Back to school time!
To those of you I met for the first time this week, welcome to my blog (and welcome BACK to the rest of you). My Core teaching schedule this session is:
Guitar 4Ever -- Thursday, 8:30pm
Guitar 1 -- Saturday, 11am
Guitar 3 Rep -- Sunday 12pm
I'll post class recaps here once per week (on Tuesday or Wednesday, usually) in a digest form. Read your own classes section, or snoop on them all!
Guitar 4Ever kicked things off with a bit of the boogie woogie. Check out this YouTube vid, which I think explains the technique pretty well. http://youtu.be/Z5-LDTb3w-I He goes a bit further and adds the "flatted 7th." If that makes sense to you and you wanna try it, go ahead, but it's a bit beyond the scope of what we worked on. I believe some of you referred to this as "finger contortionism." And it is. But sometimes you have to suffer for your art! Besides, it sounds so damn cool!!!
We started out the class packet with Aimee Mann's "Save Me." Other than the little variations on E chords (Em, Emaj7--which is and Em chord with the note on the 4th string moved down a half step to the 1st fret, and Em7--which is a one-finger chord with your index on the second fret of the 5th string), there's not a whole lot of fancy fretwork. Just one little old barre chord in the form of an F.
It's the strumming that makes this so satisfying (in my opinion). Bounce twice just on the bass note on beats 1 & 2, strum the chord on 3, and then snag a little upstrum on the and of 4 on your way to the next measure. It's a strumming pattern that combines the rhythms that the bass, guitar, and drums are all playing on the album version--remember, you're a one-man band in your living room so you have to get creative in the way you arrange songs. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4c48vs4lwgc
You'll also--if you listen carefully--hear some logical opportunities to add in rakes (dramatic, slo-mo upstrums) in a couple of places. We didn't talk about those in class, but we'll add that detail when we get together Thursday. I know some of you love to sing this song, and I love that so I want to take advantage of it. Hear the background vocals? There are some wonderful "ahhhhs" and "do-do dooos" in there, not to mention harmonies. Grab any of those if you feel like it! We don't all have to sing the same part. Let's work on vocal arranging from time to time.
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, basic quarternote strumming, and we played through Jambalya. 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/ at Second Half:
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
Besides Pay Me My Money Down, check out Good News, Buffalo Gals, and My Home's Across the Smoky Mountains in the songbook if you need a break from practicing Jambalaya. (5 songs ain't a bad portfolio for only having had one lesson!)
If you poke around in the earliest posts on this blog, you can also learn more about me, and how this page got its name.
We didn't talk about tuning yet, and your instrument may be sounding weird if it's gone out of tune. We'll spend a lot of time learning how to fix that this Saturday, but in the
meantime here's a blog on the subject (and I'll have a handout in class):
http://allsixornone.blogspot.com/2013/03/ermahgerd-tuning.html
Practice hard to start building up those calluses, but don't push so hard that it stops being fun to strum. Remember, it's only rock and roll!
And in Guitar 3 Rep, we're old pros at barre chords now (conceptually, if not physically), so
it was straight into the tuneage for us, starting with the psychedelic goodness of Itchycoo Park by The Small Face. You'll have two barre chords to tackle. F#m is an Em
shape played with a barre at the second fret, and C#m is an Am shape
played with a barre at the 4th fret.
We're strumming this one with a swingin' One Two Three-And Four rhythm the whole way through, but be sure to change VIBES if not rhythms when
you get to the bridge. It should feel a bit softer and more reflective
than the manic happiness of the choruses.
Also, in the verses, be sure
to change chords in the split measures on the 4th beat, then switch to
the D on the AND of 4 in the split measure. That G chord should feel
like a pick-up note that leads into the measure of D. Next week we'll work on the fancy footwork from this vid. Be sure to wear your short-shorts like the drummer (which, I'm told, are called "stubbies" in New Zealand where this band hails from). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14ViwvgtvbA
I know some of you are going to Riot Fest this weekend. Say hi to Patti Smith for me!
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