Rock & Roll 101

October 9th, 2024

Patrick said he didn't really practice this song this week, so we started off at 90% speed, and slowly brought it up to 100% by the end of the lesson. He got markedly better each time, and I tried to kindly point out to him that if he dedicated daily time to the song, just imagine how much better he'd be at it!
He still loses time a bit, especially with the high-hat. He's getting more "on" than "off," so hopefully just time will fix that.

October 2nd, 2024

Patrick came first this week.

Today we added the song The Weeknd, Can't Feel My Face.
https://youtu.be/aieFH9ODJGU

As planned last week, we went through the video frame by frame looking at each sheet music section and "learning the skills" needed for each part, and then tried it in a few places before putting it all together.

Patrick is getting much better at keeping time. We got the song up to 90% speed.

September 25th, 2024

Patrick said that he'd been practising with Simon this week, while Simon played guitar and he played beats. He said this had been helpful for him in learning the beats.

We started with Circles, and he played eighths on the hi hat right off the bat! Great job! Patrick looked a bit upset with himself after that - I thought he'd done really well, but he felt like he hadn't done as well as he wanted to.

We redid it at 90% speed, and he really nailed it, I was super impressed for being only one week in on this song. I told him to practise at the slower speed all week... maybe only up to 95% near the end of the week, and to be easier on himself so he doesn't get discouraged. I reminded him that discouragement will happen if you don't keep expectations reasonable.

Next week we decided to try something different: we're going to pick a new song, and then break it down into "skills" that he should know for that song, working on those specifically, and finally end with the video to see how he can apply those skills to the song.

September 18th, 2024

We started working through Circles. On the first play-through, Patrick played the high hats as quarters. We then did it again trying to play the eighths. He really struggled with it - getting the stick to bounce correctly can be hard.

We reset a bit, and I said to just focus on not speeding up the hi hats.

We tried adding a couple of other songs, but he wasn't as enthusiastic about them.

September 11th, 2024

Patrick said he hadn't practised this week, and didn't want to keep working on Thriller. He said he wanted to make up a drum beat, and then come up with a melody to go with it.

I recommended he focused on learning a full song before trying to write something. Also, you don't start with writing a beat, but rather a song gets a beat added afterwards.

We changed things up and went to a new song, Circles. He actually did quite well on it, and I think he felt more positive about drums overall.

September 4th, 2024

We worked through the note reading exercises again today. Patrick picked things up very quickly, I was impressed. He tends to be hard on himself. I said celebrate your successes!

Here are the lessons:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ssC7VfkQWE

June 26th, 2024

We worked on Thriller for the whole lesson today. Patrick was having some challenges with speeding up and slowing down with the eighth notes on the hi hat, so I suggested first he take it right out, and just use snare and kick. Then we did it again, and had the hat on just the quarters (played with the snare and kick with the hat). I suggested he take out the fills for now until he gets solid with the regular beat.

June 19th, 2024

Patrick came 5 minutes late today because of an injury on the field trip he was on.

We resumed working on the sight reading exercise. He said it didn't come through to him (here it is again:)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ssC7VfkQWE

We ran out of time before getting through much, but we took a look at Thriller.
https://youtu.be/SPAd-4dzFu0

June 12th, 2024

Patrick wanted to learn drums today, (I hope this is okay), so we went over the basic drum reading tutorial.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ssC7VfkQWE

June 5th, 2024

Patrick and I focused again on the section with the C to E and E7 transition. He's getting it really good. I suggested he either decide to work on perfecting it, maybe adding some sustain pedal, or finding a new song he'd like to learn for next time.

May 29th, 2024

Patrick has really improved on Imagine. We worked on the ending section that he was struggling with last week, and then played through the song a couple of times. Great job!

May 22nd, 2024

Patrick decided to change gears again, and we resumed John Lennon, Imagine:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHxobd1WLno

The chorus section was throwing him off, so I walked him through a simpler way to approach it, using the chords as a clue to play the parts.

May 15th, 2024

Patrick was confused about the sharps and flats so I tried to write it out more clearly. We went over it for the whole lesson.

