Rock & Roll 101

April 22nd, 2025

As usual, today we went through as many songs for Sunday as we had time for. He did really well today, he's killing it lately!

After that Rhone asked about things he could do to advance a little further. I recommended finger picking, bar chords, and maybe learning scales.

April 15th, 2025

We reviewed Easter's music in Rhone's lesson today. There were a few new chords to work on, and I showed him an easier way to play a "B-sounding" chord on the ninth fret with an E shape.

April 8th, 2025

In Rhone's lesson we reviewed the songs for this Sunday.

April 1st, 2025

We went through this Sunday's music - there are a LOT of songs because of the healing service portion. There are a few new chords for Rhone, and rhythms he should practise this week.

March 25th, 2025

Rhone is gone to BC and will miss this day.

March 18th, 2025

Today we resumed our habit of working through this Sunday's worship songs. Rhone is away this Sunday so won't be able to play, but the process brought about some learning of new chords he hadn't seen yet, etc.

March 11th, 2025

We worked on the possible songs for Sunday, since we haven't finalized the list yet.

We focused on Hear The Sound especially, because it has some crazy strum patterns that are off the beat.

March 4th, 2025

Rhone has hurt his hand and won't be coming today.

February 25th, 2025

Rhone has hurt his hand and won't be coming today.

February 18th, 2025

Rhone won't be coming today.

February 11th, 2025

Looks like Rhone is unable to make it today.

February 4th, 2025

Today we went over last Sunday's music together.

January 28th, 2025

Rhone can't make it today, but would like to come if a spot opens.

January 21st, 2025

We went over a few of the songs from Sunday which Rhone had trouble with concerning the strumming especially. It seemed like he was getting it the more we did it.

January 14th, 2025

January 7th, 2025

Today we worked on Sunday's songs, and this brought up the need again to learn to finger pick. I walked him through the strategy of how it works, and we played through the song using the finger picking technique. I asked him to practise it so he could be ready to do it on any Sunday it's needed.

December 17th, 2024

We went through the Christmas Songs for Sunday again today. Rhone brought me a lovely gift of meat from a deer he'd shot. Thanks Rhone!

December 10th, 2024

We went through Sunday's songs again today.

I told him I'd send him a Dropbox link of all the songs we do. If you don't get it remind me.

December 3rd, 2024

We went over the Christmas Carols for this Sunday - some new chords in there like Bb and G minor, D minor.

November 26th, 2024

We reviewed this Sunday's music again, which included a bunch of Christmas songs.

November 19th, 2024

Today we went through the songs for Sunday because Rhone is scheduled to play! There are TON of songs because of the baptism, so hopefully it's not too overwhelming.

November 12th, 2024

We went through the songs for this coming Sunday together. This brought up a few new chords and approaches which will be helpful for Rhone in the future, like a C9, and how to switch between a G and a C9 by moving the first and middle fingers. I also pointed out that he should lay his first finger down for the F chord so that it's not an F major 7

November 5th, 2024

We went over the worship songs for this Sunday together. Also, this Sunday after the service the music team is meeting at my house for pizza and Rhone's invited. We're reading through and signing a new music team pledge together.

October 29th, 2024

We went through worship for this Sunday together, playing the songs in the order we're doing them on Sunday

October 22nd, 2024

Rhone told me he was in Nova Scotia today.

October 15th, 2024

Rhone and I went through the worship songs for this Sunday. This included:
Great Things
What He's Done
Did You Feel the Mountains Tremble
A Thousand Hallelujahs
My King Forever

October 8th, 2024

October 1st, 2024

September 24th, 2024

Today we did the new song from Sunday, Bless God. We also played through Build Your Kingdom Here, Everyday, and The Heart of Worship.

Rhone is comfortable and prefers to just play through worship songs every week as he finds it a good way to learn.

September 17th, 2024

Rhone won't be at lessons today.

September 10th, 2024

We started out working on the finger picking for Country Roads - Rhone said he hadn't been practising, and he did struggle with the parts. We worked on it for about 15 minutes and he wanted to try something else.

