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Chelsea Thomas
Past Notes
June 23rd, 2015
We reviewed Runaway, and added Dirty Paws:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrWd0m7pmq8
June 16th, 2015
Chelsea and I reviewed Hanging Tree, then added Galantis - Runaway:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szj59j0hz_4
June 9th, 2015
Great job on Hanging Tree, you nailed the melody!
We then looked at the chords, the first verse is A minor for the whole melody, the second verse has some D minors in it, so we worked out how that would be played.
June 2nd, 2015
Tonight Chelsea and I reviewed Blackbird, then added "I Believe in A THing Called Love,"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4t8Jxn3kIMc
and then added "Hanging Tree" from the Hunger Games.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKAM_Hk4eZ0
Good job!
May 26th, 2015
Chelsea and I had lessons on the back deck.
We finished up Blackbird-- she is close, just needs practice. I'd love to hear where you could go if you put some time into it!
Pick a new song for next week.
May 19th, 2015
Went through the rest of Blackbird. Just needs to practice now.
May 12th, 2015
Chelsea and I continued working through Blackbird by the Beatles. She's got through the verse pretty well, just needs to tighten it up.
May 5th, 2015
We worked through the Imagine Dragons song and did drills on the G7 chord. She could stand to practive the D minor chord too.
We also started Blackbird, by the Beatles.
April 28th, 2015
Chelsea and I went over Yesterday a couple of times, and then added a new Imagine Dragons song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ht80uzIhNs
April 21st, 2015
We went over Yesterday, and I showed her some tricks to get to the G sharp chord faster, and C# minor chord... and the B7 too.
April 14th, 2015
Chelsea and I reviewed Home, then added a new song, which was easy,
George Ezra, Blame it On Me:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Mt5d5hSyv8
so we added another, Yesterday -- by the Beatles:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNnaxGFO18o
April 7th, 2015
Chelsea and I went over the Cave a few times, and decided to add a new song.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzPPAw5tnqs
Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros - Home
March 31st, 2015
Chelsea is still vacationing.
March 24th, 2015
Chelsea was vacationing today.
March 17th, 2015
Chelsea came in afterall this week, and we went over the Cave a few more times, really focusing on the initial intro melody especially.
Her dad wants her to work on it more before moving on, but she will try to think of a song to learn for when it's completed.
March 10th, 2015
We continued to work on the Cave tonight.
She will be gone next week.
We videoed the part to help her remember what to practice.
March 3rd, 2015
Chelsea and I focused on the opening melody of "The Cave," and just went over it a hundred times until she got it.
She's very close-- just needs to apply herself a bit more to practice.
I tried to pep talk her into keeping a good attitude, telling herself positive things, not negative things as she struggles. The better her attitude, the more quickly she'll learn.
This is not to say that she's got an overly negative attitude, but I sensed at times a frustration which unchecked will not lead her to success.
:D
February 24th, 2015
Chelsea and I worked on Unclear, then added Mumphord and Sons, "The Cave:"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMO4xdOS5jY
February 17th, 2015
Chelsea and I reviewed You and Me, which she was doing better on, but still seemed a little lacking of practice to me. She wanted to add a new song Unclear by Codeline:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6d0p3z3d0rU
This is a challenging song, so it will be a good opportunity for her to stretch herself!
Don't forget to practice!
February 10th, 2015
Chelsea and I went over You and Me, from last week. She hadn't practiced as much, so we took a bit more time to work on it, and I suggested she go one more week on perfecting. She's learned much harder songs in the past, so she can do it if she applies herself.
February 3rd, 2015
We reviewed last week's song, then added a new song You and Me by You and Me:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNnBcCk7eDA
The capo is on 4 I think-- it uses some nice pull-off and hammer-on techniques.
January 27th, 2015
Chelsea and I worked on a new song this week:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXL8BEPl-Nw
Practice while skiing! ;)
January 20th, 2015
Chelsea wanted to learn Blank Space:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkLgcX4r1ZA
We went over this song together a number of times.
