Journal #7: Frustration

 I broke section five of the book into two different sections, as it is about double the length of all the other ones, and I have to say, I didn’t gather a damn thing about how to play the harmonica.  The chapter starts with saying it is rather difficult to play some of the riffs.  However, I just don’t understand how to do this by reading it off of a piece of paper.

I was reminded of, as I read this section, of a part in Harry Potter where the teacher will not let them practice defense against the dark arts and Harry asks how they are suppose to do it and she tells them a theoretical knowledge of how to use the magic should help them in their OWL exams.  I am not sure if I got that correct, but I know that I don’t feel like practicing these riffs because not only do they not sound good, I don’t know how to practice them.

I am reminded, again, of when I use to play in my band. When I did not understand something I would just play with my friends or listen to it played until I got it.  It was more about making good sounding music then understanding riff patterns to use.  I feel like I have put the cart before the horse.

A third revelation I’ve come to while writing this journal about reading group texts.  If a student doesn’t understand or know a concept after reading the 2^nd chapter, or hasn’t even read the 2^nd chapter, how can I keep their attention later in the text? I ask this because I am on chapter 5 of this text and I am getting a headache just remembering chapter one and trying to figure it out. 

Maybe this is what tests are for, for us to gather our thoughts over a section of the text that makes sense to go over and then we are able to move on.  It also forces us to practice the skills necessary to move on.  I feel like the text is referencing things that I “should know” but don’t and they aren’t helping me understand at all.  It’s like skipping algebra and moving straight to calculus. 

How can we individualize education so that we don’t have students forced to go at the ‘pace of the program’ (as I am forcing myself to do in this book) and instead allow them to individualize it for their self-learning process?

Another idea for my research project:

(1) People get so caught up in hitting the rudimentary tasks of a class that we forget what the big idea is about.  I think I mentioned this about in one of my earlier journals, or something like it, that we get so focused and lost on the individual ‘battles’ of a task that we forget what the big picture is and we need to be constantly reminded of that. 

Learning how to play the harmonica is not a good enough reason to learn how to play it.  Why did I want to learn how to play it? Why is it important? Students should be able to answer these questions for themselves, not just be able to get the answer from the teacher.

Journal #6: A Moment of Success

Just played with my buddy and I think it went rather well! We looked up some songs to play and he is far more musically inclined than I so when I told him to play in G --- he did! And he knew what I was doing and I had fun.  While we mostly played drums and guitar, we also picked up the harmonica and messed with it for a while. 

Mostly played some holiday tunes.  Here comes Santa Claus and Auld Lang Syne ended up being some favorites.  He actually pulled out his ukulele and we played “Auld Lang Syne” together and it sounded rather nice.  When you have multiple people playing together it tends to cover up the mistakes of some and focuses more on the sound of the group.  I forgot that about that idea.  I remember in high school making music with them and thinking that none of us were very good apart from one another, but when we played together it sounded like music.

Idea for my research project:

(1) How important collaboration and group work can be in the learning process and how much they help with retention of information because group members “fill in the blanks.” 

Journal #5: Pre-Jam Plan

I read section four: Cave Jam: How to Accompany before I met up with my buddy to play a bit of music. One thing I appreciate about this book: It continues to harp on the fundamentals while mixing in a few tricks to try here and there. Something I do not appreciate: It assumes a C harp by the player, and my G harp just isn’t doing it for me. I don’t know if it is because I am confused by something inconsequential or if it really is an issue, either way: It is really frustrating. 

I’ve sort of made it my purpose to get an understanding of the harmonica through this book, and learn by playing some songs and jamming with my buddies.  I am thankful that I am going to this jam session with some other skills other than the harmonica (drums) and I’m looking forward to playing with my buddy. We use to play music a lot together when we were in high school and I sort of stopped playing afterwards. Major nostalgia is in order.