Rock & Roll 101

March 30th, 2021

Elizabeth and I played through a few songs together, including Hey There Delilah, Hallelujah, Afterglow, and Candle in the Wind.

We reviewed the F#m and B minor chords, as well as the cheating way to play the B minor, by putting the first finger on the A string, second fret, while playing the D major chord with the pinky on the B string.

March 23rd, 2021

Elizabeth can't make it today.

March 16th, 2021

Elizabeth and I reviewed Candle in the Wind, and then looked at a couple of other songs in the Drive like Hallelujah, Hey There Delilah, and Mad World

March 9th, 2021

Elizabeth was wanting me to check over her chord playing technique, as she felt like her chords weren't sounding clear enough. It's a matter of arm position usually for this kind of thing, which helps to use the tips of your fingers.

We then went over the Stand By Me song a few times.

I also reshared (or shared?) the music charts folder with her again.

March 2nd, 2021

We worked on Stand By Me, figuring out the exact notes to pick for play the bass line.

We also added a new song, called Afterglow by Ed Sheeran.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NGQfFCFUn4

March 2nd, 2021

February 23rd, 2021

Hi Elizabeth, I guess you forgot today! Hope everything is okay.

February 16th, 2021

We reviewed the chords, minors, majors and sevenths. We then talked briefly about finger picking and the bass note of each chord (the chord name)

Then we reviewed Stand By Me, and Goodbye Norma Jean.

Finally we talked briefly about the bass notes in Stand By Me, and how to find them.

December 28th, 2020

December 21st, 2020

We've cancelled lessons today at no charge, and will wait to see what happens in the new year.

December 14th, 2020

In our lessons, we went through Stand By Me a few times, and I mentioned approaching chord building as a claw, not as a finger-at-a-time. Also, the importance of playing "in time" without pausing, and to adjust the chord as you strum. It helps your muscle memory develop for some reason.

We did "down by the bay" and "the other day I saw a bear" as well.

December 7th, 2020

I missed Elizabeth tonight - hope all is okay. :)

November 30th, 2020

We chatted at the beginning about how things were going at school, and what it's like being stuck with the students, etc. etc.

We then got into music, and went over the two songs - first the Elton John one without music (good job memorizing!) and then the Pretenders one with music.

We then decided to add a new song, which was Stand By Me. Let me know if you don't see it in the folder I shared with you.

November 23rd, 2020

We went over the two songs, and talked about strumming, 1, 2, 3& 4 is a good starting strum. Feel free to just down strum on the beats tho.

Here's the chord sheet I mentioned
https://rockandroll101.ca/images/guitar-chords-chart.png

I hope your back feels better!

November 16th, 2020

I threw Elizabeth off the deep end of the pool last week, so we're changing directions. We went through two songs together from my Google Drive: Your Song, and I'll Stand By You. This required learning some new chords. We'll keep this approach for a while until she's more comfortable with the deeper end. :)

November 9th, 2020

Elizabeth has a meeting today.

November 2nd, 2020

Elizabeth is interesting in developing her understanding of theory, and for learning more chords - the "in between" chords you'll often see in more complex music.

We started by reviewing the circle of fifths - a kind of "Decoder Ring" of music. With this circle, you can determine which 3 major and 3 minor chords belong to any key. You can also see which key signature belongs to any key.

Transferring that information to the fret board, I showed her a simple way of playing a scale on the neck (1 2 3 on the E string, 4 5 6 on the A string).

By recalling that 1, 4, and 5 are always major and 2, 3, and 6 are always minor, you can then use bar chords to play either the E minor or E major shapes on the E string and the A minor or A major shapes on the A string, and in this manner play every minor and major chord in a scale.

We had some extra time, so we also spoke briefly about finding chords in a similar manner, for example, if one wanted to find the B minor chord, you could say, "which string is closest to B" (the A string), and then locate that note on the fret board. Then, by starting the chord from that note, using either the minor or major chord shape to play the chord correctly.