January 13th, 2015
We reviewed Bon Iver song, and then added a Coldplay song, "Fix You"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pY9b6jgbNyc
January 6th, 2015
Holocene by Bon Iver - lots of counting required:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWcyIpul8OE
December 30th, 2014
December 23rd, 2014
December 16th, 2014
Chelsea and I worked on the piano part from last week in the Open Season song, and then added a new song called Phone Call.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMu624Yomn8
This song keeps the pinky finger anchored on the b string, on the third fret for every chord, and basically only the bass not changes. I wrote out the chord changes so we could follow it, as the chord changes are little non-intuitive.
December 9th, 2014
Chelsea and I added a new song by High Highs called Open Season:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCySSeANvIc
Pretty straight forward song, so we worked on the little piano part on guitar.
December 2nd, 2014
Chelsea and I worked on drumming out the finger patterns of the song we've been learning. She was feeling discouraged with being able to play it as fast as the recording, so we added a new song, The Dreamer by "The Tallest Man on Earth"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7VJIlfKy3c
This is much simpler, so a nice respite from the hard work of the last few weeks.
November 25th, 2014
Chelsea had a hard homework week, so didn't practice Bloom much, so we continued working on the part through the lesson.
November 18th, 2014
Chelsea and I went over the chord picking for Bloom again throughout the lesson. It's a hard part, but she's getting close-- if she practices it a lot, she'll get it. :)
Hang in there Chelsea!
November 11th, 2014
Chelsea and I went over the fingering position for F the whole lesson pretty much. She was struggling with getting the fingers just right, so we broke it down and worked on it part by part.
November 4th, 2014
Chelsea brought a new song in, called "Bloom" by the Paper Kites:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8inJtTG_DuU
It's a pretty song, fairly repetitive, but challengings. We went over the finger-picking guitar parts together for the whole lesson.
October 28th, 2014
We worked on "Hurt" by Johnny Cash, which is a beautiful song, but fairly easy. Think of another song for next week.
October 21st, 2014
We went over Bookends a few times:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sovVYInjHjw
She's going to work on it some more, and also pick another song for next week.
October 14th, 2014
We worked on Simon and Garfunkle's "Time it Was." I think it's called, "For Emily, Wherever I may Find Her."
October 7th, 2014
Chelsea and I did Kodaline's High Hopes, and then added another Kodaline song: One Day.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LE7KVkm_YFU
Much easier, mostly strumming. She can have this learned in one week.
Remind her to pick a finger-picking song for next week. :D
September 30th, 2014
We reviewed the 12/8 song, which wasn't quite ready to move on from, because Chelsea has been busy... but she's going to continue to work on it.
We moved on to VCR by the XX:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gI2eO_mNM88
It was two chords: C and C major 7, ending with an A minor. Too easy.
So we added Kodaline's "High Hopes"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4povfmX144
Beautiful and sad song.
September 23rd, 2014
We went over the song from last week together, then added a new song, by Kodaline called All I Want:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqJoVlnmdFQ
This was a neat song, especially because it's in a weird time signature. Not only is it in something like 12/8, but the measures are varying lengths. A good song to push oneself with.
Chelsea should really work on the triplet style strumming pattern.
September 16th, 2014
Chelsea and I worked out the end of the song from last week. It wasn't as difficult as we first anticipated, though a little 'random.'
We went over it a dozen times until committed to memory!
September 9th, 2014
Chelsea and I worked on a new song, by Sam Smith called Good Thing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Ya5jv9EMYg
This is a complex song, so we were only able to work out the first part of it. A notebook will be important for next week so we can write out the next part, which changes chords quite frequently and unexpectedly.
June 24th, 2014
Today was our last lesson.
Chelsea and I went over her newest song a few times, and worked out the timing for the higher note. I also wrote out the chords for the louder part.
June 17th, 2014
We worked on a new song today, Daughter by Youth:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvJbAeP1EKY
June 10th, 2014
Chelsea and I went over Light and then added another song by Sleeping at Last, "Every Little Thing She Does is Magic"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ifR2A9Afbk
June 3rd, 2014
We finished up Chasing Cars today-- Chelsea almost has the parts learned, so she should work on it a bit in her own spare time.
The new song we added this week is by Sleeping At Last, Light:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNoMeKCn0x4
May 27th, 2014
Chelsea added Snow Patrol's Chasing Cars tonight:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaKr98ktoxU
I wrote out the tab of the first measure so she remembered which note starts the process.
