Rock & Roll 101

May 15th, 2018

Daniel wanted to try another song - and something harder, so we added Michael Jackson, Billie Jean:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75sx7U6dAB4

May 8th, 2018

Toda we went through the worship songs for this Sunday.

May 1st, 2018

Daniel forgot his book, but remembered most of the parts; so we worked on some of the technical aspects of it-- playing 5 chords (power chords) in the left hand, and the section of the chorus that goes from the D to the G, and back down again.

Next week we should be moving through the new key for the solo.

April 24th, 2018

We continued working on the Queen song - Daniel needs to work on it with both hands, and keep his tempo constant, especially not speeding up for the intro parts, and slowing down to find his place in the verses. Also watch the chorus transition.

April 17th, 2018

We added a new song, "Seven Seas of Rhye" by Queen:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4Z6gaa3xqY

It has a tricky, but fun piano arpeggio in it through the instrumental parts.

April 10th, 2018

We added a new song that the boys are doing, called Bad Company:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_VsvZmIWxY

April 3rd, 2018

Daniel was sick this week.

March 27th, 2018

We reviewed the Cake song once, and then added a new one, Imagine, by John Lennon

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwUGSYDKUxU

I had a chart already, so printed it out for him. He forgot his book again today. :-)

March 20th, 2018

Cake: Short Skirt, Long Jacket

We went over the trumpet and added a new part in the verse. The solo is basically good, just work on making it a wee bit smoother, and be sure to stay on time.

March 13th, 2018

March 6th, 2018

Daniel played through Mad World a couple of times, and I recommended he practice dynamics, playing softly and loudly throughout a phrase to make it sound pretty... instead of everything being forte.

We then added a new song - the trumpet part from one the band is learning.

February 27th, 2018

February 20th, 2018

We added a new song, but David Bowie (yck) called Oh You Pretty Things:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBQ-S6njQQw

February 13th, 2018

We started with reviewing Dead or Alive, which is coming along really well. We then added a new Eagles song, (which I hadn't heard before, and don't remember what it's called.)

(Victim of Love by the Eagles)

February 6th, 2018

We started out playing the Staind song, which he has down well. We then added Bon Jovi, Dead or Alive:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRvCvsRp5ho

Great job today, Daniel - you're definitely improving!

January 30th, 2018

We worked on Staind, It's Been a While:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=araU0fZj6oQ

I encouraged him to do the hands together - and to try with and without arpeggios until he gets things smoother.

January 23rd, 2018

January 16th, 2018

January 9th, 2018

We reviewed Hotel Cal and Free Fallin, which he has done really really on. Play wiht drums or metronome to get more even.

Then we added Green Day, Holiday.

January 2nd, 2018

I missed Daniel today! Forgot?

December 19th, 2017

We reviewed the songs so far, and I showed him how to play notes between chords, such as a scale or an arpeggio.

We then added Free Fallin:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lWJXDG2i0A

December 12th, 2017

Daniel forgot his book again - help him remember next time, as it's harder to do a lesson without the music. ;-)

We went over the bridge together of Island in the Sun, and then the Eagles song.

December 5th, 2017

Oops- Daniel forgot his book this week. Tryto remember, please.

We went over the two latest songs with the recording today- something I'd asked Daniel to do this previous week, but he hadn't remembered.

The first one, Kryptonite, he had a lot of difficulty staying in time. We worked quite a bit on hearing the 1 beat, and listening carefully while playing. We saw improvement.

The Weezer song was much easier, but he hadn't spent much time on the bridge, so please cover that this week.

Finally, we added Hotel California, and focused mostly on the right hand. I suggested a couple of things to try with the left hand.

Play along with the recordings, please! Really develop listening skills while playing- very important.

November 28th, 2017

Daniel played through Kryptonite for me, and though it was too fast, it was a good start. Keep practicing this one, as it's through repetition that you'll stop making mistakes on fingers hitting the wrong notes etc.

Also, play along with the recording so you get used to staying in the right time.

We then added the next band song, Island in the Sun by Weezer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVHUjzZZGQ4

Another simple one to play, take playing it really slow, and deliberate. No rash quick moves until you're not making mistakes going slowly.

November 21st, 2017

Daniel played the string part for me for Green Day, but since Seth asked him to be in his band, we started working on 3 Doors Down, Kryptonite:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPU8OAjjS4k

I wrote out the parts for him, and we went through all the chords that are in it. It's going to take some work to get the transitions smooth, so practice, practice, practice! :-D

November 14th, 2017

Today Daniel and I talked theory.

We drew out a circle of fifths, and I showed him how the six chords are all related to each other. 3 Minor, 3 Major.

We also talked about arpeggios, rocking chords, inversions, and a bunch of other stuff.

November 7th, 2017

Daniel played through all the songs for me- he's getting much faster at the transition between chords. Keep working on that.

We then spent the rest of the lesson on the Green Day song. Specifically, we focused on the intro, trying to make the piano sound a bit like a picked guitar, with the G D interval.

We also worked on the instrumental, which I wrote out on notepaper for him.

Don't forget the rests!

October 24th, 2017

Daniel played through Mary had a Little lamb and London Bridge for me, and we focused a bit on a couple of mistakes he was making. He should keep working on Mary Had a Little Lamb - chord changing smoothly, by stretching his hand to the new chord. Also, slooowww down, it's not a race, it's music.

Then we added Greenday, Time of Your Life. We talked about chords with numbers in them, like C7, Dm7, C9, C2, etc. This song has C2 and Em7 in it, I believe... maybe Dm7 too?

We separated the hands, with a solid single note in the left hand, and a chord in the right.

We then talked about inversions -- flipping chords upside down and rearranging the notes in different orders.... I asked him to do this on the new song as well, so the hand is jumping around so much-- try to change as few notes as possible, from one chord to the next.

October 17th, 2017

Daniel didn't bring his paper from last week, but remembered mostly how to play last week's song, and had practiced.

We talked about two ways to improve the sound: fingering on the notes and using the sustain pedal to blend the chord changes.

We then added "Mary Had a Little Lamb," and talked about arpeggios.

He should practice BOTH songs this week, last week's and today.

October 10th, 2017

Daniel wants to spend some time learning a few different instruments and genres.

We started with the piano, and learned the names of the notes.

We then learned simple three note chords, "triads." We started with the three major chords, and then the three minor chords of each scale (1,4,5 and 2,3,6 respectively).

I wrote out the first line of London Bridge, and he played it with first each hand separately and then together.