Rock & Roll 101

April 14th, 2025

Evelyn worked through Great Things by Phil Wickham again today. We play it together on the acoustics, then at about half way through Mark Kate came to join her and we went through it twice with piano.

I joined the last time on bass.

Hopefully soon we can get Landon here too to play the drums on it.

April 7th, 2025

Evelyn wanted to continue working on Great Things, and we did it about 4 or 5 times! She's getting really fast on the D minor, and in fact, all of the song is really going very well! I'm quite impressed. GOOD JOB!

March 31st, 2025

Evelyn wanted to learn the song Mary Kate is learning so she can join us at church. We went over it, and had to learn a couple of new chords, like D minor and Gsus.

We went through it three times. Good job!

March 24th, 2025

Evelyn played through All Too Well, Anti-Hero, and then we added Paper Rings (also by Taylor Swift).

March 17th, 2025

We started with reviewing The Man, and after playing through it a couple of times, Evelyn wanted to add a new one. She chose one that Sadie-Lou is also learning, "Anti-Hero."
This one is pretty fast, so we slowed it down to 60% in order to play it.. even then, the B minor was giving her some trouble.
We tried switching to my classical guitar because it's a little softer on the finger tips. We played through it without the music a couple of times, and then played along with the song.

March 10th, 2025

Evelyn is away this week skiing over March break.

March 3rd, 2025

Reviewed All Too Well twice, then added The Man and did it twice also, at 70% speed.

February 24th, 2025

We started with "Our Song," by Taylor Swift and after going through it twice we added a new one, "All Too Well," also by Taylor Swift.

Evelyn had kind of forgotten A minor and F, so it was a good chance to review those two chords.

February 10th, 2025

Today we reviewed Mean a couple of times, and then added "Our Song" by Taylor Swift.

February 3rd, 2025

Evelyn wanted to add the same song that Sadie is learning, so we switched gears and added Mean by Taylor Swift.

We did it through the bridge, but didn't get to the end because we ran out of time.

January 27th, 2025

We reviewed Cinderella Snapped, and then added a new Taylor Swift song, "Haunted."

January 20th, 2025

We reviewed a bunch of previous songs, including You Can Be Anything, You Need to Calm Down, and maybe something else? Then added Cinderella Snapped.

It's a tricky one, and pretty fast. It will take some practise to get that B7 in the right place.

January 13th, 2025

We started with reviewing Maroon, and then added a new one, "You Need to Calm Down"

After that we reviewed an old song, Bad Blood, and then added You Can Be Anything.

January 6th, 2025

Evelyn did well today. We went through Trouble by Taylor Swift to start, at slightly slower speed. We then added Maroon by Taylor Swift, but didn't finish getting all the way through it.

December 30th, 2024

We went through Out of the Woods, and then added Trouble by Taylor Swift and went through it two or three times.

December 23rd, 2024

We went through last week's song, Picture to Burn, and then went through Champagne Problems.

After that Evelyn wanted to add a new song, so we added Out of the Woods by (wait for it), Taylor Swift!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEzj8K1cL6w

December 16th, 2024

It was fun to see Evelyn at church on Sunday! It would be great to see your whole family some time!

We started off with a review of Champagne Problems, and then Evelyn wanted to do the same song that Sadie-Lou is learning, so we added Picture to Burn. It's a tricky one because the chords change quite quickly. We worked through it until the end of the lesson.

December 9th, 2024

December 2nd, 2024

Evelyn played Last Christmas through, and then we added Lavender, by Taylor Swift (surprise!)

There were a couple of unfamiliar chords (we've done them, but a while ago) - making it a bit tricky for her, so we went back to Last Christmas at the end of the lesson.

November 25th, 2024

Evelyn played through If I Was a Cowboy, Austin, and Champagne Problems. We then added a new one, "Last christmas," by Taylor Swift.

November 18th, 2024

We mostly reviewed past songs today. We did Champagne Problems, If I Was a Cowboy, Getaway Car, and then at the end added Austin, by Dasha.

November 4th, 2024

Today Evelyn played through Champagne Problems a few times, and then If I Was a Cowboy a few times.

October 28th, 2024

We started with If I Was a Cowboy, then went over Is It Over Now.

After that, we added a new song, Champagne Problems by Taylor Swift.

