The Amazing Jam Sessions
The Amazing Jam Sessions
Growing up, playing with other musicians was extremely inspiring. The guitar took on a whole new dimension and eventually led to a rewarding teaching career. I hope to pass along that same inspiration to my students by having some amazing jam sessions. A person never knows where it can lead. Even if they don’t pursue music, my hope is that each student can look back and have a great memory and be able to scratch “playing in a band” off their bucket list.
How the Jam Sessions Work
June was our first open jam session which started right after the student band finished. Everyone is invited, and their parents and friends are welcome too.
There will be two full bands each month. Each group will consist of 3 guitarists, a bassist, a drummer, one or two vocalists, a ukulele player, and possibly a keyboardist. Each band learns a song in the one-on-one lessons and then plays their assigned part at the show.
During the performance, the song is played 3 times. The first time is to get comfortable with the levels and playing in the group. This time through is with the pre-recorded song. After that, it will be played twice more to tighten up the song and allow the parents to record it. The older students are invited to solo over a 12-bar blues if they would like to.
No one is required to solo, but everyone is welcome to. Each of the soloists will take 2 rounds of solos. We will go over the solos in the one-on-one sessions for the students who want to play during this section.
There are two 27-inch monitors which display the chords and diagrams on the screen just in case anyone gets lost.
Anticipation
Karney on Drums
Despite a little twinge of nerves, the rush afterwards is incredible and addicting. What stops most people from participating is the fear that they will not do well and become embarrassed. But with one simple 5 note scale called the minor pentatonic, it is easy to hit every note in the blues jam perfectly. The pentatonic scale is simple to learn and play. It can make a brand-new soloist sound like they have been playing for a while.
One thing that is very nice is that there are no egos. Some of the students have never played an instrument and are only a couple of months into guitar lessons. And the people who have been taking lessons for a long time are very supportive of the other players. The new students are learning alongside other students who may be soloing for the first time.
Having such a positive environment is a great way to get started before trying a club or open mic where sometimes the musicians might be a bit less accepting of new players.
The Reward
Trying a jam session really helps because it drives a person to want to learn more and get better. There is nothing like having full set of musicians, including a bassist and drummer, to jam with. The feel of the music is so important, something a lot of people miss out on.
On top of gaining inspiration, playing with other musicians is a great way to meet people and have an opportunity to start a band.
Encouraging Students
If you are not sure about trying it, feel free to stop by to watch and see what it is all about. That is a great approach. Then if you decide you would like to try it, I will get you slotted into the next available band. Before you know it, you will be hooked!
As with everything, just taking that first step can open a door to something incredible. Putting yourself out there can build a lot of confidence.
Let me know if you are interested in signing up, it could be a life changer- it was for me!
Getting the Most Out of Your Lessons
Getting the Most Out of Your Lesson
When taking on a new skill such as learning guitar, it is so important to make sure you get the most out of your lessons.
A couple of important things to think about before heading off to your first session:
- What do you want most out of the lessons?
- What type of music do you like?
- What does your dedicated practice time look like?
- Is this something fun just for you or do you want to be able to play for family and friends?
- Are you interested in an academic approach with notes and theory?
- Do you want to improve skills through learning songs?
What do You Want to Get Out of Your Lessons?
Josiah’s Certificate of Achievement
One of the first questions I ask my students is what their musical goals are. For most students, it is something they want to do for fun. Some just want to play for family at the holidays or jam with friends. A few people are looking to try out for high school and college jazz bands.
To play for fun versus preparing for a jazz band tryout are taught in completely different ways. Most instructors want to know your goals, but if for some reasons it is overlooked, definitely talk about it.
I currently have students who just want to solo and some who only want to learn strum patterns. So each week we match up a song they like with an amazing solo or strum pattern and they are very inspired to learn. For Jazz students, having the ability to read a chart and get through the chords is a huge motivator.
