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Rory Ball
Past Notes
June 6th, 2022
This was Rory's last week.
She brought her electric in, and we talked about the different ways of playing an electric vs an acoustic.
Leading guitar is often more melodic, and played on an electric. We learned the 5 scale shape, as found in this image:
http://jsmusicschool.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/pentatonics-for-string-bending.png
We also talked about moving the hand up the neck, using the first finger as a bar chord, and playing an A minor shape. You have to use different fingers for the A minor so that your first finger is free to be a portable capo.
May 30th, 2022
Tonight was Rory's second last lesson for a while because of her dog's injury.
We went over the chords in her main chord list together, cycling through them to help her with switching.
We talked about chords that have fingers in common to help her make the change... especially that share fingering with D.
Unfortunately, there aren't a lot. There's D minor, and possibly the G (the one that uses the ring finger and the pinky.
We went over a bit (sorry for losing track of time!)
May 16th, 2022
Today we added a couple of easy songs and three new chords: D and A, and C.
Here are links to the songs that we added:
Mad World:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oa-ae6_okmg&ab_channel=Christina
Take me to Church:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Td2bsJIaC5M&ab_channel=DopeLyrics
To find a tempo, search for tempo tapper. Click on the beat to find the right tempo.
Then look in a metronome or search YouTube for metronome to find one close to that speed.
May 9th, 2022
We went over the chords from last week again, but this time played them in a specific order so she could practice changing chords smoothly. We did it at three different tempos - slow, medium, and fast!
The four bar chord progression was:
[:m / / / | G / / / | Em / / / | Am / / / :]
See you next week!
May 2nd, 2022
Rory and I went through the chords she's been learning from last week. We worked on strumming them in time, even if the left hand didn't change the chord at the right moment.
We looked at the best way to transition between a few chords, like from G to E minor and back, and from E minor to A minor and back, etc.
April 25th, 2022
Rory decided to switch to guitar today, so we talked through the different types of guitars / widths of necks, and names of the parts of the guitar.
I wrote out four chords for her, and we played through them. Em7, Em, G, and Am.
I wrote out a little chord progression / song for her to practice along with this week.
April 11th, 2022
We reviewed Mary Had a Little Lamb, and decided to change the G chords to D minor chords. This was an opportunity to revisit major and minor chords.
We also went over Happy Birthday, and talked about fingering. The pinkie is a good choice for the high C note. I also reminded her to use her middle finger and reach over her thumb in the 'e' 'd__' part of that melody.
We then reviewed the C scale, and tried it in the SAME direction, (not the mirror version).
See you next time!
April 4th, 2022
Rory is doing really well so far. She's got good posture and fingering - just a little tense as she's sitting... let your shoulders relax, and your elbows lay naturally by your side.
Nice rounded hands is great!
We talked about harmonies, and introduced chords. I showed her the two chords in Mary Had a Little Lamb: C and G.
March 28th, 2022
This was Rory's first lesson! She did really well... we began at the very beginning, with noting the pattern of the keyboard, and naming the notes of the keyboard using the silly animal stories thing. I then wrote out Mary Had a Little Lamb, and Happy Birthday for her. This introduced flats as well.
I also wrote out the scale for her, in C, and asked her to try to do it with both hands.
See you next time, Rory!
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