Rock & Roll 101

March 10th, 2020

Sophia wanted to do drums tonight instead of guitar (too bad! I was enjoying the song writing process with her!)

She wasn't sure which song to do, she had a thought about one, but I recommended we try this one by Imagine Dragons, since it's really CHALLENGING:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVFHuwoIJ40

It's going to take a few weeks to learn this one, so I hope she spends some time working on it! :)

March 3rd, 2020

Sophie brought her guitar again. She hadn't been able to get lyrics to her song, or add any more to it, so I held her hand just a bit more than usual, and told her this would just be the first one, to help her get an idea of how it all works.

We fleshed out the first verse, and created a second verse, counting syllables, and identifying topics and rhymes. She came up with a melody for the chorus, and some ideas of what the chorus is going to say.

She thinks she's good now to finish the song by next week, if she can find time with her school workload.

February 25th, 2020

Sophia brought her guitar in tonight, with a song she'd been working on, including some lyrics and a melody.

We talked about some strategies for taking it to the next phase, and fleshing out the metaphor a bit. We brainstormed some ideas for other parts of the song, and how to use her "nineness" to write lyrics that are true, and that represent her heart and passions.

She seemed really motivated, so I hope she keeps the momentum going!

February 18th, 2020

Sophia wasn't sure what she wanted to do, and was feeling unmotivated with lessons- I suggested she come up with goals for herself - like, for example, write one song a month and put it on YouTube, or try to get 100 followers on YouTube in the next 6 months. She said she liked that idea. I reminded her that it will take work to get where she wants to go, and without some sort of goal or plan, it's hard to measure success, or feel motivated to do anything.

Also, writing and finishing a song, even if you're not quite happy with it, puts you one step closer to a song you ARE happy with. Every journey begins with the first step...

We then worked on the piano for Summertime, and I suggested some ways to make the playing more interesting.

February 11th, 2020

Sophie wanted to do piano tonight, so we worked on reinforcing some of the things she's learned in the past, like majors and minors, and then talked about number chords, and why they're numbered, and the effect they have on the chord pallete.

We did 2nds, 6ths, major 7ths, minor (dominant) sevenths... we talked about sus4s, sus2, and sus24.

February 4th, 2020

Sophie brought her guitar in with her today and we worked on the cords with hammer-ons on the middle fret r chords like e minor, g, c, A minor f, and d.

she also had another song that she wanted to learn and that's kind of what got us into the hammer on topic. so after we did the hammer-ons, we worked more on that song just getting to the intro.

January 28th, 2020

Sophie wrote a little chord progression as her "homework," and together we analyzed it as far as the ABAC thing, and built a structure around it.

Then we worked on how one would figure out a melody for it - we tried a bit of counterpoint, and then I suggested that it's easiest if you have some words first.

She said she'll work on it this week, to be ready for next Tuesday.

January 21st, 2020

Sophie said that our work in the last couple of weeks really helped her in school, but that this is all wrapping up soon.

So we changed gears a bit - she said she didn't really understand how to write a song. I laid out some strategies for her of how phrasing works, and talked too about metaphor and symbolism. It's a bit restrictive, and I thought she might kind of push back against it, but she said she liked it...

As homework, I asked her to start working on writing a song using these ideas. We'll go over it together next week and try to critique it.

January 14th, 2020

Sophia and I worked on theory again for the lesson today.

We reviewed the things we talked about last week, to start, with the circle of fifths, understanding transposing using it, and that kind of thing.

We then talked about key signatures some more, and how to notate for them in flats and sharps.

We then worked on identifying intervals, starting with 5ths, 6ths, and 4ths, and moving on to thirds and sevenths (and octaves).

January 7th, 2020

Sophia had a number of musical questions about singing harmonies, understanding what she's doing when she's making music, singing harmony, etc., how chords are formed, how to figure out a key signature, for sharps AND flats, how to write a key signature for a given key, etc.

I showed he a few tricks that I use, which seemed to help her.

We also talked more about the circle of fifths, which she didn't quite understand the significance of. I showed her how it describes the relationships between different chords, and also describes key signatures for each key.

December 17th, 2019

We wrapped up Memories.

We added a new song,
Marshmello ft. Bastille, Happier
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LMGY4OcOzI

We had to slow it down quite a bit to play it - work on getting it up to speed until the next lesson (after New Years)

December 10th, 2019

We reviewed Memories - and worked on the harder parts - the regular groove has some strange ghosting in the snare, and the 3rd verse? of each section has a click on the low tom which we figured out.

I think by next week if you've practiced we should be able to go to the next song, so come with a suggestion, or I can pick one if you'd like.

