Rock & Roll 101

June 23rd, 2016

June 16th, 2016

Audrey said this would be her last week.

We added a new song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbB-mICjkQM

Very hard guitar lead part, but we worked through the number scale system together to learn it.

June 9th, 2016

Audrey is such a pleasure to teach! I'm sad she's done as of next week! :( I hope we can continue lessons next year.

We added "Imagine" by John Lennon today - here's a really out-of-tune version:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLgYAHHkPFs

June 2nd, 2016

We continued with the fret logic, and reviewed everything we talked about last week, then played through Passenger, Let Her Go:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ginx7WKq5GE

We did it with both systems (the E shape system and A shape system).

I then wrote out the 7ths, major 7ths, sus, and minor 7ths for each chord shape.

May 26th, 2016

This week Audrey wanted to work on Mad World- she had learned it a bit before, but I wrote out everything for her again, and basically finished it. Just needs polishing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hW93CV6m-JU

May 19th, 2016

Audrey and I went for an hour instead of 30 minutes today because Aurora didn't show up.

We started with reviewing The Wombat's song, then we talked about fret logic.

I should her the two common (E shape and A shape) chord sets using maj min min, maj maj, min dim.

I asked her to put some lyrics to a melody and chord pattern using this system.

May 12th, 2016

May 5th, 2016

We were on the piano this week- we went over the Not About Angels song a few times, and I made a few adjustments to the chart - there were also a couple of little things she was doing wrong (the G/B she was playing as a B dim for example).

April 28th, 2016

We went over the song by Modest Mouse a few times - Audrey has learned the chords on this - there was a different chord progression near the middle to the end of the song which we hadn't written out, so we did that.

We then learned a new song called Pink Lemonade by the Wombats:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFinooNUmK4

It's fairly easy, though there were some new chords to learn.

She picks up songs so quickly, that I'd really like to focus on other things that she hasn't learned yet; perhaps it is time to learn some songs outside of her favourite genres.

April 21st, 2016

We added a new song for piano today:

Birdy, Not About Angels:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vj_VidtyaOc

April 14th, 2016

We were back to guitar, and started with trying to learn Introlude by Myth City:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksTsUk6t5MA

This turned out to be much harder than would be evident just listening to it, so we moved on to Modest Mouse, Float On:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opDB5bY3YCg

We learned the chords as well as the lead part, and I gave her a quick lesson on numbered melodies and the numbered scale using the "home row" scale.

April 7th, 2016

Audrey played through Beside You for me, and I gave her some tips on how to increase the sound and change the feeling of the song as one plays through verses and choruses - arpeggios, octaves in the left hand, etc.

We then added a new song,
Daniel Powter, Free Loop:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-Dm1nsgg8k&nohtml5=False

March 31st, 2016

Audrey had her guitar today. We continued with Hello, I'm In Deleware - we learned the next guitar lead part (from the low E string).

Just takes practicing now to get it ready.

March 24th, 2016

March 17th, 2016

We weren't quite finished Impossible Year, but Audrey was ready to move on, so we added:
Mariana's Trench, Beside You:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJ0z1LH6RJc

March 10th, 2016

Audrey had her electric today. We finished up with Lego House, and added a new song, called "Hello, I'm in Delaware" by City and Colour.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmPUfBHtHR0

March 3rd, 2016

We continued with the piano song, "Impossible Year." She came in feeling like it had a lot of chords she didn't know, but she played it through almost without issue.

We went over it three times, and worked through a few challenging spots. We decided to focus on note reading the melody after she's finished with playing the chords from the chord chart.

February 25th, 2016

Today we added a new song by Ed Sheeran, called Lego House.

We started with reviewing Silent Hill, from two weeks ago.

February 18th, 2016

We reviewed Lost Boy twice, and I made some suggestions.

TO really finalize this song, will just take practicing -- it's close, needs some passion, so strength here and there.

We added a new song, called Impossible Year:

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

Pretty!

February 11th, 2016

Audrey decided to start Silent Hill:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qalGezr76o

She had already learned part of it from tab, and I showed her the rest, as well as modified what she was doing a bit in the beginning.

February 4th, 2016

Audrey played the Never Say NEver song through for me, and then we added a new song called Lost Boy by Ruth B

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QO3ppTYwRYs

January 28th, 2016

Audrey brought her guitar in today, and we continued with Wonderwall:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DvRCykzHy4

She's basically got it, so we added Wake Me Up:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Uk2O5Gxd6g

Great song!

January 21st, 2016

Audrey played Never Say Never very well today, and she decided that rather than move on to another song, she'd like to learn ways to make this song sound better.

We talked about dynamics, as well as engaging the heart and feelings when we play-- really thinking about the lyrics and expressing your emotion out through your arms and fingers.

She was shy to try that in front of me, but I asked her to work on it at home, and show me next time.

We also worked on the sustain pedal-- how to use it to blend the open parts of lifting your hands from the chords to switch to the next chord. We worked on that a bit too.

January 14th, 2016

January 7th, 2016

December 31st, 2015

December 17th, 2015

We started with going over the Dray song on the piano - she had been playing it with eight beats to each bar instead of four, so we went over it once the right way, then added a new song.

Her new song is also by The Fray, called Never Say Never:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RH7yZOvvMrg

I wrote this out, and put it in the Google Drive folder. After she left I made some changes in case she wants to download the most recent version.

Next week there will be no lessons on the 24th, but we will have them on the 31st.

December 10th, 2015

Audrey was on electric guitar today.

We continued with "Under the Bridge," and learned the next section. She picks things up very quickly! I asked her to put the whole thing together this week, and suggested that she record and sing it when she's done, maybe even learn the drums for it to record them, and to play keyboard on it as well.

If things are smooth with the guitar (in two weeks), then we'll try that.

December 3rd, 2015

Today we went back to piano, and again I was amazed at Audrey's ability to pick things up. She also laughed like, twice or three times today! So she's getting more comfortable.

We added "How to Save a Life" by the Fray. The charts are in my Google Drive, which I shared with her already. She should print it out (or put it on a tablet or something) so she can practice.

I asked her to work on inversions for C, D, E minor and G.

I also asked her to write out the circle of fifths a few times to try to get familiar with it and memorize it.

November 26th, 2015

Audrey is doing really well-- she's a natural musician, and picks things up really quickly. I'm enjoying teaching her!

We continued with guitar (she brought her electric with her this week) and talked about the strumming pattern (and learned it) for the song.

We then talked about the next song, and decided to learn Under the Bridge by Red Hot Chili Peppers:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwlogyj7nFE

I only wrote out the first two measures and we ran out of time, so we'll continue with that next week.

November 19th, 2015

Audrey and I worked on piano today. We did "Falling Slowly" by Glen Hansard.

She picked it up very quickly! I'm quite impressed!

We started with learning the names of the notes -- using my little kid trick of ants, grandma, flower bed, elephant, dog, cat, bird.

We then talked about chords-- major and minor, there are three of each in each key.

November 12th, 2015

Today was Audrey's first lesson-- she did really well.

We started by reviewing which chords she already knew, and talking about what she wanted to get out of lessons this year.

She knew a large number of chords already, and already had an idea of what songs she wants to learn.

Our first song was by Death Cab for Cutie, I'll follow you after dark:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDHY1D0tKRA

She didn't bring her guitar, so we used one of mine-- she may bring her own to next lesson.

Also, we may do piano next week and alternate every-other-week.