Tag Archives: guitar note-reading

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Late April and May Lesson Materials

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For the second half of April and all of May, I spent a lot of my time finishing a number of my method books. For Ukulele I have Chord-Strumming Books 1 and 2, and Note-Reading Books 1 and 2. For Guitar I have Chord-Strumming Books 1, 2, 3, and 4, Note-Reading Books 1 and 2, and Riff Exercises (formerly “Beginning Riff Exercises”) Book 1. I also completed Strumming Rhythms Index Books 1 and 2 which can be used with Ukulele and Guitar.

I also overhauled my Guitar and Ukulele pages, partially because I removed all of the books which are now for sale. On both pages I added “How to Tune…” PDFs, updated the Karate Belt requirements to include pages from the Strumming Rhythms Index, and on the Guitar page I added the Blue and Purple Belt requirements. I removed all of my Chord-Strumming materials, except for the “Practice Instructions and Fretboard” pages (in case anyone loses theirs and needs to print a new copy) and “Unit 1 (part 1)” (so that any student can work on their White Belt requirements, even if they haven’t bought the book yet). On both pages I added Chord-Strumming Recital Songbooks (which I will talk more about later) and kept the Progressions Using Only Three Chords, so that students who are having a difficult time learning new chords can make the most of the chords they do know. I removed the Strumming Rhythms Index except for page 1, so that students can still sample it for free before deciding if they want to buy the book, and on the Guitar page there are finger-picking exercises. Like with the chord-strumming books, I removed all of my Note-Reading materials, except for the “Practice Instructions and Fretboard” pages  and “Unit 1 (part 1)” (also part of the White Belt requirements). Both pages still have PDFs of Two Hanukkah Songs and Amazing Grace, and the Guitar page has a sample of Riff Exercises and all of my Advanced Exercises.

My new project last month was to create Recital Songbooks for Guitar, Ukulele, and Drum Set (with Piano and Bass Guitar Recital Songbooks coming in the future). These will be ongoing and I will continue to add more and more songs as time goes on. The initial idea was to provide songs for beginners to be able to play in a recital, even if they only know a few basics. I use standard short song form (to also teach them about verses, choruses and bridges) and follow along with my method books to incorporate new concepts (chords, rhythms, etc.) as they are learning them, so no matter where they are in the book, they are able to utilize what they know in a musical context.

I finished my Mallet Instruments (Treble Clef) Book 1 and it is now ready for sale, but Unit 1 (part 1) is still available to print for free as a sample. Unit 5: The Key of B-Flat Major is also done and available to print, and I also started working on a Bass Clef version (Level 1: The Key of C Major is available to print).

Throughout all of my method books, I made a conceptual change and now instead of referring to each section as a “UNIT” I know use the word “Level” (there may still be use of the work “Unit” in older PDFs). I talked with a few colleagues about it to get their opinions and we all agreed on the switch. Some of their thoughts were: “Unit sounds like a chore. Level sounds like when I get to the end, I’m closer to reaching the candy in the top shelf of the cabinet.” “Unit seems like a larger chunk that may be overwhelming to try and accomplish. I think of level as just one more step or rung of the ladder to get to that new skill.” “…level in reference to video games.” “UNIT just signifies a section (and sounds like homework) but LEVEL implies improvement and ascending.”

PDFs of all of these materials can be found under the FOR MY STUDENTS tab, on the GUITAR, UKULELE, DRUM SET, and MALLETS 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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Sharps and Flats and Key Signatures (Oh My!)

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Recently, I’ve been doing the opposite of what I normally do: I started taking materials off of my website. I did this because I realized that if I have PDFs of 8 units of material, then I make a change to something later on, I have to go back and replace all of those PDFs. Also, with many of my materials, most of my students haven’t gone past Unit 1. What I’m going to do now is to upload Unit 1 of all of my books, and as students finish that unit in a particular book and the need arises, then I will add Unit 2, and so on (if there are some books that have more than one unit posted, it’s because I have students who are already that far along).

A small change that I made to almost all of my books is the addition of the words “Flat” and “Sharp” to chord and key names the first time they are used (“B-Flat” “F-Sharp”). I realized that I had been using only the symbols and never provided an explanation, so I wanted to fix that. I added  what sharp, flat, and natural symbols mean to the Practice Instructions for the Guitar and Ukulele Chord-Strumming and Note-Reading Method Books, so that students can have that as a reference at all times.

A big change that I made was to add key signatures to the songs in all of my note-reading books. Back when I did my Christmas Songbooks, I made the decision to not use key signatures for the melodies in my G Major books because I wanted the students to be more likely to play the right notes the first time through and have more fun. It recently occurred to me that this should not be the thinking for method books, though, and they should be learning about key signatures. Key signatures have been added to my guitar, ukulele, and mallets books, and they will be added to my piano and bass guitar books going forward.

