Rock & Roll 101

April 22nd, 2025

Andrew worked through more of the sheet music of Axel F today. Good job!

April 15th, 2025

Andrew came in Evelyn's spot on Monday this week. We used the downstairs piano because my middle C is broken.

I showed him the Axel F song I put into notation for him this week, and we went over it a bar at a time, trying to get it memorized.

April 8th, 2025

Andrew had an emotional end to the lesson, but the beginning went well. We played through the Final Countdown, and then Worked on Axel F some more.

I tried to help him pick up the speed of the whole song by just focusing on a few notes at a time, and memorizing them before moving onto the next few notes.

I thought he was enjoying the process, but he started crumbling near the end because he felt like he was "failing."

April 1st, 2025

Andrew came yesterday, actually, but making note on his normal day rather than change my calendar.

We added a left hand part for Axel F. I tried to get him to play it properly using his thumb, but he said it was too hard, and I could not conjole him to try. :)

March 25th, 2025

Andrew played through the Final Countdown for me a few times, but hadn't been practising the left hand in the new part. We did that a few times, first with me on the melody, then with him doing both. He could work on this some more at home.

Then we added "Crazy Frog," which is Axel F re-branded for kids.

March 18th, 2025

Andrew did well tonight. He's memorized The Final Countdown melody, and after some encouraging, he was able to play with the chords in the left hand too.

After that, we added the next section, and went through it with him. I explained what a suspended chord was, since this song has C#sus in it.

March 11th, 2025

March 10th, 2025

Andrew did really well today. He was focused for the whole lesson and regulated himself really well.

We went through the song with separate hands and both hands together, and then we drilled switching chords (he has a problem remembering F# minor).

March 4th, 2025

Andrew played through My Way a few times for me, and then we added "The Final Countdown" by Europe, to get his mind on something else.

February 25th, 2025

Andrew did well tonight. He's now able to play through all the chords with just one hand, but also both hands together with a bit of coaching and encouragement! Good job, Andrew!

February 18th, 2025

Andrew was a bit argumentative at first, but as the evening progressed he did well and really cooperated! Good job, Andrew! I wrote out the rest of the chords and melody and he played through hands independently.

February 11th, 2025

We tried to work through My Way, but Andrew was having trouble with determination tonight. We ended up doing We Wish You a Merry Christmas at the end.

February 4th, 2025

Today we added a new song, My Way by Frank Sinatra.

January 28th, 2025

Andrew seemed good at the beginning of the lesson but got a little anxious or overwhelmed near the end as I pressed him to push himself. I tried adding chords to a song he already knew, and he played it fine, but then didn't want to do it again.

January 21st, 2025

Andrew played through We Wish You a Merry Christmas, and then we couldn't decide what to do next. A lot of the songs he's interested in are more beat oriented. Louise said she'll make a list of piano songs for him for next week.

January 14th, 2025

Andrew did well on his song tonight - a few moments of frustration or something, but overall he stayed focused for the whole lesson.

We added the next section of We Wish You a Merry Christmas (the last section), and all the chords, and he played through it all successfully, albeit a bit slower than it should be.

January 7th, 2025

Andrew did quite well on We Wish You a Merry Christmas. It took him a while to get focused, but then improved every time he played it. Good job, Andrew!

December 30th, 2024

Andrew started off strong for the first 20 minutes, and we added chords to We Wish You a Merry Christmas.

Over the last 10 minutes, he got silly and it was a bit hard to have him focus. He pulled it together in the last 2 minutes, tho. :)

Happy New Year!

December 17th, 2024

Andrew was full of energy tonight, so we didn't get a lot of music done, but did go through Jingle Bells and We Wish You a Merry Christmas a few times.

December 10th, 2024

Andrew was chatty at the beginning, but 10 minutes in, set down to work. We continued with Here Comes Santa Claus, and added chords in a few at a time.

We didn't play through all the chords until the end, so he can work ahead if he feels like he wants to try.