Without a goal in mind, you may be learning songs or doing exercises that a far less beneficial than they could be. Some songs will help to get the chords down in a way that makes sense. A knowledgeable instructor will be able to pull out several tunes from different styles to get you to your goal systematically.
What Music Styles Do You Like?
Telling your teacher what kind of music you like is probably the second most important piece of information to pass along. If you signed up hoping to learn rock and roll and your classically trained instructor pulls out Mozart, you may dread the lessons. He or she may be the best teacher in the world, but it is hard to get excited about a style you are not familiar with and do not like. This happened before I met one of my current students almost causing them to quit guitar altogether.
The quickest way to destroy musical passion is the to continually teach music that does not inspire the student.
What Areas Do You Want to Cover
Some people have come into my studio and only want to learn strum patterns or how to solo. Right away, I start thinking about some of the coolest solos in their ability; or some songs with an amazing strum pattern that they can build from. Most teachers will have a collection of songs that fit the different areas, so it is important to let them know what you are interested in.
Make Sure Your Teacher Knows Your Practice Time
Practice time for a teen is usually drastically different than practice time an adult. With kids, a career, and other obligations, sometimes an adult may only have a half hour a week to sit down on the guitar. Whereas a teen may have a lot of extra time. Even with sports and school, teens can usually find a couple of hours per week. Whatever your case is, you may pass that along to the instructor as well. This will affect the amount of material covered per session. Some adults only are able to practice when they have the lesson. Knowing that can really help. The teacher can then prepare the material in way to keep things moving forward without overloading the student.
It is all about enjoying the musical journey. No matter what, make sure you do not lose your passion for any instrument in the process.
If you are interested in learning the guitar, bass, or ukulele, please contact me. Thanks!!
Online Lessons at 7
Should a 7 Year Old Start with Online Guitar Lessons?
Online Lessons at 7
I got lucky the first time I started teaching online. It was at the beginning of the pandemic and my students had already been with me for a while, so we transitioned over to Zoom. It was easy since everyone had the fundamentals down. Even for my students transitioning to online lessons at 7 years old were doing great.
But after a few weeks, I picked up my first new online 7-year-old student and realized there were challenges I had not even thought about. I am grateful for the technology, especially for people who are 100’s of miles from the nearest teacher. But it did require a certain degree of relearning how to teach. And soon I wasn’t sure if a 7-year-old should start with online lessons.
Not all children struggle online, but there is definitely an art to learning the guitar online at a young age. We realized very quickly that the key is to have a little extra patience and for the parents to be prepared for the lessons to move slower. This will make things much easier. Teaching online is a wonderful tool, but the progress is much different than in person.
Tuning Online with a 7-Year-Old
One of the first skills everyone learns at the studio is how to tune. If a younger student has never touched a guitar before, I demonstrate how to use a tuner and have them tune one string. After that, I tune the rest. Each week, we add a string or two, but by then they are usually a pro.
After a few lessons, tuning becomes a habit. The student comes into the studio, takes the guitar out of the case, tunes, and is ready for the lesson. But online, things are different.
For a new student, the guitar may be way out of tune. This can seem like a nightmare for a 7-year-old who has never played. The parents can help, but even then, it could be an entire lesson to get all the strings in tune. Occasionally, this can knock the wind out of their sails.
Other teachers and parents have told me stories where multiple lessons have gone by and the only thing they did was tune. I have not experienced that yet, but can completely understand. It is not unusual to spend an entire online lesson learning to tune.
This is not to say that all 7-year-old’s have trouble, but this is an area where it will take patience.
The Environment
The best advice I can give is to make sure the parent is nearby and the room has absolutely no distractions if possible. This is something that, even with my longer-term students, we struggled with. This was generally due to a sibling wanting attention or a quirky internet connection.
If there is a young brother or sister around, they tend to like to get involved. Even the slightest distraction for a 7-year- old can derail the lesson and take a bit to get them calmed down and focused again.
Making sure that they are rested and not hungry can make a difference as well.
