Tag Archives: guitar finger-picking

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Christmas Songbooks and Two Hanukkah Songs

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Over the past two months, I was preparing my Christmas Songbook Book 1 for publishing, and it is now live on MyScore! There are seven different versions of the book, so please make sure to chose the one that fits the best. These books were originally intended for guitar and ukulele students with treble voice, but I’ve adapted them so that they can also be used for piano, bass guitar, bass voice, mallet instruments, and melodic band/orchestra instruments (flute, trombone, violin, etc.), including transposing instruments (clarinet, saxophones, trumpet, etc.). The 24 songs included in these books are: Angels We Have Heard on High, Away in a Manger, Deck the Halls, The First Noel, God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, Good King Wenceslas, Hark the Herald Angels Sing, I Saw Three Ships, In the Bleak Midwinter, It Came Upon a Midnight Clear, Jingle Bells, Jolly Old Saint Nicholas, Joy to the World, O Christmas Tree, O Come All Ye Faithful, O Come O Come Emmanuel, O Holy Night, O Little Town of Bethlehem, Silent Night, Up on the Housetop, The Wassail Song (Here We Come A-Caroling), We Three Kings, We Wish You a Merry Christmas, and What Child is This?

Here are the descriptions of the various versions:

Christmas Songbook, With Melodies in Treble Clef, Book 1 in C Major: A collection of 24 Christmas songs in the key of C Major (and a few in A minor). Perfect for beginning ukulele students and intermediate guitar students (who can play an FM chord). Also great for singers and non-transposing instruments who read in treble clef (flute, oboe, mallet instruments, violin, etc.) and want to play with other students who are using the C Major book.

Christmas Songbook, With Melodies in Treble Clef, Book 1 in G Major: A collection of 24 Christmas songs in the key of G Major (and a few in E minor). Perfect for beginning guitar students and intermediate ukulele students (who can play DM and Em chords). Also great for transposing instruments in the key of F who read in treble clef (horn, etc.) and want to play with other students who are using the C Major book. Beginning guitar students who want to play with other students using the C Major book can also use the G Major book if they use a capo at the 5th fret.

Christmas Songbook, With Melodies for Piano, Book 1 in C Major and G Major: A collection of 24 Christmas songs in the key of C Major or G Major (and a few in A minor or E minor). Perfect for beginning to intermediate piano students who want to play melodies using both hands, mostly in Middle C Position (some songs use a few alterations). Also great for piano students who want to play with other students who are using the C Major and/or G Major books.

Christmas Songbook, With Melodies in Bass Clef, Book 1 in C Major: A collection of 24 Christmas songs in the key of C Major (and a few in A minor). Perfect for beginning bass guitar students. Also great for singers and non-transposing instruments who read in bass clef (bassoon, trombone, tuba, cello, string bass, etc.) and want to play with other students who are using the C Major book.

Christmas Songbook, With Melodies in Bass Clef, Book 1 in G Major: A collection of 24 Christmas songs in the key of G Major (and a few in E minor). Perfect for intermediate bass guitar students. Also great for bass guitar students who want to play with beginning guitar students who are using the G Major book.

Christmas Songbook, With Melodies in Treble Clef, Book 1 in D Major: A collection of 24 Christmas songs in the key of D Major (and a few in B minor). Perfect for intermediate-advanced guitar and ukulele students who want a challenge. Also great for transposing instruments in the key of B-Flat who read in treble clef (clarinet, tenor saxophone, trumpet, etc.) and want to play with other students who are using the C Major book.

Christmas Songbook, With Melodies in Treble Clef, Book 1 in A Major: A collection of 24 Christmas songs in the key of A Major (and a few in F-Sharp minor). Perfect for advanced guitar and ukulele students who want a challenge. Also great for transposing instruments in the key of E-Flat who read in treble clef (alto or baritone saxophone, etc.) and want to play with other students who are using the C Major book.

Links to purchase my Christmas Songbook Book 1, as well as free PDFs of Two Hanukkah Songs, can be found under the FOR MY STUDENTS tab, on the BASS GUITAR, GUITAR, MALLET INSTRUMENTS, PIANO, SONGS, and UKULELE pages. As always, 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.

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January Through May 2026 Lesson Materials

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Here are all of the updates to my lesson materials since the beginning of the year.

In my Mallet Instrument Warm-Ups I added exercises using relative natural, harmonic, and melodic minor scales.

In my Music theory Method Book, Level 1 I added Parallel Harmonic and Melodic Minor and in Level 2 I edited the interval pages to make them more concise.

I added more Guitar Finger-Picking Patterns (now a total of 12 pages).

I added a “Setlist Curriculum” for Guitar and Ukulele, which goes through a collection of different songs they can play as they learn more and more chords, so they can gradually build their setlist.

I added more of my method books on MyScore, so now almost all of my Guitar and Ukulele Method Books (Chord-Strumming, Recital Songbook, Strumming Rhythms Index, and Note-Reading) have Books 1 and 2 available for purchase. My Guitar Chord-Strumming Method also has Book 3 and Book 4.

Links to the individual method books for purchase on MyScore can be found under the FOR MY STUDENTS tab, on the GUITAR and UKULELE pages. All of the other materials can be found under the FOR MY STUDENTS tab, on the GUITAR, MALLETS, MUSIC THEORY, and UKULELE pages. As always, 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.

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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.

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January Lesson Materials

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Throughout the month of January, there were many resources for my lessons that I worked on. They can all be found under the recently-streamlined “FOR MY STUDENTS” tab.

I started work on a method book for mallets. So far, I have unit 1 which is note-reading exercises in the key of C Major, unit 2 in the key of G Major, and unit 3 in the key of F Major. On the topic of note-reading, I started a ukulele note-reading method book and a guitar note-reading method book. Also for guitar, I created “Beginning Finger-Picking Patterns”, “Beginning Riff and Solo Exercises”, “Which Pentatonic Scales and Modes to Play Over Chords”, “Common Chord Progressions”, and “Reggae Strumming Rhythms”.

I also made a big addition to my Composition/Songwriting page. I included “Which Pentatonic Scales and Modes to Play Over Chords” and “Common Chord Progressions” from my guitar page, and also added staff paper of varying sizes, staves, and orientations. I created an entirely new document, “Composing Phrases, Periods, and ABA Compositions” so that I have a workbook to use with composition students, teaching them how to use common chords progressions found in major and minor scales and modes.

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.