Rock & Roll 101

June 26th, 2013

Avery switched with Dominic this week, and we reviewed our songs from the year.

She was a fantastic student, and I really hope that she comes back in the fall!

June 19th, 2013

Avery didn't come in today - hope she's okay!

June 12th, 2013

Today we recorded Happy Birthday for grandma, and tried to learn the hat-hat song.

June 5th, 2013

Avrey and I added two new songs, Never Ever Getting Back Together, and Somebody That I used To Know.

For the later, we needed to learn a new chord, Dminor, and she was so excited about this, that I threw in a couple of other new chords for good measure.

She's a great student! Even when there's a week without her book!

May 29th, 2013

Avery and I continued with the song "Ho Hey." Her hand was a little slippery, so it moved around a bit on the neck, especially for the C chord. She should try to keep an eye on the position of her hands to make sure she's in the right place for the chord.

The rhythm of this song is very difficult for her, and so chord changes are happening in the wrong place often. I have asked her to simplify the strumming-- only playing on the beats, and trying to ignore what the guitar played is doing, but I don't think she understands.

She expressed a desire to record this song, but I'm not sure it's the best one to record. Perhaps mom or dad can talk to her about other songs she might want to try to learn?

May 22nd, 2013

May 15th, 2013

Today Avery and I recorded the drums on her song, and I have uploaded it to the web site. Feel free to share it with family and friends.

We have not done a lot of vocal training, so I did put a tuner on her voice to help it sound a little more pleasing to the ear... that's why at times it sounds like a robot... it's hard to find the magical middle ground where the worst notes are tuned, without it sounding artificial.

We added a new song today, but the Lumineers: Ho Hey:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8311YhEEbU

May 8th, 2013

Avery recorded the vocals for her song this week, and learned how to play the drum parts.

She should practice on her knee with the beat we learned, and we'll record it next week.

She should also think about what song she wants to start next week.

May 1st, 2013

We started out with recording Avery's song twice, and I couldn't get her to sing it... but she'd like to sing it next week.

Then we were running low on time, but added a new song for her to learn: the Purple People Eater.

April 24th, 2013

Avery really has a natural instinct for music. It's such a pleasure teaching students who just "get it."

Her rhythm with the slaps on the strings was perfect. We tried doing the song a few times in C, but the F is so hard to play that we decided to put the capo on, so that she could play it in A and thus replace the F chord with the D.

We did it a few times, and then I moved to the drums so she could play along with me.

April 17th, 2013

Avery has done really well!

She said she wanted to learn a real song now :) so we added Alabama Shakes, Hold On:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Le-3MIBxQTw[1]

I showed her the strum slap form for this, as well as how to play a bit of an arpeggio in F.

She's fantastic! :)

April 10th, 2013

Avery and I added two new songs today, "John Jacob Jingle Heimer Schmidt" and "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean."

We added two new chords, Dminor and B7.

April 3rd, 2013

Today Avery and I reviewed This Old Man, and then added two new songs -- Puff the Magic Dragon and another I can't remember right now.

She is doing very well-- she's got a natural ability, and I enjoy teaching her!

March 27th, 2013

Avery and I added "This Old Man" to her song list, and went through it a few times.

Her song from last week, "Found a Peanut," was in 3/4 time, and she had a bit of a challenge playing it at the right speed... I suggested she continue to work on that and try to keep the timing even as she plays through it.

Having someone count "1 2 3, 1 2 3, 1 2 3" throughout the song helps her.

March 20th, 2013

Today we learned "Found a Peanut," and next week we're going to do "I Saw A Bear"

March 13th, 2013

March 6th, 2013

February 27th, 2013

Today Avery and I worked through You Belong With Me, and focused on helping her keep up with the beat in the song. We talked about the pulse in a song, and listening for lots of instruments, like the low sound of a bass, the higher sound of symbols etc.

She had some trouble playing in time with the recording, and I think it might be related to not listening carefully to the song she's playing with. At slower speeds, without the recording, she's okay.

We decided to add another song, Call Me Maybe:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWAdb1vgoik

She should continue to work on last week's music as well as this.

February 20th, 2013

Today Avery completely amazed me! She really nailed You Belong With Me!! She's obviously been practicing!

So we added a new song this week, Tear Drops On My Guitar:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfRLmk7Q_q4

GREAT JOB!!!

February 14th, 2013

February 6th, 2013

We added D, G, F, and C

Avery is going to wroite some silly verses for our made up song.

Practice switching.

Pick some songs to learn (ie Taylor Swift).

January 30th, 2013

Today Avery and I went over the parts of the guitar, learned a bit about strumming, minor and major chords, notes, and we learned the E minor and A minor chords.

January 23rd, 2013

Avery did not come tonight.

January 16th, 2013