Rock & Roll 101

March 9th, 2020

Corey had written out Let It Be by the Beatles, and we talked about how he got to "1" to find the root note.

The bass line is a good help, to hear that final, resolving chord.

We then talked about which chords go with which melodies, and how to find them - since chords have 3 notes typicaly (major and minor chords), then the melody is usually one of those three notes.

March 2nd, 2020

Today in Corey's lesson, we focused on how to find "1" in any song, by listening to the resolving note, the bass, or bottom of the final chord - the chord that feels like "DOE" in the doe ray me scale.

We went through a few different songs, trying to hear doe, or 1, and then going from there to find 2, 3, etc. in the melody.

He's going to try to do this stragegy with a song he likes this week.

February 24th, 2020

Corey brought in a shiny new guitar today!! Wowzzers!

He showed me the chords and melody he'd figured out for Imagine by John Lennon, and we talked through some of what was going on there.

We reviewed the way the 1 chord, in this case C, sounds like a final chord - and how one can use that to develop an instinct of where the various chords are in the scale - first by learning to hear the 5 chord (in this case G) in a song.

February 10th, 2020

I forgot to write notes from Corey's lesson last night.

We reviewed the Yesterday chords/melody that Corey's been working on, and his frustrations there.

We also touched on finger picking, and I gave him more direct instructions as to the pattern to use, (thumb, first, middle, ring), and which strings to play (and why). For example, D, and F, have the D string as the bass note, meaning that either you only use the higher strings for the pattern, or you alter the pattern so that you don't need the high e string.

February 3rd, 2020

In Corey's lesson, we reviewed Yesterday, and talked through the next strategy for building the chords with the melody.

We also talked about finger picking, and how to thumb the bass note of every chord, and the need to learn which note of the chord is the bass note.

January 27th, 2020

January 20th, 2020

Corey wasn't sure what we should focus on, and had lost some enthusiasm for Joyful Joyful - we talked about learning some other songs, but it seemed (to me anyway,) that what I can best bring him is what he can't teach himself.

We went over the concept for the scales again, thinking of the C scale as starting on C (C is ONE).

(Corey let me know if you'd rather switch direction! It's fine! :)

January 13th, 2020

Corey is away this week, skiing.

January 6th, 2020

I went over the "chords-over-melodies" thing, like he has written for "Joyful Joyful" - you can use the open strings to play a scale, (and therefore the melodies), and then chords to play at least a bass note, or the whole chord while you're playing the melody.

He was initially confused, thinking that the chords written above had something to do with positions on the neck.

Corey mentioned that he would be away next week.

- oh - also talked about slapping in the Sultans of Swing - I recommended he use the fret hand to prevent the strings from ringing - it makes the slap easier.

December 30th, 2019

Corey is feeling unwell this week.

December 23rd, 2019

Corey had been figuring out some melodies on his own, and wrote out a chart of the notes of the key of C on a fret board. He used this to locate really high notes outside of the scale shape he knew well.

I wrote out a few other melodies that didn't require moving so far out of the shape, and he played through those.

I also added chords to a couple of them, for playing the melody in the context of the chord.

(Remind me, and I'll show you a way to do this anywhere on the next).

December 16th, 2019

We reviewed the numbered scale system, and talked about melody versus chords. I wrote out the numbered melody for a Fu Fighters song he likes. We talked about how to handle a melody that goes outside the range of a shape, and I recommended starting the melody lower within the shape so one doesn't need to learn a new shape yet.

December 9th, 2019

Corey is at a work party this night.

December 2nd, 2019

Corey came at 6:15 today, since the O'Keefes stopped for a while.

I wrote out a couple of numeric melodies for him, two Christmas ones, and one a melody from the song Shallow.

It may help to find one's way around the neck of the guitar, and to understand / learn intervals, and get a feel for how western scale (half steps) affect pentatonic scales by learning melodies like this.

Once you can play a few melodies this way, it may aid in figuring out your own to simple songs like "Mary Had a Little Lamb," etc.

November 25th, 2019

We talked more about scales this week, and especially half-steps... I showed him how to find a key that the song is in, by identifying the bass note of the chord of the first song, and using that to find the scale you're playing the melody in. Doing this to play simple melodies, or even melodies from songs he likes can really help get the grasp of the neck.

November 18th, 2019

Corey worked on his pentatonic scales on either side of the 12th fret. We talked through a bit about that, about how to move between them, and different wants to extend one scale into the other. We also talked about the blues note (which technically is the sharp fourth note of the scale (or can be thought of as the flat fifth above the tonic note of the minor scale.

I recommended he practice simple melodies on the scale, such as Mary Had a Little LAmb, or Twinkle Twinkle Little Star to familiarize himself with getting around the scale practically. (This will require the addition of half step tones to the pentatonic to make it a "western" scale.

November 11th, 2019

We continued talking through 12 bar blues tonight, especially focusing on the structure of it, and how it works in different keys, the different types of chord patterns that are used, etc.

Cory also played around with repeating patterns for soloing both in the open neck e minor scale, and in the pattern above the 12th fret.

Here's the video we used in the lesson to play along with:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4i7h5-PPHHk

November 4th, 2019

In Corey's lesson, we talked about lots of different things, including the chord patteron in Monkey Wrench, and listening to the bass line to hear the chords.

We ended the lesson with a discussion on 12 bar blues, and practiced through it a few times.

October 28th, 2019

Corey brought the song Shallow along, and we talked about it in terms of the number scale.

I suggested he use a scale in G to help him understand the context between the chords... so if he's moving a chord from a G to a D (1 to 5), he plays the scale (g, a, b, c, d) to get to that point to help understand.

October 21st, 2019

We talked through knowing the chords for songs that you're playing, to think of it a bit like keeping a sense of direction while driving. Always be aware of what the root note, the "1" of the scale is.

We talked about leading Shallow from A Star Is Born, and using it to develop a sense of ordinance for the scale.

If you bring a song you really know well, we can go through it together, and work on learning those intervals.

Also, maybe look into some interval training free apps for your phone. There are a lot out there.

October 7th, 2019

Corey and I reivewed last week's lessons with the "fret logic" to start, going over the E shape and A shape chords on the E string and the A string, and working through 'Major minor minor, Major Major minor."

He had looked up four and five chords online, and so I helped connect the dots for him in understanding what that means.

For example, in the key of A,

A B C D E F G A
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1

Each chord lines up with a number, so the 4 chord is D and the 5 chord is E. The 1 chord would be A in this case.

We did this for the keys of C and G as well.

We took a look at the circle of fifths, and I explained to him how the chords in each key relate to that circle, and also how to know the number of sharps or flats in a key signature based on this circle.

We talked about scales, pentatonic scales, and western scales...

September 30th, 2019

Today was Corey's first lesson. We started by writing out all the chords he knows, and some that he doesn't know yet. I wrote out finger charts for him for those chords... mostly sevenths.

I told him to familiarize himself with the chords, and practice playing them quickly.

We also went over the first lesson in Fret Logic, trying to understand the relationship between chords in any key.

As a review, every major scale (key) has three major and three minor chords. If you write them out as numbers, they are 1 major, 2 minor, 3 minor, 4 major, 5 major and 6 minor.

We started on the E string, and played the scale 1 2 3 4 5 6. Then we played bar chords using the E shapes on the E string and the A shapes on the A string to chord through the scale.