Rock & Roll 101

April 29th, 2025

We went through Lush Life together, and then added Marshmello Chvrches, Here With Me. We repeated it for the whole lesson, because it's got kind of a complicated structure.

April 22nd, 2025

We reviewed I Kiss a Girl again, keeping it at 55% speed, and then added Zara Larsson, Lush Life.

April 15th, 2025

We reviewed Beautiful Things a bit, and tried to go through it, but there were a lot of new chords and Lyla wasn't super comfortable with them, so we switched gears and added a new one, by Katy Perry called I Kiss a Girl.

We went through it once at 55% speed before running out of time.

April 8th, 2025

We started with going over Count On Me, and then I wrote out Beautiful Things, and we played through the first bit of that.

It's got some unfamiliar chords in it for Lyla, like E and F#m, so we did some drills to help speed that up.

April 1st, 2025

We started out with reviewing Here Comes the Sun. It might be a little advanced for Lyla, with a few bar chords etc. in it. We went through it once, and then added a new one, by Bruno Mars called "Count On Me."

At the end of the lesson we tried to add another, Benson Boone, Beautiful Things, but ran out of time before getting anywhere on it.

March 25th, 2025

We reviewed Pumped Up Kicks, and then added Here Comes the Sun by the Beatles. We capoed it on 2 and played it in G

March 18th, 2025

Today we went over the Man to start, then did Pumped Up Kicks, Three Little Birds, and finally I Got You from last week.

March 11th, 2025

March 4th, 2025

We went through The Man a couple of times, and then we added a new song, I Got You by Devon Cole. This one is really fast, so we did it at 75% speed to learn it.

February 25th, 2025

Today Zach came in instead of Lyla, who is sick. We spend some time talking about major and minor chords and how to find them on a neck for any given key.

Here's a quick video I made to describe it.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/jD1ODqjMllo

The order of chords:
1 Major, 2 Minor, 3 Minor, 4 Major, 5 Major, 6 Minor.

February 18th, 2025

We started with reviewing "Mean," and then added Taylor Swift, "The Man." We went through it at 75%, 85% and 95%.

February 11th, 2025

Today we started off with A Bar Song, and then learned the song Mean by Taylor Swift, and played it through a number of times.

February 4th, 2025

Today we went over Gorgeous, and then added Champagne Problems, which was too slow for Lyla, so we added A Bar Song (Tipsy).

January 28th, 2025

We wenty through Miles On It together, and then added a new one, Gorgeous by Taylor Swift. This has a fun strumming pattern in it, but it's a bit hard for guitar because it has an F in it.

January 21st, 2025

We went through Getaway Car together, and then added Miles On It by Kane Brown featuring Marshmello.

January 14th, 2025

We reviewed Welcome to New York, and then added Getaway Car. We did it with a capo, so that she could avoid D minor and F... on the 5th so it's in G. There's a key change to A and the chords there are a little unfamiliar with Lyla still - I think she was just too tired to remember them a bit tonight! :)

January 7th, 2025

Today we added "Welcome to New York," and played it through two or three times. It changes pretty fast but she was able to keep up! Good job!

See you next week!

December 17th, 2024

Lyla didn't come in today, because she had hurt her hand, but Zack came and we did some more theory. We talked again about sevenths, and then

December 10th, 2024

We went through All Too Well, and then added Taylor Swift, Christmas Tree Farm.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ozk8xq0Lp1g

See you next week!

December 3rd, 2024

We went through All Too Well a couple of times and then reviewed Santa Claus is Coming to Town.

November 26th, 2024

We went through 22, then added All Too Well by Taylor Swift.

November 19th, 2024

We went through Down by the Bay, but then didn't do the other two Christmas songs from last week. Instead, we added Taylor Swift Shake It Off and 22. 22 has a bit of a hard chorus, and so we just focused on the verses this week.

November 12th, 2024

Started off reviewing Down By the Bay
Added Santa Claus is Coming to Town - learned D7, G7, A7.
Finished with Last Christmas

November 5th, 2024

We started off with Katy Perry, Roar. We played through that a few times. It takes some careful counting, because the E minor is strummed 6 times, with a 2 strum C after it.

We then decided to try some camp fire songs, and settled on Down by the Bay.

October 29th, 2024

Zach came today in Lyla's spot, and we talked through some theory. We learned the relationship of chords between a minor, a major, a suspended 4, and an add 9. These chords are all different because of the third note of the chord. The major third makes a major chord, a minor third makes a minor chord, up one half step from the major chord makes a sus4 chord, etc.

We also looked briefly at palm muting, and the E minor pentatonic scale.

October 22nd, 2024

Lyla did well again today. We reviewed Bad Blood and August, and then added Shivers by Ed Sheeran.

