This was Emma's first lesson in over a month. She broke her wrist just before school started. She recently got a smaller cast so she decided to give guitar playing a try. That's dedication! We reviewed all her scales and chords and we even learned a new song, "Tears and Rain" by James Blunt. She played pretty well, as a matter of fact.
Thomas has been working on his reading for a little while now. Today, we decided to record one of the exercises he has been practicing. We did one practice run through then we recorded. Thomas got it in one take. Good stuff, Thomas! Oh, and I decided to have some fun with the video...
Check out Adam's new guitar! The body is an oil can. Adam got it when he was in South Africa this summer. It plays and sounds great. Today we worked on a song that Adam wrote which sounded really good. We also learned a Dallas Green song and an Armor for sleep song.
If you have any requests for songs, just email me at itcamefromthegarage@gmail.com.
Walk Away - Franz Ferdinand Intro:....| Gm | F | Am | E7 | Verse:..| C | G | Am | Em | ............| C | G | Am | F | ............| C | G | F | F | ............| C | G | Em | Em | ............| C | G | Am | F | ............| C | G | Am | F | ............| Em | Em | G | G |
Chorus:| Ab | Cm | Ab | Cm | ............| Ab | Cm | Fm | Cm | ............| Ab | Cm | Gm | Bbm | ............| F | G| G | ---> 2nd time add | Gm | Gm | Instr.:...| Gm | F | Am | E7 | ............| Gm | F | Am | E7 |
This was Vincent's second lesson. Last class, we started working on the blues scale. Today we started by reviewing it. We played it all over the neck. It was starting to sound pretty good. Vincent's a quick learner. Then we played "Dani California", which we had also worked on last week. It sounded great. We practiced "Snow" as well and were able to get it up to 85 bpm. We finished up by learning "Innocent" by Our Lady Peace and starting "Miss Murder" by AFI.
Monday nights are music nights at Allan and Elyse's. I teach their daughter Kira first, then Allan and I have a two hour lesson, which usually involves playing Chilli Peppers songs with Elyse and their younger daughter Maya singing. Tonight Kira and I made up a cool song using the E blues scale and the vibrato on an old Fender amp. We also practiced our chords while I played a bass drum with my foot(they have a drum kit in their basement as well). Then, Allan had invited a drummer friend over so I played bass and we had our first real jam. We played through most of the Chilli Pepper songs that Allan has been practicing like "Can't Stop", "Dani California", "Desecration Smile", "Californication", "My Friends", "Under the Bridge" and "Otherside" as well as a few other songs. Allan sounded great! He had put in some serious work on "Can't Stop" this past week and there was a huge improvement. Elyse and Maya sang without a mic because for some reason, it stopped working. Next week we'll fix that...
Bill has been working hard on the A blues leads. We recorded a run through today to see where we're at. Bill played it from memory. It sounded good. We worked on some of the rough spots. It's almost there at the original tempo (80 bpm). Then I gave Bill the music for the A blues part 2 and we went over the first four or five choruses. Good work, Bill.
Although this was Samantha's first lesson since June, we were able to jump right back in where she had left off. The warm up exercises and scales sounded great. Then we did a bit of reading. Next, we worked on some songs in her new Beatles songbook. Samantha had been practicing "Hey Jude" and "Yellow Submarine" on her own. She played them for me and then I gave her some chord exercises to help the songs sound even better. Right before the end of the lesson, I had Samantha try playing bass because she wants to try for a spot in her school band (they don't have acoustic guitar!). She liked it!
Zander is working on his slap playing. I gave him some new exercises to try out. We also worked on some new scale and arpeggio exercises that were pretty challenging. Then we talked a little about modes and added the phrygian mode to his repertoire. We ended with some work on writing bass lines. Zander has already written some pretty cool bass lines for his Ska band, The Soundwiches. You can hear some of them here.
This is Robin. He is Bill's son. Today was his first lesson with me. He named his strings Egg, And, Dog, Grape, Big, Electricity. Electricity seems to be a popular name for the high E string. We covered a lot of stuff. We worked on the warm up exercise, rhythms, reading, chords and we even learned the intro to "Good Riddance" by Green Day. As well, I taught Robin a bass line and we jammed with some drum loops and it sounded good. Work on those calluses, Robin!
