Rock & Roll 101

June 23rd, 2020

It's been a great year, Francisco! I enjoyed getting to know you, and sharing a love for trains with you! Thanks for telling me about the train games, and for loving my train set.

This summer, don't forget to keep learning songs on your own. Use YouTube, and practice the harmonica, the drums, and the piano!

See you next year, maybe!! Have a great summer!

June 16th, 2020

Francisco was fun today! He's a great kid, I really like him.

We worked on Riptide a few times, but he was distracted by the clucking hens, so we cut the lesson short by 10 minutes, and didn't get to You Are my Sunshine.

June 9th, 2020

We added You Are my Sunshine today - it has only two chords in the left hand, so maybe try that if Francisco is up for it.

G => g b d
C => c e g

June 2nd, 2020

Francisco seemed to struggle today more than usual, but we kept at it, and eventually he was playing the first line of Riptide notes with both hands in the right place.

See if you can work through the whole song this week, with both hands.

May 26th, 2020

Francisco played through for me, and did wonderfully.

We then added Riptide by Vance Joy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJ_1HMAGb4k&ab_channel=mushroomvideos

He was able to play the right hand by itself but not both hands yet.

May 19th, 2020

Francisco played through Happy Birthday for me first, and had trouble starting the left hand on the right note. We went through it a couple of times together, but he'll need to practice it on his own some more,

We then switched to Down By the Bay. He did well, though he missed playing the left hand here and there. Just forgot, I think.

He should keep working on both songs and get his left hand more consistent.

May 12th, 2020

Francisco did well playing both hands on Happy Birthday and Twinkle - after that, we added Down by the Bay.

Great work!

May 5th, 2020

Francisco played through Happy Birthday for me - but this needs more work with the left hand. If you can get him to practice it, that'd be awesome.

We had a bit of a revelation moment, I THINK, in the Twinkle Twinkle song, where he got the left hand working for the end of the first line.

He should keep working through that in practice.

April 28th, 2020

We started at 9:30 today, and reviewed Happy Birthday. The left hand wasn't always on the right note, or he forgot to change it. . . so keep working on that.

We then added Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. The left hand is written underneath the melody on this one too... work on puttng both hands together, and don't forget to hold it the whole length of the line, and to change it at the right part.

April 21st, 2020

We added the left hand of Happy Birthday today, but just left it at a single finger, instead of three fingers in the left hand.

Again, Nicole rocked in helping with communication (thanks!)

By the end, Francisco had it down essentially, so I think it will be fine after a week's practice.

April 14th, 2020

Francisco switched to piano today, and we started with learning the names of the notes. I kept it simple in the hope that he'd not get overwhelmed too much. We just did "D" and walked through how to count through the alphabet to find the notes he needs.

We then did Happy Birthday, from Izabella's book and worked through those notes. We had a bit of a hang up over the Bb note, and around the end of the song. He did get through it but I suggested if he has trouble this week, to ask IZabella or Marco to help him.

April 7th, 2020

Francisco started out playing O Canada for me, and struggled a bit with remembering it, so we moved on a bit and I asked him to play Mary Had a Little Lamb again, which he also struggled to remember.

I said, how about you practice it a few times for yourself and I won't listen, and then we'll try again. He did that, and when he reviewed it he did much better. We continued with that process for O Canada and Twinkle Twinkle, and it seemed to help him. He seemed calmer, and more relaxed.

March 31st, 2020

Francisco started out by playing O Canada for me - the first part of it, anyway, and he's got it about 70% learned, I'd say.

He then went over Mary Had a Little Lamb as he said he felt like he knew that one better.

We then talked about another song to learn and tried Orange Blossom Special, but that requires a harmonica in another key to really do it right.

So we went back to simple melodies, and worked out the notes for Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

March 10th, 2020

Francisco was sick today - Marco took his spot.

March 3rd, 2020

Francisco had nailed Old MacDonald, so we reviewed Mary Had a Little Lamb, and added O Canada.

He was upset about the train set this week - I'm sorry for causing the distraction!!

February 25th, 2020

Francisco continued with harmonica today - we worked on the melodies as numbers (he forgot his paper, so the numbers are:

Mary Had a Little Lamb:
3 2 1 2 3 3 3
2 2 2 3 5 5
3 2 1 2 3 3 3
3 2 2 3 2 1

Old MacDonald
7 7 7 5 6 6 5 (up to high note:) 9 9 8 8 7

February 18th, 2020

Marco took Fracisco's lesson spot today.

February 11th, 2020

Francisco went second today - we started learning how to play the harmonica.

As first steps, we will help Francisco get a sense of the scale, by starting with scales, 1-2-3-2-1, and 1-2-3-4-3-2-1 and 1-2-3-4-5-4-3-2-1.

He tends to go too high, overshooting the top notes, so if you're listening when he's practicing, remind him to not over shoot.

February 4th, 2020

Francisco was sick tonight, so Marco took the full hour.

January 28th, 2020

Francisco and Marco are on a cruise today.

January 21st, 2020

Francisco went second today.

He was quite focused and committed today, so we must be doing something right with the trainset motivation. I really like the little guy, despite his agressive manner, hehe, he's pretty serious, but I somehow see myself in him.

We worked through Every Breath You Take, and then reviewed a couple of songs from the past (Another One Bites, for example). We then tried a Johnny Cash song, which had pretty fast drums. He didn't do too badly on it, considering I didn't show him much of what to do!

Have a great trip!

January 14th, 2020

Francisco was great tonight. I enjoy the little guy.

We reviewed Back in Black, and then added a new song by the Police called Every Breath You Take:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPtE-7aNBns

It's pretty simple, so it's a good one to learn.