Good job!
May 20th, 2014
Chelsea was sick today.
May 13th, 2014
Actually was James Blunt's Post Cards, not Upside Down:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiDc90yLltw
We also finished up with Good Riddance.
She mentioned a new song for next week, but we ran out of time.
May 6th, 2014
Without Internet, we couldn't work on the new song she wanted to do, so we reviewed Cough Syrup once more. We then learned "Good Riddance" by Greenday.
We'll continue with Upside Down next week.
April 29th, 2014
Chelsea and I finished the song Cough Syrup. We went over the intro to start, then the chord parts are quite simple -- but the intro parts come back throughout the song, in the middle and at the end.
I'd like her to work on it one more week, just to get it up to speed, and to practice the strumming.
We've also added a new song, Upside Down by Jack Johnson:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYbNkE80NMo
Or was it James Blunt, Postcards?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lsgh-yO_aY
April 22nd, 2014
Chelsea and I added two more bars to the finger picking section at the beginning of the Cough Syrup song. She said she's been quite busy and only practiced once this week.
April 15th, 2014
I'd forgotten to mention that we added a new song last week, "Cough Syrop"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lq6DHxHiZV8
We learned the finger picking for the intro.
April 8th, 2014
Chelsea and I added finger picking to "The Parting Glass." I showed her how to read TAB, and wrote out the form of the finger picking for the above song in TAB so she wouldn't forget it.
April 1st, 2014
Today we continued with the song we added last week, Ed Sheeran's "Give Me Love."
We then added the hidden track at the end of the song, called "The Parting Glass."
March 25th, 2014
Chelsea was in Mexico last week! Nice! :)
We reviewed the American Author's song, and I showed her the fancy little beginning part.
We then reviewed the Little Black Submarine song, and she's got that down pretty good. I think she was getting lost at times, so could practice it a bit more.
We added Ed Sheeran, "GIve Me Love:"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmaN1w7zoXc#aid=P-bIFWllUd4
We ran out of time before completely finishing it however. We'll return to it next week.
March 18th, 2014
Looks like Chelsea may have forgotten this week. Hope she's well.
March 11th, 2014
Joanne was sick on the March 11th week, so I had to cancel lessons that day. This lesson will be made up at some point in the future.
March 4th, 2014
Chelsea and I went over American Author's "Trouble" in review. She's got it pretty good, but it does need more work.
Then we tried adding a new song by American Authors:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y66j_BUCBMY[1]
But it had only two chords, so we instead added a song I knew, by the Black Keys, called Little Black Submarine.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wklgehHnDE[2]
February 25th, 2014
We reviewed the song from the last few weeks, and decided it was good and ready to move on.
We added American Author's, "Trouble":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDNsB1yJXtE
February 18th, 2014
Chelsea and I went over the intro many many times until she really had it very close -- albeit not up to speed. She's going to work on playing it faster.
We then went over some little extras you can add to chords to make them sound nice when picked-- hammer ons and so on.
February 11th, 2014
Chelsea and I continued to work on the song today, this time getting through the verses and chorus.
She needs to spend some more time on working out the intro on her own.
February 4th, 2014
Chelsea and I continued to work through "Let Her Go." I look forward to her lessons.
Once we get the intro worked out, it should be easier to do the verses etc.
January 28th, 2014
We worked more on the intricate picking of the intro today. This is a very hard part, and I'm impressed that Chelsea is so committed to learn it.
January 21st, 2014
It was fun to have Chelsea back this week.
We added a new song called "Let Her Go" by Passenger:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ahe2hDqu9g
June 24th, 2013
Chelsea, you did a fantastic job this year. I'm really proud of you as a student. Thanks for pushing yourself past the point of comfort many times, and taking a risk to learn new things. You should be proud of yourself.
I'll see you in September!
June 17th, 2013
We added finger picking to Serena Ryder's song, we focused mostly on the verse, but there isn't really finger picking in the chorus.
June 10th, 2013
Chelsea came first again this week, while her sister was at soccer. We went over Here Comes the Sun a couple of times, then added "What I Wouldn't Do" by Serena Ryder:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwlqkZ01tbQ
June 3rd, 2013
Chelsea and I continued working on Here Comes the Sun. She's much closer! Just needs to work on pulling it all together.
