Project Presentation Overview

My presentation was so fun and I did really well! I got a 99% as my grade! I wonder what I did wrong on that 1%  😁. Anyways, the project went great and my mom and dad came to watch my presentation. I presented for a lot of people so I got really tired of talking and standing but it was really fun to present to students, teachers and parents. Everyone's presentation looked great!

My speech

The project presentation was so fun to do and I had my speech memorized perfectly. I started off with a speech that I wasn't very proud of. I kept wanting to change it but didn't know how. When I wrote my notecards, I kept coming up with more ideas to write. So I finally changed my speech to something that I am very proud of and I used it in the presentation. Here it is:





  

Madison Farr

Language

20% Time

 

            My project is based on my hobby, something I love, which is guitar. My original project was a kindness project. I changed it because I felt as if I couldn’t do much with that certain project. Since I love guitar and am very passionate about it, I decided to do my project on it. I learned a lot throughout this whole project. I accomplished a lot as well and had fun doing it.

My first goal was to do random acts of kindness for my original project, since it was a kindness project. Another goal was to learn how to tune my guitar, as well as learn how to play bar chords. There is nothing special about bar chords, really. In fact, they sound about the same as regular chords. The only difference is that bar chords have fuller sounds.

I accomplished my goal of learning how to tune my guitar. It took a lot of searching and watching YouTube videos to figure it out. Finally online, I found a recommendation of an app called Guitar Tuner. I downloaded it and found it really useful. My next accomplishment was for my original project. Since it was a kindness project, my goal was to do random acts of kindness. If you think about it, you do random acts of kindness everyday in your life. From complimenting someone to helping them when they need it, they are all random acts of kindness. Therefore, I accomplish my goal every day. One thing I need to accomplish is bar chords. I intend to learn it even after this project is over.

That brings me to my failures. Even though this project was fun, there were still challenges along the way. A challenge with my guitar project is that I couldn’t learn bar chords. A challenge with my original project is that I couldn’t do many things with it and I couldn’t reach some goals.

Despite not completely achieving my goals, I enjoyed both projects because I got to do my hobby and something I love and believe in. I will try to accomplish my goals after this project is over. Hopefully, I will accomplish them. 20% time taught me that I should do more things with my time. It also taught me that me that if you set a goal, you can achieve it. Just like when I set my goals, I achieved the ones I spent the most time in. Honestly, I didn’t put that much time into learning bar chords, but did put time into learning to tune my guitar. Therefore, if you set a goal and spend your time trying to achieve it, you will.

Me playing guitar

Me playing guitar!!!! The first video is of me tuning my guitar!!!!! The second one is me singing and playing Radioactive by Imagine Dragons. That is not my favorite band or song but I know how to play it and I think the acoustic version sounds really cool!!!

Then these are pictures of me and my guitar that I will put on my poster board for my project!!!

Update

Now in the project, when we are starting to actually set up all the poster boards and write the essays, it actually worries me that I wont get done with it. Since I didn't really accomplish much with my project, its hard to write the speech and do the poster boards.

Lesson 6

The only chords on the guitar that I don't know how to play, are bar chords. They are more complex chords that take a long time to learn. There are other chords that u can play instead of bar chords that sound really similar. I have been watching YouTube videos to teach me how to play bar chords. Another thing that I didn't know how to do was tuning a guitar. But I found an app that helps you tune your guitar and I downloaded it on my phone. When you open the app, it will have the names of the strings. You click on one of them and it makes the sound that the string is supposed to sound like. Then just play the string and then on the screen, there will be a line in the middle. If the dot is to the left of the line, its too low. If the dot goes to the right of the line, then its too high. Then you should already know to turn the tuning peg counter clockwise. This app really helped me learn to tune my guitar! So that is one of the things that I have learned from  this project and hopefully, soon, bar chords.

Lesson 5

Sweet Home Alabama is actually really simple once you know how to play D, G and C9 very well. A guitar exercise that I did with my guitar teacher really helped with me learning my chords. He would call out random chords and I would have to play the chords in the same order he called them out and in the strumming pattern he told me to do. This would really help you learn chords. At first, getting your fingers on the chords might be a little bit hard and you might be a little slow. But, after you learn them and get used to them, then you'll know exactly where they are, how to play them and you will be able to get to the chord right away. Just try this exercise and have someone call out the chords to you and you practice playing.