December 3rd, 2019

Sophia said she hadn't really worked on Sunshine of Your Love, and I sensed that she didn't feel too motivated about that song, so we added another one, this time by Maroon 5 called Memories:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4c9mkCQFatE

This has lots of complicated parts in it, such as drum roles, side clicks, rim shots, etc. which will keep her on her toes!

November 26th, 2019

We reviewed Heathens, and Sophia basically has it down - including the really fast solo! We decided to move on.

We added a bit easier song this week, "Yellow" by Coldplay. - it turned out to be too easy, so then we added Sunshine Of Your Love by Cream:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2JwMpO7xyo&feature=youtu.be

This is a good video that explains how to play all the technical aspects of this video.

November 19th, 2019

Today we focused on the really fast drum fill in Heathens - slowing down to 50% to start, then getting it faster and faster until she was up to 100% speed.

The trick was then getting back into the weird drum beat after the fill, so we looked at that for most of the rest of the lesson.

November 12th, 2019

Sophia wanted to work on note reading, so we found some images online that described how drums are notated.

In summary, the bottom of the staff is low notes like kick, the top is cymbals / hi-hat. The middle is snare and toms.

Circles around Xs are open hihat, pedal hi hat is at the bottom of the staff.

We then reviewed note reading, with various complex examples with dotted eighths, etc.

We worked through some examples of drum notation, playing them on our knees.

November 5th, 2019

Jason sick today.

October 29th, 2019

Today in Sophia's lesson we worked on Heathens by 21 Pilots:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPhPgorxZ38

It has a challenging drum part on it, which she really seemed keen on learning. It alternates hands on the high hat and snare for every other measure, and has a weird kick thing in the verses which take real coordination.

She's got them down pretty good already, but should add the open high hat and the crashes to the piece to be truly finished.

October 22nd, 2019

Extravagant:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6BRS2WlhoY

O Come to the Altar:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6BRS2WlhoY

Sophie has decided that her "end game" is to be able to play drums at Echo Lake Camp - picked two songs that they play there, and we worked on the drum parts for this song.

We went over the songs, isolating the parts the drummer is playing, and then tried them ourselves.

Extravagant is especially "extravagant," so that will take some work!

October 15th, 2019

We started by talking through the challenges she felt while playing drums at Echo. There were two main issues she identified:

1. How to play in soft parts of the song
2. Feeling more confident with fills.

For the former, I demonstrated some things she can do to play in quiet sections, including just kick and hat (hat in the place of snare), playing half as much (snare every other bar), etc.

For the later, we did a variety of excercises to help with fills esp. starting the fill on beat 1, then 2, then 3, then 4. We crashed at the beginning and end of the fills, rested through the remaining parts of the fill, and other similar strategies to improve interest. Essentially, in my opinion, she was trying to do too much in the fill and I recommended she pull it back and be simpler.

October 8th, 2019

Sophia said she hasn't had a lot of time to practice and won't have for the next week because of Echo, so she wanted to try drums again.

We reviewed the various beats that she knew in search something different to teach her.

We ended up with a challenging 9/8 song by Sting which she snared and kicked through, but the hat was too challenging, so we switched and went through a couple of simpler songs.

Seven Nation Army and Back in Black

October 1st, 2019

Sophie couldn't find her book tonight, so instead we talked through something her dad had asked her to learn: which chords belong to which keys.

She already knows this in theory, at least the big picture... we went through the key of C and she was fine naming all those chords without error.

We then did G, and she was good up until F# diminished. We talked about finding the dim chord, and briefly about when notes are sharp/flat instead of natural in a scale.

We then went through D and did the same thing - this was more challenging, as now there are two sharps (F# and C#) so it takes a bit of thinking to calculate when you don't have them memorized.

After that we went through A, and this required a bit more guidance from me.

Always remember major minor minor major major minor diminshed.

We were only 15 minutes into the lesson, so we took the second half to continue with some of that logic- using the fret logic approach. (We did this last week with Eli).

This involves 1,2,3,4,5,6 - the scale on the E and A strings, and then playing either E major or minor shapes on the E string and A major or minor shapes on the A string.

After showing this all to her, I showed her again, and then asked her to teach me what she'd learned. A little harder for her, but a good excercise in showing what you know and what you didn't really hear.

We ran out of time.

September 24th, 2019

Today Sophia started playing a couple of songs she'd been learning, and I asked her if she wanted to understand what she was playing, instead of just knowing which notes to play. I explained to her that her notes were essentially an A minor, G/B and C chord.

We then went over Heaven by Bryan Adams, and she finger picked it very well. I showed her how to play the melody of the song while picking, and started by adding the higher note G scale to the song (we had only learned the G scale up halfway so far).

