Rock & Roll 101

June 24th, 2013

June 17th, 2013

Today Dominic and I went over the song three or four times, two times with the music playing. At first he was afraid it was too fast, but he was able to get it after a bit of gentle coaching.

If there's a way to have him play along with the music at home (mp3 player?) then this will help him with his timing, and not rushing... or maybe Sharon, you can sing along while he plays?

June 10th, 2013

We listened to Dominic's song from last week, and I showed him the proper harmonies for the end. He was playing them intuitively, but it wasn't quite right. So keep working on that last part.

We added a new song, God of Wonders:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CBNE25rtnE

I wrote it out in Bb, and he really was quick in picking up the chords. If it turns out to be too hard I have it written in another key we use for church.

June 3rd, 2013

Today Anna came in place of Dominic, and we learned three chords: C, G, and Am.

We learned the song "Mary Had a Little Lamb."

May 27th, 2013

Dominic was not able to attend this week.

May 20th, 2013

Today Dominic and I went over the song from last week once, and I decided to move on.

We considered some other songs, such as Chris Hadfield's song about space, but ultimately he decided to do Deep and Wide.

We've added right hand harmony to go with the melody, along with the chords.

May 13th, 2013

I made the lesson today more of a practice, forcing Dominic to work on the parts that he was avoiding/not working on. :)

It's getting better, but he should keep pushing himself to work on it so that he can play along with the recording.

May 6th, 2013

Today Dominic was a little distracted, but we managed to work through the intro of the song and then corrected the second half where the chords change more quickly than he was doing.

I made the mistake of letting him have a little bag of Nuggets candy before the lesson, and the whole lesson he just wanted more! :)

April 29th, 2013

Today Dominic and I played through the Hockey Song, and he wanted to play Bless the Lord for me again.

Then we added a new song, Canada In Your Pocket.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnZlAOSEmYQ

April 22nd, 2013

Dominic forgot his book today, so we did a few "magic scales" then tried some other instruments. We did the boom chuck quarter note groove on the drums, with a cymbal crash on beat one every two measures, and he really nailed it.

Then near the end we moved to Ukulele for a while, and worked on a strumming pattern on the C chord.

April 15th, 2013

Today Dominic and I worked on improving "Bless the Lord Oh My Soul" and "The Good Ol' Hockey Game"

We also looked at a web site I made called ReadSheetMusic.info

This web site is my attempt to teach people to read notes, and it has some games that Dominic might like to play.

As he reads the staff he should remember the key "Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge" and "FACE"

April 8th, 2013

We went over three songs today-- and talked about adding the left hand to Spiderman next week. He said he didn't have a lot of time to practice this week because he was away.

I thought he did well. The Hockey Song needs some more attention, but it's getting close!

April 1st, 2013

Dominic went through the Good Ol' Hockey game a few times and can do the whole song (but he told me not to tell you-- he wants to surprise you).

It's a little staggered and stop-and-go right now, but a few more days of practice and he should be ready for the next song.

We went over Bless the Lord verses too, and that still needs work as well to make it smooth.

Ask Dominic about the chocolate BIRTHDAY cake! :)

March 25th, 2013

Today Dominic and I kind of ran out of time. We spent some time trying to figure out which song we're doing next, and that slowed the game down somewhat.

If he can think ahead of the next 5 or 6 songs he'd like to learn, that's less likely to happen again.

We added Good Ol' Hockey Game, and went through it once.

He did well on the fancy chords we added last week, but he still needs to work on them.

March 18th, 2013

Today Dominic and I added quarternotes to the left hand, so he plays two of each chord in God Is Not a White Man.

Then we learned 2, 6, and 7 chords. Dominic also wanted to learn about the 13s, so I showed him how to play C13, C11, and C9 chords.

He should practice playing the C2, F2, G2, and C6, F6 and G6. Just use one hand.

The C7, F7, and G7 require you to slide your fingers up between the black notes in order to reach all four keys.

