Session 4, Week 3 Recap

I'm slow to post an update here because I'm still recovering from Square Roots Fest!
I hope some of you got a chance to check it out. What a great weekend of music, dancing, community...and beer. So much beer.

Somehow we managed to still have classes! So here's the rundown.

In Guitar 1, we locked in the A and E chords, and added quite a few new ones to the rotation. First up was E minor, which--like all minor chords--has a mournful sound. You make that one by starting from a regular E shape and simply lifting up your index finger. E7 is just as simple--you lift up your ring finger instead of your index finger. E-asy peasy (see what I did there?). Practice your E to E minor and your E to E7! Those exercises will get your fingers in shape.

We also talked some more about eighth note strumming (down-up down-up down-up; also known as one-and two-and three-and four-and); and we worked our way through some old tunes (Leaving on a Jet Plane), and some new--to us anyway!--ones, most notably I Am Trying to Break Your Heart. That tune introduced the concept of "split measures," which mean that you play more than one chord in a single span of 4 counts, two beat for each chord listed.

If that wasn't enough new stuff to worry about, we also plunged into the G chord. For now, play it with your 1, 2, and 3 fingers, but we'll talk about different options next week. We looked at just the chorus of Sunshine, and we'll start with that tune next week and see if we can put the whole thing together.

My Guitar 2 classes have forked slightly due to the night off on Independence Day, but both sessions this week worked with capos. We know how to properly put them on the guitars, what they do, and how to read "Yo Mama's Capo and Transposing" chart in the course pack. Experiment! Take a song you love to play, and mess around with adding the capo. How does changing the key effect your ability to sing the tune? Harder? Easier? Look at the chart and see if you can figure out what key you've switched to by adding a capo. Start to get comfortable with the different keys so you know which ones you like and which ones you don't. Also, play Careless Love from the songbook in the key of C (inside the parenthesis), and then play it again using the shapes listed outside the parenthesis (which would normally be the key of A), but with the capo at the 3rd fret. Same song, same key, two different chord constructions! Neato!

Sunday's group got a little further with the addition of D minor to the chord vocabulary, which we solidified by playing the tune from the vid up there, with some fun two-part vocals and percussion. A graduation contender perhaps? Too soon to tell...

See you all soon, and as always, e-mail me with any questions or problems you may be having as you PRACTICE!

Session 4, Week 2 Recap

Hi gang! Hope everyone is fully recovered from the holiday weekend and fully committed to practicing some hot guitar licks!

This weekend (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday) is the Square Roots Festival outside the school: http://www.squareroots.org/
Be sure to leave enough travel time to accommodate the crowds and limited parking options. It'll be a great weekend, so bring your friends and family and stay awhile. On Sunday from 4-5pm I'll be one of the teachers leading a marathon of Twin Spins, so bring your guitars and join me.


This week in Guitar 1 we added the A and E chords to our repertoire, and we talked about the difference between quarter notes and eighth notes and practiced the down-up down-up strumming patter of the latter.
Here's that Decemberists tune:

And here's Mr. Denver. We jetted (*snert* get it?!) through this one right at the end of class, but we'll pick it up again next week:

We also went over tuning in some detail. You've got some handouts to help you review, and check last week's recap blog for a link to a previous post on tuning that goes step-by-step through the essentials.


In Guitar 2 this week, the Thursday group did not meet because of the holiday (*sniiiiff*), so we'll have to double-time it this week to get caught up. On Sunday, we reviewed that pesky F chord, which is starting to sound pretty good, and slowed down the Sam Cooke tune so that we could really get into the shuffling feel of the 2/4 time. We added a muting technique to the second strum for added texture.
Then we moved on to the B minor chord, for which we have two different formations. There's the Am/3 version--which isn't a perfect B min, but never mind--and also to the Fmaj7 shape moved up 2 frets and played on the 1, 2, and 3 strings. And you can practice both formations in the same tune, thanks to The Monkees (not to mention a simple and satisfying riff!)