September 17th, 2019

Sophie has been working on finger picking - we added a song by Bryan Adams to practice the picking with.

She should bring a book next time.

We also worked on the G scale on the open strings, and the major minor minor major major minor diminished shapes through that scale.

We learned the diminished chord.

Practice the B.A. song and the scales.

September 10th, 2019

Sophie and I worked on the pent scale again, and especially the fingering so she can reach with her pinky finger.

We then reviewed finger picking, and playing the bass note with a pattern:

thumb middle first ring thumb middle first ring

The thumb moves to a different bass note every other time.

We did this for E minor and A minor.

September 3rd, 2019

We started by talking about some of the things she wanted to learn. She mentioned wanting to understand the guitar better, as far as how the notes are all related to each other, what the scales are, etc. We worked on the Pentatonic scale to start - first by learning what it is, what the home row scale shape is, how to play it in D, then in E, etc. Then we went through a bunch of other keys as well.

She played through it with me while I vamped in various keys. She should continue to smooth that out over the next week so she can play it wherever she starts at the home row.

She should also learn all the note names for the G string.

(The names of the notes are Every Angry Dog Gets Bitten Eventually).

We then talked about finger picking, and worked on a basic pattern. I explained to her why the finger pattern works the way it does (the thumb plays the bass note, the pinky is the hand rest, the other fingers do a pattern. We worked on the basic pattern for C, G, Am, and Em.

June 27th, 2017

June 20th, 2017

Sophie was away this weekend.

June 13th, 2017

Sophie did a great job on the song - the bridge wasn't perfect, but she said she'd keep working on it.

So we added a new song, Stay by Alessia Cara:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h--P8HzYZ74

June 6th, 2017

Sophia really has this song down now - we added the bridge today, and went over the whole thing at 75% speed, then full speed.

Just a bit of tempo issues between the intro and the verses - she'll work on that this week, and pick a new song for next.

May 30th, 2017

Sophie nailed the part we learned last week, so we worked on adding the intro / transition parts which are really challenging. We spent the whole lesson working on that.

Left to do is a lower part (a chorus maybe?) like the guitar, and then the bridge we haven't started at all yet.

May 23rd, 2017

Sophia came pretty well prepared with the song, so we decided to add more complexity to it, and I showed her the guitar part, but as it would be played by a piano. (it's actually a guitar song).

We went over that a number of times, and I videoed her doing it with her phone so she can refer to it.

May 16th, 2017

Sophie learned a new song this week called Let It Go by James Bay; it's a really nice, and quite a complex song.

We worked out the chords and inversions. I asked her to work on adding the left hand as well this week..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tIrB3Rg4sw

May 9th, 2017

We recorded the vocals for All We Do today, it sounds great. We had time afterwards to also record a drum track.

I asked her to send me the next song she wants to learn so I can get it ready before lessons.

May 2nd, 2017

We began recording All We Do, and put down a couple of piano tracks... we'll add vocals next week, and drums if we have time for it.

April 25th, 2017

Sophia had the first part of All We Do ready, but was having trouble with the second part. We reviewed it and talked it through again, and she spent the remainder of the lesson perfecting it.

She said she'd like to record this one, so if it's ready we can maybe do it next week.

April 18th, 2017

Sophie did really well on Rockabye, so we added a song called All We Do.

April 11th, 2017

Sophie did really well on Oceans today, despite saying she hadn't taken a lot of time to practice. We decided to move on, as she doesn't want to record it.

We added a new song, Rockabye by Clean Bandit:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=papuvlVeZg8

April 4th, 2017

Sophie had trouble remembering how to do what we worked on last week, so wasn't able to work on it. We made two videos this week, using her phone- in the hopes this will help her recall what to practice.

We went over it again, the little piano fills in the empty places, the inversions, and the C# in the left hand of the A chord.

She's getting close; just a few hours of practicing and this song should be great.

March 28th, 2017

We worked on little adlib solos in the down places in the song - Sophie should also check the C# in the left hand part.

Also, check the inversions (I wrote out some sample inversions she could use.)

March 21st, 2017

Sophia finished up the recording... I'll upload it later tonight.

We then worked some on the new song, Oceans. I asked her to learn the chords in the better inversions.

March 14th, 2017

We went through the recording together, and fixed a few places, then added drums to it... she is also going to add uke to it next week.

It sounds pretty awesome! I think she was excited by how it was coming.

March 7th, 2017

On vacation this week.

February 28th, 2017

We recorded the piano and the vocals and one harmony part on her Stay With Me song this week- it's not quite done, but we should be able to wrap up the recording next week.