December 3rd, 2024

Andrew did fairly well today, though there was a lot of distractions. :)

We went over We Wish You A Merry Christmas a few times, and he is doing very well on it.

After that I asked him to play Jingle Bells, and then we added a bit of Here Comes Santa Claus

November 26th, 2024

Andrew wasn't in the mood to do lessons tonight for the first 15 or 20 minutes. After Louise left he seemed to settle down a bit more.

November 19th, 2024

Andrew played through Jingle bells and Don't Stop Me Now. I added a bit more to the Queen song.

November 12th, 2024

We continued working on Don't Stop Believing. Andrew hadn't practised it much, so the lesson was spent just trying to go over it and get it more smooth.

November 5th, 2024

Andrew played Jingle Bells for me, and then wanted to learn Don't Stop Believing again, so I wrote out the melody and chords for this one and we played through it a few times. He seems genuinely happy to play this one, so hopefully that will help! :)

October 29th, 2024

Andrew is in Brussels today.

October 22nd, 2024

Andrew was better behaved today, and able to focus more quickly as well. We worked through the three songs on his last pages, Down By The Bay, Jingle Bells, and Happy Birthday, and then looked at another song to learn for next week. I wrote out the chords for Three Blind Mice, closer to the front of his booklet.

October 15th, 2024

Andrew had a bit of a hard night - I hope I didn't make it worse for him. he managed to get through Jingle Bells one time.

October 8th, 2024

Andrew was a bit wiggly or distracted today, but considering that, we got some stuff done. We continued working through Jingle Bells.

October 1st, 2024

Andrew as a little distracted in lesson today, and it was challenging to get him to focus. When he did, we made good progress through his songs, and adding a new one. We added Jingle Bells, this time with some chords to play in the left hand.

September 24th, 2024

Andrew has been practising. He started by showing me Happy Birthday, and I had him play it over two more times to show me if he could it it without stopping between chords. He's getting better at it! Added Down By The Bay

September 17th, 2024

Andrew was full of beans tonight!

He played some random notes as 'his made up song,' and after a while he played through Mary Had a Little Lamb for me, with the chords. Other than stopping a bit between the chords, he did very well.

After a bit more cajoling, I got him to play through Happy Birthday with chords as well. This has some new chords for him, but they're all easy enough, and he was able to intuit them on the keyboard.

September 10th, 2024

Tonight we may have made some good progress with Andrew! He was his usual frantic self, haha, but I was able to get him to focus enough to learn some chords for Mary Had a Little Lamb. We were able to go through it two or three times.

He should try to practice without stopping between chord changes or new lines.

September 3rd, 2024

Andrew has ADHD, so that explains a lot of the frustration with keeping him focused on the task at hand. We started at the beginning, reviewing some things he learned before, but he tired of that quickly, so we moved on to going over the songs again. Some of them he was more enthusiastic for than others. I was able to get him to play with more than just one finger, which is an improvement, and by the end he was even playing through the song without my assistance. We're getting there!

March 25th, 2024

March 18th, 2024

Evelyn took Andrew's spot again today.

March 11th, 2024

Andrew was too tired to try today, so Evelyn took his spot.

March 4th, 2024

Andrew had a real hard day at school today, so Louise asked me to just go easy on him. We just played around on the piano some, and I tried to get him to make up Little tunes based on arpeggios on some chords that he already knows. Unfortunately he's still using two hands to play his chords. If we can get him to play them with one hand, it may be easier to take next steps.

February 12th, 2024

I finally got Andrew to play through all the chords with both hands this week, and by the end I think he was feeling pretty proud of himself. Hopefully this is an encouragement to him to practise it so we can move on to playing with the song and playing in time!

Reminder: Next week is Family Day, and the following is my anniversary, so no lessons for the next two Mondays.

February 5th, 2024

In Andrew's lesson we spent most of the time trying to get him to cooperate. Just a bit distracted today. I think he's passively resisting obeying me for some reason, but I don't know why.

January 29th, 2024

Andrew did pretty well, and I think learning songs he's interested in definitely helps. After going through Raining Tacos a few times, I got him to count through the chords, counting to 4 each time before changing.
He really did well with that, and I think it made sense to him.

