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!
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