January 7th, 2020

Francisco was pretty relaxed today!

We played through the drums on the electronic kit, and reviewed some of the songs we've been learning. His reward was to finally get to see my trainset downstairs.

December 17th, 2019

Francisco was more enthusiastic on the ekit, which was fun - we reviewed the songs we've been working on, and spent a bit of time on Living on a Prayer - trying to simplify by taking out the hihat.

December 10th, 2019

Francisco went second today.

We reviewed Down to the Honkeytonk and Another One Bites the Dust, then tried adding a new song:

Bon Jovi, Living on a Prayer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9t8lppWR_A4

We slowed it down a bit to make it easier to him (but I think he can play it at that speed).

We then reviewed Back in Black again, before returng to Living on a Prayer one more time.

He made "50 points" today. ;-)

December 3rd, 2019

Francisco went second today.

I had him play through a numer of songs for me:

Down to the Honkytonk, We Will Rock You, Back in Black, and Another One Bites the Dust

He's making improvement every week, I think, and getting more patient it seems, to see the lesson through.

November 26th, 2019

We started with reviewing Bites the Dust, and then went back to Circles - he's definitely improving each week, thought it's fun keeping his interest.

We worked on drum rolls, switching from hat to ride every four beats, flams, adding crash on beat one, playing rolls (bouncing the sticks) on the toms, and snare, trying to find the bounciest drum.

November 19th, 2019

We worked through the two songs we've been doing lately (Bites the Dust, and 7 Nation Army) and then tried Circles - I let him try to play the beat on his own by listening - that's his hardest challenge, I think, just listening and playing in the right time, with the snare in the right spot.

November 12th, 2019

Francisco started out kind of angry - maybe frustrated with the train-set issue? We went through Back In Black, 7 Nation Army, and then Another One Bites the Dust. This last one was his best, where he really kept on the beat, and didn't lose time very often at all.

November 5th, 2019

Jason sick today.

October 29th, 2019

Francisco did really well today! He played along with Back in Black quite well, even staying in time for most of the song.

We also did Seven Nation Army, which was pretty good. If he works on this more, perhaps he can do so with headphones, and try to match all the sounds he's hearing - for example, he forgot the kick and snare in the chorus part of the song today.

We added a new song, kind of a next step in drumming, in which the kick is on every beat. We didn't get to play it through, but the video is below, should he want to give it a try:

Queen, Another One Bites the Dust:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7ZRpdJ5VcI

October 22nd, 2019

Francisco played through the drum part to Back in Black, with his own added fills. He struggles a bit still with keeping the beat, but I agree, that it's better when he's not watching. He only wanted to play it once, and then we switched to guitar. His fingers hurt pretty early on, but we were able to work on switching between G and E minor a few times before he gave up.

We then moved to Ukelele and this might be the best instrument for him. We played through Jingle Bells together, and I think he felt pleased with himself.

October 15th, 2019

Francisco struggles with keeping time evenly, but I'm not entirely sure why yet.

On one hand, I think he can play fairly evenly, and can play the various drum parts when he's playing alone. But as soon as he tries to play with the recording, it's almost like he gets overwhelmed by all the various things going on, and starts to just hit the drums randomly.

I'm not certain the best way to teach him, but I do believe he can learn this.

We only went 15 minutes and Marco did the remainder of the lesson today.

October 8th, 2019

We tried starting out with an "easier" drum song, Seven Nation Army, but I think it took Francisco by surprise a bit.

We switched back to Back in Black, and he did pretty well. I wanted to keep everything positive, so worked on little pieces to focus on, starting with always a kick with the crash. This will help keep the beat in the right place (ie not backwards).

He tends to hit the snare to quickly right after crashes, so if you notice remind him to wait until beat 2 to hit the snare.

October 1st, 2019

Francisco was tired this afternoon, and so I had to be creative to keep him engaged.

We tried out AC DC, Back in Black by a little guy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kiq9HDUkNxg

If Francisco watches the video, he might be able to work on it at home and feel more comfortable trying it again. When he was playing, he would get his snare and kick backwards, and then give up, or just start playing randomly, instead of trying to get back in time.

September 24th, 2019

We started on drums, and ended on guitar today.

Francisco was quite engaged today, concentrating well. We reviewed the quarter note beats, and then added flams to beat four. We did a crash on beat one after 8 beats, and then after 16. We alternated from the highhat to the ride cymbal on the quarternote beat.

On gutiar we reviewed the G and E minor chords. He's not playing the G quite right yet, missing the ring finger on the smallest string. I didn't say anything to keep the momentum.

We added a D chord.

September 17th, 2019

Francisco started with drums, beginning with review of the instrument names. We worked again on the quarter note beat. I played bass with him to help him get a sense of how it worked with music.

He got a bit overwhelmed with doing to many things at once, especially having to add the hihat with the kick and snare. We tried to keep a consistent quarternote beat on the kick drum, but he got easily distracted, wanting to add in other instruments, or speeding up and slowing down the kick to match what I was doing on the bass. We'll need to focus on limb independance and blocking out what other instruments are doing.

We switched to guitar for the second 15 minute chunk, and reviewed the E minor and G chord. He had been missing the ring finger on the highest sounding e string. I wrote out the chords for him again, along with the names of the guitar parts, and we timed him playing them.

September 10th, 2019

Francisco started, with half the lesson on electric guitar, half on drums.

We tried to learn a chord, starting with the G chord and the E minor chord. We strummed downwards, not upwards.

On the drums, we worked on playing the "boom chuck" quarter note beat with the highhat on each beat. We also added a snare flam (bud duh!) ending with a crash-kick.

September 3rd, 2019