Eliana (lesson material link)
How long to practice: 10-15 minutes daily
What to practice: I want you to be able to play through all the rhythm parts of Thrash Unreal, beginning to end, at a tempo that you can do so with 80%+ accuracy. Also, take a look at “I Was a Teenage Anarchist” and try playing it through once or twice for next week.
Keys to success: You have everything you need for success on this one, at this point it’s just a matter of practice and repetition. I suggest playing both by yourself with and without a metronome, and with the song at a volume that you can clearly hear both yourself and the recording. Pay close attention first to syncing your rhythm with both the clicks of the metronome and with the recording, and be mindful of the dynamics we went over via palm-muting and opening up. For bonus marks also do this with the lead part! Regardless of how far you get with this I also want you to check out “I Was a Teenage Anarchist” once or twice for next week, just to gauge your ability at reading and learning on your own – which I think is fairly high!
Good work Eliana, you’re doing very well with this style of guitar, and am happy with your engagement!
Aarna (Youtube music playlist + material link)
How long to practice: 5-10 minutes daily
What to practice: The rhythm/lead to Crazy on You + I want you to listen to this playlist and pick the song that appeals to you most. Our mission currently is to find the music that speaks to you personally!
Keys to success: The biggest key to getting your chords/lead line playing down is consistency and repetition. The more you play the song, the more consistently over consecutive days, the easier everything will become (even if that means playing it only 1-3 times a day, each day, which might take 5 or so minutes to do). Do this and use the practice video I made for you for reference! For listening to music and choosing a song I want you to listen through as much of the playlist as possible (minimum 3 songs) and take note of what you like and dislike, what reasons you enjoy or can’t stand each one in (descriptive words and reasons could include: it sounds beautiful, ugly, too harsh, fast, i enjoy/don’t enjoy the lyrics, it has a cool beat/rhythm, etc… think of a couple of unique short descriptions for each)
Lots of progress this week with Sunshine of your Love and Crazy on You, keep it up!
Aarnav (Youtube music playlist + Material Link)
How long to practice: 5-10 minutes daily
What to practice: Staring at the Sun by U2 + listening to the music playlist attached to find our next tune to work on!
Keys to success: Be sure to check out the video I attached of myself playing through the song for reference, and otherwise it’s a matter of putting time in playing the chords and getting comfortable with it over time. Our goal is to practice more consistently. With that in mind, we need to find a good next song to work on. So, a part of your practice this week is to listen to the playlist I attached from Youtube, and see if any specific song sticks out to you as something you dig. Super easy, uber fun, and will give us a broad variety of options to choose from moving forward!
Keep up the good work Aarnav!
Simon (Lesson material link) (Ink Spots Sheet Music)
How long to practice: 10 minutes daily
What to practice: Playing – I Don’t Want to Set the World on Fire by the Ink Spots
Keys to success: Take it slow and try both option A and option B for chord voicings, seeing which one is better for yourself. The overall key to playing this song will be in memorizing the chord changes, and getting comfortable switching between them as smoothly as possible. Some parts will be easier than others. I also want you to get familiar with the chord names, not just the notes on tab, so, I especially want you to write the chord names above the tab using the chord chart as reference. Some of the chord names are written in for reference!
Good work Simon, I’m glad you dig this song and are singing as well as playing! Let’s keep developing it!