Lesson 7 (12/12/2005)

Fun time this week. The guy that had a lesson before me quit, so Andy had asked me to come at 6:00 instead of 6:30. Well, the shop owner actually scheduled someone at six, so there was a bit of a conflict. I took the 6:00 spot last night, but we agreed that they would prefer the 6:00 slot, and I really don't care. In fact, I think I preferred 6:30, with no one after me. It just seems more laid back.

As for the lesson, we started out with me playing a C scale. Then I showed him that I had practiced moving it to the generic shape and could play it anywhere. He then asked about a G scale. Luckily, I had been practicing that one too. I don't have to too good as a generic shape, but I can play it pretty well in open position.

With the spirit of the season, we moved on to playing "Jingle Bells". He said for me to figure out the lead in C. Andy said it starts on the third, now go! Well, I did OK on that actually. I plinked it out while he strummed the chords. Then we moved it to G. Same thing there. We then moved on to Amazing grace. Same sort of thing, listen and figure out the melody. Get that ear to hearing and the fingers matching.

He said to really work on figuring out those melodies. It helps train that ear and also helps get the speed and accuracy up in those scale shapes.

Towards the end of the lesson, Andy showed me how to tie the open position G scale to a C shaped scale played down on the 7th fret, which is actually a G scale when played there. Using an open string to slide back and forth between the positions, you can tie the shapes together. Play the G as normal, but when you get to the high E string, play it. While it's being played, the left hand moves up to the 7th position and the next note in the scale is played B string, 7th fret. From there, continue in the C pattern. That finishes out the G scale! Awesome how that stuff all mixes together!

Not sure exactly what for next time. I think I'm going to hammer on some melody lines, and try to match them up with the scale shapes I know. I also think I'll work on tying the G open and the 7th position C shape together on different strings.

Louis