At this point in my journey, I am definitely developing a newfound respect for musicians 🎼 !!

In my Musical Growth Plan, I wrote that I was going to use the strumming pattern Down-Down-Down-Down (D-D-D-D) for “You Are My Sunshine”, but with this pattern, the song doesn’t resemble the tune of “You Are My Sunshine” as much as I hoped it would, so yesterday — the first day I’ve been able to play since before reading break — I tried to challenge myself with a slightly harder strumming pattern (Down-Down-Up-Down). I tried this for quite a while, but couldn’t keep it up consistently throughout the entirety of the song. I practiced the chords on their own, then the strumming pattern on its own and then attempted to put the two together, but kept messing up. I am determined to keep working on this strumming pattern but I am realizing that trying to surpass my goal of the simple D-D-D-D pattern for this first video isn’t going to happen. As a compromise, I am going to practice this strumming pattern on my own outside of my Growth Plan.

I am a little nervous to film myself tomorrow, especially because I’ll be singing! And while I know this is a judgment-free space, I have never been a good singer nor have I ever been comfortable singing in front of other people. Beyond this, I am excited to move onto “Riptide” in the second half of this semester as I think it will be a refreshing change!