Wow, a week already! Thanksgiving really ate up (pun not intended) my practice time. I didn't get to do much of anything guitarwise this past week. I told that Andy right off and he totally understood.
This week was all about keys. Changing keys. Working on knowing the I, IV, and V of every key. Playing songs in the different keys. We started with "Wild Thing". Not really a song that I care too much about, but great for playing around with different keys. We took it, played it in C, then D, then G, all the way around.
He then asked me to name a song. Several things came to mind, but most were not really good for the lesson, and I knew that. Finally my mind stopped on "Gimme Three Steps". Turned out to be a very good one. We played that around in several keys.
The lesson ended with Andy telling me to get to know those keys cold. He didn't say "for next time", but that's what I'm taking upon myself to do. By next Monday I expect to have the I, IV, and V, as well as all sharps/flats for every key C, D, E, F, G, A, and B.
To that end, I have written a little .NET 2.0 program this morning that quizzes me, kinda a flash card thing. It works well so far. If anyone has any interest in it, email me.
Till next week!!
Tuesday, November 29, 2005
Tuesday, November 22, 2005
Lesson 4 (11/21/2005)
Another week already. The lessons keep getting more and more fun. Andy and I have gotten to know each other a bit and are much more comfortable. Now we just sit down and start having fun, learning in the process.
This week we started off reviewing changing keys. He drilled me on playing all the chords in various keys. I don't know them cold yet, but it only takes me a few seconds to have the ready to go.
We then moved on to walking patterns. Andy used the Cash standard "Walk the Line" for this. There is a key change in the middle of that song twice! Three different keys are used, so the walks change with keys, although they are very similar.
Then started talking about using the dreaded / (slash) chords to spice up playing. Some examples include "New Orleans Ladies", "Wonderful Tonight", and "Whiter Shade of Pale". I summarily reject "Whiter Shade of Pale from a traumatic experience with an All-Star Marching bad requiring me to play quater note base line on tuba for HOURS on end in practice, but that's another story entirely.
Let's take "New Orleans' Ladies" for example. Chords are simply C, Am, F, G. Rinse repeat. Basically a I, VI, IV, V progression. But you can take the C, then play a C/B, then the Am to get a base line walk, sort of. Same thing from the Am, to Am/G, to F. Once you land on the G chord, you can do a standard walk back up to the C.
We explored around a little more from there. On "Wonderful Tonight", he suggested that I might could use my thumb to play a D/F#. I have used that on a Alice in Chains song, "Don't Follow", and thought I was being super taboo. I mentioned that to him and he said nah, Clapton uses it. Andy also said to bring in the AIC song and we'll work on it next time.
Later on!
Louis
This week we started off reviewing changing keys. He drilled me on playing all the chords in various keys. I don't know them cold yet, but it only takes me a few seconds to have the ready to go.
We then moved on to walking patterns. Andy used the Cash standard "Walk the Line" for this. There is a key change in the middle of that song twice! Three different keys are used, so the walks change with keys, although they are very similar.
Then started talking about using the dreaded / (slash) chords to spice up playing. Some examples include "New Orleans Ladies", "Wonderful Tonight", and "Whiter Shade of Pale". I summarily reject "Whiter Shade of Pale from a traumatic experience with an All-Star Marching bad requiring me to play quater note base line on tuba for HOURS on end in practice, but that's another story entirely.
Let's take "New Orleans' Ladies" for example. Chords are simply C, Am, F, G. Rinse repeat. Basically a I, VI, IV, V progression. But you can take the C, then play a C/B, then the Am to get a base line walk, sort of. Same thing from the Am, to Am/G, to F. Once you land on the G chord, you can do a standard walk back up to the C.
We explored around a little more from there. On "Wonderful Tonight", he suggested that I might could use my thumb to play a D/F#. I have used that on a Alice in Chains song, "Don't Follow", and thought I was being super taboo. I mentioned that to him and he said nah, Clapton uses it. Andy also said to bring in the AIC song and we'll work on it next time.
Later on!
Louis
Tuesday, November 15, 2005
Lesson 3 (11/14/2005)
Fun lesson this time around, for sure! I showed up with a few printouts of some songs I had been working and such. I had "Hurt", "Let Her Cry", "Let It Be", and "Wish You Were Here".
I played "Hurt" for him. He joined in and had some suggestions on the chords and strumming patterns. All fit really well. Went on to "Let Her Cry". Didn't spend a lot of time on this one as it's pretty straight forward.
Then we looked at "Let It Be". This where the lesson took off. When playing it, I added a little walk down from the C to the G. He flew with this idea, showing that I needed to complete it, not just use the one note that I was using.
Then we started talking about what key the song was in. Then how the progressions work for each key. We started with the C scale. I played the first chord, a basic C. Then he said play the 2nd. I hit a D, but that's not totally right. The D major chord has a F# in it, but F# is not in the C major scale. When you flat the F# down to an F and play the D, it is a D minor chord.
This works for several steps of the scale. The 2nd and 3nd chords are minor, as is the 6th. The 7th is really weird. It becomes some dimished minor thing that sounds very dissonant. But, actually you can flat the 7th and play a major chord and that works well in some progressions, apparently. We went through the C progression and, lo and behold, the progression for Freebird just popped out!
