Rock & Roll 101

February 3rd, 2025

Roads are bad, so I cancelled tonight.

January 27th, 2025

Gwen isn't feeling well tonight, and cannot come to lessons.

January 20th, 2025

Gwen was having some challenges with remembering which note was which tonight, but we worked through it. :) We added the first two lines of the verse, and went over them a few times.

January 13th, 2025

Gwen was ready to learn a new song, so we chose A Thousand Years by Christina Perri. We worked on the intro for the whole lesson.

January 6th, 2025

Gwen is away this weekend.

December 30th, 2024

Gwen is away this week and next.

December 23rd, 2024

I cancelled tonight because of the snow.

December 16th, 2024

Gwen continued working through Sunshine. I strongly suggested she find another song to learn, because this one is getting a little /old./ :) She mentioned that her mom was wanting the same thing!
See you next week!

December 9th, 2024

December 2nd, 2024

November 25th, 2024

We spent the whole lesson playing through Sunshine, trying to get the chorus even on the chord changes.

November 18th, 2024

We spent the whole lesson going over the first two bars of the chorus of Cover Me in Sunshine, trying to get the chords and melody to align properly when switching.

November 4th, 2024

We kept hammering through Cover Me in Sunshine, it was a bit painful, lol, because Gwen is struggling with keeping the beat even when she plays with two hands. We tried a few things to help layer it properly.

She said she promises she'll practise this week! :)

October 28th, 2024

We added the chords to Cover Me in Sunshine today, and went through the first part of it together.

October 21st, 2024

We continued working through Cover Me in Sunshine. Such a pretty song! I wrote out more of the melody for her. We haven't added chords yet, but we've got most of the melody written.

October 7th, 2024

We played through Please Please Please a few times - I helped her again with parts she was having trouble with near the end, and then we decided the song was done.

We added a new one, called Cover Me In Sunshine:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AIa3kdKFhg

Pretty song!

September 30th, 2024

We went over Please Please Please at 100% speed a few times, and I wrote out the new part (which is the ending, I guess). We figured out the inversions for them, and then played it through with just me and her, before playing the recording at 75% speed.

Good job! Keep practising!

September 23rd, 2024

We worked through Please Please Please at 75% speed with the recording, and then I added the bridge for her (which is just the verse in C).

We played it through at the end of the lesson, and realized there is another section we need to learn still, so we can do that next week.

September 16th, 2024

Gwen came early tonight at 6:30 because Ethan was sick.

We went over the chords for Please Please Please, and then I helped Gwen work out all the inversions for the verse and chorus. After she'd learned them for the intro, it was much easier for her to learn them for the chorus.

September 9th, 2024

We added Please Please Please by Sabrina Carpenter.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cst8tKd5e4

Gwen had forgotten a lot of stuff, but we worked through the verse and chorus and I tried to help her get back what she'd learned.

June 24th, 2024

Today we wrapped up the recording of Gwen's song. She recorded two new pad tracks, and we refined the ukulele here and there, as well as mixing it a bit.

June 17th, 2024

I cancelled today.

June 10th, 2024

Today Gwen changed the pad sound for her song, and we recorded some bass guitar to add to it. We went through and cleaned it up here and there (quantization), and then added the keyboard part.

We've talked about adding drums to it next week.

June 3rd, 2024

We did some vocal tuning on her recording, then learned the piano part, and recorded it on the keyboard. Next week we'll figure out the right sounds to use. We recorded the MIDI file, so it's easy now to swap out sounds to see what sounds the best.

May 27th, 2024

We continued working on Who's Afraid, adding more vocal parts, and tweaking them to fix pitchy issues and tuning issues.

May 13th, 2024

Gwen is feeling unwell tonight and won't be coming.

May 6th, 2024

We went over Who's Afraid of Little Ol' Me, then decided to record it. We did two and a half takes of uke, then a couple of vocal takes. We'll continue with it next week.

April 29th, 2024

We went through I Knew You Were Trouble, and then added another (surprise!) Taylor Swift song, called Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=751hV_AVPBA

We then continued working on Red.

April 22nd, 2024

We reviewed Something In the Orange, and then added on ukulele, Taylor Swift, I Knew You Were Trouble:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9eakEQSBR8o

Piano: We continued with Red, working through the next section.

April 15th, 2024

Gwen isn't able to make lessons tonight. She's coming tomorrow evening in JJ's spot instead.

April 8th, 2024

Gwen played through Glorious Sons, SOS for me, and then we reviewed Cardigan. She really NAILED it, I was so impressed! 10/10.