His next song request was Queen, Don't Stop Believing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3QGB9EfmpY

I just wrote out chords for him on this one, and I think he might like this approach better if we can get him to focus.

January 22nd, 2024

Andrew was pretty crazy tonight! We worked more on Raining Tacos, and I tried to cajole him to play with the left hand.

January 15th, 2024

Andrew was in a better place this week. He played through Mary Had a Little Lamb for me, and also using the right fingers. We then went back to It's Raining Tacos, and played through it a number of times, trying to get it in his memory.

January 8th, 2024

We tried adding "It's Raining Tacos" today, but Andrew was misbehaving and didn't want to do the things he was asked.
Sorry I can't motivate him better!

It's Raining Tacos
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdByoaqpL0Q

December 18th, 2023

We pushed through some resistance tonight, and made good progress on fingering. Andrew doesn't like to do what he doesn't want to do, but he finally overcame it and played the first two lines of O Christmas Tree with the correct fingering, and nice timing too.

See you in three weeks!

December 11th, 2023

Andrew was pretty enthusiastic tonight, I could see a weight off his shoulders because daddy was home!

We went through We Wish You again, and I indicated on his notes where he holds and where he plays eighth notes. He wasn't intuiting that very well, and just trying to play all the notes fast.

When he's practising, try to encourage him to play it the way you sing it, if he can translate it that way.

December 4th, 2023

Andrew was feeling tired and unmotivated tonight. We went over We Wish You a Merry Christmas, and initially he seemed enthusiastic, but didn't want to replay things I asked him to do, or to fix mistakes he made.

I really feel bad about not being able to motivate this boy. I'm sure it's partly missing dad, too, but I wish I had some technique that would just work magic and make it more fun for him.

November 27th, 2023

Andrew just did 15 minutes today, but that worked out quite well for his concentration. We worked on We Wish You a Merry Chistmas, and I tried to encourage him to memorize as much as he could. I was surprised at how well he could remember something he only looked at once. Pretty cool!

November 20th, 2023

Andrew was initially interested in the music book that Louise brought, but after a while just didn't want to put any time into learning. I am willing to keep chipping away like this, but it seems like he's just not that interested in focusing and learning a thing.

November 13th, 2023

Andrew wasn't interested too much tonight, I had to keep encouraging him to stay focused. We tried scales with both hands, but he didn't want to improve on those things.
I finally got him to try playing a "simon says" kind of melody copy, and we did Star Wars and a Christmas Song. The last few minutes were spent on drums.

November 6th, 2023

Andrew was excited to show me his scales, and was able to do the right hand single octave scale in 2 seconds!
We worked on adding the entire piano scales for C, and he tried to beat his personal times.

For the last 10 minutes or so, I taught him some drums. We learned the name of the crash, ride, snare, and kick/bass. We played a simple quarter note beat without a hi hat.

October 30th, 2023

We worked on scales mostly today, and I tried to encourage him to beat his own best time in getting through them. For some kids this encourages them to improve, and to stay focus, and I think it was a bit helpful for Andrew to have that challenge. It was still a bit tricky to get him to stay focused though.

October 23rd, 2023

October 16th, 2023

Andrew was a bit distracted or disobedient at first, I'm not really sure what was going on, but eventually I think we rallied and he came to a point that he could focus.

We worked on the same thing that Evelyn had been doing, scales. He balked a bit at the two handed scales, although, I think he can do it if he puts his mind to it. He was just afraid of making a mistake.

October 2nd, 2023

It was a bit of work getting Andrew to cooperate. I eventually got him to learn minor and major chords, and we worked through a number of different chords on different notes.
He was less interested in taking that to the next level with songs, but we'll do it bit by bit.

September 25th, 2023

It was a bit of a challenge keeping Andrew interested. What seemed to work the best out of everything I did was the memory exercises of learning tunes, first Star Wars, and then the first part of Mario.