For next time I Andy wants me to take the songs I played this week and change them into different keys using the methods we talked about. Something in G, play it in C. Stuff like that.
'Til next time!
Louis
I played "Hurt" for him. He joined in and had some suggestions on the chords and strumming patterns. All fit really well. Went on to "Let Her Cry". Didn't spend a lot of time on this one as it's pretty straight forward.
Then we looked at "Let It Be". This where the lesson took off. When playing it, I added a little walk down from the C to the G. He flew with this idea, showing that I needed to complete it, not just use the one note that I was using.
Then we started talking about what key the song was in. Then how the progressions work for each key. We started with the C scale. I played the first chord, a basic C. Then he said play the 2nd. I hit a D, but that's not totally right. The D major chord has a F# in it, but F# is not in the C major scale. When you flat the F# down to an F and play the D, it is a D minor chord.
This works for several steps of the scale. The 2nd and 3nd chords are minor, as is the 6th. The 7th is really weird. It becomes some dimished minor thing that sounds very dissonant. But, actually you can flat the 7th and play a major chord and that works well in some progressions, apparently. We went through the C progression and, lo and behold, the progression for Freebird just popped out!
For next time I Andy wants me to take the songs I played this week and change them into different keys using the methods we talked about. Something in G, play it in C. Stuff like that.
'Til next time!
Louis
Thursday, November 10, 2005
Songs I am wanting to learn
In response to my "homework" from my last lesson, I have put together a list of songs that I have/will have down pat very soon. Here they are, and I'll check them off as I go.
Post any comments and/or suggestions for other simple acoustic style songs.
- Let Her Cry – Hootie almost ready
- Time – Hootie
- Fine Line – Hootie / Radney Foster almost ready
- Earth Stopped Cold at Dawn – Hootie
- Only Lonely – Hootie
- Plush – Stone Temple Pilots
- Yesterday – Beatles
- Let It Be – Beatles almost ready
- Hurt – NIN/Reznor/Cash almost ready
- Wish You Were Here – Pink Floyd ready
- Comfortably Numb – Pink Floyd
- Mother – Pink Floyd
- Over the Hills and Far Away – Led Zeppelin
- Patience – GNR
- Sweet Child O’ Mine – GNR
- Farmhouse – Phish
- I Remember You - Skid Row almost ready
- Every Rose Has Its Thorn - Poison almost ready
Post any comments and/or suggestions for other simple acoustic style songs.
Tuesday, November 08, 2005
Lesson 2 - 11/7/2005
Well, like I said in the last post, we skipped last week because of it being Halloween. A good bit has happened since then. I'm home today with Chloe; she's got an ear infection and I just got back from the doc with her.
I got my Christmas present from Amy already. I found a great deal on the amp I want and I convinced her to go ahead and get it. It arrived yesterday. It is a Vox Valvetronix AD30VT. I've gotten to spend a couple of hours with it so far and I absolutely love it. Impossible to even compare to the crappy little Marshall MG10CD I had. It was a "Scratch and Dent" item from Musician's Friend, but I can't see anything that is wrong with it. Looks to be in perfect physical shape. Since I paid $191 for it, no tax and no shipping, that saved $70 bucks from the $239 + tax at the local GC.
Well, on to the lesson. Andy seemed pretty impressed with the scales and such from last time. We played around a while. Then we got into how to form sus4 and sus2 chords. It was a pretty laid back lesson. He asked about songs I want to/have learned. I mentioned "Wish You Were Here" again. He did some Beatles tunes. That sounds like a good idea to me.
He warned me about being the guy that knows the beginnig to every song, but doesn't know an entire song. I think he right about that. My "homework" was to find some songs I want to learn. Next time in, I'm going to have "Wish You Were Here" down completely, along with some others. I'm thinking I'll bring in some Hootie maybe. Amy is trying hard for some Christmas songs, and that's probably a good idea.
Until next time,
Louis
I got my Christmas present from Amy already. I found a great deal on the amp I want and I convinced her to go ahead and get it. It arrived yesterday. It is a Vox Valvetronix AD30VT. I've gotten to spend a couple of hours with it so far and I absolutely love it. Impossible to even compare to the crappy little Marshall MG10CD I had. It was a "Scratch and Dent" item from Musician's Friend, but I can't see anything that is wrong with it. Looks to be in perfect physical shape. Since I paid $191 for it, no tax and no shipping, that saved $70 bucks from the $239 + tax at the local GC.
Well, on to the lesson. Andy seemed pretty impressed with the scales and such from last time. We played around a while. Then we got into how to form sus4 and sus2 chords. It was a pretty laid back lesson. He asked about songs I want to/have learned. I mentioned "Wish You Were Here" again. He did some Beatles tunes. That sounds like a good idea to me.
He warned me about being the guy that knows the beginnig to every song, but doesn't know an entire song. I think he right about that. My "homework" was to find some songs I want to learn. Next time in, I'm going to have "Wish You Were Here" down completely, along with some others. I'm thinking I'll bring in some Hootie maybe. Amy is trying hard for some Christmas songs, and that's probably a good idea.
Until next time,
Louis
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