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Caitlin Ball
Past Notes
November 13th, 2024
Caitlin is working today.
October 30th, 2024
Caitlin has to work today
October 16th, 2024
Caitlin is working today.
October 2nd, 2024
Caitlin came a tad late today, because she forgot. I'm going to try to remember to remind her each week she's on.
We added a new song, by Andrew Gialanella called Another Year:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7N4EgoMWtwA
Capo on four - very pretty song.
September 18th, 2024
We added a Joni Mitchell song, called Little Green. This is pretty complicated, but so pretty. We did it with a capo on 4, playing in G.
September 4th, 2024
We added a new song by Mama's Broke called Narrow Line. This has all kinds of strange chords and time signature changes in it. It also uses a banjo in the beginning, so we emulated that a bit with finger picking, before trying to figure out the chords to this strange song.
Remember that there re no lessons next week, since you're moving to a new schedule. Our next lesson will be on the 18th.
June 24th, 2024
Caitlyn added a new song today.
Adrianne Lenker, Steamboat:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8xWf3ruodU
June 17th, 2024
Caitlin started a new song today, by Watchhouse called Not A Word: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ap7eYR-3RQk
June 10th, 2024
We wnt over Skinny Love together, and then added End of the World, which we'd started last week but hadn't written any chords down.
It turned out to be pretty easy, but the last five or so minutes we just chatted about her possible trip to Lake Placid.
End of the World: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9A-QT9xb6VY
June 3rd, 2024
Today we started with Skinny Love by Bon Iver:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95FyXUHv8hk
At the end we briefly looked at Searows - End Of The World:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9A-QT9xb6VY
May 27th, 2024
Caitlin added Phoebe Bridgers, Radar a song in an open D tuning.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8aJRHShoOY
I wrote it out as just bass notes that change while D is playing as the rest of the chord.
May 13th, 2024
Caitlin did well on Cell Phone Says, and we decided to tr adding another one. We started with The Crane Wives, The Well:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MaDpFA9QaZM
It was super-easy, so we then added The Crane Wives, The Moon Will Sing, which was also very simple:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGztdO-GWsw
We briefly considered The Crane Wives, Curses, but didn't work much on it before trying Jesse Welles, War Isn't Murder:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8E9l_i6HPYM
This one is definitely more complicated and a little random. We ran out of time before writing anything down for it.
May 6th, 2024
We added a new song, by Adrianne Lenker, called Cell Phone Says
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTTR2X0Wn1Q
This has a capo on 1, and is played in C.
April 29th, 2024
We continued working through The Gold, and added some new things, like playing the C shape up on the 8th and 10th, and the F shape on the 10th.
April 22nd, 2024
We added "The Gold," a cover by Emma Horner, which is so pretty and hard!
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/lnOP7f113lY
We sketched it out kind of generally, and she said she'll try to flesh it in herself next week.
April 15th, 2024
Here are the pentatonic scales:
https://beginnerguitarhq.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Majorpent-1024x640.png
Here's the song we learned today:
Greta Van Fleet, Meeting the Master
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrGhL1ZMZTU
April 8th, 2024
March 25th, 2024
Caitlin started a new song today called Free Treasure by Adrianne Lenker:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIU5YMp-l2A
March 18th, 2024
We reviewed Sadness as a Gift (which is really easy), and then added Phoebe Bridgers Waiting Room
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJ54qJU0lXU
March 11th, 2024
Caitlin added a new song today, and I introduced her to a couple of artists she might like that are in an old-fashioned style similar to this one.
Her song: Adrianne Lenker, Sadness as a Gift https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmycsQ30obg
My suggestions Joan Baez, Where Have All the Flowers Gone, Gordon Lightfoot, If You Could Read My Mind Love, Joni Mitchell.
March 4th, 2024
Caitlin is learning a song for school, and I continued off from the previous students lesson which Caitlin heard part of, to describe how to find the place to play the song on the guitar, and where to put the capo. I helped her here the major one four and five chords, and from those learn the two three and six minor chords.