Final Thoughts
I believe that a 7-year-old can do online lessons. For the best results, make sure they are rested, fed, and free of distractions. If the parent can be there during the lesson, that is a huge bonus, especially if the computer glitches. In fact, I sometimes teach the parent along with their kid. This can help tremendously and is much more fun for both of them.
Remember to be patient. They may miss out on certain things, like jamming together, since there is a lag during online sessions-even with the fastest internet connection. And the in-person interaction will be missing. But hopefully in the future we will have instantaneous video.
Thank you for reading my blog. If you are interested in lessons, feel free to contact me.
Putting Together Chords for a Song
Putting Together Chords for a Song
Putting together chords for a song is easy to do. You only need two scales and the desire to write a song. Your ear will help you with the rest.
Chromatic Scale
The first scale you will need to know is the chromatic scale. These are all of the notes on one string of the guitar. And the amazing thing is, once you know these 12 notes, you know all of the notes going up the neck of the guitar.
A quick bit of theory for you. First, this (#) is a sharp. It is generally the black keys on the piano. It raises a note up a half step which is also the next fret toward the body of the guitar. Piece of cake. We will only work with sharps for this blog.
The easiest way to remember it is that all the letters except B and E have sharps. Think, to BE or not to BE.
A A# B C C# D D# E F F# G G# A
If you start on the open 5th string on the guitar, these are all of the notes up the fretboard to the double dot. Each letter is a half-step above the last one. So if you skip a letter, it is a whole step. That is it!
Courtesy of Active Melody
Major Scale
Now on to the major scale. Remember that each note is a half-step, and by skipping a letter, you have a whole step. The layout of a major scale is:
Whole Step -Whole Step -Half Step -Whole Step -Whole Step -Whole Step -Half Step
Let’s build a major scale: A (whole step) B (whole step) C# (half step) D (whole step) E (whole step) F# (whole step) G# (half step) A
Chords of the Major Scale
Without taking you through a ton of theory, there is a shortcut to figuring out what chords are in the major scale. Each letter of the scale can also be a chord in that key. The chords will be major or minor and then a diminished which isn’t used much in most musical styles. The order of major and minor chords will always be like this in the major scale:
Major Minor Minor Major Major Minor Diminished
That is all you need. Now we just stick the letter of the major scale from above and place it before each word…
(A major) (B minor) (C# minor) (D major) (E major) (F# minor) (G# diminished)
Picking the chords
Now that you have all of that, you can let your ear decided what chords sound best together. These all work perfectly since they are in the same key. They share the same notes, so you can’t go wrong. Some chord changes sound better than others, but that is up to each of us.
For me, I like:
F# Minor to D Major to A Major to E Major
Mix up some chords and you will soon be sitting on a beach in the Cayman Islands drinking those little umbrella drinks. Have fun with this, hope to see you next time!
If you would like to learn more about how to write a song, please contact me. Thanks!
Paying a Little Extra for an Instructor
Paying a Little Extra for an Instructor
Paying a little extra for an experienced, dedicated instructor can make all the difference in whether a student will be successful.
I was inspired to write this after a new student told me she went to a guitar teacher who kept looking at his watch throughout the lesson. She felt like he did not really want her there. She tried two others but both were not at her level of playing and couldn’t play the songs she wanted to learn.
Identifying a Seasoned Committed Teacher
There are so many amazing teachers out there who can inspire their students. It is easy to tell the difference between a seasoned, committed teacher verses someone who just needs the money.
Tools
Tools a Seasoned Instructor Uses
One of the first things you will notice from an experienced teacher are the tools they use. On top of being organized, they will know how to get the student started on the right track at the first session using those tools. After each lesson, they will track your progress and know what the next step is. After years of taking lessons, you will be able to go back and see how far you have come.
Another very important indication that you have a great teacher is that he/she will have a library of fun material that students enjoy. This can only come from years of trial and error. After a while, an instructor knows which songs and exercises students really like and will use those in their sessions.