Lesson 4

In this post I will explain more chords and strumming patterns. The first song I learned how to play on guitar was Sweet Home Alabama. It requires you to know the D chord and two new chords (C9 and G) Before the video, I will teach you how to play those two new chords.

This is a C9 chord. To play this, you put your 1st finger on the 5th string, of the 2nd fret. Then, put your 2nd finger on the 6th string of the 2nd fret. After that, put your 3rd finger on the 2nd string of, again, the 2nd fret. Finally, put your 4th finger on the 1st string of, of course, the 2nd fret. That's how you play C9 chord!

Lesson 3

In this post, I will be talking about strumming patterns.

 

 

This is a simple strumming pattern. The down mean that you will be strumming down for all of these beats.

 

This is another strumming pattern. In you head just count one, two, three, four, over and over again. When you count one and two, you should go down on both numbers. Then three and four, you should strum up on both numbers. Then go back to one and two. On one, strum down and on two strum up.

There are many different strumming patterns that you could use. You could even pick some random pattern. In my next post I will be talking about strumming with chords.  

 

lesson 2

To play guitar, you will need to learn some chords. The first chord I was ever taught was Em or E minor. This is probably the easiest note there is besides D. At first, it is probably not going to come out pretty unless you press them down really hard and strum. It will hurt but then you will develop calluses which is a thickened and hardened part of the skin. You develop this from having to press down on the strings so much.

This is an Em. You only have to use two fingers for this chord.

 The two and the three are your fingers. The two being your second finger and the three being your third finger. Make sure you put your fingers in the 2nd fret. To tell that it is the 2nd fret, you go to the nut and count the first fret then then second fret. Put your fingers behind the 2nd fret and there is the Em.

To play the D chord:

You put your 1st finger on the 3rd string of the 2nd fret. Then put your second finger on the 1st string of the 2nd fret. After that, put your 3rd finger on the 2nd string of the 3rd fret. That is how you play a D chord.

lesson 1

 

The first thing needed to know before you play guitar is all the guitar parts. As you can see in the picture, the head is at the very top. Then comes the tuning peg which you use to tune the guitar. Until you know how to tune a guitar, you will need to buy a tuner. To use the tuner, you turn it on and pick a string. Then you turn the peg of that string clock wise, until the light on the tuner turns green. Do this to every string. After the tuning peg, is the nut. The nut is just the white piece at under the tuning pegs that stops the strings from vibrating beyond the neck. Then, there is the fingerboard, also called the neck. On the fingerboard, there is the strings which is what you place your fingers on to play a chord. After that is the frets. Those are the metal strips that run across the fingerboard. You place your fingers behind them and strum at the sound hole which produces a note. They should be kept smooth to keep the strings from buzzing. Then the sound hole is where the sound comes out from and where you lose your guitar pic if your not careful. You strum the strings over the hole and that produces the sound. If you do lose your guitar pic, just tilt you guitar so the sound hole is facing down the shake it up and down at an angle so the pic will slip out. After that is the rib which is just a design in the guitar where the guitar body curves. The body is the biggest part of the guitar. Inside is where the sound bounces around and then comes out the sound hole. It is designed to amplify the sound of the guitar. Finally, the bridge, where the strings are attached to the guitar's body. Vibration is transferred through the bridge and vibrates to produce the tone. All of these parts are very important to know to play guitar.

Project change

I have decided to change my project. I have changed it because I cant do anything with the kindness project, really. I want to do something that I am more interested in. I am still interested in being kind and going against bullying but I wanted to do a project with something I enjoy doing. Therefore, I have chosen to do a project on playing guitar. I will blog about how to play it and how to do certain chords. I will post videos of me playing chords and playing songs. So pretty much, I am just giving virtual lessons. This will also help me learn some new songs. By the end of this project, I hope to have learned how to do more bar chords which are the hardest chords. You don't need bar chords to be able to play guitar but it is still cool to know so that you can play the few songs that have to have bar chords.

