Session 4, Week 2 Recap -- ALL CLASSES

Summertime! And the livin' is easy. Or so they say.
I'm in crunch mode prepping for a gig so this'll be fairly short.
Coupla things pertinent to ALL:
This weekend is Square Roots Fest! http://www.squareroots.org/
Come for the music, stay for the beer! It's the most fun you'll have all summer. There will be an Education Tent where teachers and students are welcome to hang out and strum a song or two. I'll likely be there Saturday and Sunday before and/or after my classes, so stop by! There will also be extended Second Half jams on Saturday at 12:30p and Sunday at 1:30p, during which yours truly will supply the Twin Spin, so show up and lend me some moral support.
IMPORTANT "BUT!": BUT! parking will be an awful challenge so come early or take CTA.

Ok onto business.

Thursday's Guitar 4 did not meet last week due to holiday laziness (but my mom thanks you heartily!). See the previous post for a video lesson. We'll pick up from there this week.

Saturday's Guitar 4 continued to contemplate the meaning of the word "intermediate," after a somewhat grueling lesson on scales. Remember, WWHWWWH or the weird phone number 221-2221 in order to memorize the intervals that make up a major scale. 1 fret = H, so 2 frets = W. You can play up a single string, or break across strings to stay in one position using either an open or closed scale form. Open scale forms utilize the open strings--hence the name! But they can ONLY be played in one place because open strings are a fixed note/ position. Closed scales on the other hand, are modular and moveable. So long as you know where your root note is, you can use the same finger sequence to from any starting position. Don't forget that the second diagram--the one for CLOSED scales--shows you finger numbers, NOT fret numbers. Very important! We'll put it into further practice with Man Who Sold the World, so hopefully you practiced up on the hammer-ons and chord progression we started with last week.

And Guitar 3 on Sunday also used their brains more than they maybe meant to. this week worked on the F barre chord. It's just an E shape with your second, third and fourth fingers, played above a barre at the 2nd fret. It's mean and it hurts, but once you've mastered it, you can move that shape up and down the neck to any position. If you know the name of the note you're barring on the low-E string, you know the name of the chord you're playing! Wanna make it minor? Use the E-minor shape instead.Same rules apply to the Am and A shapes played with a root note barred on the 5th string. If that doesn't quite make sense, don't worry. It'll sink in and we'll work on it each week. But let's get started by completing the homework sheet in the packet. Fill in the names of the notes on the bottom two strings and we'll go from there. Practice the Otis Redding tune to get that F chord into your fingers. (and perfect your whistlin' skills!)

Confidential to Guitar 4 on Thursday Night

Friends --
I'm enjoying my minibreak and I hope you are too. As promised, here's your video lesson for this week. Have a happy holiday and see you next Thursday!
http://youtu.be/LmhHTn1kKkY

Session 4, Week 1 Recap -- ALL CLASSES

Session 4 already?! Where is this year going? Somebody stop it before it starts snowing again!
At any rate, it's a fresh session, a new round of classes, and a new blog.
A huge welcome to both new and returning students who are checking this page. As I mentioned in class, I try my best to update on Tuesdays, so check here every week on Tuesday evening or later for your class rundown.

Week 1 is always a fun chance to knock the rust off (even for those of you who've been signed up for class all along--the post Showcase rest is enough time to rust!). But now it's time to get back to work, so here we go!

Thursday night's Guitar 4 got started on some new fingerpicking work (and politely endured some 80s-cheese) with the Bowie ballad "As the World Falls Down" from the Jim Henson movie Labyrinth. The hair! The costumes! // jane dies //
Listen to the bass part here and you'll get the vibe of our fingerpicking pattern. Your thumb bounces twice on the root note of each chord shape, your index finger plucks its note once, followed by your 2nd and 3rd fingers together, plucking a mini-chord. The count is "one-and-two-and..." and just rest on 3 & 4 in the basic version, or add an extra index-chord-index on "and-four-and" for the pro-version. In either case, nothing happens on the third downbeat.
This song is in 4/4 time, but that pattern helps us get prepped for our next challenge, the other half of our Jim Henson two-fer--Rainbow Connection, which is in 3/4. http://youtu.be/jSFLZ-MzIhM
For now, stick to playing a waltz rhythm with your pick--pluck the root note on the 1, and strum the chords on 2&3. I'm guessing that if you listen to the intro and think like a banjo, you'll figure out how to do a Labyrinth-style finger pattern on RC, but I'll post a video lesson later this week with the specifics.
And remember, the Thursday night class is NOT MEETING THIS WEEK! Enjoy your night off. My mother appreciates your willingness to let me out for a visit.

