Rock & Roll 101

June 24th, 2013

This week Noah and I wrapped up Country Girl shake it. He said he wasn't smart enough to play the hi hat on the song, but I convinced him to try, and when he did, it was awesome!!!

If only he would practice, he could be a really good musician. I really wish that was possible.

Good job this year, just the same.

June 17th, 2013

Noah and I went over the drums on country girl shake it a few times, and then he wanted to work on it at home.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEUCuX5cFRA

After that he went to piano to learn Zelda's Lyllabye:
Madisen wanted to learn the more complex left hand for Zelda's Lullabye.

June 10th, 2013

Noah and I went over the fills for the first 15 minutes, working only on the fill starting on beat 2.

Then he wanted to do COuntry Girl Shake It, and he needs to work on the chorus, where the cymbal crashes are. Also, please listen to the way the drummer plays the verses, and play it just like him.

He did pretty good-- keep practicing!!

June 3rd, 2013

Noah and I worked on drum fills today, playing fills that start on beat 2 and beat 3. He had a bit of a challenge with the beat three fills.

He would like to play drums with a song, so I've asked him to pick a song to learn next week.

May 27th, 2013

This week please work on the snare-snare, which is on beat 4.

HAT HAT HAT HAT
CHUKCHUK CHUKCHUK
BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM

We talked about flams, and he learned how to do a flam fill on beat 4, and on beat 2. Also , flams on bar 2, on snare, tom, tom.

May 20th, 2013

May 13th, 2013

This week Noah spent the first half of the lesson on drums, and we learned a simple version of a dance beat:

HAT  HAT  HAT  HAT
     CHUK      CHUK
BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM

May 6th, 2013

Today Noah brought drum sticks along, and wanted to just do that-- so we learned the boom chuck, then the quarter note groove and the eighth note groove.

His sister can help him if he forgets how to play it.

He's got a good aptitude for this-- maybe even better than piano, but in any case he's got natural talent.

April 29th, 2013

Noah and I went over the songs - he said he hadn't practiced much, but I was actually quite impressed with how far he had come. I wrote in a few more notes for him for next lesson, but he's ready to move on to another song.

We wrapped up the lesson with some review-- magic scales in C, up and down both hands. Down with left needs some work.

Then he wanted to learn Dm, Cm, Gm and so we reviewed those chords as well.

He wants to learn some drum beats. Is that okay?

April 22nd, 2013

Noah felt sick today, so Madisen took his lesson.

April 15th, 2013

Noah has done really well on You Are My Sunshine. I would like him to keep working on making it smoother-- not stopping when the chords change, but looking ahead and seeing when they change before he gets there, and making it all even timing.

He said he really wanted to do a song from church, "Better Is One Day," so I wrote it out for him and we went through it together about 3 times, hands separately.

He should work on putting both hands together.

April 8th, 2013

Noah and I went over the "You Are My Sunshine," and broke it down into phrases by putting numbers over the parts he holds-- these parts he should count the left hand "rocking" to make certain he's changing notes in the right place.

He's very close!!

Also, a note for me, he likes numbers.... :D

April 1st, 2013

Today Noah and I went over Jimmy Two Shoes, and then added You Are My Sunshine.

He's going to play the rocker with the left hand, while he plays the melody with his right.

Good job, noah! Keep practicing!

March 25th, 2013

Noah really nailed the clapping thing today, it was terrific!

I showed him the beams on eighth notes and sixteenth notes (I didn't explain that the four note beams are still eighth notes-- we'll save that).

We added a new set of clapping exercises for him to work on.

Then we wrote out Jimmy Two Shoes and went through the right hand and left hand together.

March 18th, 2013

Today Noah came with a music book from the dollar store, and played Ode to Joy for me. It was great.

We talked about holding the white notes. And I showed him how to count them.

We then went over all the songs... it's a good idea to do that periodically so you don't forget things you've learned.

Good job!

March 11th, 2013

March 4th, 2013

Today was Noah's last lesson. We went over the song from last week, This Old Man, but thinking of a new song led us to this decision.

February 25th, 2013

Noah did wonderful on the Power Rangers song!! He really nailed it!

We recorded it, and I'll try to mix it down and upload it this week.

We added a new song, "This Old Man." Please try to help Noah think of new songs to learn, as it's always a bit of a struggle finding something he wants to learn. Maybe a list of TV shows he likes, or something like that?

Great job, Noah! Keep pushing yourself! :)

February 18th, 2013

February 11th, 2013

Noah did well with last week's song, though he played the left hand wrong, we set him straight (it was easier than he'd been practicing). He wanted to move on, but please revisit Sponge Bob in the future.

Keep practising it.

We added Go Go Power Rangers, and he is able to do both hands at the same time. He should get it up to the right speed.

February 4th, 2013

Noah did a very good job paying attention today! :)

We went over the arpeggios in Row row Row Your Boat, and except for it being a little slow, he did a great job. He's going to keep working on speeding it up.

We went through it a couple of times and then he wanted to record the original one without the arpeggios, so we quickly did that.

We added a new song after that, "Sponge Bob, Square Pants." We went through it twice, and I gave him the last 2 minutes to play Beyblades with Seth.

January 28th, 2013

Today Noah was the epitome of awesome!!

We added the B elevator, and he is going to continue to work on the G scale and elevator (without standing up).

We added arpeggio for the left hand on Row, Row, Row Your Boat...

I wrote out the notes for him to practice them.

January 21st, 2013

Today we went over the Bumble Bee Song a few times, and then added "Row, Row, Row, Your Boat."

Noah should keep practicing the Bee song because it's still pretty rough. He says he practices every day, but I think he must be avoiding songs he doesn't know well yet.

