Rock & Roll 101

March 25th, 2024

Stella learned to play a quarter note rock beat on drums today, for her first lesson.

We added crashes on one, fills on 4, 3 and 4, and 3,"and",4.

We also learned to play the ride on quarter notes instead of the high hat.

It's been fun teaching Stella! She's a friendly, polite, and mature girl, and was a pleasure to teach!

March 18th, 2024

Stella is feeling unwell this week.

March 11th, 2024

Gwen and Stella won't be coming in today.

March 4th, 2024

Stella went first today. We started off with some warm-ups, and then I helped her to identify some intervals. Today we worked on major 2nd using the melody happy birthday, a minor third using The Melody of old canada, and a major 7th using The Melody of take on me. After that we used the last post Melody for identifying it perfect fifth.

When we were done with intervals, we went back to the computer and sang through rolling in the deep. She's having a hard time really delivering it the song in a way that seems authentic. I tried to encourage her to put herself in the place of the scenario of the lyrics so that she's communicating them not just singing them.

February 12th, 2024

We continued working on Rolling In The Deep, and made a lot of progress on the high notes. Stella said she had done a lot of screaming this week, so maybe that helped? In any case she was sounding really good today.

Reminder: Next week is Family Day, and the following is my anniversary, so no lessons for the next two Mondays.

February 5th, 2024

We continued with warm ups for 10 minutes, and then sweated through Rolling In The Deep.

We tried to work out tuning issues, as well as biting the 'R's -- theRE, fiRE, heaRT, daRK - try not to make it sound so harsh, but instead:
thaaa, faaah, hahhht, and daaahk.

See you next week!

January 29th, 2024

We did warms ups and I really pushed her hard.... we sang through High Infidelity and then added a new song Adele, Rolling In The Deep
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIYpdjQVidc

January 22nd, 2024

We started with some scales to warm up, and then used the tuning feedback app to check that she could sing fifths in tune. She hears when she's out, and is able to correct herself which is fantastic.

Practicing at home will really help her improve.

We then sang through her two songs for the remainder of the lesson.

January 15th, 2024

We sang at the piano, focusing a bit more on tuning and in the higher register.

We then moved to the computer and sang through High Fidelity in the key of C, and then D. C Seemed a bit low.

I had her sing with her back to me, and to belt it a bit more until I could hear. Volume, air, open throat and mouth, these are all things that can be improved.

January 8th, 2024

We did some warm ups - it has been a while since we sang - I had her hold notes as long as she could, and she got some as long as 15 seconds. Keep pushing yourself, and singing. Try sing loudly! :)

Taylor Swift, High Fidelity - tried a few keys, Eb seemed pretty good, maybe even higher.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-ADWSt140g
Karaoke:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UdBdztGlM0

December 18th, 2023

December 11th, 2023

Warm ups as per usual, and worked on singing notes in tune. She's getting better, but still needs more muscle development in her voice to hold notes on pitch. More air supply will help.

We then recorded again, and listened through, evaluating areas that could be sung differently, and re-recording it. It's sounding good! Keep working out on that voice!

December 4th, 2023

Exercises to begin again, and then I recorded her singing along with All Too Well, so we could isolate her voice. I showed her what her voice sounds like with a tuner, so we could identify some of the spots where she is singing out of tune. It will help her if she practises with the tuner so she can work on improving her strength.

November 27th, 2023

Stella did really well tonight! After working on the exercises, we did All Too Well, and went note by note through the song, working on parts that she was a little flat, or used to much vibrato, or was singing vowels and diphthongs too harshly.

She is sounding great! Just more practising needed.

November 20th, 2023

Stella is singing very confidently and loudly now, which is great. I showed her a pitch app which helps with monitoring if you're singing in tune. We spent some time on All Too Well, watching how her voice drops or goes up at parts- another thing is too much vibrato. Try to keep your voice sounding like a little girl's: plain and simple. No extra adornment to the plain voice.

November 13th, 2023

Stella was sick tonight.

November 6th, 2023

Much more volume from Stella tonight, she sounded great! We did scale warm ups for 12 or so minutes, and then sang the rest of the lesson. Much better projection! I encouraged her now to start engaging her heart in the singing, and to try to feel the sadness and pain that are in those lyrics. She's got to be willing to be embarrassed and to feel exposed.

Keep it up! Memorize those lyrics!

October 30th, 2023

Everyone is sick in the Hardy residence this week.

October 23rd, 2023

October 16th, 2023

Stella was still singing pretty quietly today. We went over the scales, doing 1-5s, and trying 1-4s a bit. We then worked on her song, All Too Well. I asked her to memorize the words to make it easier to do with just guitar.

October 2nd, 2023

We made progress tonight. I realized in our scales, that Stella sings quietly because she doesn't have the strength yet to belt 'er. So I did 1 - 5s with her (eg, C up to G, back to C) up the scale encouraging her to use as much air as possible, and to really tune her notes.

That developed some strength, and we tried to apply that to her song All Too Well, by Taylor Swift: (which we lowered a half-step)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OQBDdNHmXo

September 25th, 2023

Stella has a good voice, a nice sound, can sing in tune, but she needs way more projection and volume. We spent a good part of the lesson trying to help with that. She's trying to sound nice rather than just getting as much volume as possible.

The first half of the lessons we did vowels and some consonants, but I think next week we'll just focus on volume.

September 18th, 2023

Stella did well singing today. She had picked a couple of songs, and we really noticed when doing them how quiet she is singing. I tried to get her to project a bit more, but she found that hard.

Her voice sounds really pretty, but she doesn't have much in the way of strength yet. We'll have to do more exercising to get her there.

September 11th, 2023

This was Stella's first week, learning vocals.

We talked about all the beginning stuff like air support, openness, diaphragm, diphthongs, etc.

We sang through a bunch of vowels, and I asked her to think of a few songs she'd like to begin working through in future lessons.

She's got a natural talent, and I'm excited to see where she'll end up!