Rock & Roll 101

April 7th, 2025

Sidney was a little rusty with Jack and Jill, so we used to the lesson to practise it, and I helped her break it down into manageable chunks, learning one line at a time before moving on.

She's now quite close to having it ready, and I suggested she think of the song she wants to learn next week.

March 24th, 2025

Sidney was a little slow getting going, but eventually got the hang of the songs from the last lesson. I asked her to play them over and over until she wasn't making mistakes on them.

After that we added the sing Jack and Jill and she played it through with both hands.

March 17th, 2025

Sidney was away for a while to New York, so probably didn't have anyway to practise. She'd forgotten some of the things we'd learned last time, so we reviewed them, and we spent the lesson first working on Rain Rain Go Away, and then Happy Birthday, both with two hands.

I believe she understands the concepts, I suspect it's just a matter of putting time in at home to get more fluid with it, and commit things to memory.

March 10th, 2025

February 24th, 2025

Sidney played through Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, and did a great job. After that she wanted to learn another song and had made a list in the back. We did "Rain, Rain, Go Away" which is a nice easy song and pretty to play.

I wrote it out for her and then she worked on that for a while.

I then wrote out the left hand to Happy Birthday since her birthday is April 24th, so coming up pretty soon!

February 11th, 2025

Sidney was ready to start learning a new song today, but had no idea what she would like to learn. I asked her to make a list that we can use going forward of songs she'd like to try to learn. They can be songs from a TV show, or the radio, or anything else she'd like to learn.

We settled on Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, and went through it with hands separately and hands together. She played through the three-note chords when playing the left hand by itself, but wanted to only use one finger on the left hand when playing together.

She played it through a few times over the course of the lesson.

January 28th, 2025

Sidney is at a movie tonight, so is missing lessons.

January 14th, 2025

Sidney is still away on her trip to Europe.

December 17th, 2024

Sidney will not be coming tonight.

December 3rd, 2024

Sidney brought in a sheet music book tonight, with Christmas Carols and songs in it. She had been working through Deck the Halls, so I helped with that, and then we added Joy to the World.
She's doing really well with it. It's important to pay attention to which fingers are supposed to play which notes. Sometimes this will mean a finger gets tucked under another.

November 19th, 2024

Today we started with Sidney playing through Down By the Bay with both hands. She did very well, I could tell she was practising.
After that we added Jingle Bells, and included both the right hand and left hand. Sidney went through it so easily and quickly, that she agreed we could increase the complexity a little bit.
I showed her how to play chord triads with the left hand. This is when the pinky, middle, and thumb of the left hand each play their own note at the same time. A C chord has c,e, and g in it. An F chord has f,a, and c in it.
We went through Jingle Bells with chords, and then down by the bay. I showed her how to play the chord with the notes broken up (this is called an arpeggio) and we went through it that way too.

November 5th, 2024

Sidney played through Down By the Bay for me, and did really well... and she wanted to just focus on it and learn the left hand too.

We spend the whole lesson with her playing it, and me playing along on either the ukulele, bass, or guitar. Good job!

October 22nd, 2024

We started out with reviewing Mary Had a Little Lamb. There were a few minor problems here and there which we covered.

Sidney is feeling a bit overwhelmed by Happy Birthday, so we changed gears, and skipped it for now. Instead, we added Down By The Bay, and I only wrote out a few parts at a time to help fend off any intimidation on many notes on the page.

She did well on it, and we went through it for most of the lesson.

At the end, we reviewed the C scale again, with both hands.

October 8th, 2024

We started with review of last week's stuff, and I drilled her on finding notes on the piano. She's getting faster.

We then played over Mary Had with just the right hand, and me playing along on the ukulele. She then added the left hand, and got more confident and stronger in playing.

We added the melody line to Happy Birthday, and played it a few times.

We learned the first C scale, and I introduced her to tucking her thumb under.

September 24th, 2024

Today was Sidney's first lesson. We started by reviewing some of the things she could remember from her past teacher, and then talking about the names of the keys on the piano. We did timed drills, to help her identify and remember the pattern of the keyboard. Her average speed for most of the notes was about 7 to 8 seconds.

I asked her to practise this at home with her grandma.

After that, I wrote out Mary Had a Little Lamb for both hands. She played through the right hand first (the melody), and I tried to encourage her to play it more smoothly, without breaks between the notes. This is called /legato./ She had some difficulty doing this, so I asked her to also practise that at home.

Lastly, we looked at the left hand. We started with three-note chords, but she found it a bit too hard to start off with. Instead, we changed the left hand to be just one finger.