October 21st, 2024

We reviewed I Can Do It With a Broken Heart a couple of times, and then added a new song, the song that Sadie-Lou is learning: If I was a Cowboy by Miranda Lambert:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HjnLtDVLec

October 7th, 2024

In Evelyn's lesson, we reviewed "I can do it with a broken heart" and went through it two or three times. After that, we went over some of the past songs, including "Is it over now," "Love story," "Sunflower," "Didn't I," and the one she made up about a dragon.

September 30th, 2024

I feel bad that I had some conflict with Evelyn today. She was complaining to me that I was wearing orange or caring about indigenous day (or whatever it is), and I said I didn't agree with that whole thing. I should have dropped it, but it caused some sassy-ness from her which I said was rude, and not allowed here. I'm sorry for causing the conflict. I apologized to her. I asked her to not bring that sort of stuff up anymore. and she agreed.

After that we returned to Paper Rings, and then reviewed a song we learned a few weeks ago, Is It Over Now.

Then we added a new one, I can Do It With a Broken Heart by Taylor Swift.

September 23rd, 2024

September 16th, 2024

Evelyn played through Paper Rings with me, first at 75% speed, and then we increased the tempo to 100%. She's playing along with it pretty well, but doesn't know the B7 yet. This will take some focus to learn the fingering for it to play it on the right beat. It will help, however, of she plays the D for only one beat, to give her time to find the B7 chord... that's a good technique to use while learning.

September 9th, 2024

Evelyn wanted to learn a new song, called Paper Rings by Taylor Swift.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qL3NKbMScco

This has some hard chords in it, and a key change. We reviewed the E and B7 chord.

June 24th, 2024

Good job today! We went through a bunch of past songs together today. Over the summer, try to work on the chords you aren't very fast at yet, like B minor, C, F, B7, D minor, and more.

June 17th, 2024

We went through her 5 new seventh chords, and drilled them a few times, and then we played Blank Space through twice.

June 10th, 2024

Today I met Amy, who sat in on the lesson. We went through Blank Space together, first without themusic to get reacquainted with the B minor chord, then withthe recording.

We then added some new chords: A7, B7, C7. D7, E7

June 3rd, 2024

We started with reviewing Getaway Car, and then added Blank Space:

Taylor Swift, Blank Space
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95FyXUHv8hk

May 27th, 2024

We started out with Wonderland, but it's really too hard for Evelyn. She got pretty fast at the B minor, but with only one strum between chords, and at a fast speed, it wasn't really possible.

We added Taylor Swift, Getaway Car and I wrote out a simple verion for her, with only two chords.

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

Mary-Kate and her brother came in a few minutes early, and so joined her on the song a couple of times (on piano and drums).

May 13th, 2024

We reviewed I'm Only Me When I'm With You, and then we went over Is It Over Now. I tried to get Evelyn to think of a new song but she didn't have any ideas. We ran out of time before coming up with anything, but I asked her to maybe make a list this week of songs we could learn in the future.

May 6th, 2024

We went over I'm Only Mean When I'm With You, and then added a new one, Taylor Swift, Wonderland:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oq4nEzEiegA

This has a B minor chord in it, which we haven't really used yet, so we spent the last 15 minutes or so drilling it, trying to get it faster. Her best time was 3 seconds, but usually time was more like 5 to 6 seconds.

April 29th, 2024

We added a new song today, Taylor Swift, I'm Only Me When I'm With Me
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lt5VIJGWSN0

April 22nd, 2024

We reviewed Sunflower, Is It Over Now, and then worked more on Don't Blame Me.

It seemed like Evelyn practised more this week!

April 15th, 2024

Evelyn wanted to play drums at the beginning of the lesson. We reviewed the names of the drum instruments, and then the quarter note beat from last time.

We then tried to add the cymbal crash on beat 1, but she had trouble with that.

After 15 minutes I suggested she return to the guitar, and we went over Is It Over Now, Sunflower, and then added Taylor Swift, Don't Blame Me:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Os0mdp3pX7U

April 8th, 2024

March 25th, 2024

Evelyn didn't have her book today, so we learned five or six chords on the Uke, and played through a few songs like Happy Birthday and Down By the Bay.

For the second half of the lesson she learned to play a quarter note beat on the drum kit.

March 18th, 2024

We reviewed Post Malone, Sunflower, and then added Taylor Swift - Is It Over Now?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2evBtswt-A

We did it in C to start, and then put the capo on 5 to do it in G for a change (and to save my fingers).