Another big change that I made was to rearranged the order that the scales are presented in my Mallets Method Book. Originally I presented the scales in different octaves and positions from low to high, but then I realized that I should start every new scale on the staff first, not below the staff with ledger lines. The new order is: (1) the scale from low tonic to high tonic on the staff, (2) the scale with tonic in the middle on the staff, (3) the scale that goes above the staff, (4) the scale that goes below the staff. To make communication in lessons easier, I numbered the exercises/songs, and as mentioned previously, I added key signatures to all of the songs.

PDFs of all of these materials can be found under the FOR MY STUDENTS tab, on the GUITAR, UKULELE, and MALLETS 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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More Guitar and Ukulele Materials

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Recently I realized that while I have Practice Instructions pages for my Guitar and Ukulele Chord-Strumming Method Books, I didn’t have a Practice Instructions pages for my Guitar and Ukulele Note-Reading Method Books, so I made them. Like the pages in my Chord-Strumming Method Books, it is meant to be cut out and referenced on every page that the student is practicing (like a bookmark). I will always leave a link to a PDF of these pages on my website in case a student loses them, even when the Note-Reading Method Books are for sale. In my Guitar and Ukulele Note-Reading Method Books I also added numbers to all of the lines so that it is easier to reference which line a student should be playing at any time (allowing the teacher to say, “play line 3” as opposed to saying, “play that line” and having to point).

I added a couple of new units to my Guitar Beginning Riff Exercises. Unit 3 deals with playing riffs using major pentatonic scales starting on the A string in I IV V progressions and 12-Bar Blues in various major keys (and uses Riff Rhythms pages v and vi). Unit 4 is playing riffs using minor pentatonic scales starting on the A string in i iv v progressions and 12-Bar Blues in various minor keys (and uses Riff Rhythms Pages vii and viii).

I also prepared my Guitar Chord-Strumming Method Book 4 to sell. As with my other completed method books, for now they are only available for sale through me directly, but soon I will add links to purchase them online.

PDFs of all of these materials can be found under the FOR MY STUDENTS tab, on the GUITAR 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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More Guitar and Ukulele Method Books for Sale

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Lately I have been making it a priority to prepare more of my method books to sell. For a while I have been selling my Guitar Chord-Strumming Method Book 1 and my Ukulele Chord-Strumming Method Book 1, and over the past few weeks I also prepared my Guitar Chord-Strumming Method Book 2 and Book 3, as well as my Ukulele Chord-Strumming Method Book 2. As of now, they are only available for sale through me directly, but soon I will add links to purchase them online.

While my first Guitar and Ukulele Chord-Strumming Books are no longer available for free on my website, I did decide to make all of the materials for Guitar and Ukulele Karate White Belts available for free. On the GUITAR and UKULELE pages there are links to free PDFs for both the Chord-Strumming as well as the Note-Reading books “Unit 1 (part 1)”.

I also recently made some changes to my Guitar Beginning Riff Exercises (which was formerly known as “Guitar Beginning Riff and Solo Exercises”). I updated and re-formatted Unit 1 so that the Riff Rhythm pages are now “cut-outs” at the beginning of the book that are used with the progressions in different keys throughout Unit 1. This way I only had to print the pages of rhythms and progressions once. Since the Riff Rhythm pages are meant to be cut out and will become individual sheets of paper that might get lost, I’m going to leave the links to the PDFs of them on my page for free, even when I finish the book and start selling it. The other big change that I made was that I was originally going to have major pentatonic scales on the A string for Unit 2, but instead I changed it to minor pentatonic scales on the E string. My original thought was to do everything with major pentatonic scales then do everything with minor pentatonic scales, but I decided that it would be better to switch back and forth between the two. So to summarize, Riff Rhythms pages i and ii go with Unit 1: Major Pentatonic Scales on the Low E String, and Riff Rhythms pages iii and iv go with Unit 2: Minor Pentatonic Scales on the Low E String.

PDFs of all of these materials can be found under the FOR MY STUDENTS tab, on the GUITAR 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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Guitar/Ukulele Note-Reading and Beginning Music Theory

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During the second half of February I made a push to finish almost all of my guitar and ukulele note-reading units, once I had decided on my overall plan of which keys to do and in which order. In my Guitar Note-Reading Method Book I finished Unit 5: The Key of F Major, Unit 6: The Key of E Major, Unit 7: The Key of B Flat Major, and Unit 8: 8th Notes. Similarly, in my Ukulele Note-Reading Method Book I finished Unit 5: The Key of B Flat Major, Unit 6: The Key of A Major, Unit 7: The Key of E Flat Major, and Unit 8: 8th Notes.