October 15th, 2024

Lyla did really well today. We started with a review of Bad Habits, and played through the song. She did great on it.

We then added two new songs: Bad Blood and August, both by Taylor Swift.

October 8th, 2024

We went through LMFAO at a slow speed, and then added a new one, Ed Sheeran, Bad Habits:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeOpRzcqKrE

October 1st, 2024

Grandma brought Lyla this weeK! We started with going through last week's song, and then added LMFAO, Party Rock Anthem
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsMDKjb54EM

This is pretty tricky to do on guitar, so we slowed it down A LOT so she could change chords as fast as the keyboard synth part.

September 24th, 2024

In Lyla's lesson today, we started by playing through "This Is Me," a few times, and then added a new song: Taylor Swift, I Can Do It With a Broken Heart.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9qaJLzsfJg

September 17th, 2024

We made a list of songs and put them in the back of her book, and then we added "This Is Me" from the Greatest Showman.

It has a B minor in it, which isn't a fun or easy chord to play. We went through about 75% of the song a few times.

September 10th, 2024

We reviewed Fortnight (twice through), and then went over Thousand Miles again a few times.

I suggested she put together a list of songs she would like to learn to make it easier each week.

September 3rd, 2024

Lyla learned Country Roads over the summer, so we started off (and ended) with that song. I wrote it out for her, but Kiley is going to print out the lyrics next week so I can do it properly for her.

We then added Fortnight by Taylor Swift and went through that before returning to Country Roads once.

June 27th, 2024

Lyla is feeling unwell today, so not coming in.

June 20th, 2024

In today's lesson we focused mostly on playing the C more quickly, using one motion, instead of building the chord one finger at a time. She really got fast at it by the end of the lesson, and we were able to play through the chord progression of Thousand Miles together at least three times in a row.

June 13th, 2024

We continued working on Thousand Miles, and tried to get faster switching from the D to the C for verse, where the D is only for one beat.

June 6th, 2024

We went through Blank Space a few times, and then added The Kid LAROI, Thousand Miles:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTXVU9XMCjQ

May 30th, 2024

We reviewed Cheerleader, and then I tried to encourage Lyla to learn something new. We started out with Blackbird, but after a few notes, she was less interested in that, so we switched to a new song, Taylor Swift, Blank Space:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-ORhEE9VVg

May 23rd, 2024

Lyla seemed a tad distracted tonight. We went over Cheerleader, and then she wanted to revisit an older song, Taylor Swift, Ready For It

May 16th, 2024

We added a new song today in Lila's lesson, and worked through the chords.

OMI, Cheerleader:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXF9ziZ3AU4

It's the same three chords to the whole song and she did pretty well on switching to the chords when she remembered to switch. I encouraged her to count 1 2 3 4, 1 2, 1 2 to help with switching in the right place. When she started counting she did much better.

May 9th, 2024

Zach came instead of Lyla today, and we added Pink Floyd, Wish You Were Here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVcU9m488e4

They're thinking they'll continue lessons through July and August.

May 2nd, 2024

We started with The Sheepdogs, I Don't Know, and for some reason I had written it out as an E minor last time we did it- it's actually E major. We went over that for about half the lesson, and then added Michael Jackson, Beat It:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fO8jVZ3T9g

I wrote out the beginning chords, and then the bass line thing. We ran out of time before getting through the whole song.

April 25th, 2024

Lyla played through Sunflower and then wrote out Worldwide, which we hadn't written out last time.

This required learning a new chord, "B minor" so we spent some time working on that, and then went through the chords separately, then with the song at a slower speed before running out of time.

April 18th, 2024

We started with playing through I Don't Know by the Sheepdogs, and then added Sunflower by Post Malone and Swae Lee.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cce9JqwPFkY

We tried adding City Is Ours by Big Time Rush, but it had some chords Lyla doesn't love yet, so we started working through another Big Time Rush song, called Worldwide:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EDCpDXMowc

April 11th, 2024

We went through Astronaut in the Ocean.

We then did "I Don't Know" by the Sheepdogs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvCq2hmlasM

April 4th, 2024

Lyla had a busy week with memorizing a play, so didn't practise. We worked through Cruel Summer together, and then added Astronaut in the Ocean:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WeHObZNz_Zg

March 28th, 2024

Lyla wanted to add a new song, we did one by Taylor Swift, Cruel Summer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLJcHbYSlB8

We started out charting it in A but there were a few difficult chords so we capoed it and moved it to G.

March 21st, 2024

We started the lesson with reviewing Oompa Loompa, which has a B7 chord in it that is stumping her a bit. After going over it a while, we switched gears and did some past songs to end on an encouraging note.

March 14th, 2024

Lyla is away today.

