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Patti Moyse
Past Notes
June 27th, 2023
We worked on a 12 bar blues style of piano in the key of C today. This included a piano rhythm similar to Bad Bad Leroy Brown, and a few little trill things to do with the right hand. We also learned the C blues scale.
June 13th, 2023
We worked through Bridge Over Troubled Waters some more, nailing down the left hand and I showed her some right hand tricks (country piano things).
May 30th, 2023
We reviewed Bridge Over Troubled waters together.
At the end of the lesson I put lyrics to Can You Feel the Love Tonight and sent them.
May 16th, 2023
Patti forgot to come tonight.
May 2nd, 2023
We covered a lot in Patti's lesson today. We went over Can You Feel The Love Tonight, and I typed out the chords for her.
We also did The Eagles, Desperado, and talked about finding good keys for Bridge Over Troubled Waters.
April 25th, 2023
Sorry for surprise Patti. Harrison shouldn't have come today, his mom must have misunderstood that he wasn't on this week because I'd booked it with you a couple of months ago!
Thanks for considering playing at church! I think it will be a great way to grow as a musician, and that you'll love playing with other people. :)
March 21st, 2023
March 7th, 2023
We jammed together in the lesson today, playing through an assortment of charts I had already printed out and which were just kicking around the studio.
I encouraged Patti to simplify the chords as she plays along, and to first and foremost focus on playing in time, and to only add extended harmonies as she gets comfortable- perhaps first only adding 7ths to A minor, for example, and then the next time through, adding 7ths to E minor, etc. etc.
February 21st, 2023
Patti is feeling unwell this evening.
February 7th, 2023
We went through Wise Men Say, or whatever it's called, and talked about ways to play it that match it's topic and feel.
Arpeggios, glissandos, whole notes, light and airy in the beginning, saving left hand heaviness until the song builds etc.
We also briefly talked about the theory of the dominant 5 chords walking through the end of the bridge to get back from E minor to C. (which is so cool!)
January 24th, 2023
We spent most of the lesson talking about inversions for the most ideal voicings, focusing on keeping the hand in the same general area for each chord change. I showed her some drills she can do (such as every chord, moving up the scale, but keeping your hand in the same area).
We used this song as the reference song (Eric Bibb, Needed Time):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvRvt6AQHuk&ab_channel=PaoloMcfly
January 10th, 2023
I see it saw $120 outstanding for today, I think I've just forgotten to enter your last payment? Just ignore it. :)
We went over her song and talked about left hand things to do to improve her comfort with the left hand, like chording with just that hand, arpeggios, etc.
I also mentioned she might try playing along with drum tracks on YouTube.
December 27th, 2022
December 13th, 2022
We did some accompaniment to songs Patti had set aside. I made some suggestions on how to play them in a way to keep it fun and interesting (and not the way she usually plays it, like with octaves in the left hand).
November 29th, 2022
Patti brought a Reader's Digest Christmas book and we went through a few carols and Christmas songs together, talking about voicings, and strategies so that every song doesn't sound the same with just plain chords.
I suggested things like rolls/glissandos where you very quickly arpeggiate a chord. Also a slow arpeggio in the left hand with limited chording in the right. Also, looking at the music to get an idea of the "impression" the playing could give and then following the chords.
November 15th, 2022
We went through a few songs together, first the one she'd been working on, and then the next two in the book... she was able to play through them very well, with much improvement from a few months ago! We talked about sus4 and sus2 chords (which both don't have the third in them), and how to find out which note is the second (using the scale from the root note).
We also talked a bit about voicing, especially with regards to the ninth, eleventh, and thirteenth notes of the chords... which include their child numbers. In other words, the 9th includes the 7th, the 11th includes the 9th and 7th, etc... and yet you can remove some of the early elements in the chord without if being very obvious- perhaps the fifth, for example. This is called voicing the chord.
November 1st, 2022
Patti forgot about lessons tonight.
