Rock & Roll 101

January 14th, 2014

Adam didn't make it to lessons this week.

January 7th, 2014

Adam didn't make it to lessons this week.

December 31st, 2013

December 17th, 2013

I forgot to take notes for Adam last week.

We continued working on Paint It Black this week:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1zBG2TEjn4

We learned all the chords and the melody part in the intro.

December 10th, 2013

December 3rd, 2013

Adam and I warmed up again with some soloing, then did a bit more on the solo part of the Thrill is Gone before moving to the chords.

We learned Bm, E7, G and F# for this song, and went over it together.

He has so much potential-- I wish he was able to spend more time practicing.

November 26th, 2013

We worked more on The Thrill is Gone, and Adam said he was determined to practice more this week.

November 19th, 2013

Adam didn't come for the make up on November 20th (I moved the lesson from the 19th because of Stewart MacLean.)

November 12th, 2013

Adam decided he wanted to work on BB King's The Thrill is Gone, and learn the solo parts.

We spent some time working through the solo in the opening of the song, and then the chords throughout. I put them on a piece of paper, for him to copy into his book.

November 5th, 2013

Adam and I reviewed on A and E form chords, did some hammer on and pull-off notes, and he copied melodies after me as well.

He wants to learn a song now, so we pulled out Red Hot chilli Pepper's "Otherside."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_m7_xZN8D7M

It requires knowing some open chords, so we worked on G, Em, Am, and C. I recommend you download the chords from my site and print them out so you have something to look off of.

October 29th, 2013

Adam and I worked on specific licks for him to try to memorize and work on.

We also spent some time on the A form and E form chords.

We did a bit of bluesy stuff, and a bit of funky stuff too.

Keep practicing, and you have real potential. It's in your court whether you are awesome, or just good.

October 22nd, 2013

Adam and I went over a few songs and I helped him try to find the "home row" of the song, the place in which the scale (do, re, me, etc) begins.

We did this for a few blues songs, and then he expressed a desire to learn some funk as well.

In the process, he asked if the same scale/home row and chords apply to funk, and I said it did.

He should really try to make some time to practice transitioning between the E and A forms, as this will be the biggest help for him in playing these different songs and styles.

October 15th, 2013

Adam and I started with review of the A form and E form chord, and played them back and forth. I suggested he work out mechanically how he is going to switch between them, so that he can use a conservative fluidity of motion. ;)

We then worked on Power chords, and I showed him 1, 2, 3, and 4.

We listened together to BB King's "The Thrill is Gone:"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buP4ZjXjOgA

And I showed him where the "home row" for this song is, so he can solo along with it.

I suggested he download Audacity, a multi-track recording tool, and record chords and then solos and send me the links.

October 8th, 2013

Adam and I spent the first 3/4s of the lesson working on the bar chords, doing the A pattern and E patterns together. I wrote it out in his book.

We ended the lesson with some more melodic soloing, and he's getting better.

He said he didn't have a lot of time for practicing, so I hope he is able to make time for it, because he has real potential.

The next step in the soloing is to create a theme and come back to it in the solo. It will help it feel more like a melody.

October 1st, 2013

Tonight Adam and I started with review of some melodic soloing, and he's doing a good job. We worked on keeping it from being to boring, but altering the patterns a little bit once-in-a-while.

It's a good idea to listen to melodies and try to copy their structure and form.

We then spent some time on playing on the beat... he played the chords (E7 and A7) and we went between them for a few measures, trying not to lose the beat, even if behind on the chords.

After that we went through the bar chord, in the A-form, and the E-form. I asked him to play the A form, at the "home row" and then down two frets and two more frets from that place, and back up. Then work on the E form at the home row.

September 24th, 2013

Adam and I reviewed the blues scale this week. He had it much faster, though going backwards through it (in other words, go from high to low, or low to high, when learning as we spoke about today).

We then did a bit more soloing with him experimenting on a theme. It was better executed than last week. Good job, keep making that blues scale be second nature.

We then did some ear training, with him copying me on various three or four note phrases. Doing this introduced us to some new techniques such as:
1. Hammer-ons
2. Pull-offs
3. Sliding notes
4. String bending

Work on these techniques this week.

We then talked about the home-row chord "G" which can be played while soloing to fill in the spaces.

Finally, we started up the metronome at metronomeonline.com, and Adam played along with the click, using left hand string muting by holding just the tops of the strings, and then pressing down hard for the chords on beat 1.

Good job Adam, I love your enthusiasm and interest. Practice is the key, so make time and practice often.

September 17th, 2013

Adam and I worked extensively on the blues scale, and I played the rhythm part, giving him opportunity to work on the melodic part.

He is coming along well, but needs to try to memorize the blues scale without having to look at his hands... that will be the biggest improvement.

He said he was sick this week, so I'm sure he'll get much more done this week.

Keep up the good work!

September 10th, 2013

Adam expressed an interest in blues like B.B. King, and so we talked a bit about how to make a pentatonic scale (which I taught him last time) into a blues scale by adding the blue note.

I then gave him a couple of simple phrase ideas to learn, and we spent some time with him working on them.

We then moved to rhythm, and I showed him how to play the 12 bar blues in E, and wrote out the pattern for him.

He should work on making this smooth and easy sounding, and then we can play around next week with further phrasing to the solos.