February 12th, 2024
Caitlin wanted to add a new song, so we did the Chicks, "Cowboy, Take Me Away".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdkIJm65ytM
This has some fun finger picking which we worked on a bit.
Next week is Family Day, and the following is my anniversary, so no lessons for the next two Mondays.
February 5th, 2024
Caitlin played through Calvary for me, and then added Ketchum ID by boygenius and looked at $20 by them as well.
Ketchum ID: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vPcrIsv5rg
$20: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcypBUKUiE8
For $20, we tried to make it sound a little more finger-picking in style, instead of the bar chord rockin' style of the recording.
January 29th, 2024
Caitlin started learning a new song on her own this week, and I wrote out more of the chords for her. It's a very "Simon and Garfunkel" reminiscent song. Watchhouse, Calvary:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJrZiR9-skQ
January 22nd, 2024
We played through Black Widow, and then added Funeral:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcq5NlYz1PU
January 15th, 2024
We added Julien Baker, Turn Out the Lights:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtEIOP0V9Js
January 8th, 2024
Caitlin wanted to learn Watchhouse, Black Widow today:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLi11MOsoL4
What a pretty song! It lends itself very well to guitar finger picking, because there are no strange tunings and everything can be done with one guitar if you're creative. We didn't quite finish it before running out of time.
December 18th, 2023
Caitlin forgot again today.
December 11th, 2023
Caitlin came in with a new song to learn, Anything by Adrianne Lenker
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_top1GlaOA
This video is a 'how to' for the alternate tuning, finger picking, and each chord position.
December 4th, 2023
Boygenius, Souvenir:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWCgeXVZ_eU
Bon Iver, Heart of Gold:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfaaStdN8Rs
November 27th, 2023
Caitlin didn't come in today - hope everything's okay! Just forget?
November 20th, 2023
We continued working on Powers by Boygenius, and then added a new one by The Paper Kites, Hurts So Good:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIirfCBfHxE
November 13th, 2023
We continued working through Powers, which is a challenging song, but fun! We were a bit more specific here and there with how many beats are in each bar, and I wrote out the notes of the melody, and we talked about how to find the notes on the fret board (there are no black notes between B / C and E / F).
November 6th, 2023
We added a new song by boygenius, Powers:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWCgeXVZ_eU
October 30th, 2023
Caitlin went to a Paper Kites concert this week so wanted to learn a song by them, called Nothing More Than That
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qTvX2Rp3u4
This is a DADGAD tuning.
October 23rd, 2023
October 16th, 2023
Here's the circle of fifths:
https://i2.wp.com/www.edmtips.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/The-Circle-of-Fifths_-_EMDtips.com_-1.jpg?
We worked on a new song tody by Zach Bryan, called Something In The Orange:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDOxeU02NUM
For my reference in the future, this is in the key of E minor, and is about a 4/10 in difficulty.
October 2nd, 2023
We worked through the hard timing of Cool About It. What a great song, I love the feel of it too. Reminds me of Simon and Garfunkel.
We added another song by Boygenious, called Not Strong Enough:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTcF-tZwlXI
Not quite as interesting, but still a nice song.
September 25th, 2023
Caitlin forgot at first, so I Facebooked Melanie and she came a little late.
We went over From Now On together, and then added Boygenius, Cool About It:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-XICfi4j3Q
September 18th, 2023
Caitlun and I went over Roudner by Watchhouse, and then added a new Watchhouse song, called From Now On:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Chal_s3m3Q
This is more of a strumming style song.
September 11th, 2023
Caitlin didn't remember the song from last week and hadn't practised it so we added another, called Rounder by Watchhouse:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCFzqWcVuZg
Capo on 3. This is a fun finger-picking style, and fairly standard in it's patterns.
August 29th, 2023
Caitlyn had a busy week, and struggled a bit with Stubborn Love. We worked through it at 75% speed, and she did really well on it.