October 18th, 2022
Patti borrowed one of my Reader's Digest song books which has "What The World Needs Now is Love" in it.
We went through a few times with a couple of different versions, and I gave some recommendations for a simple way to chord it so that it sounds good but isn't too hard.
Patti emailed to ask for a video showing those ways, which I'll do later this morning.
September 27th, 2022
We did some accompaniment stuff today, using a few lead sheets as a framework. Some points from the lesson:
Take note of the time signature, and what would natually accompany the melody. Half notes? Whole notes? Arpeggios? Boom chuck chuck, etc.
Think of the right hand as a way to make changes between chords melodically.
Sometimes you might want to follow the melody with a harmony in the right hand.
September 20th, 2022
September 6th, 2022
August 16th, 2022
Patti Cancelled for lessons today, at a cottage for the week.
August 2nd, 2022
July 19th, 2022
We talked about a few exercises to help with "vocabulary," like finding the nearest chords in the key from each inversion of C.
So from the first inversion of C, go to Dm, Em, F, G, and Am with as few finger changes as possible.
Then go up to the next inversion of C and do the same.
We also talked about the voicing of the chord to play "spa-style" music. Opening up the chord by moving the third to the top in the left hand (1, 5, 3) helps as a starting point. Use lots of major sevenths (c-e-g-b, f-a-c-e) and try to play in the right hand a note you're not playing in the left hand. You don't need full chords in both hands. Share the notes of the chords between the two hands.
Have fun! See you in two weeks?
June 6th, 2022
https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-SWxFSJ6Uo6U/UWGveEqL-NI/AAAAAAAAAI0/bOiqxuyRdio/s1600/tabel11.jpg
http://www.boesstrings.com/celtic_tunes/reels/Bank%20of%20Ireland.jpg
May 9th, 2022
https://irishsession.net/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/Kesh-Jig-with-Chords_Page_14.jpg
https://www.natunelist.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Bells-Favourite.gif
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/ca/34/57/ca34578bb9b0da45daeea86635d2a680.png
That was so fun tonight, Patti! Thank you!
April 25th, 2022
April 25th, 2022
We continued talking about scales and chord shapes around them. A lot of this Patti remembered from 6 years ago, but we went over it again. Remember the chords oriented around the E string use E shapes, A use A shapes etc.
April 11th, 2022
April 11th, 2022
In Patti's lesson, we talked about the neck setup on a guitar, and how to find various keys and the pentatonic scale in the first scale shape.
We based it around the chord voicing from this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6PF1Y1lsjI
We talked about notes an octave, and fifth apart (chess Knight's move, double chess move) and how the B string creates an exception to that.
We used the A shape, D shape, and F shapes on the fret around the "home row" of the pentatonic scale shape.
April 4th, 2022
This slot is added to represent the hour. I've also added in your payment now.
April 4th, 2022
It was good to have you back tonight Patti!
Incidentally, the last time you were here was June 28, 2016... I think it was about 2017 or 18 when we were done at St. Paul's Anglican. Now we're at Harrowsmith Free Methodist.
Here's the circle of fifths:
https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Pdt-7EKLCQ4/U0HqKMRMgGI/AAAAAAAAAGI/KhKDyU2koV8/s1600/circle-of-fifths.png
You left your book behind if you want to stop by and get it to learn that open G scale.
Here's the song video we worked on in the lesson:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RANUxyuyELI&ab_channel=AaronNebauer
See you next week! God bless you. <3
June 28th, 2016
June 28th, 2016
Patti didn't have time to practice much this week, so we went over Here Comes the Sun again, filling in the main parts, and then talked about scales etc.
I gave her a list of things to work on this summer including the last couple of songs, open neck scales, pentatonic scales, the number system, 8 note scales (as discussed), etc.
She's going to contact me this summer as she has time to do another lesson.
June 21st, 2016
June 21st, 2016
We resumed Here Comes the Sun, and I made a video for her with a slow overview of how it's played.