We then added Something in the Orange by Zach Bryan:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDOxeU02NUM

We then added a new Taylor Swift song, Red, the piano version:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zOXvQQaXDE

March 25th, 2024

We reviewed the End of the Beginning and Fix You, and then added The Glorious Sons, S.O.S.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUVDmVM9RtA

On piano we continued working through Cardigan, working out inversions and putting the right hand together with the chords.

March 18th, 2024

We reviewed Chicago 1945, and then added a couple of new ones on Uke:
Djo, End of Beginning:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3Z4XGAxJB0
Coldplay, Fix You:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzRMneypG04

On piano we reviewed Traitor, and added a new one, Taylor Swift, Cardigan:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-a8s8OLBSE

March 11th, 2024

Gwen and Stella won't be coming in today.

March 4th, 2024

We started off with reviewed the three songs on Uke from last week. Then we added two new ones:
Michael Jackson, Chicago 1945
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUkvA-NCV1E
Olivia Rodrigo, Traitor
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tsu2oeZJgo

Then on piano we continued with Rolling In The Deep. We played it through a few times and we talked about making the arrangement grow and be more interesting by adding left hand movement.

February 12th, 2024

Gwen had forgotten about Rolling In The Deep this week on both the Uke and the Piano, so we will do that again for next time.

In addition, we added the following songs on the Uke:
Taylor Swift, Is It Over Now?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2evBtswt-A
Billie Eilish, Bored: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsGHdGHHwd8
Luke Combs, When It Rains It Pours: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSZts50ATB8


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

February 5th, 2024

Gwen started with Rolling In The Deep, and then we did 1 Step Forward on the Uke (it was a piano song last week).

We had lots of time so we added Taylor Swift, Don't Blame Me on the Uke too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Os0mdp3pX7U

Then during piano, we went back to 1 Step Forward, and learned the chorus part, which involved working out the inversion.

January 29th, 2024

Ukelele:
We went over Cardigan, and High Infidenlity, then added Adele, Rolling In The Deep:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIYpdjQVidc

Piano:
We went through Save Your Tears once, and then added a new song, Olivia Rodrigo, 1 Step Back:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ysBmk139dU

January 22nd, 2024

Gwen is away today.

January 15th, 2024

For Uke, we went through Forever Young and Cardigan, and then wrote out the rest of Cardigan, before adding a new song, Taylor Swift, High Infidelity.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-ADWSt140g

Gwen is really coming along! Tonight we were able to get the song Save Your Tears (on piano) up to full speed, and play along with the whole recording. We added some additional arrangement parts, like eighth notes on the left hand and arpeggios on the right hand.

January 8th, 2024

On Ukulele, we added two songs:
Forever Young from the Sons of Anarchy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5kA7o5-lLY

Taylor Swift, Cardigan:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4CVcQz0PuQ

We continued working on Save Your Tears on the piano. I wrote out the inversions at the bottom of the page, because she'd forgotten them. She was able to get both hands playing together, which is fantastic. More practise will make more better! ;-)

December 18th, 2023

December 11th, 2023

Gwen recorded Ukulele on Stella's vocal recording, and after that, recorded piano on it as well!

It's going to sound great!

December 4th, 2023

In the Ukulele slot we started with playing through Stick Season, and then learned Hey Jude and Jolene by Dolly Parton.

Hey Jude: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQER0A0ej0M
Jolene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ixrje2rXLMA

In the piano lesson we continued to work through Save Your Tears, and played through All Too Well too.

November 27th, 2023

On Ukulele we reviewed Willow, Save Your Tears, and Viva La Vida, and did some note playing on the high string too.

We then added Noah Kahan, Stick Season:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEqefSD9Vc4

On piano we gave 7 Years a break, and started learning Save Your Tears on piano.

November 20th, 2023

For the first 30 minutes, we reviewed Willow, and then added two other songs:

The Weeknd, Save Your Tears:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3o4ug07qJBI
Coldplay, Viva la Vida:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzqDdXbNuUQ

We then continued with 7 Years on the piano, and I helped her practise the left hand octaves that she's messing up on.

November 13th, 2023

Taylor Swift, Last Christmas https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4pTMZuAux4
Rockin Around the Christmas Tree https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qYz7rfgLWE
Taylor Swift, Willow https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irf3kSpr3Nc
--
On piano we added some more variation ideas to the right and left hands. With the right hand, Gwen can use quarter notes, rocking notes, and half-notes (holding the chords). With the left hand, she can use octaves to make it sound bigger and stronger.

