Session 1, Week 6 Recap -- ALL CLASSES

Oi! You lot! (sorry...I'm still in punk mode after last Saturday's tribute show)
We're in the home stretch here, so take a moment to reflect and look back at how far we've come this session! New strums, new riffs, new chords, new rhythms, new tunes, and new friends! Not bad for a couple of months' work, eh?

In Guitar 3, we tackled a Valentine song of sorts. CSNY's "Our House" has some rather pleasing walk-downs. Just follow the chord charts as you alter the bass note of the chord measure by measure. Remember we're playing the bass note twice by itself in a light and bouncy way, followed by two similarly light strums on the chord. (If you listen to the recording, it's more like a 1:3 split on piano between bass note and chord, but on guitar it sounds better our way). That changes a little in the split measures, where you'll play the bass note once and then the chord once, then the next bass note and the next chord once each. Play that Eb chord by sliding a C shape up until your index finger is at the 4th fret, and then add your pinky on the 1st string 7th fret. Easy! Please feel free to throw in some "la"s so I don't have to do ALL of those by myself. :) And make sure to keep plugging away at Ziggy!

In Guitar 2 Rep we kept Ophelia fresh, with that bass pickin' jangle jangle pattern we learned last week. Then we looked at L-O-V-E, better late than never for Valentine's Day. That tune has a whole slew of 7 chords, including minor 7s and major 7s. Dm7 is an F chord without your ring finger, and Cmaj7 is a C chord without your index finger. I hope you sang it to someone you loved.
We also took a look at We Are Going to Be Friends. Repeat after me: Thumb-one-thumb-two
That's the pattern of alternating fingers we used with our right hands to play We're Going to be Friends by The White Stripes. Your thumb always plays the bass note, which will be the note the chord is named after, and located on one of the bottom three strings. Your first and second fingers cover the 3rd and 2nd strings respectively, EXCEPT when you play the D chord. For that your first and second fingers should scoot over to the 2nd and 1st strings, respectively.
Jack White only uses his thumb and first finger in the clip up there. Do as I say, not as he does! (but do notice the way that he plants the rest of his fingers against the body of the guitar. I do that too and you may find it helpful for keeping that right hand grounded.

And in Guitar 1 Rep--whew! we did A LOT! Not only did we keep Dream Lover and The One I Love fresh (quite different sentiments in those, no?), but we tackled two new tunes to boot! For She Don't Use Jelly, the keyword is "dynamics," which is music-speak for volume. Play the intro and the instrumental sections loudly (where the split measures are), and play the verses quiet and gently. In the split measures, strum ALL the eighth ones. But on the verses, strum the chord just once on the one, and let it ring until the 4th beat where you'll hit it again to lead into the next measure. On the measure of A, do a crescendo--which  means start softly and get louder--while you downstrum all the eighth notes. I may make a minor change to that chart next week after having listened to the recording a couple of times today. That transitional section with all the magazines and tangerines is still bothering me. But don't worry about that for now.
Finally, we learned about 6/8 time and played the Rolling Stones' Time is on My Side. Remember that the one and the four are the main beats to emphasize. ONE two three FOUR five six. Your strums on those lowercase beats can be lighter and smaller. You'll want to do all downstrums or you'll goof yourself up when you get to 4 and find you have to upstrum the emphasized beat. That's just too confusing. Dance it out if you feel it! It helps!