first, the more you practice the faster you play and the easier it gets. 
http://www.pluckandplayguitar.com/major-scale.html 

Friday, January 8, 2016

Dream On

Last month, my high school put on a showcase that showed off the students' skills. My friend and I preformed the iconic song, Dream On by Aerosmith. Most would think we would be preforming in an auditorium or a gymnasium, not us we got to play in the hallways. I am happy with that. I don't have a lot of practice with preforming in front of a large audience, at best just a large class. Wen we played in the hallways there was only a group of 20 or so people listening. Not only is this one of my favorite songs, it is beneficial to learn on the guitar. This song helps you with your chord changes. since most of the chords require only three fingers to play it makes the song easy to learn and fun to play.