Saturday's Guitar 4 also got started on some fingerpicking. Spend some time looking at the exercises in the back of the songbook. There are great resources back there to help get your fingers into pickin'-shape. You can apply the techniques to the tunes in the book liberally for maximum results! I think we'll take a look at Aragon Mill this weekend, which is the song of the session, and apply what we started with week 1. We worked on Faded from the Winter by Iron & Wine. Remember that your thumb, which plays the root note, also counts out the beats so in order to play a full measure, you have to double the pattern written on the page. The finger order goes: T-2-1-3, applied to strings 6-4-5-3 in that order (confused yet?). Your fretting hand is just making a two-note shape that moves up and down the neck as indicated. Here's the fully-bearded version. We'll play it a bit slower than the recording for awhile though! http://youtu.be/7e-sba4tIss

And in Sunday's Guitar 3, we made our very first foray into the barre chords. We started with Bm, which you make by forming and Am shape with alternate fingers (2, 3, 4), sliding the whole shebang up two frets so the fingers are making the shape on the 3rd and 4th frets, and then setting your index finger across all the strings at the second fret to form a barre (but you only have to strum--and technically only barre--the bottom 5 strings). Watch your thumb so that its parallell-ish to the barre and can help support it. Also, try to use the outside edge of your index finger rather than the underside, because the padded part is just too squishy to get an even barre out of. The outside edge of your finger is more evenly bony and therefore easier to press down with. Your body position also matters. Raise up the neck of the guitar slightly, pull your elbow off of your ribcage if it's glued there, and drop your wrist and thumb down so that you have room to support the chord and maneuver in and out of it. If you feel kinked up, stand up with a strap. That should help reset you into a natural frame. We played With a Little Help from My Friends to get that Bm into our fingers. Just chop chop chop chop on the quarter notes with muting in between to give it that special flare. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBDF04fQKtQ
I introduced the F chord as well, so practice that shape so we can use it in a song this week. It's just an E shape with alternate fingers (2,3,4) moved up just one fret, with the barre across the first fret. It's a doozy! Extra hand strength is required when you're playing so far away from your body, which is why it's essential that you practice and build up those muscles.

Have a nice Fourth of July! Play folk songs on your guitar! It's a very American thing to do!

Seesion 3, Week 7 Recap -- ALL CLASSES

Hey gang! It's almost time to take our victory lap at the Student Showcase next week, but this pas week we still had a bit of work to do--namely the songs of the session. If you haven't looked up Malvina's own version of Little Boxes, do yourself a favor and check it out: http://youtu.be/2_2lGkEU4Xs
I just love her voice.
There are many many versions of Water is Wide on YouTube also, but I'm partial to Pete's singalong version, because...Pete. Just Pete: http://youtu.be/wenQ_ThYksA

The rundown of Showcase songs is as follows --

Thursday Guitar 4: Just What I Needed (see previous post for a video tutorial). Stick with it! It's gonna be fine so long as we're all in it together. Pinky swear! We'll meet at 8:30p as per usual. Show starts at 9pm.

Saturday Guitar 3rep: Never My Love. It's gonna be so purdy! Ziggy is the fallback but I bet we won't need it. We meet at 11am as usual, and our show starts at noon so all your guests can get comfy in the concert hall.

Sunday Guitar 2rep: Heart of Gold--BUT (and it's a big but) there's always a chance that a class before us will play it. It's a popular tune at all levels. We don't want to get upstaged, so keep We're Gonna Be Friends ready as our back-up plan. Meet me at noon like always, and tell your guests that curtain goes up at 12:45p. But there isn't really a curtain.

E-mail me with questions, practice hard, and ENJOY the fruits of a productive session!
Remember next session starts up immediately, so if you haven't registered yet you'll wanna get on that so you don't miss a beat.
As always, it's an honor and a privilege to be your teach, and I learn far more from you all than I could ever reciprocate. Thanks for the music!

Confidential to Guitar 4 on Thursday night

Hey Thursday night kids! Here's a video lesson to help you get prepped for the Student Showcase next week. http://youtu.be/u6zfUICIcII

Session 3, Week 6 Recap -- ALL CLASSES

Hello friends!
The session is starting to wind down but we still have work to do.

Guitar 4 got started on a song by one of my favorite all-time bands, The Cars. Take note of the intro! You play eighth note down strums on the E string ONLY for 6 beats, and then you let the chord ring on the 7th beat. Do that four times. Then play the string alone for 6 beats, followed by the chord twice on 7 and 8. Listen and it'll make sense: http://youtu.be/TsPh-EgH65M
There are a number of small lead parts you can play on the high strings (tabbed out) which mimic the keyboard parts in the song. Listen and follow along and in our next meeting will spend some more time getting those nailed down. (But don't let Man Who Sold the World get rusty either because I'll want to run through that again too)

In Guitar 3 Rep we roped some Wild Horses. The strumming pattern is more or less the same as on Ziggy, but a little slower, lazier, and less precise. Don't worry about all the little up and downs, so long as you land clear strums on beats 1, 2, and 4. The rest of the doo-dads are just by feel. The split measures feature the root-strum root-strum-root stepping stones you'll hear here: http://youtu.be/UFLJFl7ws_0 Get to that root note! Especially on the Bminor. You've got a little extra time to form the rest of the chord after you nail the root on the one. Keep Never My Love and Ziggy fresh because they're all contenders for graduation. And bring your songbooks this week so we can do the song of the session fingerstyle!