March 7th, 2024

Lyla isn't coming in today.

February 29th, 2024

Lyla was a little distracted today. She didn't want to continue with Love Story, so we tried Vance Joy, Riptide. This is a simple song chord wise, but harder with strumming. We tried taking the strumming element out of the song, but she still didn't seem to intuit where the chords changed.

She saw Jagwar Twin, Bad Feeling (Oompa Loompa) on the screen and wanted to try this one, so we spent a bit of time with that. Maybe we'll look at it again next week.

Have a nice trip! We'll see you in three weeks!

February 15th, 2024

We played through Save Your Tears, and I showed Lyla the new chord, D minor, which is in the bridge section.

After that she wanted to add a new song, and we settled on Love Story:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrsqPE9SMxo

February 8th, 2024

Today Kiley brought lyla. We went through Save Your Tears and Circles together.

February 1st, 2024

We reviewed a Taylor Swift song, and then added The Weeknd, Save Your Tears:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3o4ug07qJBI

We didn't finish it, so I'll write out the rest of the chords for next time.

January 25th, 2024

We started off playing through Happy Birthday as practise for the dog's birthday tomorrow.

We then reviewed Shake It Off at full speed, then Our Song at 80%? speed... can't remember quite if that was the right speed.

We then added a new one, that she had done on piano. It's good because it only has two chords.

Post Malone, Circles:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gkRJONZPSA

January 18th, 2024

Lyla is doing very well. Zach brought his guitar along today and we went over Happy Birthday a few times and then continued working on Our Song.

At the end of the lesson I wrote out a couple of additional chords to work on in practise time.

January 11th, 2024

Today we worked through the A chord and the switch back to D.

Then in the last bit we added Happy Birthday.

January 4th, 2024

Lyla is doing very well. I love how fast she picks things up!

Today we worked through Shake It Off a bit more, and then added Our Song by Taylor Swift:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=766dAHq7a0w

The chords change quickly in it, but she fine until the repeating, and then getting restarted slows her down a bit.

December 28th, 2023

Lyla did very well today! We kind of skipped working on Ready For It - the chords change pretty fast anyway - so we added instead Shake It Off by Taylor Swift. This is a good beginner song because it's the same three chords repeated over and over again.

December 21st, 2023

We reviewed the chords at the beginning, and Lyla was able to remember them fairly well.

We then reviewed Jingle Bells, and then added Taylor Swift, Ready For It:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wQUXFnyqiI

December 14th, 2023

We added a new chord today, "A", and I wrote out Jingle Bells for Lyla to work on.

She has a hard time remembering the D chord (the V shaped one), so drilling at home between her known chords should help.

December 7th, 2023

Lyla came a bit late tonight and didn't have her book, so we reviewed chords she's been learning, and I did some racing games with her to help her play them faster.

We also added A minor to her list of known chords.

See you next week!

November 30th, 2023

Lyla did well tonight - we reviewed last week's chords (E minor and G,) and the names of the parts of the guitar. We then added a new chord, D, and learned our first strumming pattern of Down Down Down-Up Down

Try to practise once a day if you can.

See you next week.

November 23rd, 2023

This was Lyla's first week on guitar. We learned the names of the various parts of the guitar, and then I wrote out E minor and G, and showed her how to finger those chords from the chord diagrams.

November 16th, 2023

April 25th, 2022

Lyla isn't feeling well today, so not coming in.

April 11th, 2022

Lyla has a cold today.

April 4th, 2022

we spent most of the lesson working on timing, changing the chords every 8 beats on beat one.

Kiley said she could help her with it.

March 28th, 2022

Lyla did a great job on the Part in the USA song, and so then we added a new one, Circles, by Post Malone.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sca9FP6zl8&ab_channel=PopularMusic

This is a pretty simple song, with really only two chords. (at least how we're playing it). I asked her to try to count out loud to herself so that she is changing the chords on the right beat.

Great job today, Lyla!!

March 21st, 2022

We reviewed Party in the USA, starting kinda from scratch a bit, working through the hands separately, and trying to memorize a bit. She shook on it to practice this week.

March 14th, 2022

No Lyla today, see you next week!

March 7th, 2022

Since it's been a while, we started with reviewing notes and then chords. Lyla is doing pretty well with remembering. We also went over flats and then introduced sharps.

For our new song, we continued with Miley Cyrus, Party in the USA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rLTERuuxm4&ab_channel=IzamarDelaRosa

We learned the three chords (F, Am Dm) and a simple, transposed version of the melody of the chorus.

She should just keep looping them, and playing with both hands as best as she can.

February 28th, 2022

Lyla is not well today, but we'll try to do Zoom lessons.