That's another option to add in the "keep Andrew engaged" toolbox. I think it's not good for him to allow him to govern his own time and direction in the lesson, in my opinion he's too young for that. A couple of times (or maybe once?) Louise said, "Andrew," and he straightened right up. That is very helpful to me, if you don't mind doing it.

As I said after the lesson, I can be patient, and just let him take the lead, but in my opinion this is not a good way to learn this kind of thing. It pays to have to sit still and focus oneself on the task at hand.

September 18th, 2023

Andrew went first - I tried to be flexible and creative in keeping his attention, and playing the things I asked him to play. I'd love to have his muscle coordination for thumb, middle finger, pinkie on both hands so he can more easily play triad chords. See if you can keep him on that.

I showed him how he could play chords while he's doing other things.

September 11th, 2023

Andrew had his book from last time, and we worked on the first page, "Mary Had a Little Lamb."
It turns out he's likely left-handed, and resisted playing with his right hand. Maybe that was the problem we faced the other times he took lessons?
Please have him practice playing this song with his right hand. It's okay if he looks, and he doesn't need to "not make mistakes, :)"

I showed him some chords to play with his left hand so he can try to learn those too. If he forgets, I'm sure Evelyn can show him.

September 19th, 2022

Andrew played through his songs for a me a bit, but had a bit of a challenge so we decided to take a break again for a bit until they sense he's ready to try again.

September 12th, 2022

Andrew and I reviewed the names of the piano keys, and tried to go through a few songs. He wasn't especially interested in playing, so let's play it by ear to see whether this is something he really wants to do.

When you said, "Andrew," he completely started paying attention, but much of the time you didn't notice when he wasn't responding to me. If you could be more attentive to his interaction with me, that might help us keep him focused?

January 19th, 2022

I tried my best to keep Andrew focused but ultimately I struggled with it. I spoke with Bill after the lesson, and I think it might be best to stop lessons with him for now, and come back in a year to see if he's a bit better able to focus.

January 12th, 2022

Andrew was having a challenging night, so Bill didn't bring him.

January 5th, 2022

Andrew struggled a bit tonight, so I kept trying to think of ways to motivate him to keep participating... I guess he's not that interested really.

I tried "points," and offered him 500 points or more to try the next song. It seemed to help, I think.

December 29th, 2021

Andrew was tired tonight, so I tried to keep things moving. We went over one song, and then he felt done - so we tried the keyboard game I made for him - which might be a bit too fast for him to really enjoy. Maybe I need to add "levels" to make it easy at first?

Happy New Year!

December 20th, 2021

Andrew came with a big step forward in piano key memory! I was very impressed.

We had a bit of a tricky time getting him to want to play for the full 30 minutes, so perhaps I can think of other things to have him do during lesson time?

If you have any ideas, I'm open.

December 8th, 2021

Andrew played through all the songs for me, and it became apparent that he struggles with remembering where the keys are.

I tried to play the game with him to get as many key names on the piano as he can in a set time. We discussed the possibility of taking the tape labels off of the keyboard at home to encourage him to memorize them. It's hard to play songs until that is done.

December 1st, 2021

Andrew played through Jingle Bells for me a couple of times and then we added Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.

He still is struggling a bit with the names of the notes so maybe you can quiz him some on that. I made a game which might be helpful for that:

http://readsheetmusic.info/games/read-keys/

You type the highlighted keys into the keyboard and try to beat your time.

November 24th, 2021

We stepped back a bit and worked on some of the same stuff from last week, like names of notes and so on. We tried Mary Had a Little Lamb again, but he struggled with it. We also added Jingle Bells, just to give him something else to think about... let's keep connected about whether he might be too young to have fun and benefit from it. I'm fine with teaching him as long as you're not frustrated that I'm not doing a good job, or that he's not having fun.
Thanks!

November 17th, 2021

Andrew was pretty young and distracted, but I think I was able to get the basics of the lesson out. We introduced the names of the notes, and how to find them, but he had a bit of a challenge remembering. I wrote out the names of G through D on the piano to help him play Mary Had a Little Lamb.