Homework is to get that to 100% speed.
We then added a new song called Daylight by Watchhouse.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRmzMIH3Gj0
August 22nd, 2023
Today we learned a new one, Stubborn Love by The Lumineers:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGewQB3mDv4
Over the summer she'd learned a couple of her own, including this one, Graceland Too:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTG0dakpDko
July 18th, 2023
Caitlin started Harvest Moon by Neil Young today:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPqv_N2mOGE
Fun song, lots of tricky parts that aren't too hard! I'll see you in a month!
July 11th, 2023
Caitlin forgot her book, so we reviewed the stuff we learned last week, and she said it made a lot more sense this time around.
This is normal - it's such a weird, heady concept, but the more you go over it, the more it makes sense. We'll keep reviewing the number system every week for a while.
We added a new song called Cold Is The Night by The Oh Hellos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDdV_x513dc
Here are part of the chords:
F C/E G/D C/E | / / / / | F C/E G/D C/E | / / / / |
F C/E G/D Am | / / / / | F C/E G/D C | / / / / |
July 4th, 2023
We moved on to a new song, one that has bar chords in it, and that is in an unusual key for guitar, "F#"
This is Noah Kahan, Homesick
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ip-dkLJyMLg
In working through this, I also taught her the number system
June 26th, 2023
We kept working through Sing Me Back Home- it's an interesting and complicated guitar part, considering the song is so simple. We took a look at a couple of live videos to see how Merle was playing it. He doesn't do it as tricksy live as he did in the recording.
I wrote out the rest of the chorus and a simpler way of referring to the fancy parts.
June 19th, 2023
We added Sing Me Back Home by Merle Haggard today. I wrote out the tab for the intro and verse, but didn't get into the chorus yet
May 29th, 2023
Caitlin isn't coming today because of a play.
May 15th, 2023
Caitlin was a little bored/tired with Blackbird, so we added a new HARD one,
It's by Hozier Would That I:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUE0OwEu_p8
May 8th, 2023
We continued working on Blackbird, and finished up nearly all the parts, I think- maybe just one part left to to.
She's so quick!
May 1st, 2023
Today we added Greta Van Fleet, You're the One:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2pa-Eb4wLE
Then we worked on the beginning of Blackbird.
April 24th, 2023
We continued working on Lady May, especially the slide part in the third or fourth bar... it's tricky, so we tried it at a slower speed and tried to figure out exactly what's going on.
It's exhausting to work on, so Caitlin wanted me to show her the chorus of Landslide:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONzuVds6hPE&t=41s
April 17th, 2023
We added a new song today, Tyler Childers, Lady May:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxfo4Jfpc-c
Caitlin is doing so amazing! She's a great student!
April 3rd, 2023
WE worked on the intro some more trying to be more specific about when the hammer-ons happen. WE fleshed out the rest of the verse and played it through a couple of times.
Caitlin, you should think of a new song to learn next week.
March 27th, 2023
Caitlin is feeling unwell today and won't be coming in.
March 20th, 2023
We went over Take On Me a couple of times, and then added a new song:
Tyler Childers, Shake the Frost:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YI6zVQ7gCtQ
March 6th, 2023
We had some @#^&$@#$ TROUBLE with my Internet at the beginning of the lesson, so eventually moved to my phone to play through Wish You Were Here. Then we added another song, Take On Me (Ah ha) acoustic version.
We didn't have enough time to work out all the details, but went over the chords, of which many were new.
We'll finish it up in TWO weeks, as I'm away next week
February 27th, 2023
Caitlyn started Pink Floyd, Wish You Were Here today:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tGO1Y4FGpI
It has a kind of complex strumming pattern which uses 16ths which I tried to notate for her (not very well).
February 13th, 2023
Today in Caitlin's lesson we changed her guitar strings. I showed her how to remove them, put the new ones on, and tune up.