March 11th, 2013

March 4th, 2013

February 25th, 2013

Today Dominic and I recorded his song, God is Not a White Man, and then added "Spider Man" as the next song to learn.

He has really developed a good sense of beat and timing, and I'm very happy with the progress he's making!

February 18th, 2013

Dominic really has come a long way on God Is Not a White Man!! We played it through with the music a number of times, first having Dominic play the left hand, then the right... we're trying to get it up to speed so he gets a sense of when the chords change.

He's doing well!!

February 11th, 2013

Today we added God Is Not a White Man
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WybvhRu9KU

Dominic should push to pick the notes he can out by ear.

February 4th, 2013

Dominic played through Bless the Lord for me and we decided it was ready for recording, and for playing at church on Saturday night.

Good job Dominic! I'll upload it soon.

January 28th, 2013

Today Dominic put both hands together with the left hand on the arpeggio, and the right hand on the melody!

It was fantastic! He took a little encouraging to even try, but once he tried, he said it was easy. Then he said, well, pretty easy. ;-)

So work on that a bit more, until it's smooth, and we'll try to play it in church-- if he is ready this weekend, send me an email so I have the piano set up.

January 21st, 2013

Today Dominic and I added an arpeggio to the left hand, for each of the chords in Bless the Lord Oh My Soul.

For example,

F a c a C e g e | G b d b Am c e c |
F a c a C e g e | G b d b g______ |
F a c a C e g e | G b d b Am c e c |
F a c a G b d b | C e g e C_______ |

He should work on the left hand by itself, and as he gets confident, add in the right hand.

January 14th, 2013

Today Dominic and I practiced through Bless The Lord Oh My Soul.

He could use a little more work on it to get it nice and smooth.

We also talked about the next song he would like to learn, and he would like to learn the verses of Bless the Lord Oh My Soul.

January 7th, 2013

We went over the Angels We Have Heard and I was amazed at how well he did it, considering he told me he didn't practice at all. He did it with both hands and was quite strong with it.

Dominic was eager to learn a new song today, so we added a song that was running through his head all week (and Anna's apparently).

I told him he could play it at church when it's ready and maybe even play with the band if he gets it really smooth. That seemed to really motivate him!

Great job after the holiday.

December 31st, 2012

December 17th, 2012

We started with going over Silent Night, Jingle Bells, and.. whatever the other song was he has been working on recently-- it has slipped my mind.

Then I added one he requested, "Angels We Have Heard on High" It is a simple arrangement, and he can play the hands separately, but needs to start putting the hands together.

Then the last ten minutes were spent on the drums, where we went over the basic 'quarter note groove,' and drum rolls.

December 10th, 2012

Dominic and I started with piano, and did the two Christmas songs, and then moved to the drums.

Wre added crash to the drum fills, and notes:

Always kick on the crash
After the crash is the snare
Do it every 8 beats

Good job!

December 3rd, 2012

Today Dom and I did drums! I showed him the names of all the drums, and we learned the basic "boom-chuck" beat.

This is where the kick is on beat one and three and the snare is on beat 2 and 4, and the high hat is played on each of the four beats.

He can practice it with pots and spoons.

November 26th, 2012

Dominic played Silent Night for me, but didn't have both hands together yet, so I decided to move on. We talked about working on Star Wars with both hands, but there wasn't much interest in that so we decided to add another Christmas Carol.

I wrote out Jingle Bells for him, for both hands. He can go ahead and work on that this week.

November 19th, 2012

So today we added a new song, Silent Night.

He will work on the right hand and the left hand independently.

We started a little bit of notes inside circles, just to get used to the idea of higher and lower.

I would love it if he tried to figure out the rest of the silent night melody.

Boom chuck chuck with the song to start... eventually we'll put it together with both hands.

November 12th, 2012

Today Dominic and worked on "Go Tell It on the Mountain," and with both hands. He is very close, but needs to work on it some more.

We started to record "On Top of Spaghetti" as well. He can work on not singing the vocals too fast with the chords.