And on Sunday, Guitar 2 Rep learned September Gurls, which I hope is now your favorite song. I love Big Star sooo very much. http://youtu.be/BNKSs1J38EA

I still can't believe this tune came out in 1974. Sounds like something you would've heard on the stage at Pitchfork this summer--though I bet you anything that all the bands on that bill are Big Star fans! The only thing tricky in that tune is the intro, but if you think of it in terms of moveable shapes, it's simple enough. Start with a D shape at the 7th fret (your 3rd finger will be on the 8th fret). Then make a Dm7 shape--which is like an F minus your 3rd finger--at the 5th fret (2nd finger at 6th fret). Finally, keep your fingers in that shape but slide them down to the 3rd & 4th frets. You'll strum the open D string through all of those moves to create a kind of background drone. 

Incidentally, the documentary I mentioned is called Nothing Can Hurt Me. If you get a chance to see it, I highly recommend it. I was lucky enough to see it on the big screen at the Music Box Theater, and I came away completely inspired as a songwriter. It shows you all the beauty and horror, the excitement and the boredom, and all the other polarizing moments that comprise belonging to a band.

Session 3, Week 5 Recap -- ALL CLASSES

Why yes that IS Diane Keaton in the original Broadway cast of Hair!

Friends -
The Early Registration pressure is ON! Save $15 on your next class--with me or with another fine teacher!--if you use the code PLAYSUMMER14 when you sign up...but you have to hurry. The discount is only good through this Friday the 6th. Here's a link to my faculty page (now with dramatic B&W photo!): https://www.oldtownschool.org/teachers/Jane-Hanna/

I've also got a few of gigs I want to put on your radar.
- On 6/21, my Glam Rock Ensemble will perform at Independence Tap, along with the Women's Rock Ensemble and the CBGBs Ensemble. Loud, silly, electrified fun for all (and a chance to check out what ensembles are all about if you've never signed up for one before!). Music starts at 8pm, no cover.
- On 6/28, my David Bowie cover band Heroes will perform its finally-final (for real this time) show EVER at Parlour on Clark. It's the eve of the Pride Parade and we're on a bill with a disco band so there will be sweat and glitter and inappropriate behavior for all. Music starts at 9pm...not yet sure about the cover, if there is one.
- On 7/14, I'm performing a set at the Acoustic Explosion open mic series at Silvie's Lounge. These shows sometimes have themes and that one will be--wait for it--MUSICAL THEATER. Come sing along as I giggle my way through some selections from Hair, the American Tribal Love-Rock Musical (the show in which I made my stage debut at age 14--it was a super-edited Reader's Digest version performed at teen theater camp). Show starts at 8pm, I play 9:10ish, and there's no cover.

So down to business.

Guitar 4 continues to valiantly forge ahead through some heavy scale work in Man Who Sold The World. I'm not going to do a lot of 'splaining here because it's all tabbed out for you on the goodies sheet. But I do have some bits of advice. Bit #1: Look for patterns. Your fingers make certain shapes multiple times when you play scales. Look for those and learn to love them. Repetitive motions make life a lot simpler and there are really only like 3 maneuvers you have to make in that tune. Once you've isolated those motions, you repeat them on different string combos, and there you have it. Bit #2: PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE. The only way to take this from confounding to competency is to do it. A lot. Muscle memory is a real thing and your fingers will start to act on their own in the correct way but you've got to train them first and that takes time and repetition. You can't play it once, skip the next 3 days, and expect it to have gotten better. Be consistent and watch yourself improve like magic!

Guitar 3 Rep did a little riffage based around the C chord in The Association's Never My Love. If you remind yourself that the C-shape is home base, and you simply make minor modifications inside that shape, you should be good to go. Also remember that the riff starts on beat 3, so you've got to count in "1 and 2 and" BEFORE you start. Inside the song, you'll be strumming either a C chord or an Am for those two lead-in beats, but in both cases, your fingers are already where they need to be to play the riff (because the C and Am chords are so closely related!) so you don't have to change anything to step right into the riff. We threw in one little walk, just to keep things spicy, and we're using the Golden Strum. It's a lot of work but the song is too pretty not to put in the effort! Take a look at the song of the session--Water is Wide--because we'll do some fingerpicking with that one next week.

And Guitar 2 Rep continues to gobble up material faster than I can bring it in! We fingerpicked our way through We're Going To Be Friends, using a "thumb-one-thumb-two" pattern with the picking hand. Remember that your thumb moves around to find the bass notes, but the one and two picking fingers occupy only two different zones in the song. Zone (or type) 1 is the 3rd and 2nd strings, and Zone 2 is the 2nd and 1st strings. It's a small shift between the two, so don't over think it. You're in Zone 1 for the G, C, and A chords, and in Zone 2 for the D and C chords (when the C chords follow the D chords). Mess around with fingerpicking on the song of the session--Water is Wide--and anything else in the book that strikes your fancy, and the muscles will get more nimble with that pickin' bizniz.

Good work, all of yous! Keep it up!