Then I showed her the lesson plans for my Beginner and Intermediate classes to get some feedback from her, and suggestions to improve it.
She said she would like to maybe meet once-a-month through the summer to give her pressure to practice.
June 14th, 2016
June 14th, 2016
Patti missed the first half-hour, but for the second half hour we talked more about fret logic, and I reviewed some of the songs she had analyzed.
We then learned the first part of Blackbird. SHe didn't have her phone to record it, but was going to try to find something online.
June 7th, 2016
June 7th, 2016
May 31st, 2016
We continued with talking through the "fret logic" system, and I showed her the A shape as chord 1 again, up through to chord 6.
I then wrote out four songs and we played through the chords - Hallelujah, Country Roads, Imagine, and You've Got a Friend.
I recommended she play through some other songs in her book, and to keep them all in the same key, so she can start to memorize the numbers for each chord in that key.
She expressed interest in looking at "soloing" again in the future, so maybe next week.
May 24th, 2016
May 17th, 2016
May 10th, 2016
May 3rd, 2016
Patti took the full hour this week again.
We did a lot of theory today, starting with the first scale position (the homerow position) and moving on to fret logic.
We talked about moving the E position chords, A position chords, and D position chords up the neck. We talked about major seventh chords, and seventh chords.
I recommended she try to find the major seven chords for the chords she knows by lowering the octave from the root down one half step. She can move it down two half steps to find the seventh for each chord she knows.
April 26th, 2016
We had the full hour today, and did a whole range of fun and interesting things.
We reviewed the scales on open chords, and I reminded her to work on playing the scales while finger picking a bit.
We reviewed the pentatonic scale, and she gave a go at adlibbing a melody while I chorded underneath. I suggested a good way to practice this is to record chord progressions on your phone, and then play along with that.
We went over some finger picking patterns one can use to play with any song, and we used House of the Rising Sun as an example. Sometimes it's nice to use hammer-ons on some notes, and sometimes it's good to play two strings at the same time.
We then did some blues chord patterns for the 12-bar blues. We played them together and I showed some things you can do under the chords to give that well-known blues sound.
We took turns soloing over that pattern.
Here's a blues video background track you can play along with.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPo_HttJNhk
April 19th, 2016
April 12th, 2016
April 5th, 2016
We continued with Like I'm Gonna Lose You, but then worked on some scales again.
We reviewed the "home row" approach I had showed her before for playing a minor pentatonic scale on the neck (in the double dot position).
We then learned the C and G scales while finger picking an arpeggio. I did a video for her to use as she practices
March 29th, 2016
March 22nd, 2016
Patti and I continued with the song from two weeks ago, and I made another video for her with a bit more detail in it.
March 15th, 2016
March 8th, 2016
Patti and I worked through a pretty song called "Like I'm Gonna Lose You,"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DC8FsIdVi9Y
as well as "If I Had $1000000" and "House of the Rising Sun"
We worked out the solo for the first song and talked about playing scales for each chord.
March 1st, 2016
Patti wasn't able to come tonight, so Nate came in her place.
February 23rd, 2016
Patti came with a list of about 20 songs that she wanted to go over to work on their strum patterns. I wrote out a few of them for her.
We ran out of time before we got through them all-- the last one we touched on was If I Had $1000000.
February 16th, 2016
February 9th, 2016
Patti is interested in kitchen parties and campfire situations, and isn't confident in her ability to strum along to popular songs. I wrote out 2 sample strum patterns that she's likely to see and played through a few example songs.
I also talked about the strategy of strumming a bit like a drum set, with an strong note on one, and "snare-like" strums on beat 2 and 4.
She will bring 10 songs next week for us to analyze the strumming for - our purpose is to be exposed to, and deconstruct the types of strumming often seen in these kinds of songs -- they're often quite simple in fact.
February 2nd, 2016
We finished up Neil Young's Harvest Moon and played along with the actual version.
We tried to add a new song, but the browser crashed, so we'll continue with that next week.