I asked her to continue with Oceans on her own, and hopefully we'll work more on that next week. -- or rather, when you get back from Vacation.

February 21st, 2017

Sophie did great practicing this week, the song was nearly ready. There was one wrong chord we worked on, (E/G#) and I suggested she add a little variance to the song so it builds from the beginning to the end-- adding some extra "arpeggios" on the chords, or going from a higher octave to a lower octave are good first steps that way.

We're going to record it next week.

In the meantime, we added another song, Oceans by Hillsongs United

February 14th, 2017

Sophia said she had to work harder, so we talked about some goals to shoot for. I suggested a goal that would make her work hard because of a deadline, like playing and singing at church, or school, but she wasn't too keen. ;-)

So we're going to try to get this new song by Sam Smith completely finished, with lyrics memorized so she can sing and play along:

Sam Smith, Stay With Me:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pB-5XG-DbAA

February 7th, 2017

Sophia had some trouble with the chords for the new song Small Bump, so we went over them again, and I reexplained inversions for her.

I think she's starting to get it- we continued through the rest of the section that we hadn't worked on last week, figuring out the best chord inversion for those chords. She said she was going to go right home and work on it so she wouldn't forget this time.

January 31st, 2017

We reviewed I Don't Wanna Live Forever. It has a hard 'upbeat' thing in the chord changes, which will need another week of practice.

We then added Ed Sheeran, Small Bump:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_af256mnTE

January 24th, 2017

Sophia forgot to come this week.

January 17th, 2017

We reviewed last week's song, and we added a new song:
I Don't Wanna Live Forever, ZAYN ft Taylor Swift
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZNHKNPqsO8

January 10th, 2017

We added a new song, Never Forget You by Zara Larsson
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sI6FvJCXh58

January 3rd, 2017

Sophie had a sleep-over this afternoon.

December 27th, 2016

Sophia and Eli cancelled this week.

December 20th, 2016

Jacob wrote to cancel lesson.

December 13th, 2016

Sophie had the first half of the song done and quite smooth, and so we finished up the second half of the song, and then talked about the intro, and how it works, and finally did inversions for the song.

She's nearly done this one- if she continues to work as hard as she has been, it will sound amazing by next week!

December 6th, 2016

We reviewed the inversions quickly from Closer, and I asked her to work on it again this week.

We then went over Baby It's Cold Outside, four times with the right hand, then once with the left hand, and once together.

It's a hard song, but she's going to do well on it.

November 29th, 2016

Sophie went through her song, and had forgotten the inversion thing, so I wrote it out for her to help her remember next time

We went through the song and worked out the hard parts that she wasn't getting.

We then added a new song, but ran out of time. "Baby It's Cold Outside"

November 22nd, 2016

We continued working on Closer, and I showed her how to play the chords in a format that makes it sound better and is easier to play.
'
We also worked on the 'solo' part, and how to play that with both hands.

November 15th, 2016

Sophia started piano lessons today! We started with a bit of a review of notes on the keyboard, and we worked on a new song - The Chainsmokers - Closer ft.Halsey:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nxlz9agR6NA

We wrote out the chords on a sheet of paper, she's going to bring a book next time. We did the song at 60% and 70% of the speed of the original.

June 29th, 2015

Today was our last lesson for the summer. We went over her song a few times -- she is doing great, but just needs to work on the various changes to get it smooth.

Great year Sophie! I've really enjoyed teaching you this year.

June 22nd, 2015

We finished up all the sections of the song today, so she's really close. Another week or two of practice should make it perfect.

June 15th, 2015

We worked through the next section of the song learning the A flat chord and Bb chord, etc.

The ipad worked really well for getting the music up!

June 8th, 2015

We reviewed the drums song, and it's perfect.

She wanted to do piano today, Broken Together by Casting Crowns.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAAvPDgKf30

Beautiful song!

June 1st, 2015

Sophia really nailed Michael Jackson, and I asked her to work on the hat closing with the kick, and the fills every four measure.

I showed her how it works, and we went over it a few times.

May 25th, 2015

Sophie did really well on the "Your Lips are Moving" song-- nailed it!

She wanted to do this next, which is challenging, partly because it's keyboard drums, but it's in 6/8, and not a normal way we play-- it will be awesome if she can get this one.

Michael Jackson, The Way You Make Me Feel:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ru6XlZKZDg

Try to add in the fills once you get the groove.

Yay Sophie!