Rates
Another factor that separates an instructor who has made teaching a career from a new or inexperienced teacher are usually the rates. Someone who is new and not sure of themselves will often set their prices lower than everyone else. When I first started in 1998, the music store set the rates but my wage was probably the lowest in the industry. I had not invested anything into my career yet and did not have any teaching experience, so it made sense. My strongest asset was having the passion and excitement to teach.
Teaching is such an amazing career. Being inexperienced absolutely does not mean the person is a bad teacher. However, as the case when I first started, my wage reflected the fact that I was new.
Does the Instructor Take Advantage of Technology?
Back before Windows and the internet, we would manually write out all the changes, chords, and lyrics to the songs. Unless you bought the book or sheet music, you may be waiting a while for the transcription. This could sometimes easily take a few lessons. Today there are still instructors who do this. Not that this is necessarily a bad approach, but it is very time consuming. This can limit the amount of actual learning that takes place in the lesson.
These days, having a laptop with a separate monitor for the student is a huge benefit. Using a computer makes it quick and easy to download almost any song. This is also a great benefit for people who struggle with the small font that books offer. By having a large screen, the music can be blown up making it easier to read.
Another advantage of technology is the use of backing tracks. These can be pulled up on YouTube and are so much fun to play along with. I believe this is the reason that students today are so far ahead of my generation. Having a full band without a guitar track allows the student to experiment with endless techniques and ideas.
Music Programs
There are so many programs that can help a student master a part that they are struggling with. Having software and computer programs which slow down and speed up a song section, such as Guitar Pro, is vitally important. Not only that, these programs have the ability to isolate certain lead or rhythm tracks and loop them. Subscribing to a variety of programs will help with so many areas and styles that the teacher can focus on instruction and technique.
When the lesson is done, comments can be written in the music using a digital pen right on the computer screen. The music itself can then be saved to a file and printed for the student. This way, the student will have a digital one to refer to whenever they would like.
Final Words on Paying a Little Extra
If possible, try a few instructors and see what the difference is between cost and quality. Chances are, if you spend a little more, you may have a much better experience in the end.
If you have any questions or comments, please contact me, I look forward to hearing from you!
Creating a Set List
Creating a Set List for Your Band
One of the many mistakes I made in my first band was creating the wrong set list for the club. We thought we picked some amazing tunes, but they were either too slow or not meant to dance to. Needless to say, we were looking for the chicken wire by the end of the first set. I remember one drunk guy walking up to the stage after our first song and said “I waited 2 hours for this?!?” I can still hear his voice today. So, to help all my friends who are getting started, I thought I’d share what I’ve learned about creating a set list.
Redline Band Set List
Add Danceable Songs for a Club
A great way to start is by putting together a list of popular danceable songs. You may want to go to Google or YouTube and type in top songs of your band’s genre. Then rifle through the list and pick out the tunes you like. Our band has always done this individually. Then during practice, we picked a couple to add. This way each person can put in songs they like to play.
Rock Songs that Work
As with any band, there are certain songs that seem to get people out on the floor for each genre. Here are some examples of classic rock songs that would always get people dancing. The downside is that they are overplayed. It can be tough to get excited about them sometimes, but a full dance floor can change that.
- Sweet Home Alabama
- Keep Your hands to Yourself
- La Grange
- House is Rockin’
- Brick House
- Summer of ‘69
- What I like About You
- Long Train Runnin’
- I Want You to Want Me
- Livin’ On a Prayer
- Play That Funky Music
- Get Down Tonight
- Rocky Mountain Way
- Pride and Joy
- La Bamba
- Rocky Mountain Way
- Jump
Slower Songs in a Set List
One killer for any band is to put too many slow songs in a set list. A good rule of thumb is to limit the slow tunes to 1 or 2 per set for a dance club. These can be a very powerful tool to fill the dance floor, but can also lull your crowd to sleep if you overdo it.
A great idea for slower tunes may be to add a good crossover song. Even if you are a rock band, having a few country or blues tunes in your repertoire can be a great way to win a few dancers. Especially those who like music other than what you are playing.
