I have been on the ball practicing with my guitar and I am very excited about my progress. Since I am not working as much as I was at the beginning of the semester, I am looking forward to seeing the progress I will be able to make by the end of the semester. Something I noticed during the last few times Iā€™ve practiced the guitar at school is that UVicā€™s guitars are much easier to hold your fingers on. I find that at home my fingers get sore much quicker, probably because of the strings being metal instead of plastic. This week (the first week of March) One of my classmates and I recorded a duet outside of the songs we must learn. This showcases our talents, as well as the result of the extra practice time we committed to this collaboration. Unfortunately, I discovered that extra marks may not be rewarded for this work.

Iā€™m currently struggling with how I can improve my grade in this class since I already have extra tasks like singing in my growth plan. I feel as though the grading scheme is a bit ambiguous, since there is no concrete way I can intentionally raise my mark from a B+ apart from presenting an exceptional performance, which of course I am already striving for. I have been enjoying class and learning the guitar immensely, but I find myself slightly frustrated that, had I hidden some of my enthusiasm in my growth plan, I could have ended up with a higher mark. In ā€œpass/failā€ type classes where B+ is the given grade if assignments are completed, they have optional extension assignments, so it is discouraging to find that is not an option for those wishing to augment their learning in music. Despite this, I will continue to practice enthusiastically, and hope that I can surpass a benchmark that is left to the imagination…