May 11th, 2015

We decided to move on, since Sophie wasn't able to locate this song on her ipod. We've added a new song by Meghan Traynor, called Your Lips are Moving:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDc_5zpBj7s&index=18&list=PL55713C70BA91BD6E

May 4th, 2015

We went over the next section in Sweet Child of Mine, working through the syncopated crashes. She's nearly got it, and after this the whole song is pretty much a repetition of what came before.

Sophie couldn't open the video for some reason, so I've sent it again.

April 27th, 2015

We reviewed Sweet Child again, working on the fill some more.

Here's the link again

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSnemfy6Nkw

April 20th, 2015

Sophie and I worked on Sweet Child of Mine -- focusing on the intro and first verse. This is a really challenging song, but perfect for her right now. Keep working, Sophie!

April 13th, 2015

Sophie and I went over Sweet Home and I want her to play it again for me next week-- it's clsoe, but missing some parts.

We then added a new song to start (Sweet Child of Mine):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSnemfy6Nkw

March 30th, 2015

Today, Sophie and I started again with two worship songs, playing along to get used to adding fills etc. in a real song, playing by instinct.

Then we reviewed the Seven Nation Army song. She NAILED it.

We then added Sweet Home Alabama, this is a video of an amateur playing along:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1e7BjC4wcyc

GREAT job this week, Sophie. I'm really impressed.

March 23rd, 2015

Sophie and I took the first 10 to 12 minutes to play through a couple of worship songs, and I had her play with me, to practice putting fills in, and varying beats for verses, choruses, and bridges.

We then reviewed last week's song, by the Police (Don't Stand too Close to Me).

Finally, we added seven nation army as one of the songs I'd like her to learn. The following is a simple drum version of the song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3qy8H6-5WY

March 16th, 2015

I was too sick to teach today, cancelled with Melanie.

March 9th, 2015

Sophie and I started by reviewing Mustang Sally-- I was a little disasppointed that she didn't really work on the parts I'd asked her to. The fills were missing, and the highhat wasn't quite right.

We decided to start thinking about and preparing for her Challenge / Leap application. We tried a couple of songs, and she's going to work on finding one.

I then chose a really hard song for her to work on, which involves lots of complicated drumming. This will be a real challenge:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNIZofPB8ZM

March 2nd, 2015

We continued working on Mustang Sally, going over it numerous times, and working out the open highhat part, and the fills in the stops.

She said she couldn't find the video to practice -- it's the first one that comes up when searching for Mustang Sally, it's by the Commitments.

February 23rd, 2015

Today Sophie and I reviewed Uptown Funk, and she is really doing well on it.

I asked her to work on it some more this week, but we added Mustang Sally:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvHuv9xVB9E

February 9th, 2015

I had trouble with my server yesterday, so couldn't make notes.

Sophie and I reviewed the stuff we were working on and then decided to add a song for her to learn the actual parts to.

I want her to focus on every detail of the drums-- exactly when they stop, how they play the fills, when the snare plays, when the highhat opens, etc.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Ya2U8XN_Zw

February 2nd, 2015

We had fun with the different grooves today-- we did a lot of rolls, and she's getting better and better at it.

We talked about drum solos, using the kick and hat as the time keeper, and then playing flams, rolls, and triplets on the various drums to make it musical and rhythmic. I asked her to work on that.


Then we reviewed the AND of THREE beats with the kick and snare, and I asked her to work on longer phrases (4 bars) before repeating the pattern.

January 26th, 2015

January 19th, 2015

We reviewed last week's stuff, the triplets were good, the roll was pretty good.

I asked her to work on a roll on beat 4 of the snare, as well as doing rolls on the hi hat while playing a regular groove.

We then talked about the upbeats and downbeats, and last week's groove that had an upbeat kick. We added an upbeat snare on the and of beat 3 to the groove, and then filled the space after that snare shot with a hi hat or tom fill.

We played the groove alternating between a regular four-four beat, and then the upbeat snare shot.

January 12th, 2015

We went back to the drums today, and reviewed some stuff, and also added some new stuff.

1. Flams
2. Rolls-- work on these, as you need to do them faster
3. Triplets - We added a quarternote triplet today, (six spread evenly in one four count measure).
4. We talked about a kick beat that leaves off the last boom of Boom snare, boom boom, snare -- then played the first snare shot loudly, the second quietly.

Good job! Don't forget to practice these things.

January 5th, 2015

Sophie and I started recording the vocals for the Christmas song.

December 29th, 2014

No lessons this week for family (Christmas)

December 22nd, 2014

No lessons this week for family (Christmas)

December 15th, 2014

Sophie and I sang through the song with just the piano, she's really softened up her sound, and it makes a big difference. Keep it light, don't weigh heavy on any of the notes-- think about the topic and the words and try to communicate it with your eyes and your brain-- think about what you're singing as you sing it, and make it real for people,- but be careful not to go over the top and exaggerate it too much.

