Monthly Archives: July 2024

teaching

July Lesson Materials

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Earlier this month I taught a piano ensemble class for the summer camp at one of my studios. I had to come up with my own materials, so I created a series of exercises and songs that I though might be appropriate for various age groups an abilities. After the camp was done, I liked what I had come up with , so I decided I would use them with my private students as “Supplemental Piano Exercises”. While I still primarily use the Alfred books when I’m teaching piano, sometimes a student will need a little extra work on a concept before moving on, and since I’ve been incorporating more songs into my ukulele, guitar, and bass guitar method books, I figured that I should use them for my piano students too. Also, I thought it might be a good idea to introduce tetrachords and how they can be used to build major scales. These can be found on the “Piano” page, under “For My Students”.

I added some simplified exercises to the beginning of my Guitar Beginning Finger-Picking Patterns. I realized it might be too difficult to use the thumb and three fingers together right at the very beginning, so I created some basic rhythmic patterns using just the thumb and one finger at a time. Then I did some exercises using the thumb and combinations of two fingers at a time (found on the “Guitar” page, under “For My Students”).

In my Bass Guitar Chords Method Book, I finished Unit 3: 12-Bar Blues and Unit 4: Sus2 and Sus4 Chords (found on the “Bass Guitar” page, under “For My Students”).

Please let me know if you use any of these teaching materials with your students, and if you find them helpful, or if you have any questions or comments.

teaching

June Lesson Materials

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Lately I have been working on extensive additions and edits to my Ukulele, Guitar, and Bass Guitar Method Books. I wanted to add more familiar songs to my Note-Reading Method Books for Ukulele, Guitar, and Bass Guitar, so I added Hot Cross Buns, Mary Had a Little Lamb/Merrily We Roll Along (both without  and with the high note), Ode to Joy, London Bridge, Ring Around the Rosie, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Row Row Row Your Boat, French Song, Old MacDonald, Yankee Doodle, and Happy Birthday. I added these songs at appropriate points throughout the lessons, all in various keys (mostly in C Major, F Major, and G Major, but a few of them are also in D Major and Bb Major). I also changed the name of my original Ukulele and Guitar Method Books to “Chord-Strumming Method”, in order to better differentiate it from the “Note-Reading Method”. I added and updated PDFs of all of these lessons on the “Ukulele”, “Guitar” and “Bass Guitar” pages.

In my Mallets Method Book, I added the same songs to Unit 1 (The Key of C Major), Unit 2 (The Key of G Major), and Unit 3 (The Key of F Major) and also updated the PDFs on the “Mallets” page.

For Bass Guitar, I also started a method book, which I am calling “Bass Guitar Chords Method Book” (for lack of a better name). This book parallels my Guitar Chord-Strumming Method Book, and is meant to teach a bass player what to play in order to follow the guitar player. It teaches the bass player what the root, 3rd, 5th, and octave is for each chord, so that they will know what their options are. My Guitar and Bass Guitar Method Books could be used together as a sort of “Rock Band Method Book” if a teacher needed material for guitar and bass students to play together. PDFs of the “Practice Instructions and Fretboard”, “Unit 1: Major and minor Chords”, and “Unit 2: Common Chords Progressions” of the Bass Guitar Chords Method Book can be found on my “Bass Guitar” page.

Please let me know if you use any of these teaching materials with your students, and if you find them helpful, or if you have any questions or comments.