Rock & Roll 101

May 30th, 2022

This was Ava and Lois' last week, so we just had fun going over past songs, and chatting about music etc. They're such sweeties!

We made lyrics for Lois's stuffed bunny, "Bunna," (and actually for Ava's Pola too).

See you in the fall, maybe!

May 16th, 2022

Lois played Rainbow and Down By the Bay for me, and then we decided to add the same song that Ava is working on, "We Don't Talk About Bruno."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvWRMAU6V-c&ab_channel=DisneyMusicVEVO

We're just learning the beginning for now, until she's got that really good, and then we'll add the verses.

May 9th, 2022

We went through Over the Rainbow a few times with separate and together hands... keep working on it... I hope I didn't upset her with pushing harder to practice... I know it's hard with lots of things going on. I don't want to discourage her, but thought maybe a bit of pressure might create some urgency?

Anyway - no worries either way. We can keep doing it the way we've been doing it if that's easier for you.

May 2nd, 2022

Hope everything is okay with Lois and Ava today! Going to check my phone for an SMS message now...

April 25th, 2022

Lois continued playing Somewhere Over the Rainbow for me, again with both hands. I think she's getting there, but not practising enough at home to really be confident with it yet.

April 11th, 2022

Lois continued memorizing the melody for most of the lesson. She's SO close.

We then went through the chords a couple of times, and then put hands together.

With practice, this will become much easier.

April 4th, 2022

Lois is coming along well with Somewhere Over the Rainbow! We worked on most of the lesson just memorizing the melody, adding one note at a time.

She got to about 13 or 14 notes, and then started forgetting. I suggested she continue committing that to memory, and she promised she would.

Also try to keep adding chords and playing them with all three notes at the same time, not one after another. That ring finger is problematic, but you can do it.

March 28th, 2022

Lois and I went over the Somewhere Over the Rainbow song together, working on the chords and melody separately (not together yet), and she worked on committing it to memory.

I asked her to try to memorize it all by next week. Then we can add the chords to it together.

March 21st, 2022

March 14th, 2022

Lois did well on the piano today, playing with both hands on all three songs. We did it twice through with the music, and then once without for each song, and she was able to memorize fairly well (and played more smoothly / flowing when she was going from memory).

We ended the lesson with a C scale, using the proper fingering.

March 7th, 2022

Lois went second today. She had been avoiding two hands, so I stepped back a bit and reviewed the songs we'd been doing... including own By the Bay, London Bridge, Twinkle Twinkle. I asked her to commit to practicing both hands this week and we shook on it. :)

February 28th, 2022

I missed seeing Lois and Ava today - hope everyone is healthy!

February 10th, 2022

Cancelling today, no charge.

January 31st, 2022

Lois and I played through London Bridge, trying to memorize it - first the right hand in little chunks, then the left hand, and not watching the music.

It got nice and smooth doing that!

We did the same thing with Mary Had a Little Lamb.

January 24th, 2022

Lois played through her songs for me with both hands - Randy mentioned she hadn't really been practicing much with both hands, so keep encouraging her to try that.

We added London Bridge and went through that with both hands a few times.

January 17th, 2022

Lois and Ava cannot make it to lessons today.

January 10th, 2022

We played Mary Had a Little Lamb first, with both hands. She is going to work on Jingle Bells this week

We also added chords for Down By The Bay.

Great job!

January 3rd, 2022

For most of the lesson, we just worked on chords for Jingle Bells. I broke it down for her in little chunks, to help her see it's not so hard.

She kept pushing how much she wanted to try, and by the end she was doing the whole thing.

We also added a new song, Down By The Bay, but ran out of time before we could finish.

December 27th, 2021

We went over the chords for Jingle Bells, and added the chords for Mary Had a Little Lamb.

We also briefly spoke about sharps and flats.

Do your best to get good at three finger chords... it's okay if you don't play both hands at the same time yet, but if you're feeling brave, give it a try!

December 20th, 2021

We added chords today for Jingle Bells. For these chords, use the pinkie, the middle finger, and the thumb like in the picture we drew for each note.

It's hard to do, and there's a lot to remember, so don't worry if you struggle - just do your best to play both hands together.

December 13th, 2021

Lois played through the songs she'd memorized for me, and hten we added We Wish You a Merry Christmas.

Keep working on memorizing so you don't have to look at the music or your hands.

Great job!

December 6th, 2021

We went over the piano songs she's been learning, and focused on recall and memorization of them. I got her to practice playing without looking at the music, but also without looking at her hand.

Committing songs to memory will help in playing the songs in a more natural way, since she can work on playing them as one would sing them, and not worry so much about the notes and keys involved.

November 29th, 2021

Lois reviewed Baa baa for me, and then we added two songs: Mary Had a Little Lamb, and Jingle Bells.

November 22nd, 2021

Lois' sister came today with Randy. I think her name was Evie?

We did guitar this time, and learned the parts of the guitar.

We also learned an E minor and a G, and how to strum down, down, down-up, down.

November 15th, 2021

Nice to meet Randy and Lois!

Here's the piano tuner's email:
greyco@1000island.net

Today we went over the names of the keys, and learned Ba Ba Black Sheep.

Try to play the whole song three or four times every day as practice.