May 8th, 2024

Patrick listened through the Marching Home song, and then wanted to to go back to Burnin' and Lootin'. We thought we'd add more of the song, but he's already learned it all.

We then added Bob Marley, One Love:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdB-8eLEW8g

May 1st, 2024

Maggie came in today for trumpet lessons. We worked on the first seven notes of The Last Post, C and G.

April 24th, 2024

In Patrick's lesson we recorded strings with his piano song, first chords and then a cello for lower bass notes.

We tried adding some keyboard drums but he got frustrated. I added them for him after he left, but we can remove them if he doesn't like it. :)

April 17th, 2024

Patrick is sick today, and Tomas took his full hour.

April 10th, 2024

April 3rd, 2024

Patrick worked on the B diminished section of the song. He wants to try recording it next week, so we tried to work out all the mistakes so he can record it as easily as possible without mistakes next week.

March 27th, 2024

We went over Patrick's song today, and I made some suggestions as to fingering to help with sections he was struggling with.

I can tell he's really been practising! He played it very well, especially the first 2 thirds of the page. The B diminished section needs work, but I think with the changes we made today it will be easier for him.

Good job today Patrick!

March 20th, 2024

Patrick was pretty silly in his lesson. I don't think he had practised his song much. He had the first two lines down quiet well, but after that, didn't know how to play the song. We worked on it some, but I had some trouble getting him to focus and not be silly.

I'm fine with that happening every once in a while, I'm glad the boys feel comfortable around me. I maybe should be a little more demanding in the lesson time, but I'm not sure how to handle that without coming across harshly.

March 13th, 2024

Patrick did an hour today, taking Tomas' spot. Here's the song we wrote:

language "english"
header {
title = "Marching Home"
composer = "Patrick Bailey"
}
melody = relative c' {
tempo 4 = 120
% verse
bar ".|:"
c8 d8 e4 a,4 b c8 d8 e4 a, b c g2. c4 g2. break
c8 d8 e4 a,4 b c8 d8 e4 a, b c4 b a g c b a g
bar ":|." break
%chorus
g'4 f e d f e d c g' f e d f e d c break
a' a g f g e f2 g4 f e d f e d c
bar ":|." break
%bridge
b4 c d a b c2. d4 e, f g a f g2 break
b4 c d a b c2. d4 e, f g a f g2
bar "||" break
g'4 f e d f e d c g' f e d f e d c break
a' a g f g e f2 g4 f e d f e d c~c1
bar "|."
}
chording = chordmode {
a1:m a:m c c a1:m a:m c c
g f e:m c f d:m e:m c
b1:dim~b4:dim c2. a1:m~a2:m g2
b1:dim~b4:dim c2. a1:m~a2:m g2
g1 f e:m c f d:m e:m c
c
}
score {
<<
new ChordNames chording
new Staff melody
>>
layout {}
midi {}
}

March 6th, 2024

In Patrick's lesson, we played through Satisfy My Soul, and then he wanted to try writing a song again.

I retaught the lesson on patterns in melody, using the AABA, AABC, ABAB, etc system. And he made a verse using this method. We then talked briefly about verses, choruses, and bridges, and how to put chords with melodies based on what notes are used the most in a melody.

February 28th, 2024

Patrick continued through Satisfy My Soul. We also added the next section, which is largely a repeat of the parts before.

February 21st, 2024

We continued working on the first part of Satisfy My Soul. This involved fleshing out the parts more, separating the hands so the right hand plays on beat 2 and 4 and the left hand plays the bass note on beat 1.

We wrote out the words underneath parts of the verse so that Patrick doesn't lose where he is in the song.

February 14th, 2024

Jason is sick today, so cancelling lessons.

February 7th, 2024

We went over the song we added last week, and decided that overall it's just too complex to play on a piano by itself. We then spent a while trying to find piano covers of other Bob Marley songs that he might be able to do.

