Albert
What to practice: Brown Eyed Girl
Recommended practice time: 10 mins daily
Keys to effective practice: While playing the melody make use of the fret markers (inlays) as visuals to help guide your fingers along more quickly, rather than having to count each time as you shift positions. For playing the rhythm parts, keep it interesting and challenging by playing through the progression with various strumming patterns (the one we went over, single strums, or double on each chord, etc…), later we can start switching it up so that the song makes use of various rhythms to keep it fresh!
Eliana
What to practice: Bach – Invention in C, Technical Difficulties, Symphony of Destruction.
Recommended practice time: 15-20 minutes daily
Keys to effective practice: Because we are now tackling traditional notation again it may be helpful to consult a mapping of the fretboard. Similarly, printing off a blank fretboard and filling it in yourself may be additionally useful to help ingrain this further. Furthermore, by either printing off a copy of the music or using editing software it would be wise to mark in phrase markings for chunking, as well as to help interpret the music properly (ie: when does this melodic line actually change? what notes should be emphasized?). Above all else though continue mapping out the song in a way that makes sense for yourself and we will review and move forward next week!
Aarna
What to practice: Hal Leonard – Chords Chapter
Recommended practice time: 10 minutes daily
Keys to effective practice: For any melody take a moment and review the notes, writing them down if necessary – however, be sure while playing to be picking the note in its correct octave! (we have multiple D, E, F, & G’s now!). While playing rhythm aim for clean full sound and smooth transitions between switches. To help perfect this take it slow and look for the patterns and similarities between chords, and by moving your fingers in small groups of 2/3 instead of each one at a time!
Aarnav
What to practice: Hal Leonard – Chords Chapter
Recommended practice time: 10 minutes daily
Keys to effective practice: Take a moment and review the chords at the beginning of the chapter before delving into the exercises to be sure you have the right names matching the correct shapes! Practice with the aim of smoothly transitioning between the chords with as minimal time in between as possible to where it will eventually be one smooth act. Similarly review the notes to all the melodies, jotting down the names as needed while keeping track which octave each note is in while actually performing!
Simon
What to practice: Bach invention in C, No Bullets Fly
Recommended practice time: 15-20 minutes daily
Keys to effective practice: Take a moment and review the fretboard in relation to note names (all the natural ones found in C major should be enough for this piece). Additionally, it may be helpful to consult a mapping of the fretboard. You may want to print a blank one out and fill it in yourself to help deepen it into your memory. Otherwise, while practicing look for the motifs (little melodic bits) that repeat and move around. If you keep an eye out for them popping up starting on different notes, or inverted, reversed, etc… it will help to see the whole structure of the song as well as make use of one of the many benefits of visually seeing music written out in this form!