“Power-Up” Essay

The most significant learning ‘power up’ in my history as a learner was when I started to teach myself how to play the guitar through reading guitar tabs and guitar chords from guitar tab websites. This was a very significant moment in my learning experience as a guitar player as it was the first time that I learned how to play a song without the guidance of my guitar teacher. This “power up” experience was a major motivating factor in my career as a guitar player as it motivated me to learn how to play more songs on the guitar. For instance, after I learned how to play an entire song (Back in Black by AC/DC) on my own, I started to learn several other AC/DC songs, as that was my favorite rock band at the time. Furthermore, once I learned how to play several songs from several of my favourite musicians, I began to improvise and create several songs on the guitar using different modes. I learned how to play guitar using a hybrid of formal learning and informal learning techniques. My formal learning experience was occurred when I was enrolled in guitar lessons and my informal learning experience occurred once I started teaching myself songs from online guitar tabs. In addition to this, I taught myself how to record and edit audio clips on my guitar through the GarageBand application. The technological tools I used in this learning process are a MacBook Pro, http://www.guitartab.com, AudioTechnica Microphone and the GarageBand application. I was taking on several roles in this learning process, which include being a learner, and also as both a writer and producer of my own songs. However, I never released any of my finished songs to the public, as it was my original intent to improvise and create new songs for leisure purposes. The main lesson I learned from this “power-up” process was that creating and editing music is a spontaneous creative process, which requires several adjustments before the final product is completed.