We tried some other songs that his dad likes (Beatie Boys songs) but ended up settling on Satisfy My Soul by Bob Marley.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rf2bCmYIUy0

January 31st, 2024

Patrick was struggling with the verse a bit, so I played it for him to demonstrate how the timing works, and he was able to play it much better after that, tho it needs some attention to perfect.

He was ready to try another song, so I wrote out the chords and the beginning melody of She's Gone, by Bob Marley:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kj-FeeZo0g

January 24th, 2024

Patrick blew me away yesterday! Considering the offbeat nature of Bob Marley's stuff, I didn't think he'd be able to do very well, but on the contrary, he really nailed it.

We added more parts to the song, right up to the first two verses.

January 17th, 2024

Patrick played through Fur Elise with the new left hand arpeggios, and I corrected the G natural which should be a G sharp.

He then wanted to add Bob Marley, Burnin' and Lootin':
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoCRuL4ugZ8

I wrote out the first 12 bars or so and we went over that together a few times.

January 10th, 2024

In Patrick's lesson, we continued with Fur Elise. He wanted to learn more parts to it, and I suggested he use this video on slower speed, to pick out the things different than how he's learned it so far.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfF0zHeU3Zs

I also wrote out a bit of the next section before we ran out of time.

January 3rd, 2024

We worked through adding the let hand arpeggios in Fur Elise and it's coming along quite well.

Here's sheet music if he wants it again:
https://my-pianoworld.blogspot.com/2011/02/fur-elise-piano-sheet.html

December 27th, 2023

I cancelled lessons Wednesday night (no charge).

December 20th, 2023

Patrick played through Rudolph for me, and we talked a bit about phrasing, to make a melody sound more natural and smooth. I demonstrated this on Rudolph for him, it's a good next step to take.

He wanted to go back to Fur Elise, and try to complete the whole song this time, so we worked on that for the remainder of the lesson, especially fingering and how they can help with phrasing nicely.

December 13th, 2023

I missed seeing Patrick tonight. Hope all is well. His music is still on my piano here.

December 6th, 2023

Patrick really blew me away with Rudolph! Great job!

We spent the lesson continuing through the first half of the verse.

He forgot his paper behind. If you want to print another, the link is here:
https://www.singing-bell.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/RudolphTheRednosedReindeer_G_Singing-Bell.bak_.jpg

November 29th, 2023

Patrick played through a good portion of Rudolph for me, but it was pretty disjointed, so I reminded him I wanted him to work in chunks, and we just focused on 2 bars at a time. We got through the whole first line of the song in this way, and things were much better by the end of the lesson.

I'd like him to keep practising this way at home.

November 22nd, 2023

Patrick wanted to go back to Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer, and I suggested that now he's able to read notes, that we use that kind of music instead of the beginner thing I wrote out for him last year.

Here's the melody with chords. We went through the first 2/3rds of the song together before running out of time.

https://www.singing-bell.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/RudolphTheRednosedReindeer_G_Singing-Bell.bak_.jpg

He says he gets so bored practising and I recommended he make his practise just a few bars at a time, and gradually work through the whole song that way.

November 15th, 2023

We recorded a teeny bit more of Patrick's song. I'll email an mp3 of that later today.

After that, he wanted to learn Bob Marley's Three Little Birds. I wrote out the first line, but we ran out of time before we got through much of it at all.

Bob Marley, Three Little Birds:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LanCLS_hIo4

November 8th, 2023

We continued with our recording project from last week, and did the chords to go with the song. We got about three-quarters done before running out of time.

November 1st, 2023

Patrick has finished his song, so for the lesson we opened up the recording studio and recorded the parts. This is always trickier than you'd expect because your errors are more obvious and this can be frustrating.

We recorded the right hand separately at the end of the lesson, before running out of time. We'll add the chords and string parts next week.

October 25th, 2023

Patrick didn't bring a book in, but had been working on his song this week. We looked at some notation programs together, but he felt overwhelmed by them, I think, so it might be easier for now to just use paper.

I suggested an ending for his song, and to play it successive times in lower octaves.

October 11th, 2023

Patrick said he hadn't spent much time, maybe 20 minutes on his practise this week, but had added a new part to his song.