May 27th, 2013
May 20th, 2013
We worked on the next section of Here Comes the Son, (the litle walkdown) and recorded a video of it for her to work with.
May 13th, 2013
May 6th, 2013
We worked on here comes the sun intro for the whole lesson, and she videoed it so she can review it on her own.
She really nearly has the intro done, but it will take practice switching between the harder parts.
April 29th, 2013
Chelsea and I went over Dust in the Wind. She has nearly got it up to speed, especially the intro parts. We decided to move on to another song "Here Comes the Sun" but I want her to keep working on Dust; we'll revisit it in the future.
Here Comes the Sun:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bj1AesMfIf8
We have finished learning the intro to Here Comes the Sun, all that is left is for her to work on smoothing it up.
April 22nd, 2013
Chelsea has learned all of the parts to Dust in the Wind, and sounds great. All that is left for her to do is to speed up the song so she can play along with the recording. She's nearly there!
We'll work on this for two more weeks if need be to get the speed to where it needs to be, and then she'd like to do Here Comes the Sun by the Beatles.
April 15th, 2013
Chelsea and I worked through Dust in the Wind. Her biggest need at this point is being able to switch to the chord quickly enough. We spent some time with techniques to play C faster-- putting down just her ring finger and first finger in the chord (to prevent her from building it one finger at a time).
She's getting there!
April 8th, 2013
Chelsea is doing really well on the finger picking, and I would like to see her continue doing this style of guitar, as it suits her.
We worked through the verses, and put together the intro parts.
Work in that climbing a b C going to the c chord.
D minor needs practice.
Pinky order in the intro... all of it.
April 1st, 2013
We did Dust in the Wind today, the finger picking parts of the intro, and the beginning of the verse:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tH2w6Oxx0kQ
She seems to pick this up more naturally than the strumming, I think it's her gift! She should definitely work on this, because she's a natural.
When you go home, record yourself doing it.
March 25th, 2013
We added Red Hands by Walk Off The Earth:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bt-FHaFVH8
Count 1 (2 3) 4 (5 6 7 8) to help you with the beats.
March 18th, 2013
So we added Imagine Dragons, On Top of the World
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8PrTzLaLHc
We added the Dm chord, watch the repeats.
Good job!
March 11th, 2013
March 4th, 2013
Chelsea had a hard week, and wasn't able to spend as much time practicing as she'd like to.
We went over the strumming pattern of this song for a while, and then decided to try another song:
Imagine Dragons, Radioactive
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eu-xFvLaE68
February 25th, 2013
Tonight we reviewed the Ed Sheeran song, then started working in more detail on the rhythm of the song. At first, Chelsea felt a little emotional and frustrated that this was something she wouldn't be able to get, but as we broke it down into digestible/manageable pieces, she actually got quite good at it.
Keep practicing, and that will make all the difference. Count aloud while you play the 2 and 4 beats, and as you get confident, add the extra up beat on the 4.
February 18th, 2013
February 11th, 2013
This week we went over the song quite slowly, working up the speed bit by bit until she could play along with Ed Sheeran.
Watch that you play the A in the right place on the fret, and the E middle finger is on it's own string... If you get the D chord a bit wrong, that will make the A chord wrong, and then the E chord as well-- so it's important you work on getting the fingering right on that first D chord.
Good job! We'll do the bridge next week, so practice! :D
February 4th, 2013
We worked on Pumped Up Kids, and I encouraged her to continue to work on it. It's coming along well, but just needs the practice at home to take it to the next level.
The next song is The A Team, by Ed Sheeran:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0dnp5E8FMo
She should try to listen to where the D changes and change at the same place (it's not on beat one).
January 28th, 2013
This week we went over the little extras in the bass line of Pumped Up Kicks, and we did one bar at a time. By the end of the lesson, Chelsea really had it down well, in fact, good enough to almost keep up with the recording.
So just focus on this for one week, and you'll have it perfect.
Good job, Chelsea!!
January 21st, 2013
We added Pumped Up Kicks after going over Wanted.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3ldsF65cLM
Keep working on Wanted, because you're close but it needs work still.