December 8th, 2014

Sophie and I sang with the video a couple of times, then worked on the song with just the piano.

I encouraged her to sing breathy in the beginning, and we talked about not punching notes. Sentences should be sung with one breath as much as possible.

Also, she needs to learn all the words-- the second verse seems to be all that's left.

December 1st, 2014

Sophie and I worked on her solo for the Christmas pageant. She's singing this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ClYL3pKCwI

Amazing voice!

November 24th, 2014

Sophie played through Rudoph, but has decided to work on Frozen's Let It Go.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0MK7qz13bU

I wrote out the chords for her, and we reviewed it a number of times together.

November 17th, 2014

Sophie added a new song today: Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, which is a little tricky, so we went over the melody quite a few times.

November 10th, 2014

Sophie and I recorded the vocals on her song today, and I told her to focus on the pedal in this week's practice, as well as to pick a new song to learn.

November 3rd, 2014

October 27th, 2014

We then did a quarternote triplet fill, with a kick on each 1, 2, 3, 4, and triplets on each beat. We then took out the first beat of the triplet using only the kick to play it.

After 20 minutes, we moved to the piano, and worked on the new song. I showed her the missing chords (G minor and F minor).

We should try recording it next week!

October 20th, 2014

Sophie and I worked on a fill that starts on the "AND" of four.

1 and 2 and 3 and 4 AND | CRASH

This works well after the beat one flam fill we worked on last time.

We added the crash on beat two to the offbeat drum fill, and talked about when to use that.

We moved to piano, and I wrote out the next section of chords and shared it with her and Melanie.

October 13th, 2014

No lessons this week (Thanksgiving).

October 6th, 2014

Sophie and I started off with the fills, where we left last week.

We worked on the flam on 1, with then a fill leading into a crash on the next bar on 1.

I then showed her a different way to do a crash, accenting the second beat, and we worked on that for a bit. This is challenging because you want to kick with the crash, so that means three kicks in a row: kick (crashkick) kick snare

We then moved to a piano song she wanted to learn. I showed her the animal system of notes, and how to play C minor, Eb, Ab, and Bb.

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

September 29th, 2014

Sophie and I worked on the Tragically Hip song to begin, and focused on the eighth note groove with a slightly open high hat. She needs to work on that one to figure out.

We then added a new fill style, with a snare flam on beat one, and then to wait for the remainder of the bar.

September 22nd, 2014

Sophie and I continued with the fills we worked on last week, and focused on really keeping the beat in time on the triplets.

We also added a change to beats 2 and 3 of each triplet, playing the first one soft, the second one hard:

Kick SoftTom HardTom, Kick SoftTom HardTom

We then went over the song that Jacob was learning, and worked on the groove using the quarternote ride/crash with the syncopated kick beat.

September 15th, 2014

Sophie and I reviewed the different drum fills we've done, including the new one from last week (which I think I forgot to document).

This week we learned a drum fill in which one plays the snare and the tom at the same time, on beats 2 and 3 of a eighth note triplet, with the kick on one of each triplet (beats 3 and 4).

We did four bar phrases, from the ride to the hat, with one of four different fills between each phrase (the flam, the off beat fill, the kick triplet and the one from last week which I forget!)

September 8th, 2014

I forgot to make notes from this lesson, though Sophie came in.

June 23rd, 2014

June 16th, 2014

June 9th, 2014

June 2nd, 2014

May 26th, 2014

May 22nd, 2014

May 12th, 2014

Sophie and I worked more on offbeat fills, and I gave her homework of doing these fills over all the beats she's been learning.

I think I forgot to write last week-- we worked on fills and chokes. She's got the chokes down very good. Just a little bit slow on the grab.

We also added triplet fills today, and she will be focusing on triplets over the next while.

May 5th, 2014

April 28th, 2014

Sophie and I worked on some interesting beats Monday, using the ride, and alternating the bell of the ride cymbol.

Then we switched up instruments for the ride part, like the toms, the hat, the bell of the crash cymbol, etc.

April 24th, 2014

April 14th, 2014

April 7th, 2014

March 31st, 2014

March 24th, 2014

March 17th, 2014

Test

March 10th, 2014

March 3rd, 2014

February 24th, 2014

February 20th, 2014

February 10th, 2014

Today Sophie gave me her email address (fifibeckwith@gmail.com)...

We went over a lot of songs again, with me singing and playing guitar, and giving her the chance to count out 8 measures before the drum fill.

She sometimes started at the beginning of bar 8, and sometimes in the middle, meaning her drum fills could be shorter.

