Rock & Roll 101

March 29th, 2021

Ally was confused by Faded, so we went through it a few times, but then decided to move on.

We added Put Your Records On:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7Mf_ZjI2Pg

March 22nd, 2021

March 15th, 2021

Ally did well on Mood, again at 75% speed, and then we decided to move on to another song.

We added Alan Walker, Faded:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdpXxGPqW-Y

There's an easy piano version but we're going to try to continue learning it the way we've learned our past songs.

March 8th, 2021

Ally played through Mood for me. We did it at 75% speed-- not quite up to full speed yet.

I tried to help her to get to a faster speed by playing it without looking. She started out with chords, moving her hands without looking, then the melody, and then finally both hands together.

I'm quite impressed with her ability to play without looking... doing this at home more on her own will only help her speed up.

March 1st, 2021

The song was MOOD, not rude! lol... we went over it a few times together, with hands separate and hands together.

In the last four minutes I let her mess around on the kit - she was getting a little bored with just practising Mood over and over again.

Speaking of which, she picked it up pretty fast in the lesson, but I got the impression she hadn't really remembered the things we'd worked on last week, so I wrote out more detail as to the chords.

February 22nd, 2021

In Ally's lesson, we started by reviewing hallelujah, and she did really well remembering how to play. We then added a song she liked, called Rude,I think. We went over the various parts together a few times until she could play it with both hands together.

December 28th, 2020

I didn't hear back from Christina about virtual lessons today - not sure what's happening.... :)

December 21st, 2020

Together we cancelled lessons today, with no charge.

December 14th, 2020

Ally played Silent Night for me today, and I did a video of it - then we added a new song, Deck the Halls.

We didn't go over it much because she wanted to play the drums at the end of the lesson... we went through the parts of Seven Nation Army together, along with this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3qy8H6-5WY&ab_channel=CrappyAssDrummer

December 7th, 2020

I'm so sorry about not checking for Ally! I was writing a note that I assumed she had forgotten- but then you came up. I feel very badly about that.

In lessons today we went over the last two songs (Christmas songs) and worked especially on Silent Night - getting the timing right is tricky in this one because the count for it is 1 2 3, 1 2 3, 1 2 3, etc.

November 30th, 2020

She played over her last few songs for me, and didn't want to learn the left hand for Holly Jolly Christmas. It's too bad, because it's quite easy, but I didn't want to press the matter.

So we added a new Christmas song, Silent Night, and this time I included the left hand from the outset so she can practice them together.

We spent the last 3 minutes on the drumset.

November 23rd, 2020

Ally forgot her book, so we added a new song, Holly Jolly Christmas:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVMCUtsmWmQ

Please copy it into the book so we have it next week. (If you have an ipad, and would prefer to user that for notes at home, then you can use my ipad here and not worry about forgetting the book).

After going through the HJChristmas a few times, we reviewed the songs she could do from memory. We went over Jingle Bells, then Mary Had a Little Lamb, Ba Ba Black Sheep, and Happy Birthday.

We then took the last 5 minutes to go over drums.

November 16th, 2020

Ally seemed a little nervous about playing the new song today, and said she hadn't really practised it. Sometimes this happens with kids when we switch to a new song, so no big deal.

We went over it a lot of times, and she played along with the recording and the left hand too... I think she'll be fine this week.

In the last five minutes we reviewed the drum beat she learned last week.

November 9th, 2020

We played through Hallelujah, and I videoed her... I'll upload it to my YouTube channel and share with you later.

We then added a new song, Fall For You.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1O9DyFLIKo&ab_channel=pkr126

We only got through the first two verses before running out of time.

Then she wanted to take the first five minutes to learn the drums. We learned the names of the parts of the kit, and how to play a quarter note beat.

November 2nd, 2020

Ally went second today. We went through Hallelujah together, without the arpeggios, and then recorded 7 nation army along with Alex's recording from 3:00

October 26th, 2020

Ally did a great job on Hallelujah, but was frustrated with two hands and arpeggios, so we're leaving it for now.

We added a new song, 7 Nation Army, and we went through it two or three times, with guitar and with drums and piano!

She can now play with her brother!

October 19th, 2020

Ally did really well this week. She played through all her old songs for me - except happy birthday, which she said she forgot.

We then added "Hallelujah," by Leonard Cohen. We added arpeggios to the left hand, so we'll see if she can put that together -- it's pretty hard, but I suspect she can manage it! :-D

We went through it with just solid chords (no arpeggios) in lesson time, but she can try to put it together.

October 5th, 2020

We continued with review of the songs we've been working on lately - O Canada and Jingle Bells. She did better on the former, and still needs to work on getting them smooth, without stopping between sections and chord changes.

She's doing great, although this week not quite the same astounding progress we saw the last few weeks.

Keep it up! :)

September 29th, 2020

Ally did a great job today. I'm still really enthusiastic about her abilities, and what seems like a natural sense of music. She seems to intuit things that nearly every other student I've ever had has to be told, and not just that, she seems to remember things I've told her without any reminder.

She's not done with O Canada, so keep practicing that. She wanted to add Jingle Bells, so we did that today. We also talked about Hallelujah.

September 22nd, 2020

Ally blew me away again today - she is so good, and getting better every week! I'm really impressed with the progress she's making.

We went through all of the songs, and she's doing great on them. We reviewed G minor, because she'd forgotten how to play it.

we then added "O Canada," as the next song she wanted to learn. I kept the chords simple for this stage, but they'll be good enough for the song to be recognizable.

September 15th, 2020

Ally did such a great job with her melody and chords. She was very enthusiastic, and focused, which is remarkable for her age.

We added some new concepts today: major and minor chords and how to make them, (raising and lowering the middle finger of the thumb, middle, and pinky). We also talked about flats and what it means when a note is flatted.

We wrote out Happy Birthday, and put in chords. This requires the use of G minor, a new chord, and B flat, the black note to the left of B.

We also did the "magic scale" which is the scale from C to C going up and down, and tucking your thumb under going up (after the middle finger), and putting your middle finger over the thumb going down.

September 8th, 2020

This was Ally's first lesson, and she picked up the starting concepts very quickly!

We started with the note names on the piano, using the animal stories to help remind where notes are located. We then learned two melodies: Mary Had a Little Lamb, and Twinkle Twinkle. We added simple left hand chords, and if she can she should experiment with putting both hands together this week.

Great job!!