It's hard to do the lessons over Zoom, and I think because it had been so long since we had done a lesson, Lyla had forgotten about chords... I tried to help her online, but I couldn't see where her hands were, so it was tricky to know whether she was playing the right thing.

We tried adding Party in the USA by Miley Cyrus, and I shared a GOogle Doc with her.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VocyOtlNpqY&ab_channel=Pillow

February 10th, 2022

Cancelling today, no charge.

January 31st, 2022

We went through Taylor Swift's song together some more, with both hands, and then with separate hands.

I focused the lesson on her doing it from memory without looking at the music, and this seemed to help.

Keep trying to play it a bit faster, without waiting so long before changing chords or notes.

January 24th, 2022

Lyla isn't coming today.

January 17th, 2022

We did online today and focused mostly on Taylor Swift.

We practised the chord changes, going between just two chords at a time, five times each. After she'd done this we went through the whole song a few times.

She won't be here next week, so for the next two weeks, practice on looping this part of the song over and over, without slowing down or stopping between chords, and using both hands of course.

Good job!

January 10th, 2022

Lyla played Jingle Bells, but a bit too slow, so I asked her to try to speed it up like people sing it.

We then added a Taylor Swift Song, "I don't want to live forever:"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9Vt7y4kPxs&ab_channel=JEVLyrics

January 3rd, 2022

Lyla played through Jingle Bells for me - first the melody, then the chords a few times, and then we put the hands together.

Keep practising this at home - you're very close to having the whole song ready!

Next week we'll add a new song - maybe Taylor Swift?!

December 20th, 2021

Lyla played through some songs for me, and then we went back to Jingle bells. We focused this week on trying to learn some chords.

Use your pinkie, your middle finger, and your thumb to play the chords. Do you best to play both hands at the same time, but don't worry if you struggle with it. It's a lot to learn at once!

December 13th, 2021

Lyla did really well with memorizing today! She is going to work some more on Jingle Bells.

We worked on the chords she'd been practising, and also did some finger exercises. These are good tricks to help build up strength and the ability to move fingers independently.

We also added We Wish You A Merry Christmas.

Keep working and practising!

December 6th, 2021

We worked on memorizing Mary Had Little Lamb and Jingle Bells . Keep up the good work with using your thumb. Don't let it get left out!

Try to memorize all of the songs.

November 29th, 2021

We went over Jingle Bells together, trying to do both hands. Keep working with her to get the dexterity to play with pinky, middle finger, and thumb.

When she can do it she can start playing a bit of the melody with the chords.

November 22nd, 2021

We went over Happy Birhtday, then Down by the Bay, then Jingles BElls.

We worked on using the correct fingering - not to just use a single finger.

We also looked at chords, and we tried to play a triad, with the pinky, middle, and thumb.

Try that more at home, don't worry about playing chords with Jingle Bells yet.

November 15th, 2021

We went through Down by the Bay a few times, then Happy Birthday - trying to focus on the problem spots, and added Jingle Bells. We'll add the left hand of JB next week - we ran out of time.

November 8th, 2021

Lyla played through her songs for me, and we worked a bit extra on Down by the Bay, which still needs some extra work.

She also should focus on using all her fingers.

We then added Happy Birthday, and talked more about flats.

November 1st, 2021

Lyla is still feeling sick today.

October 25th, 2021

Lyla is unwell today.

October 4th, 2021

Lyla played through the three songs for me. She'd struggled with Three Blind Mice, (which is kinda hard, so no problem).

I reminded her of the hand shape thing, in which she tries to use all of her fingers to play twinkle twinkle. I asked her to work on that some more at home.

We then added Down By the Bay and went through it a few times. It introduces black notes (Bb in this case), and I also reminded her of holding the right notes by taking note of the underscore (for example e e d c___ would hold c.)

September 27th, 2021

Lyla did really well on Mary Had a Little Lamb! Good job.

This week focus on improving Three Blind Mice, and if you have time, work on the new one as well, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.

Lyla seems to confuse E and F on the keyboard, but other than that she's learning the notes really well.

September 20th, 2021

We reviewed Mary Had a Little Lamb together, and I sang along with it, to help demonstrate keeping it going in time so she doesn't stop or slow down.

We added Three Blind Mice afterwards, and this involves moving the hand for the third line (g c c b a b c g g) so that the first g is using the pointer finger, with the c on the pinky.

She's doing great! good practising this week!

September 13th, 2021

This was Lyla's first week.

We learned the "story" for the names of the keys, and I had her try to find them on the piano. After a bit of quizzing together about that, we learned our first song, "Mary Had a Little Lamb." I had her play it in two places on the piano.

Practice locating the notes on the piano, and work on the song as well.

I forgot to ask: Is Lyla left-handed?