We also went to the ride, like we did last week, on choruses, and etc.

She said she practiced once this week. If she could do even three or four times in a week, it would be better.

Practice playing with your ipod, and do the fills (counting 8 in your head).

February 3rd, 2014

Sophie and I went over four or five worship songs, and worked on counting where we were in a song (what measure of the verse, chorus, etc.). She started to get an instinct for it-- in other words, she'd sometimes lose count, but guess '5' or whatever, and be correct!

It makes a big difference in playing fills, because you know when to start and finish them, and she focused on that today.

We then talked about altering the beat in the chorus (for example, going to ride instead of hat) and worked on that for a bit.

January 27th, 2014

January 20th, 2014

January 13th, 2014

January 6th, 2014

December 30th, 2013

December 23rd, 2013

December 16th, 2013

December 9th, 2013

December 2nd, 2013

November 25th, 2013

November 18th, 2013

Sophie and I worked on some of the areas that she struggled with on Saturday night-- playing different beats besides "on" or "off"

We also worked more on fills and crashes.

November 11th, 2013

November 4th, 2013

October 28th, 2013

Today Sophie and I extended the patterns from 2 measures to 4 and 8.

We also did some rests on quarter note beats and eighth note beats like this:

BOOM CHUCK REST BOOM CHUCK
and
BOOM CHURCH BOOM REST CHUCK

October 21st, 2013

Today we worked on 5 different styles of kick beats.

Capital letters get the emphasis:

1st: boom chuck boom BOOM chuck book chuck BOOM boom chuck

2nd: boom chuck boom BOOM boom chuck

3rd: boom chuck boom BOOM boom chuck (rest chuck rest chuck)

4th: boom chuck boom BOOM coom chuck BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM

5th, same as fourth, but with a fill over the four BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOMs.

October 17th, 2013

October 7th, 2013

We rehearsed songs for next week's worship service.

September 30th, 2013

Great job on the two beats, you really nailed it. Play the song for your mom!

Also, for this week, practice Lifesong with the mp3 or youtube or whatever.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gnf1xczuOrA

Try to listen to the kick (it does 5 6 sometimes) and pay attention to crashes, tom toms, stuff like that.

Next week we'll practice with Seth and Lydia.

September 23rd, 2013

We spent most of the lesson talking about the new beat from last week, which she had kind of forgot.

The key is to count and think of the kick on 1, 4 and 5. Snare is on 3 and 7.

Count to 8.

When you feel confident with that, put the kick on 5 and 6 instead of 4 and 5.

September 16th, 2013

Today we reviewed the various beats Sophie has learned:
1. 8th note beat
2. Quarter note beat
3. Sixteenth note beat
4. Swing (blues/jazz) beat
5. Disco beat

We added a new beat to the list today:
6. Fast Swing (rock beat)

We then added an extra feature to the eighth-note beat, the upbeat kick on 2-and of the beat.

She can remember where it goes, by counting 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

The kick would be on beat 1 and beat 4 and beat 5.

The snare is on beat three three and seven.

She's going to bring her iphone next week so we can put some beats on it for her to play along with.

June 24th, 2013

We picked our top 30 songs from the song book, and voted on them as a group (Seth, Lydia, Sophia).

We then went through three songs together.

June 17th, 2013

Today we went over a few songs that we'll do for the service when they play,

June 10th, 2013

We played through some stuff for the 15 minutes before everyone else arrived, and then went through a number of songs from the song book.

Sophie is doing really well. Once in a while she gets her kick and her snare backwards, or plays them at the same time, but she's doing well.

Keep practicing!

June 3rd, 2013

We went over the two songs Sophia has been working on, and then I spent the last 15 minutes going through some worship songs in our The Crossing book.

At first Sophia was a little nervous about the idea of doing worship songs, but once we did a few she realized that it wasn't so bad. We went through about four or five with the guitar, and then I called Seth in to play piano and we had a little "band."

I've asked her to talk to Lydia about coming over half way through her lesson, and joining us to make a little "band" for playing at the Crossing in the summer, when musicians are often harder to find.

May 27th, 2013

Sophie really did well today again.

I still want her to work on the cymbal swells, using rolls on the sticks. She kinda forgot to practice that this week.

Go over Part Of Me again, and really learn all the little subtle parts of the song, when there is no drum playing, or when it's slightly different.

Then we added a new song, By Carly Rae Jepson, Curiosity:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYY6k7cg5_w

I showed her some ways she can be creative to get sounds out of the drums that aren't normal, and to try different things to give the song more interest and variety.

Good job!

