Thursday, September 29, 2005
Today, we added to Marie's ever expanding repertoire of songs. To date, she's learned songs by Damien Rice, Coldplay, The Frames and Ryan Adams. We worked on a new Ryan Adams song, then she introduced me to a band called The Jayhawks. We worked on two of their songs. By the end of the lesson, Marie was playing along with the CD and sounding awesome.
Tuesday, September 27, 2005
It's a family affair on Tuesday nights at the Durham's. Emma(right) had her lesson first. We did our usual routine of warm ups, scales, reading and chords. Then we worked on a Green Day song and a Blink 182 song. Her power chords are starting to sound really good. We finished off by working on the melody for"Yesterday" by The Beatles. Julia was up next. We worked on scales and did some reading. Then we worked on chords and rhythm. Julia's chords are sounding great. I gave her a challenging chord exercise to push her even more. Then we worked on "Basket Case" by Green Day which sounded very good. Their dad Simon was next. We are working mostly on the blues. First, we reviewed the blues scale. Then we played 12 bar blues in the keys of A and E with the turnarounds. The turnaround in E was sounding good. We also practised the blues with bar chords. I taught Simon a new turnaround. We finished off by practicing the unplugged version of "Layla" by Clapton.
Saturday, September 24, 2005
We added a two octave G major scale to Mathew's repertoire today. Then I jumped on the drums so we could work on his chords and rhythm. To practice a new rock strumming pattern, Mathew learned the chords for "Sympathy for the Devil". Then we worked on the intro and chords for "Hey Joe". We ended off by jamming on "Back in Black", which was sounding great!
Thursday, September 22, 2005
Ryan and I had an awesome lesson today. He finished his guitar method book #1. His reading has really improved. We played the Bach minuet on page 42 at 130 bpms! We've also been working on four positions of the major scale with arpeggios. He's done six keys so far. Another exercise he's been working on is the major scale on one string up to the 12th fret on all six strings. He's done the keys of C and G and now we've added D. We also worked on blues scales across the neck and we learned the chords for "Stormy Monday". At this rate, the sky's the limit!
Tuesday, September 20, 2005
This is Allan.
This is Allan's dog Hobbit. He sounds more like Golem, though. Tonight, we had a pretty intense lesson on the blues. We started with scales and arpeggios in 12 keys. Then we worked on blues scales across the neck. From that, we moved on to the chords and structure of the 12 bar blues. To practice, we found an Alligator Records two CD compilation and started playing along.
Monday, September 19, 2005
Sophie is one talented girl. She sings really, really well, plays guitar and writes her own songs. Not bad for someone in their first year of high school! Today, we worked on "Hotel California", "Every Breath You take" and "California Dreaming". We focused on rhythm. We also started learning about song structures by analyzing "Behind These Hazel Eyes" by Kelly Clarkson. Last week, I suggested that Sophie get a capo and she did. We finished our lesson by using it to play "Wonderwall" in the original key of F#m.
Papa So Mean!
Well, Saturday night was my student Wayne's big show and 50th birthday bash. The evening began with DJ Ya Man who played some awesome soul, blues and rock. He rocked the house all night long! Then it was time for the debut performance of Papa So Mean. The band's line up is Rick on lead vocals, Wayne and Bill (also my student) on guitar, Drew (another one of my students) on bass and Peter on drums. They played great! "Sunshine of Your Love", "Gloria", "Have you Ever Seen the Rain" and the set closer " Keep on Rockin' in the Free World" were some of the highlights. Then there was cake and the unveiling of Wayne's new Les Paul. The band then kicked into their second set. They had the audience up and dancing almost from the start. Despite some minor technical difficulties with Wayne's amp, they played another solid set. They really got the place going with a funky version of "Mustang Sally". They even got an encore! Everyone had a wicked time. It was a great night. Click here to see more photos from the evening. Good job guys and once again, Happy Birthday Wayne!
Saturday, September 17, 2005
Tristan is a new bass student.The first thing he played for me was the bass line for "April 26, 1992" by Sublime and it sounded great. He's also into The Misfits and AFI. Last week, I taught Tristan a blues bass line. He told me that he played it in class at school and because of it, he might be in the school band. Today we learned an AFI song.
Thursday, September 15, 2005
Robert is Kenny's dad. He's one bad dude. But seriously, he's one of the hardest working students I have. He started lessons in the spring and already he's playing note for note B.B. King solos and they sound great! Today we did our usual routine: scales and arpeggios in twelve keys, scalar exercises, four positions of the major scale, blues scales across the neck and chords for the twelve bar blues. We ended with another B.B. King transcription. Robert mentioned that he may have hooked up with some friends who have a band. He's definitely ready.
Wednesday, September 14, 2005
Katie and Caroline began lessons a year ago. Katie's Dad Steven had been a student of mine. I also taught Katie's brother Russel. The girls have both made a lot of progress. Last spring, I helped them prepare for a school talent show. They played and sang "Good Riddance" by Green Day and did an amazing job. This week Caroline learned some Oasis and Katie learned some Jack Johnson.
Monday, September 12, 2005
Kenny was on fire today. He was topping all his previous metronome marks for his scales. His chords and rhythms are also sounding great. I think Kenny might be a ninja. He told me that the other day, he caught a fly in mid air with his bare hand. We played all his Green Day songs like "Good Riddance", "Basket Case", "When I Come Around" and "Boulevard of Broken Dreams". His dad better look out (his dad is also a student of mine), soon Kenny will be giving him a run for his money!
Saturday, September 10, 2005
Bram is one of the students that has been with me the longest. He was a beginner when he first started taking lessons. Now he's playing everything from Judas Priest and Iron Maiden to In Flames and Children of Bodom. As you can tell, he's a fan of metal. Today we worked on a soloing exercise called intersecting scales and we transcribed some Anthrax. Next step for Brahm is for him to find a band...
Thursday, September 8, 2005
This was Mark's first lesson since the beginning of the summer. He brought this crazy guitar. It's called the 'Rock Ax" or something like that and it has a built in amp. We learned some Jack Johnson and we jammed on some blues. We also jammed on a riff that Mark had come up with in drop D. Next week Mark wants to work on the song "Classical Gas". I don't really know it. I guess I'll be learning something too...
Saturday, September 3, 2005
Today on the menu with Glenn: some Jimmy Buffet with a dash of Doobie Brothers and a side of Eagles... Glenn was pissed off at what's happening in New Orleans so I suggested we play "Dangerous World" by Jimmy Buffet. We ended with "Lying Eyes" by The Eagles, which was also strangely appropriate.
Friday, September 2, 2005
Michel's first instrument is the trumpet. Now he's learning guitar. He is also a songwriter. Today, he played me one of his original songs and it was really good. He's also been introducing me to some really awesome Haitian music.
Thursday, September 1, 2005
My first student today was Daniel. He started lessons in August. He is so intent on improving his guitar playing that he takes two lessons a week. At his request, we had an intense session on the basics: finger positioning, scales, rhythm and chords. I even took out the metronome. I guess he really is serious!
© Jon 2005 - Powered for Blogger by Blogger Templates