January 14th, 2013

Noah has been working on two hands for Twinkle Twinkle, and it sounds great!

I told him today that it's tghe same song for ABCD, and Bah Bah Black Sheep.

We also added Bumble Bee Song, and the G elevator.

If he can try to work on the G scale too, that would be good, but we didn't talk about this much.

January 7th, 2013

We added Happy Birthday to Noah's song list today, and he went over it a few times. Despite not practising over the Christmas holidays, he really picked it up quickly. He is doing well, and had a renewed attention span for the lessons today!!

Great job, Noah.

Please help Noah think about another song he'd like to learn, as we're ready to do something new.

December 31st, 2012

December 17th, 2012

Noah and I went through Drummer Boy about six times... he had forgotten to practice with both hands, so I was crafty in getting him to essentially practice for most of the lesson.

Afterwards we recorded a few songs for grandma to listen to in Newfoundland.

December 10th, 2012

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_DNPao4J8Q

Noah did a good job on the Country Girl Shake It, and then we added a new song, Little Drummer Boy.

He should try to put both hands together.

December 3rd, 2012

Today we learned a new song, "Country Girl Shake It," and Noah played it very enthusiastically!

We also added the F#m chord to the elevators he knows.

November 26th, 2012

Today Noah did a good job of paying attention.

We reviewed his music from last week, and his elevator was almost perfect... he should do one finger at a time instead of the whole chord.

On the "Oh Christmas Tree," he should hold the notes that have the underscores after them (e____ for example).

We then added a new elevator, in D. He should do the same thing with that elevator that he did in C, going up and then down.

We wrote out the melody to "Little Bar of Soap" (which he calls little KICK of soap, lol). He should play this with both hands (on the melody), and not just use his thumbs.

November 19th, 2012

Noah and I did Oh Christmas Tree today, as well review some of the other songs.

We also added elevators (arpegios) and I'd like him to work on elevators up and down on the C chord and the F chord.

I wrote the directions in his book.

November 12th, 2012

Noah has really done well with Jingle Bells, and I have decided to give him the Beyblade stadium!! I would like him to continue practising Jingle Bells, making the spaces between the chord changes even smoother, and singing along.

We added a new song, "Five Little Speckled Frogs," and he should sing and play at the same time, doing ALL the verses (even if his hand gets tired).

Keep working hard, it's paying off!

November 5th, 2012

October 29th, 2012

Today Noah and I went over We Will Rock You, and he did it very well. After we were finsihed, we learned Jingle Bells.

Jingle Bells is for both hands, and he can do it well. I wanted to motivate him to practice, so I told him that I would get him a present.

He wants a Pegasus Beyblade, (or any kind) and I told him that if he gets Jingle Bells PERFECT, then I will buy him one, or a stadium...

He did a pinky swear, that he will practice... and we shook hands on it too, that he will practice.

Good job Noah!

October 22nd, 2012

Today Noah and I went over Down by the Bay, and he did a good job, but he played it a little bit too fast. But I still liked it.

He should keep practicing it while he sings, and maybe mom can help him not sing it and play too fast. But it's still good.

Then I asked him what other songs we should learn next, and he didn't say anything right away, cause he was thinking about it.. and I suggested "We Will Rock You," by Queen.

His eyes lit up! He said, YES! I want to do that one.

So we listened to it, and I wrote out the melody. It's a weird song because there are no chords in it, until near the end. Just a melody with drums (boom boom chuck! boom boom chuck!).

So he should start out playing the boom boom chuck four times, with feet and clapping. Then start the melody.

I would really like it if he tried to stamp his foot boom boom, while he played... he thinks that's too hard, but I think he can do it.

We are going to learn Country Girl next, apparently, but he didn't want to start it today, so we spent some time with the violin.

October 15th, 2012

Noah played through the songs he worked on this week-- he did fairly well, though he didn't attempt to learn the song with both hands. This will be something I want him to work on this week.

We also wrote out "Down by the Bay," and I showed him how to play "Boom Chuck" with both hands on the song. He should practice not stopping between chord changes.

I would also like him to keep working on the magic scales that we've worked on so far.

October 11th, 2012

Today Noah and I went over the stuff we worked on last week. He did the C scale with both hands, and did a fantastic job.

I wrote out another song for him, and he should try to play it with both hands. This will take some effort, but he can do it.

We recorded and I uploaded the song, Mary Had a Little Lamb.

October 1st, 2012

Today we started with showing the scale to me, and he had it down very well. After the scale, we worked on the C chord, and he showed all of them to me.

Then I showed him the "Grandma" chord, G. And he played all the G chords on the piano.

Then we played C / / / | G / C / to go along with Mary Had A Little Lamb.

He's going to work on that without stopping between the chords.

We also learned the magic scale in C with the left hand, and worked on that for a while, then put it together with both hands.

Then we played Ukulele together.

September 24th, 2012

Noah did a great job today!

We reviewed what he was doing last week, he played me some made up songs, and went over Mary Had a Lamb a few times.

We then reviewed all the note names. He has that down well.

After that we talked about chords, and I asked him to play 10 different two-finger chords every day.

We learned the "C" chord, made up of C, E, and G. He is to play that every where on the keyboard each day, with both hands. First go down, then go up with the right hand, then down and up with the left hand.

He plays Mary Had a Little Lamb with both hands-- using C throughout the song.

Then we learned the "Magic Scale," in which he tucks the thumb under the notes (as written in the book) so he doesn't run out of fingers on his way up the keyboard.

September 17th, 2012

Noah and I worked on the animals-- he picked it up so fast, I couldn't believe it. He played Mary Had a Little Lamb, and did well.

We made up some songs using the animals, and his homework is to make a nice song.

September 10th, 2012