November 5th, 2012

Today Dominic and I started "Go Tell It On the Mountain" -- it was a bit of a fight today to get him to work, but we managed to get him to do the whole song with both hands.

I'm proud of him! He's doing great.

October 29th, 2012

Today Dominic and I recorded his first song!! He played "Down by the Station," and did very, very well. We decided to record it, and he only took about 3 or 4 takes until it was perfect.

Consequently we don't have a lot of things to practice this week, because we took that time to record, but he should continue to work on what we've done.

He wants to record "On Top of Spaghetti," but he doesn't feel comfortable with the boom-chuck-chuck anymore, so that will need to be practiced first.

Good job Dom!

October 22nd, 2012

Dominic did well with his elevator song, especially going up, but coming down he had a harder time. He should continue to do this, with the pedal down (which will help him to stay seated). Practice coming down for all the chords he knows.

Then we looked at the To The Moon song, and he knew it already. He did well with it.

Then we looked at the Down By The Station, and he had the Boom Chuck quite good, although he rushed through it too quickly. Go slowly, and sing along... this will help not to speed up, if he sings as he plays.

Finally, we talked about recording a song, and he can pick a song or two to record, but he needs to practice them so he can do it well with both hands first.

October 15th, 2012

Today Dominic and I did Boom Chuck to his song Down by the Station.

I showed him arpegios for Down by the Station, and we learned the elevator song, "Going Up.... " "COming Down..."

And then we learned the F scale, which we didn't really have time to talk much about.

October 11th, 2012

Dominic started by playing through Scooby Doo for me, and he had memorized it. His timing was also much better.

He then played the D scale for me with his right hand, and we talked about doing it with his left hand as well. I would like him to continue to play the scale with the left, and as he feels brave, both hands.

We played a few of his other songs.

We then talked about what other songs he'd like to learn, and he mentioned Down By The Station. We found it on YouTube, and I wrote it out in his hard-cover book. He's going to work on it, and try to add the boom-chuck to it. He didn't feel ready to attempt the boom-chuck with me yet.

October 1st, 2012

Today Dominic and I started with the stomp clap, and we changed it up by doing stomp highfive stomp clap.

Dominic did a great job with timing on On Top of Spaghetti, and Star Wars. A marked improvement! not so much with Scooby Doo.

We learned the D scale, with a thumb on the F# and don't forget the C#.

D, E, F#, G, A, B, C#, D. and down.

September 24th, 2012

Today we did stomping and clapping on the beat, using the Metronome here:
http://www.metronomeonline.com/

Dominic should practice stomp clap, on each beat like this:

1. (stomp clap)
2. (stomp clap)
3. (stomp clap)
4. (stomp clap)

We also worked on Scooby Doo, and he will practice that for working with the metronome next week.

Star Wars, you will put the notes on the beat in those groups as I wrote in the book,

September 17th, 2012

Dominic and I went over "On Top of Spaghetti" together, and I sang it while he played. I was quite impressed with his execution of the "Book Chuck Chuck" in that I didn't need to pause or slow down before chord changes, and he instinctively change chords on the right words of the song.

I asked him to practice this some more so that he wasn't stopping between chords, so instead of Boom chuck chuck,Boom chuck chuck,boom...(switch)Boom chuck chuck,Boom chuck chuck,Booom...(switch) I want to hear Boom chuck chuck,Boom chuck chuck,Boom chuck chuck,Boom chuck chuck,(switch)Boom chuck chuck,Boom chuck chuck,Boom chuck chuck,Boom chuck chuck,(switch)

This gives him less time to change chords, so it will take more practice.

We also talked about what sharps are, and he located sharps for various notes on the keyboard. We then learned the G scale, and he played it few a few times, using the F# at the right place, and making use of the right fingers. He's to learn to play this quickly.

We learned a first song in the key of G, namely "Star Wars."

September 10th, 2012

Dominic and I reviewed all the stuff from last year, and then worked on a new song, "On Top of Spaghetti," for which he learned and will be practicing the Boom Chuk Chuk beat.