He played it for me, and I suggested we start talking about how to write it out. We did this first on a clef, and I explained some of the basics, which he pretty much already understood.

After that, I showed him hacklily.org and how to input music in the lilypond style. I emailed his song to Simon with a link to the site.
Lilypond
Emailed song
wrote out on paper first

October 4th, 2023

Patrick and Tomas are going to do lessons separately for now. Patrick was interested in writing his own songs, so I gave him some rules and directions that most songs conform and adhere to.
1. A motif that is used throughout the song - musical and/or rhythmic
2. A 4 bar phrase that is made up of this motif... which is then repeated but subtly changed to make up an 8 bar verse and/or chorus

He started with a motif and I helped him think through how it fits in the 4 count as he repeated it and varied it.

I showed him how chords are assigned to a melody, and chose some for him. He then tried playing it through for the rest of the lesson.

September 20th, 2023

Tomas and Patrick came in together tonight.

Patrick was kind of emotional, and struggled with figuring out where he was. He doesn't have quite the same sense of rhythm that Tomas has, so that's something we can try to work on more in the future. We kept at it, with me eventually joining on bass guitar. By the end of the hour, I think Patrick was feeling better about it.

I suggested that when he practise along with the song at home, he try to take mental note of what each section sounds like, so that when he's playing with Tomas, he doesn't get lost, or can find his place again.

September 13th, 2023

We went down to the grand piano to start, and played through his song a couple of times there to give a sense of what a grand piano sounds like.

We then went upstairs and played it with the recording twice, and then with me playing the drums along with him to get used to playing with Tomas when he gets healthy again.

We then learned a harder left hand part which is more similar to the bass part in the original song. He played that through with just the left hand a few times, and then added chords.

He was pretty tired by 5:24 so we ended early- hope that's okay.

September 6th, 2023

Tomas and Patrick are going to learn the same song so they can play together next week. Patrick didn't have a book so I wrote out the song for him again. The chords are fairly repetitive, which makes it easy, but there are a few changes (an E chord, an F chord) that mean you have to keep attention.

We didn't focus on the left hand at all, but he's learned that before, so if he can try to put them together while practising this week, that would be great.

June 27th, 2023

We worked on Minuet for most of the lesson. Simon said he hadn't really practised this week, so we made the lesson a practise time. He was a bit silly today, so it took a bit of time to get down to focusing, but by the end of the lesson I think we made good progress.
Have a great summer!

June 20th, 2023

Patrick played over Beethoven's 5th a couple of times for me - he was holding the whole notes too long for the fast speed of this one, so I helped him with that. We added a new one today, Minuet by Bach:

https://cdn3.virtualsheetmusic.com/images/first_pages/BIG/Miscellaneous/12PiecesFirst_BIG.gif

The first line squashed a bit in print, so if you have a printer, it might be better to reprint it.

June 13th, 2023

We worked on Don't Start Now, focusing on playing along with the recording without speeding up or slowing down, and counting the right number of repeats before going into the B section. He got it fairly well.

We then added an easy piano version of Beethoven's 5th:
https://musescore.com/static/musescore/scoredata/gen/6/9/3/5407396/b6ed005fc1ec4247a5dd0ca1c3de4a0b45163a08/score_0.png@850x1100?no-cachee=1551109780


I just see he's left his music behind on my piano.

May 30th, 2023

We went over Flowers together, and - other than the one part that has an F and an E in it - Patrick is getting fairly competent on playing both hands on these different rhythms.

We decided to add another song today, by Dua Lipa called Don't Start Now:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CLkVWB_Lj8

This song also has a fun bass line for the left hand, so we spent most of the lesson working on that together.

Next week Tuesday there will be no lessons, as I'm in Saskatchewan with my family.

I'm sorry for your loss, Maggie.

May 23rd, 2023

Patrick came in his brother's timeslot tonight. We worked on Flowers, gradually getting it up to speed while I played the drums, to help him keep on tempo, and make the chord switches without stopping or slowing down.
We "counted" how many times he could loop it without making a mistake, and kept speeding it up bit by bit until we were at the same speed of the actual song.
Good job tonight!

