Rock & Roll 101

December 14th, 2015

I helped Kasey with her arrangement homework this week-- she was having trouble understanding Mr. Verner's project specifications, so I went over it again with her.

December 7th, 2015

Kasey and I worked on Love Yourself by Bieber and getting the strumming right. We talked at first about recording it next week, but she mentioned a project she has to do for school which I'm going to help her with... she'll bring in the details next week.

November 30th, 2015

We worked on some of the finer details of the song tonight, including how to strum the various parts.

November 23rd, 2015

I apologized to Kasey tonight about playing the song for Kathleen.

We added a new song, Love Yourself by Justin Beiber. It has some new chords in it, including a bar B chord (and we are using the E form B up on the 9th fret), and an A/B.

She'd like to record and sing on this one.

November 16th, 2015

We recorded tonight! Kasey laid down two guitar tracks and a vocal track, and I played a bass track.

Her singing voice is really good, though she doesn't believe it! We'll maybe try fixing up some of the bad notes next week.

November 9th, 2015

Kasey and I worked on the guitar for the first half of the lesson and the clarinet for the second half. I think she's ready to record, so perhaps we can start the recording first thing at the next lesson?

I mentioned the song to Kathleen, and she said she'd like to sing on Kasey's recording too, so that's something to consider.

November 2nd, 2015

We wrote out the melody to One Love and played it through a few times on the Clarinet. We're going to try to record the two together -- maybe next week?

We then went through it once with guitar.

October 26th, 2015

We continued with "That's My Job," and fixed up a B minor she was having trouble with, and reviewed the F#7 in the bridge.

We then added the next song, by Marianna's Trench called One Love:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQq3hEB4HAE

We finished it by the end of the lesson, but didn't pick a next song, since there were only 2 minutes left.

October 19th, 2015

We reviewed the finger picking on the song Grandpa, especially the intro. She recorded a video of me playing it to help her remember how to do it next time.

We then added "That's My Job" by Conway Twitty:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rf_UV0TAjM8

This is a fun one, and has a number of new chords for her to learn, so we're starting with just getting the chords down, and then we'll learn the finger-picking of it.

October 12th, 2015

October 5th, 2015

Kasey and I added Grandpa:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLiRGW31nyk

We went through it and then I wrote out the tab for the melody at the beginning.

September 28th, 2015

Kasey did really well on Who I Am, and so we added two new songs.

Crash My Party-Luke Bryan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGICQTd0Ass

When I've Been Drinking
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dcalt1jwy0k

September 21st, 2015

Kasey is not going to be here for this lesson, but instead coming on Tuesday at 4.

On Tuesday we worked on Who I Am by Jessica Andrews:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jd9zYKLepCw

It's a little on the fast side, so start out slowly, and work up to speed.

September 14th, 2015

Kasey added a new song --Long Black Train:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZtwxc423jg

She's got it already-- we added B7 chord for next week's new song (which I've forgotten now!)

June 29th, 2015

We reviewed Cop Car, and then added a new song, For a Boy by Rael Lynn.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbYDPG-_TJc

June 22nd, 2015

Kasey was in fine form tonight! She wrapped up "Leave the Night On", and we added two more songs:

Cop Car:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJAe5miXN_Y

and

Automatic by Miranda Lambert:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jntvWC-1gwA

We didn't finish up Cop Car.

June 15th, 2015

Kasey did really well on "A Guy Walks Into a Bar," so we added another song, "Leave the Night On" by Sam Hunt.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BuMiMBjcvWU

June 8th, 2015

We went through Talledaga, then played with the recording.

It's very close- keep working on it, while you add the next song, "A Guy Walks INto a Bar."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXDww3UxWkI

June 1st, 2015

We worked through the hammer-ons some more tonight, and then played along with the track.

Kasey has almost nailed it-- another week of practice and we should be good to go to the next song!

May 25th, 2015

May 11th, 2015

Talladega is a really challenging song, with the F chord, and the hammer-ons. We worked through it for the whole lesson, trying to get it.

Practice makes perfect. :) Don't get frustrated, you'll get it!

May 4th, 2015

Kasey and I reviewed I Hope You Dance, and then added Eric Church - Talladega.

April 27th, 2015

We reviewed last week's Nothing At All, we added I Hope You Dance:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2SfmcNg8js

She's doing really well.

April 20th, 2015

We went over the They Don't Make em Like that Anymore, but the chord changes were pretty fast, and a lot of new chords, so we added a new song: When You Say Nothing At All

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXPuYNlJqhk

This is much more doable for her level, so after she feels more comfortable with B7 and C#minor, we'll come back to it.

April 13th, 2015

Kasey can't make it tonight, but I told her mom that I would try to find a make-up spot this once before the end of the season.

March 30th, 2015

Kasey and I reviewed the chords we were working on, and went over the George Strait song, then added a new one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cD1FbQgj6Vg

We ran out of time, but she will be working on some new chords for this song, namely B7, F#m.

We also added C and E7 this week.

March 23rd, 2015

Kasey did a lot of practicing this week, and came very prepared.

We went through the George Strait song a number of times, and worked on speeding up a couple spots, namely the Eminor to A part that requires playing a bit faster.

We talked about hearing the beat, and knowing where the count is (1, 2, 3, 4)-- listening for the click sound from the drums on beat 2 and 4 helps. In this song the drummer counts in with four clicks (1,2,3,4).

We spent the last part of the lesson learning the finger picking parts, which is quite challenging. She appears to be up for it!

Great job, Kasey!

March 16th, 2015

Kasey had added the G chord this week, and practiced quite a bit. We added E major, A major, and D minor, then I wrote out a song by George Strait for her, Baby's Gotten Good at Goodbye:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDbxoUjxZzM

We did a simpler arrangement... we can expand it when she's able to play through it.

March 9th, 2015

We started by me showing Kasey all the different parts of the guitar-- the neck, body, head, machine heads, fret board, frets, bridge, nut, strings, pick guard, hole, etc.

We then learned three chords: E minor, A minor, and D (major).

We talked about the difference between minor and major chords, and worked on a first strum pattern, down, down, down up, down,