Rock & Roll 101

January 22nd, 2019

Hey Julia, I'm going to free up this spot, as I haven't seen you in a while.

Jason

January 15th, 2019

January 8th, 2019

December 18th, 2018

I missed Julia again this week.

December 11th, 2018

Julia forgot on December 11th (don't forget today Julia! :)

December 4th, 2018

Julia cancelled today because her dog was sick and she had an appointment with the vet at 4 so couldn't make lesson at 5:30.

November 27th, 2018

Julia and I took a look at the main chord shapes through the key of C, with the intention of building up a vocabulary of chords. I recommended playing 10 minutes a day, going through each chord to familiarize herself with each shape, so that she can find them quickly when she needs to.

If she has extra time, I suggested doing the same thing now with the E chord, (so E, E minor, E6, E7, etc).

November 20th, 2018

Julia was unavailable this week.

November 13th, 2018

Today we started piano of Lady Gaga's Look What I Found:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVddgyswUps

It's hard, but you can do it!

June 25th, 2018

June 18th, 2018

Here's the chome app:

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/transpose-pitch-loop-for/ioimlbgefgadofblnajllknopjboejda

June 11th, 2018

June 4th, 2018

May 28th, 2018

Julia must have forgotten this evening, or perhaps she told me a different date I've forgotten. :)

May 14th, 2018

We worked through minor and majors of E, and A, as well as their sevenths, and talked about the theory behind it.

We didn't get quite enough time to finish with the major sevenths, but I made a video explaining it from the piano.

We talked about bar chords, specifically how E can be raised a half step to make F, and on up the neck to play every chord. The same is true with E minor, A, and A minor (and the sevenths as well).

May 7th, 2018

Julia came in today, and decided it would be fun to start guitar. We went through what she already knew, as far as chords etc., and I gave her some background info such as the names of all the parts of the instrument, etc.

Also explained frets (playing near the fret bars), octaves (half way down the neck), etc.

We reviewed the chords she knows: G, Aminor, C, and D.

We added A minor 7 (lift the middle finger), and the open G chord (with the third ringing through).

April 30th, 2018

Julia is working this day.

April 23rd, 2018

Julia was sick on Monday

April 16th, 2018

April 9th, 2018

April 2nd, 2018

March 26th, 2018

March 19th, 2018

March 12th, 2018

March 5th, 2018

We added a new song tonight, after going through the others. It's Alicia Keys, No One:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tC5IiYpozuE

No lessons next week, for March break.

February 26th, 2018

Julia may have forgotten tonight.

February 12th, 2018

We reviewed the song Nothin' But a Hound Dog, and then worked on finding a new song. I think we settled on Adele's Hello.

February 5th, 2018

We continued working on Hey Ho, and I showed her how changing inversions for the verse / chorus / intro gives the song more interest.

We then went back to Nothin' But a Hound Dog, and I showed her some tricks, and the blues scale.

We talked a bit about minor scales, (harmonic and natural minors) which use the same key signature as their parent key. So A minor would use the C key signature, C minor would use Eb, etc.

January 29th, 2018

January 22nd, 2018

Is working today- we'll try to make up tomorrow.

January 15th, 2018

January 8th, 2018

Julia is unwell today.

December 18th, 2017

Julia forgot this evening, we'll do a make-up lesson sometime this week.

December 11th, 2017

December 4th, 2017

Julia moved her lesson until tomorrow.

November 27th, 2017

Julia gave me a new email: juliasjohn85@gmail.com

We added a couple of new keys to play scales: D (2 sharps) and Bb (2 flats).

I showed her again how the circle of fifths help you to figure out how many flats or sharps are in your scale.

Practice playing a two octave scale - both directions -- the same way and opposite ways.

Keep working on C, G, and F, and add D and Bb

We added a new song to work on, which I charted kind of quickly for her (and maybe inaccurately).

Ella Fitzgerald, What Are You Doing New Year's Eve
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIcuK7wW8bU

Here's one version in a different key:
http://www.traditionalmusic.co.uk/jazz-standards-chords/what_are_you_doing_new_years_eve-ella_fitzgerald.htm

November 20th, 2017

Julia came on Tuesday this week.

We did silent night and joy to the world from a Christmas carols book. We also worked on c, g and f scales- practice both hands and going up and down with both. Do the scales in two octaves, going both ways - toward each other and the same direction.

Use arpeggios for Silent night, and experiment with percussive / rhythmic beats in the left hand for Joy to the World (if you're feeling brave).

November 13th, 2017

Julia did amazing, playing and singing Falling for me today. We also went over the arpeggios for Killin Me Softly, and then talked about different ways to approach chords, playing transitional notes between them.

There are two main approaches:

1. doing "leading tones" between chords, moving from a note in the existing chord, or just below the new chord, and then play a few notes in the current scale to lead either up (going higher) or down (going lower) to those notes.

2. playing notes within the current chord, on the way to the new chord. They might be notes that are not currently being played, ie, above the chord in question.

We also talked about sixths, and thirds... playing them within the scale.

I wrote out the C, F, and G scale for her and explained the basics of the circle of fifths and the fingerings for these scales.

November 6th, 2017

Today we rewrote the chords for Killin' Me Softly.

We reviewed what sevenths are (how to play them quickly, a whole tone down from the root of the chord).

We played through all the chords, just as plain triads.

I described different ways to play the chords: quarters, "rocker," and as different forms of arpeggios.

We talked about how to play arpeggios with chords that have four notes (leaving out the root if it's in the left hand, or alternating in an arpeggio, for example).

I then encouraged her to work on inversions of all the chords so that her hand travels as little as possible between chords,

Have a great week!!

October 30th, 2017

Today was Julia's first lesson!

She played "The Entertainer" for me, and then we talked about what stuff she already knows...

1. Note names
2. Some basic triad chords
3. Arpeggios
4. Flats and Sharps
5. Some inversions, or the concept, anyway
6. Difference between major and minor chords

We added two songs this week:

1. Alicia Keys, Fallin'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Urdlvw0SSEc

2. Fuggees, Killin' Me Softly
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJvLE3jJq20

We didn't have time to do much with the 2nd one, but I wrote out the B chord so she could play with it at home.