Class #7 10/20/09

Howdy kiddos. Sorry about the no posting last week, but my internet was down at home and I was insanely busy. Hopefully I didn’t dissapoint the one or two of you who actually read this thing.
Guitar 1
This week is all about those power chords. There are two things to consider. One is the notes on the 6th and the 5th strings of the guitar. Do your best to start memorizing them, or at the very least be able to quickly find them on the charts I gave out. The other is the shape of the power chord. You put your index finger on the note of the chord (for example, if you want an A, you would go to the fifth fret of the sixth string.) then your ring finger goes on the next string, two frets up (for the A power chord, it would be on the 5th string, 7th fret) and then your pinky on the same fret, one string up (4th string 7th fret). This shape stays the same for all these chords, you move the shape to a different note to change chords. Get working on this, because next week, we’re using it with some tunes.

Guitar 2
We’ve got a couple tunes in the hopper. For the Never Shout Never tune, work on rhythm and palm muting. For the Led Zeppelin tune, work on the smooth transition from the riff to the power chord, and also the Em pentatonic scale for the solo part. For the Nirvana tune, it’s all about power chords, and those muted strums in between them, and for the All American Rejects tune, you’ll be using real-live bar chords. Chord push ups shall come in handy. Til next week!

Class #5 10/6/09

Intro to Guitar- (3:30pm)
This class was the last class of this session. I apologize that I did not realize this, I was confused and thought that the class was 10 weeks, and not just 5 weeks long. Students should sign up for the next 5 week session, which begins next week, on Tuesday, October 13, at 3:30pm. We will continue where we left off.
We left off with an introduction to reading Tabulature (TAB). This is the primary way that we will read and play melody on the guitar. Your job is to work on trying to successfully translate what you see on the paper into music coming from your guitar. Start with “Happy Birthday”. If you have trouble remembering how TAB works, one page before this song has the explanation, and if you need to, ask your parents for help. It’s not too hard to figure out.

Guitar 1- (4pm)
We’re trying to put all these things we’ve learned about the blues together to play some real songs. Next week I want to try to play through a song all the way through, and figure out what our choices in what we can play over the song are. For now, you need to keep working on your seventh chords, blues rhythm figures, and the pentatonic scale we started working on. Remember with the scale, start by going from low to high, and then back again. Pick a fingering and stick to it, use the same fingers every time you play the scale, and you will memorize it faster. Then try picking some notes out of the scale and making up some patterns of your own. You can do this along to the following blues pattern:

Next week, we’ll put all these skills to good use.

Intermediate Guitar (5pm)
Same as above. We want to be working on all the aspects of the blues that we’ve learned, the 7th chords, the blues rhythm figures, and especially the pentatonic scales. Work on the 4 that I set apart from the others, starting by methodically working them up and down, and then by playing some solos over this pattern:

Next week, we’ll pick out a tune to work on from start to finish that will incorporate all these values, and we’ll talk about some ways to generate interest with the scales you’re working on.
See you next Tuesday.

Class #4 – 9/29/09

Everyone- the big focus this week is going to be on trying to practice EVERY DAY, if even for only 5 or 10 minutes. The idea is to keep these ideas fresh and spend a little time with them each day to let them grow naturally.

Intro to Guitar (3:30pm)

We’ve got 6 chords to work on, and 6 days to work on them, so it would be best to pick one chord to work on for each day of the week. The chords are:

C (EZ version), G (EZ version), D, A, E, and Em

One way to work on these that would really get them stuck in your brains and under your fingers is to work on them in order, and build as you go so that you don’t forget the ones you worked on the day before. So you could do C the first day, then C and G the next, then C,G, and D the third day, and so on. We’ll do a quick check next week to see how these are going, and then we’ll move on to reading and playing melody, which should be a little easier than the chords

Guitar 1 (4pm)

You’ve got an extra week to work on the seventh chords and your 12 bar blues progression, keep going on it to get those 7th chords locked in solid. This week we worked on rhythm figures that work over the different chords. Each one is pretty simple by itself, the difficulty comes in when you have to switch between them. What you can do to practice these is work on each one by itself for a while, then work on switching back and forth between 2 of them. (maybe start with E and A) After you feel like that’s getting comfortable, work on a three chord blues progression. You’ll find that the key of A allows you to do all three figures with open strings (A, D, and E) while in the key of E, you have to do the B figure in closed position. Start small and work towards big.