I recently also had a realization that if some people are struggling with music theory, it might be because they are having difficulty reading notes on the staff. Music notation can be a barrier between them and the overall music theory concepts, so I created some beginning music theory sheets that use only text. So far, I’ve done a unit on major scales, a unit on (relative) natural minor scales, and a unit on harmonic and melodic minor scales (all up to 3 sharps and 3 flats).

PDFs of all of these materials can be found under the FOR MY STUDENTS tab, on the GUITAR, UKULELE, and MUSIC THEORY 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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Guitar/Ukulele Karate: White, Yellow, Orange, and Green Belts

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I’ve been continuing to work on my Guitar and Ukulele Karate Belt requirements. I focused mostly on the Orange and Green Belts, but I also made some updates to White and Yellow Belt requirements (I’ll mention the changes below). In addition to strumming, reading, and music theory, I also added requirements from my Strumming Rhythms Index starting in Orange Belt (and continuing through Black Belt).

One of the main things I had to work on for my Karate Belt requirement was my Guitar Note-Reading book. I decided that I wanted to introduce the note High A in Unit 1, which is now in Lessons 14, 15, and 18, including additional songs. Because I added a few lessons to Unit 1 I wanted to shift some of the lessons from Yellow Belt to White Belt, so now the White Belt requirements (Unit 1, part 1 PDF) goes up to Lesson 7 (High D), and the Yellow Belt requirements (Unit 1, part 2 PDF) goes from Lesson 8 to Lesson 18. I also finished and added Unit 2: The Key of G Major, which is a requirement for Orange Belt, and Unit 3: The Key of D Major and Unit 4: The Key of A Major, which are both required for Green Belt.

I wanted to start adding pages from my Strumming Rhythms Index as requirements for Guitar/Ukulele Karate, but first I needed to give it a bit of an overhaul. Originally I was going to have rhythms with ties, but I took them out and instead focus on only adding rests to my “core rhythms”, which can then be played three ways: (1) letting the notes ring and just not strumming on the rests (which would give the sound of tied notes), (2) muffling the strings on the rests (the actual technical way rests should be interpreted in order to create silence), (3) play a muted strum on the rests (to create the “chick” sound). The main reason I did this was because writing out all of those variations would take this book up to over 200 pages, but also because I am more interested in making sure my students can count and play the rhythms, and less concerned with them being able read the rhythms in every possible variation that every songwriter/composer has ever notated. I also wanted to add rhythms with quarter notes and 8th notes in 6/4 time earlier in the book and I moved the rhythms in 6/8 time to later in the book (in the hopes that counting and playing in 6/4 first would help students have an easier time with 6/8 when it comes up). I also expanded my “Selective Strumming” exercises to include 6/4 rhythms, as well as a version of 4/4 rhythms with the high note on beat 3. The big addition was to add rhythms that use 8th notes and 16th notes in 2/4, 3/8, and 6/8, as well as variations of them using rests, and also “Selective Strumming” exercises based on them. I also separated the Strumming Rhythms Index into individual units to make it easier to find everything.

PDFs of all of these materials can be found under the FOR MY STUDENTS tab, on the GUITAR 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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More Note-Reading Units

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Since I’m continuing to focus on Guitar/Ukulele Karate, I worked on anything that is needed for the first couple of belts (White Belt and Yellow Belt). For both Guitar and Ukulele I split Note-Reading Unit 1 (The Key of C Major) into two parts to make it clear for the students what is required (part 1 is for White Belt, part 2 is for Yellow Belt). Also for both Guitar and Ukulele I removed any songs that have 8th notes, and I will eventually be including all of those exercises and songs (as well as others) in a later unit. I also made some adjustments/updates to Ukulele Note-Reading Units 2 (The Key of G Major) and 3 (The Key of F Major), and then created Unit 4 (The Key of D Major). Also, on Friday January 24th I awarded my first White Belt to one of my guitar students. She is well on her way to testing for her Yellow Belt, and I have a few students who should be able to get their White Belts soon.

I have a xylophone student who is coming to the end of Unit 3 (The Key of F Major), so I wanted to make sure that Unit 4 (The Key of D Major) will be ready for him. I also realized that when I am choosing melodies in a particular key, there are melodies where tonic/Do is the lowest note and the notes of the melody ascend from there (sometimes even reaching the higher octave tonic/Do), and some melodies have tonic/Do in the middle descending to the notes below (usually down to the dominant/Sol) as well as ascending to the notes above (sometimes to the high dominant/Sol). For ukulele I usually have to choose one or the other because the range of the ukulele is so small (and I’m not dealing with different hand positions moving up the neck yet), but since most mallet instruments span multiple octaves, I wanted to make sure I included both types of melody ranges (in multiple octaves). I added any “missing” exercises and melodies to Units 1, 2, and 3, and then created Unit 4 with the same format.

