I trimmed my nails this week! I've been keeping them trim so I can better press down the strings... this a change in personal factors to accommodate my new occupation. I also took the time to google what a capo is and now my music is a little more in key. The capo is the long clip thing that you put over the neck of the guitar.
This is probably something I should have noticed a little sooner in my journey because it totally changes the pitch, making the strings higher. I sound much better now.
The main resource I need to commit to playing the guitar is time. I'd guess that is a personal resource. I also need a guitar (material) and capo! (material) - things we already owned, and part of the reason why I took up the occupation. I also like to have internet access (material) to look up chords on random songs. This isn't necessary but is something that enhances my experience. A personal resource I need is a level of dedication and persistence to the occupation. If I had a guitar teacher, I think that would be a social resource. If I had guitar teacher, it would probably lessen the amount of dedication (personal resource) I need to bring because there would be an external driver to practice. Although I don't have my husband supporting me by teaching or pushing me, the fact that he now picks up the guitar and plays it more is a social support in another way... kind of like a social acceptance where we are affecting one another indirectly. All of these things (minus the lack of time) help to ease my participation and therefore facilitate persistence.
I do lack a clear goal with this occupation. I guess my only goal is to accommodate the class's demands (an external and not personally driven goal). Gollwitzer and colleague's research suggests that if I don't create a goal once the class is over, of practicing an hour a week or mastering a song, I am unlikely to achieve my goal of learning to play the guitar. That research also supports why I haven't really been doing lessons from the lesson book and have instead been setting goals of learning a song. I find I work better with my own goals and rather than working through a lesson book where goals are not self-created.
In King et. al.'s Resilience, the authors organized factors affecting resilience into three categories: personal factors or characteristics, social support, and a third and less important (for lack of a better word) category- a philosophy of self-acceptance. Similarly, Cantor and Sanderson's 1999 work said that three resources were needed to persist in participation in occupation when adversity arises. According to King et. al., personal characteristics are things such as effective problem-solving skills, good coping abilities, and positive view of self. Social support is supportive families and communities (parents that function well, friends, peers, mentors that promote our ability to cope with life's challenges). The final resource is an ability to learn from themselves and accept themselves. Cantor & Sanderson differ in their "resources" in that they do not consider an ability to learn from life or create a philosophy as a distinct resource. I would ague they likely would categorize this under the "personal resources" category, similar to King et. al.'s personal characteristics. Cantor and Sanderson also include social support as a resource, however Cantor and Sanderson add a third resource - material or tangible resources. This was mentioned in Resilience as something that promotes participation - access to medications, wheelchairs, etc - but not given its own category.
Hello Liz! I really enjoyed your blog post. I'm glad that you found out about the capo and are exploring some different sounds with the guitar. How are your fingers doing? I tried learning the guitar once because my dad wanted me to try it out and just remember my fingers hurt really bad from pressing the strings down. I had extremely low intrinsic motivation on that one and it was purely pressure from my dad and didn't last long.
ReplyDeleteIt was interesting when you talked about your resources, you had a very broad view and a nice, long list of resources. It's cool that your husband picking up the guitar and playing helps you keep going. When you talked about lacking a clear goal and it effecting the probability of you sticking with the guitar it made me wonder what kind of goal would help to continue participating in a new activity. In your case, what type of goal do you think would increase the likelihood of you sticking with the guitar? I also read the section from Gollwitzer and colleagues about how having a clear plan for where, when, and how to pursue a goal increases likelihood of persistence. So what's going to be your when, where, and how?
My fingers hurt if I play for more than 15 or 20 minutes at a time... so, yeah, it's weird to create a callousing on your finger tips! Reading your questions about when, where and how makes me feel bad for not picking up the guitar much this week. I always know where. I have a happy place for that. But I don't have a consistent when. I should set aside time on Saturday mornings when no one is rushing to go anywhere and I'm enjoying my tea. How is tricky. Is how, how am I going to persist when I'm tired of it? How is some serious deep internal motivation and I'm not sure I have that.
ReplyDeleteTying it to Christiansen's work on Self-Identity, he states that goals are tied to our possible selves. And this makes me seriously doubt I see being a guitar player as a possible self. Is that because I've never identified myself as musically talented? Part of my mind thinks that I should just give it up because it's not my true self but the other part wants to prove I can approach this challenge with an entity mind frame to mount any obstacle.