May 17th, 2023

Patrick is doing well on Flowers.

Today we learned the left hand part (a simplified version of it, anyway), and worked through that first alone, with both hands, then only the left hand, and then with both hands on the bass line and the right hand on the chords.

It's coming along!

May 10th, 2023

Patrick had some challenges practising Flowers this week, so we went over it again, and I tried to show him more of what the hands do, and how to play it using the chord charts only.

I think it helped. We played through the song with the recording a couple of times, at 50% of the actual speed, and he was able to keep up pretty well.

May 3rd, 2023

Patrick played through all of Imagine for me today, with relatively few stops or pauses. A bit more difficulty near the end, I think because he's just getting tired of it.

He asked to do a new song today, a pop song, so we selected Miley Cyrus, Flowers:

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

We're going back to some chords and ear playing so it will be a good balance for him.

April 26th, 2023

Patrick is such a pleasure to teach. He's doing very well on Imagine.

Most of the lesson today was going over a part of the song that he really hates. I "marked" him on each pass through that one bar, and he looped it and looped it. By the end he'd improved his score from 65% to 92%. It's very close!

April 19th, 2023

We kept working on Imagine today. I see definite improvement. There's a spot in the song where the chords change from C, C^7, E, E7, and Patrick was hating that part, so I made him do it over and over, first hands independently then together. I think it helped, but when I asked him if it helps him like it more he said it helped him hate it more! LOL! This kid is awesome!

(He was teasing of course!)

Keep working on the song as usual this week.

April 12th, 2023

Patrick is progressing well on Imagine. We continued working through some more, and I showed him some better fingerings where he was having trouble reaching.

He also learned about D.S. al Coda text-repeats.

He took Tomas' forgotten book home.

April 5th, 2023

We started the lesson off with the recording, deciding to remove the guitar part and just leave it at strings and piano. I'll email that to you later.

We then added John Lennon's Imagine, and worked through the first half of page one. It's fairly repetitive, so once he gets the hang of it, he'll be off!

March 29th, 2023

Patrick played his song for me (which he has been writing!) Very cool!

After that we resumed recording some strings and some woodwinds to his Fur Elise song.

I'm going to email the MP3 of what we've got so far so he can practise playing along with it in time, which will help to finish up next week.

March 8th, 2023

Patrick played through I Don't Think That I like Her. He was playing the 16ths incorrectly, so we talked about that, and he was able to instantly play it correctly! Quick kid.

We then recorded Fur Elise in my studio. He would like to add strings the next time we get together, in two weeks.

I'm away next Wednesday to Myrtle Beach!

March 1st, 2023

Patrick is doing very well. He has learned the chords for the Charlie Puth song and today we added the melody to it with the right hand

After that he played fur Elise for me. He is improving on the speed and interpretation of it as well.

He is a pleasure to teach! You've raised a wonderful couple of boys.

We will record fur Elise next week to send to family.

February 22nd, 2023

Patrick played through Fur Elise for me, and really did so well on it. He is slowing a bit in the middle section, but when I told him that it was supposed to be the same speed, he said he was trying to be expressive through that part because he loves it. I can't fault that! :)

I suggested he and his brother learn the same song so they can play together, and he was game for that, so we added Charlie Puth, I Don't Think That I Like Her:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvv8cnUkcXQ

February 15th, 2023

Patrick decided to put Moonlight Sonata on hold for now, which is probably a good idea. We then went over Fur Elise again, and I recommended he try to be more expressive as he plays, playing different volumes and stresses on notes so that it's like a sentence.

We then went over Rock Around the Clock, and I notices he needs some rhythm practice, so if he could work through this video at home some:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qp4flocUmxM

See you next week, Patrick!

February 8th, 2023

I'm so sorry about your dad, Maggie.

Patrick is doing so well in lessons. I really am enjoying teaching him, and love his enthusiasm, his politeness, he's a really nice boy.

He played through Fur Elise well, although a few smaller little problems and mistakes. I suggested he try to play a bit faster, but he said the notes stick on his piano making it harder to practice up to speed.