Slow songs that always brought the crowd out for us were:
- Wonderful Tonight
- Turn The Page
- Live Like You Are Dying
- When A Man Loves a Woman
And believe it or not, Free Bird was a song that almost always went over well. Just make sure to nail the solo on it.
The best place to put the slow songs in a set are usually somewhere around song 4, 5, or 6. This way you could always end with one and it won’t slow the night down.
How to Add Medium Songs
Songs like Sultans of Swing and anthem songs like Stairway to Heaven can be a great set ender, but be careful with too many of those as well. One thing I have discovered is that people love to hear them, but don’t tend to dance to them. Sometimes those are best left to close a night out.
You will begin to tell the medium (not so danceable songs) from the drivin’ tunes pretty quickly on.
Bottom line
When the floor is full, it usually doesn’t matter how much you dislike a song, it tends to be a lot of fun to play. If people are having fun, then time flies!
A final thought is to keep a list of songs that get people out consistently. Also, put together a list of duds. Each band has songs that work for them but may not go over well for other bands. Give each song at least 4-5 gigs to tighten them up before shelving them. This way, you will know you played well but the song just doesn’t get a response. A song that we took out of the rotation was Down by the Waterline by Dire Straits. After the drunk guys comments, we watched it for a few more gigs and then it ended up in the graveyard.
Hope this helps. If you are interested in lesson, please contact me to set up a time either virtually or in person.
Taking Northern Colorado Guitar to the Next Level
The Next Level
I became very inspired after watching the business owners at Spotlight Music in Windsor and Boomer Music in Fort Collins run their companies. They work non-stop for 10 to 15 hours a day and are involved in every area of their business. With so much technology and resources out there, that inspiration has motivated me to do more to take Northern Colorado Guitar to the next level.
Constantly trying to improve the students’ experiences with new technology and equipment is so important. I could not imagine teaching today like we all did when I first began back in the 90’s, it seems like teaching was still in the stone ages.
Northern Colorado Guitar Studio
I was grateful for Spotlight Music since they gave me the freedom to try out new technology and create ambience in the studio. My students still comment on it, they really loved it.
The days of the original 7′ x 8′ studio with the big piano in the middle really should be left in the past. I remember trying to navigate a good seating arrangement before teaching at Spotlight, this proved almost impossible when parents came in. These studios were not meant for inspiration, but simply academia.
Taking Ambiance to the Next Level
Today, additional lighting arrives for the Greeley studio. What a difference it makes when there is an atmosphere that reflects the mood of the song the student is learning. Amazon sells colored LED lights that have a remote control which splash a lot of color into the room. The LED lights are equivalent to 400 watts of the regular bulbs and can put out a ton of light. There have been times I have forgotten to turn on some of the lights and the students comment about it. Just a few of these lights really add warmth and depth to the studio. For anyone putting together a music studio, this is one area that can help make your studio stand out.
Sound
Next on the agenda is to fill the studio with sound. Not volume, but saturation. Rather than using little laptop or desktop speakers to hear the song, having nice punchy bass and good sound disbursement is paramount. This will put the students into the music. This has to be the best way to listen and play along. There is nothing like hearing and feeling your favorite song all around you in stereo.
Sessions
I have been testing the waters at the Greeley Studio. At the end of the lesson, I have been accompanying some of the students on drums. They have really liked it. This is a perfect way to feel what it is like to play with instruments other than guitar, bass, or ukulele. By running the songs through the powered 1000-watt floor monitors, we can play along with the song at a level that makes the music come alive. The electronic drum set sounds amazing and they are always surprised when they hear them. This is something that is really helping inspire the students.
Taking the Jam to the Next Level
Finally, I am putting together a band. In the past, I have invited students up on stage and they have performed with the band during an actual show. We have even had my students open the night for us, which is something that would be so much fun to do again. They can then get a feel for what playing live is like. This will be in addition to the jam sessions we have currently.
I think this is going to be a great year!!
Please contact me if you are interested in an amazing musical experience.