January 26th, 2016
We continued with Harvest Moon this week, going over all the chords and putting it together. It's very close to being finished.
We talked about the Asus4 (Also just called an Asus) and A7, and then putting it together as an A7sus4
We agreed that the one A chord wasn't necessary, and taking it out would make the song significantly easier to play.
January 19th, 2016
Patti cam in ready to learn a song by Neil Young called Harvest Moon. She had a good lesson video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPER54Kdpto
We went over the parts together for the first half anyway.
January 12th, 2016
January 5th, 2016
December 29th, 2015
December 22nd, 2015
Patti and Nate were away tonight.
December 15th, 2015
Patti and I went through Blackbird a few more times-- she was having some challenges getting the mac to slow down songs, so I found a link for her and emailed it (how to do it in macs manually).
http://lovinitinaz.blogspot.ca/2013/02/how-to-change-playback-speed-of-youtube.html
We then went through it without the recording a few times.
December 8th, 2015
Patti and I continued with Blackbird. We slowed the recording down to half speed on YouTube, so we could play along and get used to the various sections.
Before that we revied the different parts, and she's basically got it now, just need to work on the details.
December 1st, 2015
Patti and I worked through the next section of Blackbird tonight.
I recorded a video again of the various fingerings.
November 24th, 2015
November 17th, 2015
Patti played through Dust in the Wind at a slightly slower speed, and has nailed all the different parts. All that remains is some time to put it together.
We decided she could work on that at home, so we added a new song, "Blackbird."
I showed her through the first part, and the first half of the second part. We recorded a video of the main instructions of the lesson.
November 10th, 2015
November 3rd, 2015
Patti continued to work on Dust in the Wind this week. We went through the chords of the verses (which have the same finger picking form), and videoed it. I wrote the chords down for her as well.
October 27th, 2015
Patti didn't come, but Nathan took her spot.
October 20th, 2015
Patti and I continued with Dust in the Wind today, adding the second part of the finger picking-- the little extra arpeggios.
We made a video of me playing it to help with remembering.
October 13th, 2015
We went through the song from two weeks ago, and she basically has it, just needs to practice it for a while to get the confidence for the augmented and diminished chords.
We looked at a song Nathan is working on, "Hello Children" and I wrote the chords out for her.
We then reviewed the finger picking stuff we'd been doing. We worked through the "Dust in the Wind" song breaking it into separate parts, like thumb first on the bass line, then the melody part. I wrote out tab for her.
October 6th, 2015
Patti's birthday was today, so Nathan took her lesson spot.
September 29th, 2015
Patti brought in charts for the song we were looking at last week, which gave me a good run-for-the-money, since it has diminished and augmented chords in it.
We worked through it together, and I wrote out chords on her paper for quick reference as she's learning it. It's definitely a challenge to use those chords, but she's more than capable since she knows so many chords already and can move to them quickly.
We then spent some time working on finger picking, and I showed her some basic concepts to get her started.
As a summary:
1. Anchor the pinky
2. Use the thumb for the bass note (root) of the chord
3. Use a recurring pattern for the other fingers.
Some other things we talked about were hammer ons and how they work in picking.
September 22nd, 2015
Patti and I added a nice old song from the sixties, You Belong to Me:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=817ulh5EmWk
I wrote out the chords (and it requires a CAPO on the first fret). It's a little on the fast side, and there are some challenging chords in there, but it's a good one to learn.
Maybe try to find a different arrangement on YouTube that doesn't change keys.
September 15th, 2015
We first went over the chords Patti already knew, and she knew many of them already.
She wants to improve her confidence with strumming. We decided to work through songs, and as we come to new chords, add them at that point.
She brought a book along with Neil Young songs, so we did two of those and came to a new chord: G minor 7. I explained the way to find this chord by looking at the E major, and E7 chords, and moving them up the neck with a "virtual capo", the index finger.
They brought along $50 for tonight's lesson, but will bring more later.
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