We added Moonlight Sonata, also by Beethoven. I didn't realize it was 23 pages when I printed it!! haha, we worked through the first two lines in lesson.

https://www.mutopiaproject.org/ftp/BeethovenLv/O27/moonlight/moonlight-a4.pdf

February 1st, 2023

Patrick played through his left hand part for me on the song he wrote, and we tried recording it a bit. This gave an opportunity to talk about writing accompaniments for melodies, and how the left hand should contain the same chord / harmonic idea as the melody.

He's going to rethink his song and write out some more information as far as how long he holds notes in the right hand, and we'll try recording it again next week.

January 25th, 2023

Patrick played through a song he's working on and we decided to try recording it next week. I asked him to think about a part he could play with the left hand.

We then went over Fur Elise, and I showed him places where he is stopping and should continue to play at the same tempo as the left hand.

We then printed out the sheet music - a simple version - of Fur Elise, and talked through the various elements of reading music. We discussed timing, rests, pitches, etc.

January 18th, 2023

We added left hand arpeggios to fur Elise today, and the next section.

I also wrote out notes for him in the bass and treble clef. Our next song we'll start learning with actually notes on a staff.

If you could go to a music store and pick up an easy, beginners piano book for Patrick, with songs he would like to learn, that would be terrific.

January 11th, 2023

Patrick is unable to come today. If he is feeling up to it, he should continue working on Fur Elise, as well as reviewing his other songs and scales.

January 4th, 2023

Patrick played through his songs for me, which he's going to continue to work on. We also added a new song, "Fur Elise," by Beethoven. I wrote out a simplified version of the song for him.

December 28th, 2022

Patrick played through Rudolph, The Grinch, and Silent Night. He's doing very well, although I can tell practice has been less frequent this week (it's okay, it's Christmas!) :)

See you next week!

December 21st, 2022

I missed Patrick tonight. Did you forget?

December 14th, 2022

Patrick played through his songs for me, and is doing very well... I helped him with the G transition chord, and encouraged him to work on just that chord change, with his eyes closed, and to do the whole song with his eyes closed.

He then did Silent Night. I encouraged him to play it more like a lullaby.

We then did the grinch, and added the left hand.

Then we did Rudoplh, mostly just the melody.

December 7th, 2022

Patrick is doing really well. We went over his songs together, and talked about getting Jingle Bells to the point where he doesn't have to stop or slow down in the middle of the song. I asked him to keep at it.

On Silent Night, he played through the arpeggios while I played the melody, in an effort to keep that as a goal before him. He's not comfortable doing both hands that way yet.

We then added another Christmas Song, (which I am not absolutely sure what it was- I think Rudolph?)

keep up the great work.

November 30th, 2022

Patrick did a good job tonight. We played through all of his songs so far, and then I wrote out chords for Silent Night.

We talked about arpeggios, in which a chord is broken up into it's separate notes. This will be applied to Silent Night eventually.

We played through Silent Night, and I explained the difference between minors and majors. A major chord and a minor chord play the middle note (often played by the middle finger in the first inversion) differently.

November 23rd, 2022

Patrick brought a new book this week, so I wrote out the songs for him again.

We went through them together (he's doing great!)

We then added Jingle Bells and Silent Night. We didn't put chords on the latter because we ran out of time.

November 16th, 2022

Patrick was unwell tonight.

November 9th, 2022

This was Patrick's first lesson with me.

We started out with acquaintance with the keyboard. He already knew where middle C was, and some other notes. He hadn't put together that the keyboard letters follow the alphabet, so we did that, and I also showed him my trick of animal names for the keys (dog house).

We then wrote out a beginners song, Mary Had a Little Lamb, and he played that through using each of the five fingers, one on each note. We then added chords (triads), and he played those with the left hand along with the melody.

We then added a new song, Happy Birthday, but ran out of time adding the left hand... this was an introduction to flats and sharps, which he hadn't learned before.

I asked him to try to work his own way through the chords if he can. He might have struggles with the B flat chord, which has the notes B flat, d, and f in it.