November 6th, 2023

We started on the Uke, reviewing Beautiful People and Sunflower. Then we added a couple of new ones:
Katy Perry, Dark Horse https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtoHuHgS9_o
Katy Perry, Roar https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Po7aOsASWsM

At the end of the uke lesson we considered maybe doing "You Belong to Me?" next.

Then for piano, we spent all of the time working on making 7 Years a bit more interesting. Her job this week is to learn both hands smoothly.

October 30th, 2023

Everyone is sick in the Hardy residence this week.

October 23rd, 2023

October 16th, 2023

We started on piano, doing All Too Well, and then 7 Years. She had forgotten the chords and the difference between sharps and flats, so we reviewed that for 7 Years.

After that, we went back to ukulele, and played Spirits, Enough for You, and added
Ed Sheeran, Beautiful People
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74yb9E3WY1I
Post Malone, Circles
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sca9FP6zl8
Post Malone, Sunflower
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKMQz1Rf2ow

October 2nd, 2023

We started with going through 7 Years on the Ukulele, and that went fine.
We then added two songs: Olivia Rodrigo, enough for u
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qg7clZ2Ye6c
and The Strumbellas, Spirits
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wpv-vGScrvU

After that, on piano, we reviewed All Too Well by Taylor Swift and 7 Years.

September 25th, 2023

For the first half of the hour we worked on Ukulele. She hadn't worked on Our Song this week, so I asked her to do that this week again.

We also went over My Church, which is pretty good, and added Lukas Graham, 7 Years:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8YIIWYG4qY

On piano we continued with All Too Well, focusing on inversions (C to G and A minor to F) and using both hands. Don't forget to do the eighth notes in the left hand.

September 18th, 2023

For Ukulele, Gwen played through Our Song for me, and did pretty well. not perfect, but getting there.

We added Maren Morris, My Church.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HG2A0TvYpZA

For piano, we went through her two kid's songs, and worked on playing the chords faster. I played a drum beat on my knees, and tried to sing along so that she wasn't tempted to stop to find the next chord.

After that, I went to her song All Too Well, which is in C. I showed her how to play this song using the chords she's already learned.

We then talked about inversions, and how to play the same chords without moving her whole hand, but rather just a few notes. I asked her to figure out the A minor to F inversion change herself.

September 11th, 2023

September 11th, 2023

Gwen did thirty minutes of ukulele and thirty of piano. We went through Ocean Eyes, which she has down really well. We then added a new one, "Our Song," by Taylor Swift.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jb2stN7kH28

It has some challenging parts, like where you change the chord on the "and of three" and you have to pay attention so you know where you are in the song.

We then moved to piano, and I showed her how to find the notes of the keyboard (Dog house, grandma's house), and wrote out two songs for her, with chords. They were Mary Had a Little Lamb, and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.

August 29th, 2023

August 22nd, 2023

Gwen said she hadn't practised much while on vacation, but she picked right up well where she left off. We went through All Too Well together, and then added a new one by Billie Eilish, called Ocean Eyes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQitbbtPZz8
It requires some fast switching, and we were able to get it up to speed quite easily. I think she could pick a new song already for next week if she wants to.

August 1st, 2023

Gwen will be away August 8th and 15th.

We went through both Taylor Swift songs - then added a new one also by her, called All To Well:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OQBDdNHmXo

July 25th, 2023

We added the E chords for the end of Taylor Swift's Love Story, then added a new song. Keep working on Love Story.

We added Mean by Taylor Swift, and this used the same E chords that we added today in Love Story. They are:
E, B, C#m, and (not new) A.

Have fun!

July 18th, 2023

I accidentally applied the notes to the wrong week, so resaving here:

We went over Say Yes to Heaven, and she's getting much faster on the E minor! Good job!

We then added Taylor Swift, Love Story:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibFFLU8wYcA

We didn't do the key change at the end, in the key of E. those are new chords, so I'll write them out for you next week. See you then!

July 11th, 2023

On Say Yes To Heaven, we worked on getting the E minor chord faster, without building one finger at a time. At home, work on that for lots of chords.

Good job!

July 4th, 2023

Gwen isn't coming today because she's at her grandma's.

June 26th, 2023

We went through Me, and focused for a while on the little interlude thing between verses. She'll keep working on this, along with her new song:
Lana Del Rey, Say Yes To Heaven
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9rkyzqnqpM

June 19th, 2023

Gwen and I played through Liv, For Taylor - she's done well on it.
We then added a new one, Me, by Taylor Swift. This is the Walk off the Earth version:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66Rir47hiAw

May 29th, 2023

We started by reviewing Heather - Gwen got lost a few times, and I think she could have spent some more time working on it, and learning the chords.
We then worked through For Taylor by Liv. We had run out of time on it last lesson.