He suggested other strumming patterns. We tried a country strum that is similar to the country roads finger picking, but he said that was a little hard.

I showed him palm muting next, where your right palm rests on the bridge just enough to deaden the ring of the strings.

We then listened to Build My Life to get the strum from that song.
We then listened to Lord, I Need you to get that strumming style too.

September 3rd, 2024

We started Country Roads by John Denver today. This is finger picked, so we took it as an opportunity to learn some basic finger picking. I wrote the pattern in his book so he has something to look back at.

Good job! If you work on the verse and chorus this week, we just need to learn the bridge to be done the song.

June 25th, 2024

Today in our last lesson, we went over some past songs, like Free Fallin' and some worship songs! Have a great rest of your summer.

June 18th, 2024

We reviewed the chords from last week, and went through the E minor and G scale a few times. We then revisited and figured out the rest of the song 5 foot 9.

June 11th, 2024

Today we learned all the open sus chords, and also talked through bar chords, and how the work with the E shape and E minor shape, A shape, and A minor shape, and sometimes even the D shape and D minor shape. If your hands will reach, any chord can become a bar chord.

We then learned the open G scale and open E minor scale.

June 4th, 2024

Rhone can't make his lesson today.

May 28th, 2024

May 21st, 2024

Rhone will be away this day.

May 14th, 2024

We kept working through the intro and verse of 5 foot 9. We touched on the C#m7 to B to A to F#m part.

May 7th, 2024

Rhone is out of town today and won't be coming to lessons.

April 30th, 2024

We continued working through 5 Foot 9, getting the finger picking right for the intro.

I let him just practise that part over and over in the lesson. Hopefully he can find more time to set aside for practise this week.

April 23rd, 2024

We went over the chords from the last few weeks, the sus chords, minor sevenths, and major sevenths. Rhone is getting a bit faster on them, especially the major sevenths... could use more work to get them faster and in the memory.

We then talked about learning finger picking some more, and I asked him if he had a favourite country song that might have finger picking in it. He selected Tyler Hubbard, 5 Foot 9:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_z5emx_ef0

April 16th, 2024

Rhone will be missing lessons this day.

April 9th, 2024

Rhone remembered his book, and we wrote in a few sus chords. We went through a bunch of charts together, and I showed him how to calculate slash chords for some easy ones like C/E, D/F#, G/B. We then went through two worship songs to try to use some of these chords

April 2nd, 2024

We started with reviewing the sevenths chords, which Rhone said he hadn't really been able to find time to practise this week.

He still doesn't have a booklet either, so maybe you can find him one to keep our notes in.

We then went through a few worship songs as we've been doing.

March 26th, 2024

Rhone forgot a book, but brought a blank page, and I wrote out the sevenths for him to work on (minor and major).

We then went through three worship songs together from my church charts:
Josh Baldwin, Made for More: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ov9Ls4npIrc
Planetshakers, Made for Worship: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QddYdosP49Q
Passion, Glorious Day: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gklJ2XZwDHc

March 19th, 2024

Today Rhone and I reviewed all the seventh chords. I asked him to bring a book next time so we can write them down.

We then went over this song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ov9Ls4npIrc

and also Great Are You Lord.

March 12th, 2024

Here's the circle of fifths we talked about today:
https://i2.wp.com/www.edmtips.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/The-Circle-of-Fifths_-_EMDtips.com_-1.jpg?resize=1701%2C1701&ssl=1

We also learned sevenths, both major and minor:
Am7, A7
Bm7 B7
C7
Dm7 D7
Em7 E7
Gm7 G7

March 5th, 2024

We continued with the e minor pentatonic. We did it with chords, and he also practised doing melodies with it. Rhys showed him how to do some vibrato.

February 27th, 2024

Rhys led Rhone through some open pentatonic scales.

We worked through them while playing along with a drum beat here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HuIRNWgkAg

February 20th, 2024

Today we played through some worship songs, trying to use the hammer on technique on every chord we could.

February 13th, 2024

Today we worked on some strumming approaches, using the 1, 2, 3, and 4, as down strums, and the 'and' in between as upstrums. We then skipped various strums to create rhythms.