Intermediate Guitar (5pm)

Same as above for the rhythm figures and the 7th chords, I want to start using these next week for backgrounds for us to improvise over. Work on that Em pentatonic scale as well, simply familiarizing yourself with the pattern and your note choices. You can work on the scale methodically, going from root note (E) to root note. You can also play around in the scale and make up your own patterns, as long as you’re playing the right notes, you’ll be in good shape. You can improvise over this E Blues pattern:

You can also practice your seventh chords over this pattern, it’s in E, so the chords will be E7, A7, and B7. Use your ear to figure out when they change.
See you next week.

Class #3, 9-22-09

Intro To Guitar- (3:30pm)

This week is all about two new chords: D major and A major. There are some steps to getting these stuck in your brains and under your fingers.

1. You want to make sure you’ve got the right shape, with your fingers in the right places. Even being off by just a little bit will make a chord sound very different, and often very bad.

2. Once your fingers are in place, you want to work towards getting a good sound. Often you’ll find that instead of a clearly ringing chord, you’ll get a kind of dead, “thwap” sound from one or more of the strings. This can only be because of two problems. One is that your fingers aren’t pressing down hard enough. Pretty easy to solve, just press harder. If your fingers sting a little when you make your chords, don’t worry, your callouses will come and your fingers will stop hurting. The second problem is that sometimes your fingers will touch strings that they are not supposed to. You’ll have to pay close attention to make sure all your fingers are where they are supposed to be, and nowhere else.

3. You want to start getting these chords memorized, not only in your head, but in your hands as well. The best way to do this is by doing “Chord Push-Ups” which are explained in your booklets.

So work real hard on your D and A major chords and next week, we’ll add some new ones and start working on being able to play them in a row.

Guitar 1-(4pm)

We’ve moved on from folk and we’ll be spending a few days on the blues. Day 1 was all about foundation, getting ready to play some blues backgrounds, and understand how they work. A big part of this will be your 7th chords. Work on the ones that are circled on the sheet that I gave you. Those are the 7th chords in open position, and the ones we will focus on the most. If you feel like moving on, feel free to tackle some of the other chords on the sheet, but that’s kind of “extra credit”. Remember that 7th chords are like major chords with question marks after them. They help to create tension, which we will learn to use to make our tunes interesting. After working on the individual chords, try playing through the 12 bar blues that I gave you, The one on the sheet is in E, but you can plug in the chords from the other keys on the sheet if you feel up to a challenge. That’s all for now, get working on those 7th chords.

Intermediate Guitar- (5pm)

We’re working on the blues as well, and laying the foundation for the next couple weeks, in which we’ll learn to play blues backgrounds, rhythm figures, and do some soloing, which involves learning some scales. Despite some objections I’ve heard muttered in class, the blues is important not just for the music itself, but for it’s influence on every other style of music since. If you understand a bit about the blues, you’ll have a better grasp on whatever other type of music you’re into. For this week, work towards getting a grip on those 7th chords. The circled ones, especially, because those are the open-position chords that will get used the most, but all the other inversions up the neck will come in handy too. Practice running these chords through the 12 bar blues that I gave you, not only in E, but in some of the other keys on the sheet as well.

And everyone, check back on the blog later in the week, I’m going to post some links to some of my favorite blues guitar players from different eras. Now PRACTICE!

Class #2, Tuesday 9/15/09

Intro to Guitar (3:30pm)

We need to continue working on the chord charts. It is very important to have a strong understanding of how these work before we can move on to other things. Start with the EZ G and EZ C chords and work your way to some of the chords that you use more than one finger for. These shapes are the most important thing that we’re going to work on for the whole class, so you need to have a strong understanding of them.

