Dub
Administrator
I'm gettin' so the past is the only thing I can remember.
Posts: 19,863
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Post by Dub on Dec 15, 2023 14:57:54 GMT -5
Got a couple of kids at our church school that are asking for lessons. They basically want to strum songs. I've never taught in this realm before, but they'll get their money's worth, I guarantee. Yeah, I'm a volunteer. Anyway, what do you suggest? I see Hal Leonard out there. Seems to dominate. Suggestions? How old are the kids? Playing a guitar has so many different purposes at so many levels it might be useful to understand their motivation and the time they have to spend. My introduction to guitar came because I wanted to sing the folk songs I was hearing and learning. I found chord diagrams in a thin staple-bound book that offered virtually no information on their use. I found lyrics and chord names in a small paperback Burl Ives songbook. I only sang songs that I already knew how to sing. I just looked up the chords for the songs and strummed my $20 Stella guitar with my thumb. This worked. Then I found a local group of people who gathered in homes each week for what they called hootenannies. Everyone sang and strummed together at the same time. I got to use the Burl Ives songs and I got to learn, as it turned out, hundreds more songs from the other people. No one took turns, they just joined in. Solos were rare unless someone was introducing a new song. Keep in mind I had no interest in becoming a guitar player, I just loved singing those songs with other people. It was a social thing with music thrown in. There was no one I wanted to emulate, no “licks” I wanted to learn, I only wanted to strum the right chords in proper time and sing. This gave me a deep love for the music and for those people. Learning wasn’t a chore, it was a chance to contribute to the group. I could learn by listening to the others and watching what they did with their guitars. Before too long, I began to realize there was more one could do with a guitar and started paying attention to some of that. I had been through music lessons as a kid: piano, violin, trumpet, trombone, and always hated the lessons, the exercises, and the practice. By the time I was 14, I’d put all of that aside. I’m pretty sure that starting guitar with a “method” and “lessons” would have resulted in my abandoning the instrument. As it was, my love for the music and the friends planted the seed that caused me to learn more about playing the guitar. So what I’m saying is that if you can quickly give them something simple they can use to contribute, rather than simply study, they’ll be far more excited and anxious to learn more. Many accomplished guitarists have been quoted as saying something like “every guitar player is self-taught.” This is really true. You can describe and demonstrate technique but the student can’t really play until they’ve taught themselves to actually do those things. So my advice is to forget the “methods” and just show them a couple of easy chords and get them all singing and playing Skip to My Lou together or something else that easy so they quickly feel like they’re doing something important. Keep that up and the ones that love it will teach themselves the rest.
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Post by coachdoc on Dec 15, 2023 17:26:35 GMT -5
Beatles easy guitar. The big White book. A couple of decades back I did not know who the Beatles were.
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Post by John B on Dec 15, 2023 19:54:36 GMT -5
x2444x, index and ring finger for me. Never been able to play it any other way, except xx4447. My B chord solution, and chords above and below B, was to go modal with an A chord shape. Use your index finger to barre all six strings and then fret the third and the fourth strings at the second fret, not fretting the second string. Not major, not minor, but usually just fine and often very cool. Make sense? So X244X2 I normally only play the middle 4 strings, but you would play 1, 3-4-5. I will give that a shot. I have been playing a B up at 7th fret; 7xx87x, trying to ease up on the squeezy stuff that seems to bug my forearm. I think I am going to see how many chords I can cut down to 3 (or 2) notes.
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Post by millring on Dec 15, 2023 19:56:34 GMT -5
I'd go with Professor Harold Hill.
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Post by John B on Dec 15, 2023 19:56:54 GMT -5
Beatles easy guitar. The big White book. A couple of decades back I did not know who the Beatles were. Most Americans didn't either until Howard's dad took a picture of them in 1964.
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Post by John B on Dec 15, 2023 19:57:17 GMT -5
I'd go with Professor Harold Hill. I use the Think Method quite often.
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Dub
Administrator
I'm gettin' so the past is the only thing I can remember.
Posts: 19,863
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Post by Dub on Dec 15, 2023 20:01:08 GMT -5
I'd go with Professor Harold Hill. But that starts with H and that rhymes with… … ummmm, never mind.
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Post by billhammond on Dec 15, 2023 20:07:09 GMT -5
I think X244O2 would be more accurate, a five-string chord, movable. And on edit, I guess that it's not a chord, technically, lacking a third, so let's call it a voicing.
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Post by John B on Dec 15, 2023 20:48:35 GMT -5
I think X244O2 would be more accurate, a five-string chord, movable. And on edit, I guess that it's not a chord, technically, lacking a third, so let's call it a voicing. Oh, it's chord-enough for me. I'll call it Bill's B.
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Post by Cosmic Wonder on Dec 15, 2023 21:20:23 GMT -5
When did the B chord become difficult?