March 11th, 2024

Evelyn will be away for the March break.

March 4th, 2024

We went over at three or four of Evelyn's past songs today. We did bad blood, shake it off, circles, and then added sunflower. Of those sunflower is probably the easiest!

February 12th, 2024

We started with reviewing Shake it Off and then added Bad Blood. It changes chords pretty quickly, so we did it slowly at 50% speed and then 75% speed.

We then reviewed You Belong With Me and Shake It Off again.

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

February 5th, 2024

Today we continued with You Belong With Me, and then added Shake It Off, also by Taylor Swift.

I had a coop student observing today, and the three of us played through the song, first starting slowly, and getting up in speed. Evenlyn is playing the chords surprisingly well!

January 29th, 2024

Evelyn was frustrated with the B minor chord we learned last week, so wanted to move on from the Riding Free song.

We added a Taylor Swift song, You Belong With Me:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xgf9XDT846M

This requires a capo to play the song in the same key as the recording, in case you'd like to pick one up.

She seemed pretty excited to be learning this song. I enjoyed watching her sing out enthusiastically!

January 22nd, 2024

Evelyn played through Squishmallows for me, and then we added a new song, Riding Free (Spirit)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1bGvhjSuSU

We added a new chord, B minor 7, which is like a D, but with a B in the bass.

January 15th, 2024

We continued working on Squishmallows today, and I wrote out a few more bars. We played along with the recording by setting the YouTube video speed to 50%. Otherwise, it's a bit too fast for her to change chords.
She needs to work on switching between C and F especially.

January 8th, 2024

We added a new song, called Squishmallows:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdQ5zNxS8o0

It appears to be some kind of stuffed animal. The chords are a little different than I wrote out, but this makes it easier to play with the chords she already knows.

I didn't quite write out the whole thing yet, but if she's still interested, we can finish it next week.

December 18th, 2023

Evelyn and I played through Rudolph and Frosty together, and then added two new songs: Last Christmas and Santa Claus is Coming to Town.

See you in 2024! Merry Christmas!

December 11th, 2023

Evelyn was a bit late today, not much. We went through the Christmas songs she's been learning (Rudolph and Jingle Bells,) and added a couple of new ones. Frosty the Snowman and O Christmas Tree, if I recall correctly

December 4th, 2023

Evelyn is in Florida this week.

November 27th, 2023

Evelyn will be in Florida this week.

November 20th, 2023

Evelyn said she didn't practise this week, but we went through Jingle Bells, and practised playing it without me stopping-- having her start to switch chords before we arrive at the place where the chord changes-- she did well.

We then added Rudolph and played through it a few times.

She won't be here for the next two weeks.

November 13th, 2023

Evelyn is doing well! We went through Circles once, and then added Jingle Bells and played through it a couple of times.

Keep up the good work!

November 6th, 2023

We worked on the C and F chords to start, and then played through Circles together twice. She's doing very well!

October 30th, 2023

Good job today, Evelyn! We did review of the guitar parts and the chords learned so far, and then went thorugh the Taylor Swift song at 50% speed.

We then tried learning two harder chords: C and F major 7. We added the song Circles (which uses these chords), but didn't have time to go through it at all.

October 23rd, 2023

October 16th, 2023

We went over the chords Evelyn has been learning, and added a new one, "A"

I also wrote out a simplified version of Taylor Swift's song, "Love Story." We went over it a few times together.

October 2nd, 2023

Evelyn is doing well. She said she hadn't really practised A minor much, so we worked on it some, and then did some more racing of chords. We were able to get the E minor to G transition fast enough to play through her dragon song a couple of times.

We also added a new chord, D major, to add to her list.

Great job!

September 25th, 2023

Evelyn did a nice picture for me, which I hung in my office.

We reviewed the names of the parts of the guitar, and then the chords. We did 'speed' or 'racing' exercises to get to each chord.

We learned a new chord, A minor.

We then wrote a dragon song together, that made use of strumming and the two first chords she's learned.

September 18th, 2023

This was Evelyn's first week. We drew a picture of a guitar, and labelled all the parts of it. I asked her to colour me a nice picture that I could hang up, with all these labels on it.

We also learned two chords, E minor and G, and a simple strum pattern, down down, down-up, down.

See you next week!