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.
