Rock & Roll 101

September 30th, 2024

September 23rd, 2024

Nicole won't be here this week, as she's hiking in the Adirondacks.

September 16th, 2024

We worked on the Enchanted song some more today, and I showed Nicole how to play quarter note chords in the right hand. We also did a rocking back and forth style with the right hand, where the middle finger and pinky play together, followed by the thumb. We went through her song a few times with me playing bass to help with the beat. Nicole won't be here next week, as she's hiking in the Adirondacks.

September 9th, 2024

Nicole did piano today, and we started a new song in the key of A flat. We worked through the chords, trying to work out the inversions to make changing simpler.

Taylor Swift, Enchanted:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyupd2PXbSQ

June 24th, 2024

We went over You're So Vain, in A minor. Nicole wanted advice on strumming, so I listened and suggested she play with a metronome to get a stronger sense of staying in time.

Here's a metronome:
https://www.musicca.com/metronome

The track on YouTube at that speed was easier for her to play along with. Here it is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMn7334qLJU

June 17th, 2024

Nicole cancelled today.

June 10th, 2024

We worked on guitar today, and figured out the basics to Taylor Swift's song, The Prophecy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8ro0IQ7KWc

June 3rd, 2024

I guess Nicole isn't coming today.

May 27th, 2024

Nicole wanted to try piano today, and had been working on Taylor Swift, Champagne Problems. I showed her inversions and how to use the damper pedal correctly, and we went through it a few times.

May 13th, 2024

Nicole added Fleetwood Mac, Landslide this week, and we worked out the finger picking for it in G, with a capo on 3.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONzuVds6hPE

I showed her how she could maybe play a bit of the solo part with a simple melody and the bass line of the verse.

May 6th, 2024

We continued with Little Big Town, Little White Church and talked about some ways to make it easier to perform at an open mic. I showed her how she can play other chords at different places on the neck to make them sound like other chords.

April 29th, 2024

We worked through a new song today, Little White Church by Little Big Town
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zDljCoXX80

April 22nd, 2024

Nicole won't be in today.

April 15th, 2024

We continued with Vienna by Billy Joel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wccRif2DaGs

We also worked out the chords and melody for the intro / ending! Fun stuff!

April 8th, 2024

March 25th, 2024

Nicole and I worked through two songs to learn by ear:

Lady Gaga, Bradley Cooper
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KMXtOvJ0tQ

Noah Kahan, Stick Season
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Mqur-c83ug

March 18th, 2024

Missed you today, Nicole. Hope everything's okay, and you just forgot?

March 11th, 2024

We worked through a few different songs, trying to identify the notes and chords.

March 4th, 2024

Today in Nicole's lesson we talked about capos, and how to use the number system to figure out what keys are playing when you move the Capo. By using the e string, a string, and d string you can move the Capo around to play in either EA or d which transposes to the new key based on what fret and string is under the capo.
We also talked briefly at the end of the lesson about how to hear the key the song is in and figure out where you can play it on the guitar.

February 12th, 2024

We started off with Nicole playing and singing Give Me One Reason. Nice voice, Nicole!

We then talked about the numbered chords 1, 4, and 5 if you start with the A string, and the A shape. I showed her the pentatonic scale and then the blues scale (which adds the "blues" note).

We jammed with some drum beats and chord progressions on YouTube, and then I showed her how she could combine chords on the A string numbered system with this pentatonic/blues scale.

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

February 5th, 2024

Today in lessons we reviewed the numbered chord system for bar chords (1,2,3,4,5,6 - major minor minor, major major minor) and then talked a bit about major and minor chords being made of 1,3,5 and 1, flat 3, and 5. In finger picking, sometimes the bass note sounds nice if it goes down to the fifth (the 5 of the chord, as above).

We then looked at Tracy Chapman's Give Me One Reason, which is 12 bar blues in F# major.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItBbngybK3U

I wrote out the song as numbers so she can play the bar chord forms we talked about last week.

We also talked about palm muting.

January 29th, 2024

This was Nicole's first week. She knows a LOT about guitar already. We went over a bunch of different theory, starting with the circle of fifths, and talking through the order of chords on a scale,

Here's a circle:
https://mattcullenmusic.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/MCM_circle-of-fifths-v3.png

We talked about how chords on a major scale follow the following order:
major minor minor major major minor.

One can use the E shape and A shape minor and major chords to work through all the chords in any given key.

We also did some finger picking stuff, for example talking about patterns and bass notes -- use the pinky as a rest and the thumb as the bass note.