Rock & Roll 101

February 27th, 2013

Today we added Simple Man to the song list. Liam told me this would be his last week.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xqp1U6RoQaw

I forgot to mention last week that we added Saturday Night Special:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AtGZBWRmLA

Liam said that he'll continue to practice even though he's not coming in. I hope he does, because he's got potential, just didn't seem to practice enough or something.

Thanks for giving me the opportunity to teach him, Kim and Jay!!

February 20th, 2013

February 14th, 2013

February 6th, 2013

Today we learned the 12 bar blues, though Liam was a little less than enthusiastic.

So we learned three new chords: F#m, F, and Dminor.

Liam should keep reviewing his old chords as well, because he is sort of forgetting some of them. :)

January 30th, 2013

Liam seemed a little sick today-- he kept saying he didn't feel well.

We added some new chords: A7, E7, and B7.

He should keep working on these chords, and write the lyrics to the football song we started last week.

January 23rd, 2013

It was a bit hard to keep Liam interested today, but we did start to write another song that used some chords that he has kind of forgotten about.

He should also work on the rest of the words for the song... we got it started, but it needs a couple of more lines.

January 16th, 2013

January 9th, 2013

January 2nd, 2013

December 19th, 2012

December 12th, 2012

Today Liam and I wrote a new Zombie song, and he is going to make a new verse.

It's a good way for Liam to get motivated, actually, he lit up when we started doing this, and wanted to play all the chords I wrote out for it...

so we'll be writing a lot more songs!! :D

December 5th, 2012

Liam and I went over the Coe song again today, and he needs to keep practicing the Eb and F chords with the C shape.

Also we added Bb, a simplified version which is just the A moved up one fret.

November 28th, 2012

Today Liam was a little distracted, but I think we did pretty well considering. We worked more on the David Alan Coe song, and I drew out a picture of how to play the C chord in the three frets to make a C, an E flat, and an F chord.

He should practice that C and switching up the next each day this week if at all possible.

Thanks Liam!

November 21st, 2012

Liam forgot his book today, so we didn't have a lot to work, but we went over the chords that he's been learning, and we added the C chord.

He mentioned like David Allan Coe, the Ride, so we looked at that song. It's in C, cooindicentally!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6uR1rZjKkM

You can play much of this song with that C chord, by sliding your hand up to the sixth fret for the second chord, and the eighth fret for the third chord.

Please help Liam remember to bring his book next week, and I'll write out that chord for him.

November 14th, 2012

Liam and I went over all the chords he's learned, and I wrote them out for him so he can keep learning them.

We then wrote out happy birthday and played it through a number of times.

Liam should practice it and please use the real chords, not the ones he "made up." (Liam says "This is my G I made up!")


Good job Liam! Keep up the excellent effort!

November 7th, 2012

It was a bit of a trick to motivate Liam to stay focused throughout the lesson today. He's looking around at other instruments, I think hoping to find one that isn't as hard. Part of the problem with music is it can be a steep learning curve in the beginning.

I hope he stays committed to guitar-- he's doing well, and has Em and A major and D strong. A minor,G and C are on their way and he's getting closer all the time to being in a place where we can do more songs.

I hope he stays interested! :)

October 24th, 2012

Today we reviewed the chords Liam has learned. He needs to practice them much more, as he should know them by now... every day play each chord 10 times.

We are learning the song I'm Shipping Up to Boston by the Drop Kick Murphies.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-64CaD8GXw

It has Em and D in it, so if he can focus on those chords, we can play that song.

October 17th, 2012

So our chords now are

Am, Em, E, G, A, D, and Gm.

And we started smoke on the water.

October 10th, 2012

Liam tried guitar today-- I have him my classical guitar to use during the lesson, however he should try to bring one to lesson so I can show him how to tune it and use his own.

We learned three chords, E minor, A minor, and G. I explained that G minor and A, and E, are three DIFFERENT chords we'll learn later.

We took turns calling out chords to switch to. He can switch between the chords fairly well. He should keep practicing racing himself to play the chords.

If he can't remember the chords he's learned, he can check the chord diagram on the resources page on this site.

October 3rd, 2012

Today Liam and I played along with some Black Sabbath songs, as I was trying to help Liam enjoy playing drums. He is feeling kind of like it's not his thing... he would like to try guitar.

After that, we talked more about it, and then tried keeping the beat some with hands and feet.

He still feels like he's not very good at it, and would like to try guitar.

September 26th, 2012

Liam and I worked on the boom chuck again today, and I think he's getting the knack for staying on the beat.

We started with me counting to four over and over, and having him play kick on beat 1 and 3. It took a while, but he finally got it.

Then we had him play snare on beat 2 and 4, but that was harder for him.

Then we added high hat, and he started to really get it. We played some songs, and it sounded good.

He should keep playing that boom-chuck beat with the hi-hat and getting more even with his beats.

September 19th, 2012

Today was Liam's first day on the kit, and we played along with a metronome:

http://www.metronomeonline.com/

I was surprised that he really has a lot of difficulty with keeping the beats even. He will need to practice playing in time for a long time until he can get this-- for some people it just doesn't come as naturally as others.

We played the boom chuck beat, which is kick/snare/kick/snare, along with the high-hat. I then had him just jam on the kit for a bit to have fun.

For homework, if someone can listen to some music with him, and help him to clap on the beat, this may really help him get to a point where he's hearing the beat.

I'm thinking it MIGHT be that he has trouble with his feet on the kick drum-- so maybe stamping on beat will help too.

September 12th, 2012

We started with the names of the drums on a drum set. We listened to Iron Man, and then played percussion instruments on beat with the song.
Liam's homework is to listen to Iron Man at home, and learn what the Kick Drum is doing.
He doesn't have a kit at home yet. I asked him to buy sticks.