Mike
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Post by John B on Dec 15, 2023 21:23:46 GMT -5
When did the B chord become difficult? Mike How do you play it? I was taught that I was supposed to barre with my index at the 2nd fret and place fingers 2, 3 and 4 (middle, ring and pinky) all at the 4th fret, with the index finger holding down the 2nd fret, first string: x24442 I just cannot do that shape, on guitar or uke (4442).
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Post by coachdoc on Dec 15, 2023 22:06:45 GMT -5
Beatles easy guitar. The big White book. A couple of decades back I did not know who the Beatles were. Excuse me. I was enthralled by the Beatles, even back then, but I didn’t learn any Beatles stuff for years. I was learning John Hurt, Van Ronk, and when feeling very poppy, Tom Paxton. In high school I founded a folk music club which would meet weekly. My brothers and sisters kept it going for almost a decade. After my graduation my brothers and sisters kept the club and assembly going for most of a decade.
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Post by Cosmic Wonder on Dec 15, 2023 22:12:37 GMT -5
John, I barre with my fore finger as described, and then do a mini barre with my ring finger at the fourth fret. As a bonus it’s easily movable.
Mike
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Post by coachdoc on Dec 15, 2023 22:14:59 GMT -5
My fondest memory is the folk assemblies we put on with each of us playing a song or playing Kweskin Jugband tunes together. We even had a Joan Baez look alike who was a pretty good singer. Nancy Friedman. She stunned everyone in one of our assemblies with a rousing rendition of Masters of War. I’m getting goosebumps remembering it. She damn near gave our conservative history teacher a heart attack.
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Post by aquaduct on Dec 15, 2023 23:06:47 GMT -5
I'd echo what Dub said. I learned to play when I was 12 and my little brother lost interest in playing the Epiphone Texan my folks had picked up for him. So I decided to pick it up along with the lessons a high school girl named Marie that was a friend of my Mom's was giving him. Basically she just typed up popular songs of the day (i.e.- Blowin' in the Wind, etc.) with chords above the lyrics and put them in a cheap folder/binder and I'd play and sing along to those. Basic strums, basic chords, crappy singing, etc.
That was literally it.
Eventually I went on to join a local Up With People spin off group that she was in. Got a knock off, no name Les Paul copy and an amp, and after a year, quit the singing and dancing part of the group, and joined the band. Puzzled together the E and A power chords and Chuck Berry 2 string chunka chunka rhythm stuff so I could be a real rock guitarist.
Then somewhere along the way I noticed that Marie's book was chock full of basically the same 6 or 7 chords and I pieced together the basis of the CAGED system (later on I learned that it really was a system that came out of Berklee) and the C major scale at the fifth fret which started me down movable scale shapes up and down the neck.
Somewhere along about 16 years old I was one of two electric guitar players in the group and at one point or another a guitar solo was needed. The other guy was too scared to play anything so being too stupid to have any pride, I rolled the volume up and gave it a shot. From then on, I was the lead player. I had also played sax in 5th and 6th grade band before I got braces so I knew generally how to read single note sheet music.
From there it's just been saying yes to anything that comes up and always trying to puzzle out the how to.
My suggested solution to you- cheap ass green binders of popular music with chords over the lyrics that kids can strum and sing to. It's taken me to Carnegie Hall, the Birchmere, Montreux Jazz festival in Detroit, opening for Dave Mason, and a million other dopey adventures.
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Post by Marty on Dec 15, 2023 23:38:58 GMT -5
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Post by PaulKay on Dec 16, 2023 8:42:18 GMT -5
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Post by Marshall on Dec 16, 2023 9:42:53 GMT -5
I think X244O2 would be more accurate, a five-string chord, movable. And on edit, I guess that it's not a chord, technically, lacking a third, so let's call it a voicing. I'm quite fond of 224400 (or 799800) as it's a form of B4 that sounds cool when a B is called for in the key of E (the 5th chord). As well as 244200 for F#m in a key of E song.
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Dub
Administrator
I'm gettin' so the past is the only thing I can remember.
Posts: 19,863
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Post by Dub on Dec 16, 2023 12:02:12 GMT -5
If I’m not playing in the key of B, I’ll most often be using a B9 noted as (221222). I use my thumb to catch F# and B on the bass strings, my index finger to play D# on the D string and my ring finger to catch A, C#, and F# on the treble strings. This is the most generally useful form I’ve found for thumbstyle work and it’s useful for swing style chords too.
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Post by John B on Dec 16, 2023 14:38:55 GMT -5
If I’m not playing in the key of B, I’ll most often be using a B9 noted as (221222). I use my thumb to catch F# and B on the bass strings, my index finger to play D# on the D string and my ring finger to catch A, C#, and F# on the treble strings. This is the most generally useful form I’ve found for thumbstyle work and it’s useful for swing style chords too. If a B7 sounds OK, I'll often do one of those, but without the thumb. X21202. I haven't tried the B9. I will give it a shot, but probably still not use the thumb.
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