After that I showed him some hammer ons for Eminor, G, D, Dsus, A and Asus.

I'll be at the church tomorrow night.

February 6th, 2024

Rhone is in BC with family from January 4th to February 7th.

January 30th, 2024

Rhone is in BC with family from January 4th to February 7th.

January 23rd, 2024

Rhone is in BC with family from January 4th to February 7th.

January 16th, 2024

We did a Zoom lesson today. Rhone opened up some charts on Google Drive, and we went through worship songs together.

January 9th, 2024

Rhone is in BC with family from January 4th to February 7th.

January 2nd, 2024

Rhone and I went through a number of worship songs together. I have a Dropbox folder full of charts that I can share with him, or a Google Drive folder I can share... he said he'd get back to me on which one is better.

December 19th, 2023

I missed Rhone this afternoon. Merry Christmas!

December 12th, 2023

Note: there will be lessons at the church on Wednesdays through to the new year. I'll let you know when I start them up again.

We went through various Christmas carols again, and learned some new chords, B7, E, Esus, and D minor.

See you next week!

December 5th, 2023

We played through four or five Christmas carols from Wednesday night's practise. If it turns out I didn't send that carol PDF to you, please let me know.

November 28th, 2023

I wrote out a few more chords that Rhone came across last Wednesday night, and then we went over some of those songs together again.

I sent him two attachments (he gave me his personal email), which contained some sheet music of these songs. He said he plans on coming again Wednesday night.

November 21st, 2023

Rhone was a bit late today. We reviewed One, Hard Sun, and Wonderful Tonight. He's getting better!

November 14th, 2023

Rhone isn't coming today.

November 7th, 2023

We reviewed the songs Wonderful Tonight and Hard Sun, and Rhone was still struggling a bit with switching fast enough. We didn't get the songs quite up to their full speed yet.

We then added U2, One Time:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0v0ie2sLsfk

It requires a new chord, "F major 7"

October 24th, 2023

We went through Wonderful Tonight... it's good, but there's some growth needed still. Try to strum all four beats before switching chords if you can. Something to work toward.

We then continued working on Hard Sun. Rhone was having a bit of a challenge knowing when to switch chords, so I tried to help show him how to count it, and we went through it with a simpler strumming pattern a few times to help.

Keep it up!

October 10th, 2023

Great job on Wonderful Tonight. Keep working on changing the chords faster. We'll keep looking at it for the next couple of weeks.

We added a new song, Eddie Vedder, Hard Sun:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QuLu0PAjJJk

This has a capo on the first fret. The chords are all the ones he already knows, but I wrote an A minor out for him to learn too.

On Wednesday nights at our church in Harrowsmith, a bunch of learning musicians get together to play worship songs. He's welcome to come if he'd like to.

October 3rd, 2023

Today we went through Free Fallin' at about 70% speed, and worked on some "racing" to switch chords with a stopwatch. Work on that at home, just trying to beat your own time going from one chord to another. Go from the D to G, and back again. Then work on the D to the A and back again. Then try adding the G to the A just for good measure.

We then added Wonderful Tonight by Eric Clapton, and that meant adding the C chord. I showed two versions of the C - one which allows him to play all the strings in a strum, the other one you'll have to try to not play the thickest E string.

Good job! Rhone says he's having fun, but he looked a little worried throughout the lesson. I hope I can eventually set him at his ease.

September 19th, 2023

Today we added a couple of new chords, Dsus4 (Dsus) and Dsus2. We also added A.

We went over all the chords together, and then we added the song Free Fallin by Tom Petty:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3phscjgc_A

There's a site called Looper.tube that is helpful for practising.

September 12th, 2023

This was Rhone's first week. We learned the parts of the guitar. I suggested he write out a picture with arrows labelling it, but only if he thinks that will help him remember.

We then learned 6 chords and a strumming pattern of down, down, down-up, down. The chords were:
G, A minor, B minor, C, D, and E minor.

I asked him to practise the chords, and to also write out a list of songs that he'd like to learn in the future.