January 14th, 2013
Do the speed up drill and switch between a hard chord and an easy chord.
Get faster and faster as you go through the chords until it becomes second nature.
January 7th, 2013
December 31st, 2012
December 17th, 2012
Good job Chelsea, even without practicing!
We added some Christmas songs today, and I encouraged her to try to come up with the melody of Silent Night, maybe with the chords.
December 10th, 2012
We added two Christmas songs tonight, Jingle Bells and Frosty the Snowman.
We added the 'four' in the scale, and she should practice the Frere Jacques melody with 4 in it.
Also the One Direction song, work on playing the F and C faster so that you don't lose the beat.
December 3rd, 2012
Today Chelsea is sick.
November 26th, 2012
After going over her two songs from last week, we worked on rhythm.
Once she closed her eyes, she was able to play the dotted quarter note rhythm much better.
Try to play between the F and C, G and Am with your eyes closed.
Then we did melodies on the guitar, and I showed her the fingering for 1 2 3 5 6 and we played a pentatonic version of Frere Jacques.
November 19th, 2012
Today we learned a new song, They Know All About Us but Two Directions.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIFo7jKH8tc
It's got a syncopated beat in it on the "and of 2". Chelsea should spend 5 minutes a day with a metronome and even if she's just clapping, it's valuable excercise.
Practice the new chord, F... switching between C and F.
November 12th, 2012
November 5th, 2012
We worked on the C a lot today, and Chelsea said she's going to focus more attention on that C chord this week, so that it doesn't hold her back in the song.
The other issue was starting the Am with her pinky instead of her first finger-- if you use your first finger, it's easier to play the chord, and then your pinky is free to adapt the chord, and it's easier to switch to C.
When we have Little Things ready, we'll learn the finger picking part.
October 29th, 2012
This week we started with the Glee song, and she has it really good. So go over that more over the next week or two.
We then learned a new song, Little Things by One Direction
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wBzR7zhA0g
She is going to learn it in G first, then in D folk style finger-picking with capo on 5.
October 22nd, 2012
We went over Need You Now, and the C#m and Bm are great but could be even better.
She learned B and B7 and they were great.
The new song is by Glee, called It's Time, we wrote it out and went over it.
It required new chords: Esus and F#m?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJVCDZ80S10
We went over the song together, and talked about how to play the bridge with percussion so that it's like the CD.
October 15th, 2012
We really focused on Need You Now, and she has it almost up to speed.
We added G#m to the chords to learn, and she's doing it from the top of the frets, not wrapping her thumb.
We still need to learn B to finish this song. I told her to learn B on her own, and if she can't do the bar chord for B, learn B7, which has an open string tuning.
October 11th, 2012
We went straight to the One Thing song, and practiced without the recording because it's fast.
We came up with an alternate way to play Bm, (Bm7) which is the D, with a B in the base.
We practiced switching between them, to pick up the speed.
We wrote out the song Need You Now, and talked about C#m, and how to play that.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LMgO4JyBp4
We mentioned buying a capo, and most guitar stores have them between $5 and $25 dollars.
We did bar chords for Bminor as well, but she chose to do the Bm7.
October 1st, 2012
Today we went over the chords she already knew, and we talked about not looking at your hands when you change chords. She's going to practice that this week.
We added the chord F to her repertoire. We went over the song she's learning at a slower place, and she's going to continue to work on that, and get it up to speed.
We talked briefly about finger-picking, with her pinky resting on the guitar, and her other fingers making the pattern, suchs as "Thumb, 4 3 2 Thumb 4 3 2, etc."
September 24th, 2012
I wrote out the chords for her song on a piece of paper with the lyrics, and we played it through. She was introduced to the Bm chord.
We went through changing between G and A with the metronome because she gets the G backwards sometimes, and the A starting on the wrong string.
She learned D on her own, which is amazing. We talked about not playing all the strings for some chords. Bm and D are two examples.
I asked her to rework the strum pattern she made up.
September 17th, 2012
We learned A, Em, E, Am, and G. She wants to do the song One Thing by One Direction:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1xs_xPb46M
I have asked her to come up with her own strum pattern.
September 10th, 2012
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