Monday, October 31, 2005
Tim has really progressed over the last month or so. He's been practicing hard. His blues scales are sounding great, as is his major scale. We added the natural minor scale to his repertoire today. We also played some blues, which Tim is a big fan of. We practiced the chords for the 12 bar blues in E and in A, including the turn arounds. They sounded really good. Then, Tim practiced blues licks in the key of A. It was a great lesson. Oh, and Happy Halloween everyone!
Saturday, October 29, 2005
Avery has two teachers, myself and his older brother Shane. Apparently, Shane has really been encouraging Avery. Shane makes sure he practices and he teaches him songs as well. It shows. Avery has really progressed in the last few months. He can play power chords now and so he's able to play all kinds of stuff. Avery also likes to make up his own songs. We jammed on a few riffs that he made up and I thought they were pretty cool. His brother Shane is also a student of mine. He started as a beginner with me a few years ago. He's worked really hard and now he's become quite a good guitarist. Great work guys!
Thursday, October 27, 2005
Sophie came in for a surprise lesson today. We played through all the songs she's been working on like "Angie", "Hotel California", "Burn One Down", "Another Lonely Day", California Dreaming" and "Sing" by the band Travis. I really liked the way Sophie performed this last one so I asked her if we could record it. She said yes, so here it is...
Blues Instrumental
For all those who want to practice their blues licks, I've recorded an instrumental 12 bar blues in the key of E. You can download it here. If you've been practicing your licks in the key of A, just move them up to the 12th fret and use the E blues scale. Have fun!
Monday, October 24, 2005
This was lesson number two with Zack. We started with the warm up exercises. We tried them for the first time with the metronome. No problem for Zack. Then we worked on reading rhythms. For the third part of the lesson we worked on the C major scale. We also added the metronome to this exercise. The fourth part of the lessons was chords. We reviewed all the chords and played the chord progressions. Then we worked on the Green Day song "Good Riddance", which was starting to sound really good. We finished off by adding another song, "Wake Me Up When September Ends" also by Green Day. Good work Zack!
Wednesday, October 17, 2005
This is another frame from a video I took of Jordy during today's lesson. Jordy is a big Nirvana fan. So far, he's learned "Smells Like Teen Spirit", "In Bloom", "Come as You Are", "Polly", "Breed", Heart-Shaped Box", "The Man Who Sold the World" and now "Lake of Fire". Jordy's been working on the solo for "Lake of Fire". It was sounding really good, so I decided to record it. You can hear it here.
Monday, October 17, 2005
This is a frame from a video I took of Kenny. I'm working on being able to post video clips but for now I've just posted the picture and the audio, which you can hear here. Kenny wants to be able to play this Beethoven excerpt at 250 on the metronome. This week he's got it up to 210. Go, Kenny go!
Saturday, October 15, 2005
Today, Tristan got a maintenance lesson. He learned how to change strings on his bass. It's a bit tricky at first but by the third string he was getting the hang of it. Tristan told me that he wants to start learning some songs on guitar. He also told me that he makes up drum beats. This is one musical dude!
Tuesday, October 11, 2005
Lisa is just getting back to guitar playing. She already has a good base. All her open chords sound pretty good. We've started work on scales, such as the open C major scale. Today we added the open E blues scale. We also worked on the chords for the 12 bar blues. Then we played through Lisa's collection of songs from her previous class. We played "Norwegian Wood", "Hey Jude", "Heart of Gold" and a few others. We finished off the lesson by starting to look at bar chords. Above, you can see Lisa attempting her first Bm chord.
Saturday, October 8, 2005
I taught this song to Mathew today. He didn't have his notebook so he asked me to post the chords on the site.
Thursday, October 6, 2005
Adam plays in the jazz band at his school. I'm helping him learn his parts. We worked on the F major, F seventh, F minor seventh and F blues scales. We also worked on the chords for the 12 bar blues. Then we practiced soloing. Adam showed me some chords for a song he made up then he proceeded to play some very cool solos. For me, one of the highlights of lesson was when Adam showed me a trick to get rid of my hiccups. It totally worked!
Monday, October 3, 2005
Today was Justin's second lesson. We started off with the blues scale. He had worked hard on it and so we increased his metronome marking from 60 to 100. I introduced him to the blues scale exercise to practice the blues scale over the whole neck. We then began work on the blues techniques, which include hammer-ons, pull-offs, slides, vibrato and bending. Following that, we practiced the chords for the 12 bar blues with the turn arounds in the keys of A and E. That was sounding good. We finished off by learning how to tune to open D tuning for slide playing.
Saturday, October 1, 2005
Dominic was my last student of the day. I always enjoy our lessons because we get to play great tunes. Dominic really likes the blues so we play a lot of it. He's also a big fan of 60's and 70's rock. He's learned quite a few Rolling Stones tunes as well as many songs by The Beatles, Cream and Tom Petty. Dominic has come a long way. He works hard and he has really progressed over the last few years. Keep up the great work!
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