We also started learning the C scale and a first melody: Mary Had a Little Lamb.

May 15th, 2023

We reviewed Blue Ain't Your Colour, and it sounds great. Gwen is doing very well!

We then added Conan Gray, Heather:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izge-rLlINE

A fun and simple little song. We were able to introduce Bb and Bb minor.

We ran out of time on this one, but we started out learning Liv, For Taylor:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3AWEhCZDug

May 8th, 2023

Gwen is doing really well. We reviewed Remember and Receive, and she's nailed it. We added a new song, Blue Ain't Your Colour.

I wrote it out with some "repeat endings," actually called volta alternatives.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_w_1Dkie3o

May 1st, 2023

Gwen is doing great! She has really practised this week, and is playing the chords very well!

We went over We Can Do Hard Things, and she did wonderfully! We added another by the same girl, Tish Melton, called Remember and Receive:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDNOmmk483M

April 24th, 2023

We wrote out the chorus of We Can Do Hard Things today, and learned a new chord, E, and E7.

Here's the link to looper.tube, where she can slow down a YouTube video to any speed:

https://www.looper.tube/?v=vdm0Qz08ryo&s=0&e=0&spd=1

April 17th, 2023

Gwen switched to Ukulele tonight, and we talked through the names of the instrument. I asked her to copy the drawings into her own book to help her learn.

Also, make a chord diagram for new chords as you learn them, maybe using a ruler, in the back of your book.

Then write out the other info, like the song we learned (We Can Do Hard Things).

See you next week!

April 3rd, 2023

We warmed up for 5 minutes and then recorded her song for the rest of the time. We worked on some areas where she was having trouble with pronunciation and pitch. I sent her the MP3, but she didn't want mom to see it.

March 27th, 2023

Gwen is feeling unwell today.

March 20th, 2023

We warmed up, and then did some recording. We couldn't find a karaoke track for We Can Do Hard Things, so we made out own.

Gwen was struggling with a cold, so it was harder to sing some of the nasal vowels etc., and we decided to try again next week.

March 6th, 2023

We did warm ups as usual, and then sang through We Can Do Hard Things. I want her to really focus on learning the song, the melody and lyrics, and to work on a solid channel of sound- rather than running out of steam half-way. This will mean taking deep breaths throughout whenever possible.

1 / / | 4/1 / / / | 1 / / | 4/1 / / / |

1 / / / | 4 / / / | 1 / / / | 4 / / / |
1 / / / | 4 / / / | 1 / / / | 4 / / / |
2m / 3m | 4 / / / | 1 / 7 / | 6 / / / |
4 / / / | 5 / / / | 1 / / 4/1 | 1 / / / |

chorus
2m 1/3 | 1 5/7 | 2m 1/3 | 1 5/7 | 2m 1/3 | 1 5/7
6 / / / | / / / / |
2m 1/3 | 1 5/7 | 2m 1/3 | 1 5/7 | 2m 1/3 | 1 5/7
4 / / / | 5 . . . |

1 2 3 / | 4 / 5 / | 1 2 3 / | 4 / 5 / |
[to verse]


chorus
2m 1/3 | 1 5/7 | 2m 1/3 | 1 5/7 | 2m 1/3 | 1 5/7
6 / / / | / / / / |
2m 1/3 | 1 5/7 | 2m 1/3 | 1 5/7 | 2m 1/3 | 1 5/7
4/6 / / / | 5 . . . |

1 / / / | 6m 5 |1 / / / | 6m 5 |1 / / / | 6m 5 |

February 27th, 2023

We did some scales, ear training, and holding note practise, and then went through Tish Melton's song, We Can Do Hard Things:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdm0Qz08ryo

This song suits her voice very well. We should consider what it is about this song that does suit her, so that we can better understand which songs to pick in the future.

Good work! Don't forget to work on lots of different things in practice time!

February 13th, 2023

Gwen is improving weekly. I have noted the strength of her voice, the dropping of some of the weird vibrato and other features from her voice. Her volume is improving, and she's getting better at expressing too.

After scales, we went through Rainbow a few times.

Great job! Keep practising, and pick a new song!

February 6th, 2023

Gwen is feeling unwell tonight and won't be coming.

January 30th, 2023

Warm ups again, ear training, focusing on thirds and octaves and sevenths.

Then went to a new song:

Kacey Musgraves, Rainbow
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5J5wTuDp0E

Kacey Musgraves, Rainbow (Karaoke)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjVLFKOLsEs

January 23rd, 2023

Gwen is unwell tonight and won't be coming.