May 20th, 2013

Sophie has really nailed the song, and all that's left is to add the fills, especially work on the cymbal swell.

We've added a new one by Katy Perry, Part of Me:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Fko7_SV3Lc

It's fairly straight-forward, so she should spend her time working on the extras in the song, like the fills and cymbals, and anything else that is new.

May 13th, 2013

Today we added Light Up the Sky
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6X_E2t7r1pY

I wrote out the parts for her-- she should keep working on last week's songs (the crashes were missing) and Stompa as well.

She's doing great!

May 6th, 2013

Today we added Blown Away by Carrie Underwood, which is quite tricky to learn-- so she should need more practice than usual to nail it. Of course it's fine with me if she doesn't get it perfect. :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9O3KOKQynm8

She's coming along really well!

April 29th, 2013

Sophie didn't find time to work on Trouble from last week, but she thought she'd like to move on to another song, so we added Stompa by Serena Ryder:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vz7jCY1cpHk

It has a complex but repetitive kick drum beat over eighth on high hat, so we worked on that for a while, and she's really close.

There's a little upbeat sixteenth kick that I told her she could leave out if she couldn't figure it out, but I'd like her to try.

Keep trying to add the high hat as well.

April 22nd, 2013

She really nailed the 16th note groove-- it was awesome!

Today we added Trouble by Taylor Swift.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0DfyAIkGw0

She should practice rolls, (bouncing the sticks alternately) for the cymbal swell next week.

Also, play along with Trouble, and try to nail all the parts you can.

Don't forget the high hat is every other beat, and the kick has a triplet in it.

April 15th, 2013

Today the Beckwith's forgot to come in. :)

April 8th, 2013

Sophie and I went through YMCA today, with me on the piano. She's got a good handle on it already!

We then worked on the 16th note groove, which involves using both hands to play the hi hat on sixteenth beats.

When Sophie practices, I've asked her to play quarter note beats then switch to eighth note beats with out speeding up, then 16th note beats without speeding up, then to go backwards through them the same way.

Pay attention to the speed-- even though your hi hat is faster, don't play the beat faster.

April 1st, 2013

March 25th, 2013

Sophie and I reviewed Michael Jackson's Billie Jean (she had me dancin'! Awesome!) and then we talked about a different kind of beat: the disco.

A good song for this is YMCA, and I showed her the basics of how to play disco.

First, both feet play on every quarter note:

1 2 3 4

This makes the hat go down on each beat and the kick goes on each beat.

Then on 2 and 4 you play the snare (still playing the kick with the snare on beats 2 and 4).

Then you use the right hand to play eighths on the opening and closing hi hat so you get the Ch Shh Ch Shh Ch Shh sound.

March 18th, 2013

Nobody showed today.

March 11th, 2013

March 4th, 2013

Today Lydia came in to work on vocals, We had a constructive time with some basic vocal scales, proper pronunciation, posture, etc.

One thing that was a little surprising to me, which I know you've mentioned before so you won't be surprised, is the amount of arguing with me she did near the end of the lesson.

When I told her that she should consider finding a song that was a little less "popular" than the ones she was considering, she argued with me about it. When I told her she should consider applying for challenge AND leap, she argued with me about it.

I think this upset her when said she was just arguing with everything I said. I didn't mean to upset her, and I do expect a certain amount of "listening," or "agreeing" with the things I say, or the lessons won't be as beneficial for her.

I wanted to be sure I let you know, in case I didn't handle it correctly.

Thanks guys!

February 25th, 2013

Today Sophie and I added a "flam" to the types of drum hits we know.

This is when you hit the head of the drum with two sticks one after the other.

Billie Jean is the song to play along with, and listen to when this drummer plays his flam-- try to do it the same as he does (even though it's more often than every 16 beats.

Practice playing the flam on different drums as well.

Work on the three different kind of beats we're learning, the quarter note beat (like Billie Jean), the eighth note beat, (where you play the hat two times for each beat) and the one you are going to try to figure out yourself, the 16th beat, where you use both hands on the high hat.

Good job!

February 18th, 2013

February 4th, 2013

January 28th, 2013

Today Sophie and I added eighth beats to her abilities.

A whole is made up of 4 quarters.
And 8 eighths
And 16 16ths.

There are 2 eighths in each quarter.

Practice the crash on beat one, every other bar.

Do a drum fill into the crash (beats three and four).

Don't lose your place... keep playing in time after the fill.

January 21st, 2013

Today Sophie came in, and we learned the names of the drums, and the quarter note groove.

She also played a crash on every beat one, to keep things interesting.

She should try to practice the quarternote beat every day for at least five minutes.

October 11th, 2012