Hi Efe!

This week’s homework.

Blues — page 10, Guitar Method 1 book

Be mindful of the correct picking directions.

Goals with this piece:

  • Reading musical notation.
  • Good posture of hands, arms, and body enforced. Remember the slanted body position I was demonstrating today.
  • Getting the hands used to the correct picking directions, as well as ingraining the habits of proper string crossing.

Little Drummer Boy

The Google Drive link from last time is here: 

https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/1cURXZdyFoL_6FZX5V4COTxCljwXKq8wO

In here, you’ll find my newest videos. One is of the D and G chords’ transitions. The other is of the melody for this song. 

What to practice:

  • The strumming pattern — both slowly and faster, as shown.
  • The transitioning exercise — both slowly and faster, as shown.
  • The song at its regular, allegretto pace; play alongside my video of the melody

Goals with this song:

  • Good posture of hands, arms, and body enforced. Remember the slanted body position I was demonstrating today.
  • Getting used to the hard transitions. Especially between the G and D chords.
  • Being able to play accurately in an ensemble setting. Having me play the melody while you play the chords will help you learn the essential skill of playing with others. Musicians must be good at this. I know you’ve been playing the drums in your ensemble at school so that’s a good start for this. — if you stop or make any mistakes, then just resume the piece wherever my video is. Don’t go back and correct it; remember, you can’t do that in a performance :)

When any mistakes are made, work on them individually before attempting to play the whole piece again. Once they’ve been fixed, you can start the piece from its beginning again.

E Major string crossing

This is the melody from that Crossroads solo the kid was playing. The above link will have the following video and picture in it.

  • 65BPM fastest. Strictly.
  • The picking pattern is ALWAYS down-up down-up. Keep paying close attention to this.
  • The left hand fingerings are always going to be 4, 1, 2, 0. In this order. No finger 3 is ever used!
  • The picture shows the guitar tab and musical notation of this.
  • The video is of me demonstrating this exercise. — practice it just like I’m showing; 8 repetitions at a time. 2 bars of rest. Then do this all again. Do this for at least 5 minutes a day. Do not increase the tempo of the metronome for this exercise.

Goals with this melody:

  • String crossing — this is an essential technique that all guitarists come across sooner or later. It’s best if you start working on this as soon as possible. This technique can be and stay difficult for many guitarists. This catchy melody should help you start to get into the habit of executing this technique properly.
  • Building the habit of sticking to the rule of alternate picking only. — Many songs have different rules for when to pick which way. But countless songs have the rule of playing exclusively with alternate picking. This melody will help you get into the habit of following this rule.
  • Building the habit of sticking to the best strumming pattern at hand. — the acute attention you give to sticking to the rules of your pieces’ picking directions will get you in the habit of following the correct picking patterns at all times.

Remember, even just 5 minutes of practice a day is better than failing to practice on several days of the week. Ideally, I’d like your practice sessions to be a minimum of 40-45 minutes a day. But if that’s not possible, I do understand; it does happen. So in cases like that, find some time in your day to do a smaller amount of practice, covering whatever you can in the detailed list above.

You’re improving in the concepts I’m passing on to you, Efe. Good work on that. Now you must keep at it with the new ones I’m giving you. Have a great week and I’ll see you on November 29th!