January 16th, 2023

Great job on Trouble! I would love to see even more exaggerated facial expressions, but we can work on that in the future.

We added a new song, Bad Romance by Lady Gaga:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTOPBQhrvtQ&ab_channel=7clouds

January 9th, 2023

We did warm ups and then ear training, and added octaves and minor thirds.
We then sang through trouble and I again encouraged her to try to act the part she's singing.

January 2nd, 2023

We spent more than half of the lesson working on scales and ear training. We spent the last bit of the first half where I would play a single note, and Gwen would sing the second, third, fourth, or fifth above it. She's better at this approach than hearing two intervals and naming them.

We then went over Trouble together with me on the piano. I tried to encourage her to use more emotion and expression in singing the song.

December 19th, 2022

We did some down scale 5s, starting on the fifth to the one on Ahh, Ee, and Ooo. Work on accuracy, not swooping into the note, not punching the first one.

Then we did some ear training, working on the melodies:
2nd: happy Birthday
3rd: O When The Saints
4th: Here Comes the Bride
5th: Twinkle Twinkle

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9eakEQSBR8o

December 12th, 2022

We went through our scales together, and then on Trouble by Taylor Swift.

Same thing as the other songs, work on keeping the back of the throat open, and relaxed, try to not fry your voice, or do vibrato on the held notes.

December 5th, 2022

We did our usual exercises and also did the holding breath and singing on a long breath. I asked her to sing Mary had a Little Lamb in one solid breath.

The vibrato issue is still present in the Olivia Rodrigo song. I asked her to make a list of songs that we can use going forward.

November 28th, 2022

We did our warm ups on lots of new sounds, ma, me, pah, pee, etc. etc. etc., and then some vowel work.

We also practised holding her voice on long notes as long as possible.

We then went through Traitor together- it's sounding much better, and I think Gwen is starting to hear the "machine gunning" she does with her voice.

We started off with Anti-Hero as well. It doesn't have all the same problems tht we see in Traitor, but some of them are the same.

November 21st, 2022

We went through warm ups together for 12 minutes and then the rest of the time on Traitor.
Great job on Traitor, keep working on it!

We added a new song, but didn't get time to go through it. It's Taylor Swift, Anti-Hero:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uY51Pt2dRSc&ab_channel=TajTracks

November 14th, 2022

In Gwen's lesson, we did more combining of consonants and vowels in her warm up time, and then worked through Traitor together, focusing on a few issues like the fast vibrato on some words, and biting her "r"s and diphthongs for the long I vowel.

November 7th, 2022

Good job this week! Your voice is getting open! Keep trying to relax your throat when you single, like we did when we recorded you.

Next week we'll try a different song. Here's the Karaoke version of Traitor:

Traitor:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvpoGzmd5v4&ab_channel=SingKing

October 24th, 2022

I recorded a new scale on Kristen's phone today because they had trouble with the one I made for them.

We did scales and exercises for the first 15 minutes and then sang the song together... I recorded her singing so she could hear her biting Rs, like in closER and ovER. Also, the hard vibrato and vocal fry in "WHY" don't you just meet me

October 17th, 2022

We went over some scales, and then I recorded a scale on the piano for her to practice with.

We then tried Mary Had a Little Lamb with Eee and Ahh, and Ooo, and then singing it with a British accent.

We went over the Middle together, with it transposed down -2 steps.

October 3rd, 2022

Today in Gwen's lesson we started out with working on scales and range, trying to get her to open up her voice more, and project... we will keep working on that.

For the second half of the lesson we listened through a song she wanted to learn.

I turned the volume down a bit here and there to hear her sing, and one thing that really stood out was a lot of vocal fry. Here's a video explaining some of it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_LmC-ynqGM&ab_channel=Seeker

Really watch that when you're practising. Just use pure tones, and don't scratch and fry your voice.

Here's the song she wanted: Zedd, the Middle
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQzS3JnZQZM&ab_channel=SyrebralVibes
Karaoke:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E60j9v-ODLQ&ab_channel=SingKing

The chrome transpose plugin is called: Transpose ?? pitch ? speed ? loop for videos

September 26th, 2022

This was Gwen's first lesson. I did an intro to voice lessons, our purpose and how I will go about teaching strength.

We did some vocal exercises. I asked her to practice building her diaphragm muscle, and to sing E, Aw, and Ah starting on a note and moving up the piano by "half steps"

I asked her to put a list of songs together that she'd like to learn.

You can make a payment via e-transfer to deposit@rockandroll101.ca

Thanks!