Guitar 1 (4pm)

We’re starting with folk music. This can also be traced to “traditional music” which is the oldest music in America. We’re not going that f’ar back for the stuff we cover in class, we’re starting with two tunes that are a bit more modern. The first is “California Stars” written by Woody Guthrie and performed by Wilco. The second is “Me and Julio Down By the Schoolyard” written and performed by Paul Simon.

Here’s “California Stars” at full speed:

A/A/E/E/D/D/A/A/

and a bit slower

The changes for this one shouldn’t be too hard. You’ll have to switch a lot faster for “Me And Julio..”

Here’s a super-slow version to start with

and a little more sped up

Here’s a loop of just the intro at about 35% the normal speed

Intermediate Guitar- (5pm)

The tunes that we’re focused on, “Me and Julio Down By the Schoolyard” and “California Stars”  are posted above, at various speeds, as are links to the artists that wrote and performed them. Your duty is to work on the chord positions further up the neck for each of these tunes. Work on each position by itself and then try to combine different ones. Your goal is to make this as natural feeling as the open chords feel, soon we’ll be adding some scale shapes to these chord shapes, and you’ll be in a position to do some really cool stuff, but you have to understand how the chord shapes work first to really get a good feel for this.I’ll post some more stuff soon.

Classes- Week 1 9/8/09

Howdy kids, here’s yer first post!

Intro To Guitar (3:30 class)

We learned how to tune our guitars (with a tuner). If you don’t have a tuner yet, you can pick one up for around $20 to $30 that will do a great job for a long time. All the info on tuning is on the 2nd page of your booklet. Here’s an online video that will help as well:

Tuning Video

We also did some work with learning to read chord charts. Just remember to match up where the circles are on the chart to which string and fret number you’re supposed to put your finger. Remember that an 0 on top of the chart means to play that string open, and an x means to not play that string at all. We’ll do plenty more with these charts coming up soon, so if you’re having a hard time with the first couple (EZ G chord and EZ C chord) I can help out next week.

Guitar 1 (4:00pm)

It’s time to start committing these chord shapes to memory. The first two we’re dealing with are D and A. Do your chord push ups on each, to get them stuck under your fingers and in your brain.  Then, do exactly what we did in class, switching from D to A, and leaving a big gap in between them to get your fingers into place. When you get comfortable, make the gap smaller, and give yourself less time to get from one to the next. Before you know it, you won’t need any space between the two at all.

For further help making the link between your brain and hands stronger, practice the technique excercise we worked on, paying close attention to keeping a strict down/ up picking pattern. Work on each hand separately, then together SLOWLY, on one string at a time. Then try the exercise over all the strings. You should see quick improvement.

Intermediate Guitar (6pm- BUT REMEMBER WE’RE SWITCHING TO 5pm)

Read the above paragraph for a summary of the technique exercise we outlined in class, and DO IT. It’s good for ya, and it will increase your ability to play accurately and with speed.

Otherwise, it’s all about the fretboard. Take those simple melodies like Mary Had A Little Lamb and find them in as many places on the neck as you can. Same for Smoke on the Water etc… You can also reverse the process and take a tune like Paint it Black, and figure out what those actual notes are, and find them elsewhere. The chord building/ finding exercise will help a lot too. Work your way through tunes like Knockin on Heaven’s Door, finding the chords in as many places as you can. Time yourself with a metronome or play along to the tune itself. The more you do, the better your understanding will be.

Adult Intro to Guitar (7pm)

Unfortunately, due to small numbers, this class isn’t going to run as planned. There are other options, though. Expect an email from me by Friday with details.

Thanks y’all

See you next week.

Welcome!

Hey guys and gals. This is a brand new blog, so stay tuned for updates starting this week. You can come here for reminders and tips on what to practice, and for audio samples of songs to play along to. See you soon!