Hello folk friends!
First off let me say that I am so incredibly grateful to have each and every one of you as my students. The last couple of weeks have been a trial in my non-musical life. As many of you know, I put in my notice at The Field Museum. I thought it was going to be a 30 year career, but the universe had other plans for me and who am I to argue with the universe? Next session, I'll be reporting on my new post at the Skokie Public Library! I hope to have far fewer "Sorry, I'm really stressed about my day job" excuses for late-updates, and far more "Sorry, my day job is just so awesome I got distracted!" ones.
You've all been very patient and supportive of your absent-minded professor as I've been dealing with all of this, and you have my thanks. One of the biggest perks of the new job is the 6 hours per week LESS that I'll have to spend on CTA. Which means 6 hours per week MORE to play music!
In Thursday's Guitar 4ever class, we played some folk music (imagine that!), kept up our chops on Don't Think Twice, and knocked out 99 Red Balloons. Here's the German-language version I didn't get a chance to play in class. http://youtu.be/qfPTC7-wCL8 The first and last verse are sparse and quiet. One strum per measure. Play big, beautiful open/barre chords there. The rest of the verses? Rock out with your, um, wurst out. Power chords, down strums, and rockin' eighthnotes. The riffy stuff I think is fairly self-explanatory. Play each of the lines in the first box twice when prompted. The second box should sound like the vocal melody. Listen to the synth in the video. That's what we're mimicking in those bits. Don't forget the dramatic flourish at the very end. Ausgezeichnet!
On Saturday, Guitar 1Rep polished up the Flaming Lips tune a bit more (see last week's recap for details). Then we tackled the Calypso strum, which you can apply to Bobby Darin's Dream Lover. On
the first beat, pluck the root note of the chord all by itself (just
like we did on Evangeline). The root note is going to be located on the
first string your pick makes contact with when you're strumming a chord,
so sometimes it'll be an open string and sometimes it'll be a string
with a finger on it as part of a chord shape. Then on beat two, you'll
D-R-A-G out your strumming motion just a little bit to give it a more
deliberate sound. Finally, to really polish it up, add a mute to the
third beat where you aren't strumming anything. So it looks like this
all together: Root Drag-Up (mute)-Up Down-Up.
As if that wasn't enough, we also talked about 6/8 time and how Time Is On My Side. Remember that you emphasize beats one and four, so it almost takes on a 2/4 feel. DOWN (down-up down-up) DOWN (down-up down-up). Those little strums are just that--little. Don't worry about snagging the full chord. Just get a few low strings on the way down, and a few high strings on the way up. You'll figure it out in time (time time time...)
And on Sunday in Guitar 4--guys, thanks for your patience and support. Those of you who didn't know Mike Mann probably felt a bit uncomfortable watching me break down when we sang Worried Man Blues. Music HEALS, but so does the patience of students. I really appreciate all of the love in that room, and later at Second Half. Old Town School is a home and a safe haven, and it's there for you when you need it. I'm certainly grateful to have experienced that love firsthand on Sunday. Whenever you strum that tune, think of Mike!
We also worked up Rainbow Connection. For now, it's fine to just stick to playing a waltz rhythm with your pick--pluck the root note on the 1, and strum the chords on 2&3. I did this video lesson for some students last summer with all the banjo-fingers detail work. Note that it's capo'd but I'm much better at singing it (arguably) without so let's not and say we did. http://youtu.be/LmhHTn1kKkY
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