Remember to bring capos to the next class!

ONWARDS AND UPWARDS, MY FRIENDS!

HOT DOGS!

For fans of The Lumineers. I will never hear this song the same way again!

Session 4 Week 1 Recap

Hello friends, old and new!
It's a new session at the Old Town School and that means new experiences, new songs, and a new blog!

Those of you who are looking at this blog for the first time--Welcome! I invite you to poke around in the backlog and take a look at the first few posts, which will tell you a little bit more about me, my teaching style, and the Old Town School.

For this session, I'm going to try and post a weekly digest, broken up by class. And I'll probably throw in a few supplemental posts here and there. When you have questions, never hesitate to e-mail me! Chances are, you're not alone, and I can post the answers here for the benefit of all.

My teaching schedule this session is:
Thursday 8:30pm -- Guitar 2
Saturday 11am -- Guitar 1
Sunday 12pm -- Guitar 2


In Guitar 1, we learned the parts of the guitar, the names of the strings, how to read a chord diagram, a song sheet, the D chord, the A7 chord, and we plowed through Jambalya and Pay Me My Money Down. PHEW! That's a heckuva lot of stuff for one day!
I have a few old posts on here that can help refresh your memory on those skills. Here's one about the names of the strings:
http://allsixornone.blogspot.com/2013/03/string-theory.html

And here are some with video links to excellent cover versions of the songs we did in class:
http://allsixornone.blogspot.com/2013/03/son-of-gun.html
http://allsixornone.blogspot.com/2013/03/week-1-pay-me-or-go-to-jail.html

We didn't quite have time to go through all the nuts and bolts of tuning, though I did hand out a three-sheet packet with some instructions. Read through those, and we'll talk a lot more about that next week, but there's also a post about tuning here to help you in the meantime:
http://allsixornone.blogspot.com/2013/03/ermahgerd-tuning.html

You guys did a GREAT job of singing and strumming at the same time, and I was amazed how fast we got through my lesson plan. I'm really looking forward to a great session with you all!


In both of my Guitar 2 classes, we started off in a jazzy way with Summertime. It gave us a chance to learn some new chords: Dm7 (using the outside of your index finger to grab two strings at the same time--egads!), and the Fmaj7 which is one of my favorite dreamy-sounding chords. There are LOTS of ways to interpret this song, so don't feel you have to stick to quarter notes when you play at home. Check out Janis Joplin's very raw and psychedelic blues interpretation!

Then we blazed straight ahead into yet another new chord--and this one's a biggie--the F'n F Chord!!! You're in the big time now, babies! The F is sort of like the Dm7 and Fmaj7 smashed together. 

The F chord is frequently found in combination with the C chord, so that's a good maneuver to practice a lot. Cosmic Dancer is a good tune for that. Just remember to pronounce it "Dahhh-ncer." It doesn't sound right otherwise. Here's a really awesome stripped-down version of that tune from a live concert. Marc plays the F as a full bar chord here, but never mind that. I actually think our way sounds better. More ethereal and cosmic! Stay through this clip to the end for some hot Blue Suede Shoes action. RIP Marc, you glorious weirdo!

You've also got Sam Cooke's You Send Me to fully seal in the pain of the F chord when you work at home this week. (with apologies again to Thursday night's group, for whom I exhibited some truly Peter Brady-esque voice cracking on that tune)

Thumb through the Old Town School Songbook and take note of all the new tunes you can play now that you have an F chord at your disposal. I'd say about 85% of the book is available to you now, so go nuts and experiment!

GUITAR 2 STUDENTS: PLEASE REMEMBER TO PURCHASE A CAPO AND BRING IT TO CLASS BY WEEK THREE
(Thursdays, that means you'll need it at our next meeting, because there's no class this week due to Independence Day. Feel free to crash my Sunday class though, if you can't stand to be away from me for that long.)

Happy Fourth and happy strumming!