February 6th, 2023
Caitlin hadn't practiced In A Week this week (ha!) but had been working on some other songs, a few of which we went over before settling on one.
Jackson Browne, These Days
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9bcztN7NmA&ab_channel=ClaudioEsposito
Nico, These Days
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52ZdwZ7Ig-8&ab_channel=TVUVEVO
The Last of Us
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AilSru0ezs&ab_channel=FingerstyleClub
January 30th, 2023
We kept working on In A Week... and finally resorted to locating tab online and printing it out. I think this will make it much easier!
January 23rd, 2023
We added more to the Hosier, In a Week song... it's coming along- hard but fun!
We decided to drop the tuning of the bottom E and A strings to D and G. This makes it easier to play the song without strange fingerings.
January 16th, 2023
We went over Angelina, and then abandoned it for a while to look at Hozier, In A Week:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dh7k69AeM7M
We got most of the intro done.
January 9th, 2023
Caitlin has an ear infection so won't be hear today.
January 3rd, 2023
We went over the Jeff Buckley song, added the rest and then learned Angelina:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVdk9a8sEu8
December 19th, 2022
We went over the rest of Saline Solution (weird song) and then Caitlin added Jeff Buckley, Forget Her:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HO0svGjVEP8
It's 12/8, so three triplets on each quarter note.
December 12th, 2022
We went through To The Mountains, and then added Saline Solution:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLOyBCN6EzU
Fun beginning!
December 5th, 2022
Caitlin played through Big Black Car for me, and then we added Lizzy McAlpine, To the Mountains
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwWZg48EUxM&ab_channel=LizzyMcAlpine
November 28th, 2022
We went over Ceilings and worked out some more details on the strumming, which is triplets when the down beat and the upbeat swap from 1, 2, 3, and 4.
Then we added a new song by Gregory Alan Isakov called Big Black Car:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgumMOMHpns&ab_channel=GregoryAlanIsakov-Topic
Caitlin was feeling a little unwell today.
November 21st, 2022
Caitlin added a new song this week, by Lizzy McAlpine. It has a C#m7 in it, so we spent a lot of the lesson just working on that.
She wanted to pick a song with strumming instead of finger picking because she felt she needed practise on that.
Ceilings
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOxmA-nKfbU&ab_channel=LizzyMcAlpine
November 14th, 2022
This song is now finished mostly - we gave up on the last few chords that are so dissonant... work on the kinks in the song this week, and pick a new one for next week.
Great job!
November 7th, 2022
Today we started a new song, "Since I Saw Vienna"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_SyNxuQOCM&ab_channel=WilburSoot-Topic
It's another fun finger picking one. We went through the first six bars or so together.
October 24th, 2022
Caitlin played through Cherry Wine, and we moved on to The Amazing Devil, Marbles:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ps0Izm-lt4
This is a bit easier, albeit a little convoluted in form... we'll work through it over the next week or two.
October 17th, 2022
We wrote out some more of the Cherry Wine song, what a fun and challenging song!
Caitlin already learned Swan Upon Leda... on her own! Great job, Caitlin. You're a pleasure to teach.
Keep working on that Cherry Wine part, you're close!
October 3rd, 2022
Caitlin wanted to revisit Hozier's Cherry Wine:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdSCCwtNEjA
We wrote out more of the fingerpicking tab, which isn't pretty challenging, but she's game!
Great job, see you next week!
September 26th, 2022
Caitlin brought her electric in, and we went over the Foo Fighters song, Everylong:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crOZk88eCcg&ab_channel=0foofighter0
I wrote out some new chords for her, including bar chords G and B minor... also Bm9 and DMaj7
September 19th, 2022
We started a new one, but Caitlin is going to keep working on Ophelia.
Here's Solider, Poet, King
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1z8zZBBkIRw&ab_channel=LostInAisle12
See you next time!
