Dylan, a rising ninth grader, plays a variety of brass instruments and enjoys DIY engineering. Here at Explo at Wellesley for his first summer, Dylan has caught on to the balance of social and instructional learning in Intro to Acoustic Guitar + Songwriting.
My first guitar class was a lot of fun. I take band at school, but it's a huge class and often very chaotic. I do have a private teacher, and that's been a lot of work, but very beneficial. Today's class felt like a bit of a mix of the two. I learned a lot like I would from a private teacher, but there was that social aspect too. We worked in groups and came up with mnemonic devices — we weren't just told them.
We just formed one chord today, but I can see what else I can work towards, goals to aspire towards. I like to work with short-term goals a lot, especially with music, and that already seems to be a thing at Explo. At school, I set some short-term goals as well, but they always add up to some bigger long-term goal. Here it feels like it's okay to not always think about the long term so long as you're actually doing something, like making that first chord. I didn't even write anything down on my first day.
Liam Brooks