Short story

I have made my short story about the kid who was bullied but made a friend who stood up for him. Here it is:

Little Tommy jumped in the car ready for his first day of 1st grade. He was so excited to get the school year started. The only thing he was worried about was making friends. He had friends in Kindergarten but he wasn't sure if they were going to be in the same class as him.
"Are you excited?" his mom asked.
"Yes but I have butterflies in my stomach." Tommy exclaimed. "I think maybe I should wait until my stomach feels better, then go to school."
"How long will that take?" his mom chuckled.
"A year." tommy whined.
"It is completely normal to feel this way, but I know my brave boy is more than ready." his mom exclaimed.
Tommy knew his mom was always there for him and that always put a smile on his face. As soon as they pulled up to the school, the feeling of butterflies in his stomach, came back. His mother got out of the car and motioned for Tommy to follow her. They walked into the school building and found the library, where they were supposed to meet Tommy's teacher.
"Over there! " Tommy exclaimed, "There is Mrs. Johnson." They walked over to her and greeted her.
"Hello there!" Mrs. Johnson exclaimed. "You must be Tommy!"
"Yes ma'am and I am very exited to start your class!" Tommy replied. Mrs. Johnson smiled and gave Tommy a name tag. Then she told him to go look through the library as she talked to Tommy's mom. Tommy ran over to the shelf and looked through the books. All the sudden a boy jumped in front of him and knocked the books out of his hands.
"Are you gonna pick that up or just sit here staring at me?" The boy said.
"I'm sorry." Tommy bent over and picked up the books and put them on the shelf. "I'm Tommy and I hope we can be friends!" The boy just laughed and ran to the other side of the room. Tommy walked up to a girl and smiled.
"Hi what's your name?" Tommy asked the girl.
"None of your business." The girl replied.
"I was just trying to make friends." Tommy sighed looking at the floor
"I was just kidding!" The girl laughed. "I'm Sarah! What's your name?"
"I'm Tommy!" He replied, smiling. Mrs. Johnson walked over to them and motioned for them to follow her. They did as told and followed her down a hallway into one of the classrooms. There were children already sitting in the desks.
"Alright class, your name is on your seat so just find it and sit down please." Mrs. Johnson said sweetly. Tommy's name was on the desk next to the bully kid. He sat down uneasily and saw that Sarah was sitting right next to him, which made him feel a little better.
"Alright we will go outside for an early recess, since it will be raining later on today." Mrs. Johnson exclaimed. The kids ran outside and skipped to the playground. Tommy got on the monkey bars and swung back and forth.
"Get off!" Yelled the bully kid. Tommy looked at his name tag and it read; Max.
"You have to wait your turn." Tommy growled. "It says in the rule book to always wait your turn and always be patient and considerate."
"Did you memorize that rule book or something?" Max laughed then jumped off the steps. He ran over to Tommy and tugged at his feet. All the sudden, Max yanked him off of the monkey bars.
"Max! Get away from him!" Sarah exclaimed. "Tommy has been nothing but nice to everyone and this is how you treat him? Be nice and treat others the way you want to be treated." Max ran to the other side of the playground and sat down by himself.
"Thanks so much!" Tommy exclaimed.
"Your welcome!" Sarah replied "You do not deserve to be treated that way!"
"Do you think we should go sit with him?" Tommy asked.
"Why should we? He is a bully!" Sarah exclaimed.
"I don't think he has any friends." Tommy said as he ran over to him, Sarah following.
"I will be your friend if you be kind to people and....." Tommy said but was interrupted
"Treat people like you want to be treated." Max interrupted. Tommy stretched out his hand and Max shook it. They ran off and played together and Max learned to always be nice.

          That afternoon, Tommy waited outside for his mom to pick him up. Her car pulled up next to the front of the school building and Tommy jumped in.
"Did you have a good day at school, sweetheart? " His mom asked.
"I did! Tommy blurted. He had been waiting all day to tell his mom about his day.
           

1st Blog

I am going to do a anti-bullying/ kindness project. First I'm going to make posters and stuff then I will have to google other people's anti- bullying project and what they do. I could do a survey and ask people if they have ever been bullied before. I am also going to write a short story about a kid who is being bullied and how he stood up for himself and learns to stay around friends that will stand up for him. For the kindness part of this project, I will write nice things on sticky notes, such as have a great day or don't forget to smile. I will stick these notes on the lockers. I will write another short story on this kid who teaches others to stop being mean and learn to treat others like you want them to treat you.