September 12th, 2022
Caitlin did really well on Free Falling, so we added a new song by The Band (Ophelia)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpO4lji8lR0&ab_channel=1clunny1
Great song, and good taste!
August 30th, 2022
Today we added Free Fallin by Tom Petty. It has some good strum patterns in it.
I showed Caitlin how to play B and A higher on the neck.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3phscjgc_A
August 23rd, 2022
We went over the melody thing from last week, and I tried to better explain how to know where notes are on the fretboard. Remember "whole tone, whole tone, half tone, whole tone, whole tone, whole tone, half tone"
We also tried to add some chords to the melody.
August 16th, 2022
We went over All The Young Dudes together at 75% and 80%, and we're gpoing to come back to it in the future.
We then added a new song For the Dancing and the Dreaming:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhJILVW7vlE&ab_channel=TaylorDavis
I'll send the numbered melody later tonight.
c d e f g a b c
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1
Melody: (' is up, and , is down) starting at 00:32
5 '3 ,2 '3 '5 ,2 ,1 '3 ,5 '3 ,2 '3 '5 ,2 ,1 ,5 '3 ,2 '3 '5 ,2 ,1 '3 ,2 ,1 '2 '3 ,1 ,6 '1
August 9th, 2022
We went through It's Alright a couple of times, and then moved on to "All the Young Dudes," by Mott the Hoople:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAlKjA0ddz4&ab_channel=TheKillerQueenie
Fun song! This required some new chords: F and F#7
August 2nd, 2022
July 26th, 2022
We went over Any Day Now, and Caitlin got up to 90%! great job!
We then added a tricky one (very fast) with a capo on 6 and some fancy finger picking:
Mother Mother, It's Alright:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_5JCHMhztM&ab_channel=MadysonBuck
July 19th, 2022
We went over Andy Day Now from 50% speed up to 70%! Great job! Shoot to get to 100%, you can do it!
June 22nd, 2022
We took a break from Like Real People Do, and added a new song called Any Day Now by Anjimile.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKaqToaWkhA&ab_channel=juyea
There are no lessons next week, and then if you want, we'll start up lessons in July again for summer students.
June 15th, 2022
Caitlin forgot her music last week, so hadn't practised much on the hard part of Like Real People Do. We spent the lesson practising that part.
June 8th, 2022
Caitlin, you left your tablature behind.
We went over the song Like Real People Do, and I explained how to read the tab at the end.
Then we added a new song, Slaughter Beach, Dog - Acolyte:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVKTwnpSsok&ab_channel=apatheticdance
June 1st, 2022
I printed out some tab which I modified for her--that we found online.
We went over it a few times, but it's going to take some work. We didn't work through the ending yet.
May 25th, 2022
Today we went over She Lays down and Wildflowers, and then added Hozier, Like Real People Do:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrleydRwWms&ab_channel=Hozier
I wrote out the tab for her for the first section -- it's not complete, so we'll finish it next week.
May 18th, 2022
We worked on She Lays Down for most of the lesson, and then added Tom Petty, Wildflowers in the last 10 minutes or so:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kw8vBDk880k&ab_channel=TomPetty
Good job! You're doing really well, Caitlin!
May 9th, 2022
We continued working through She Lays Down, and added some new chords. I'm amazed that Caitlin knows all these chords by memory already! GREAT JOB!
Lots of hard work ahead, sorry - you picked a challenging song!
May 2nd, 2022
We left Cherry Wine to the side for a while, and added another one, called She Lays Down by The 1975.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wt8aTLSf5Fg&ab_channel=The1975-Topic
We also added two new chords: G (version 2 or the rock G,) and Cadd9.
April 25th, 2022
Today we learned 8 or 9 chords, Caitlin was eager to learn as fast as she could. I told her to let me know if we're going to fast.
We did the names of the parts of the guitar.
We talked about minors and majors
We wrote out the song Cherry Wine by Hozier (the first part)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdSCCwtNEjA&ab_channel=HozierVEVO
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