A few weeks ago I had the idea to restructure my Snare Drum and Drum Set method books. In my Snare Drum book, I’ve tried to teach all of the new rhythms in various meters, but it occurred to me that maybe I should introduce every new concept in 2/4 time first, then have two lessons in 4/4 time with plenty of variations, then have a lesson in 3/4 time. This way, all of the core rhythmic concepts and their variations can be simplified by dealing with only two beats at first. Then stretching those ideas out to 4/4, which is still very symmetrical, familiar, and comfortable, and also having two lessons in 4/4 time to really give the concepts an opportunity to settle into the students’ muscle memory. Then finally give them a challenge with the less-familiar/comfortable 3/4 time, before moving onto the next concept. In my Snare Drum book this is still a work in progress, so it will be a little while longer before I post them, but I was able to implement this concept in my Drum Set book. I had already followed that concept of 2/4 then 4/4 then 3/4, however, I only had one page in each unit devoted to 4/4. In each unit I added a second page of drum set beats in 4/4 with the snare drum is on beat 3 (instead of beats 2 and 4 like the initial 4/4 pages). I also added a unit with Bass Drum Variations in 2/4, 4/4 (both versions), and 3/4, which is now Unit 3. Four Measure Phrases are now Unit 4 and everything else is also pushed back a unit.

PDFs of all of these materials can be found under the FOR MY STUDENTS tab, on the GUITAR, UKULELE, MALLETS, and DRUM SET 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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Ukulele Karate and Guitar Karate

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With the start of the new year, I wanted to implement something new with my students. Over break I learned about Recorder Karate, created by Barb Philipak, which is a system of awarding different colored strings (representing the different colored belts awarded in Karate)  to recorder students as they progress through nine songs of increasing difficulty. I loved this idea, so I wanted to try it with my students.

Philipak also created “Ukulele Karate”, but I couldn’t find a pre-existing “Guitar Karate”. After looking into her Recorder Karate and Ukulele Karate systems, I decided that I wanted to create my own version. First of all, after looking into the order in which her belts are awarded, as well as looking into other martial arts systems that award belts, I decided on the order: white, yellow, orange, green, blue, purple, red, brown, and black. I bought a package of embroidery floss in these colors, and I will be cutting them to a length that can be tied around the headstock, near the nut, behind the strings (or worn as a bracelet if the student prefers). Also, instead of focusing on an individual song as the requirement, I wanted to really challenge my students and hopefully push them past what they might normally work on. My requirements for Ukulele/Guitar Karate incorporate my method books, and focus on chord-strumming, note-reading, and music theory. My hope is that this will give students the motivation to become more well-rounded musicians.

In my Ukulele Karate and Guitar Karate systems, the White Belt requirements focus on the first half of Unit 1 of both the Chord-Strumming and Note-Reading Method Books, and the Yellow Belt requirements focus on the second half of Unit 1 of those same books. The music theory requirement is to memorize the notes of the chords and scales they learn in these lessons. After those two belts the requirements will become increasingly more difficult. For example, the Orange Belt requirements will include all of Unit 2 of both the Chord-Strumming and Note-Reading Method Books, and by the Black Belt, there will be multiple units required. Also along the way I will add additional concepts and techniques such as different strumming rhythms, scales, riffs, finger-picking, etc.

A PDF of my requirements for White Belt and Yellow Belt as well as Note-Reading Unit 1 (part 1 for White Belt, part 2 for Yellow Belt) can be found under FOR MY STUDENTS on the UKULELE and GUITAR pages.

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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.

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February Lesson Materials

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In February I finished my Guitar Method Book Note-Reading Unit 1, which teaches the eight natural notes on the three high strings (G, A, B, C, D, E, F, G) and Unit 2, which teaches the nine natural notes on the three low strings (E, F, G, A, B, C, D, E, F). I also rearranged my “Guitar Beginning Riff and Solo Exercises” so that all of the major pentatonic and minor pentatonic exercises are side-by-side, and I also put all of the quarter note rhythms first, followed by all of the 8th note rhythms.

I worked on my Snare Drum Method Book for the first time in a long time. (To give you an idea of how long it’s been, all of my sentences had TWO spaces after the periods… which I changed.) I did a bunch of overall formatting clean-up, but the main thing was that I rearranged Units 5 and 6. Originally Unit 5 focused on 3/8, 5/8, 6/8, 7/8, 9/8, and 12/8 using mostly 8th notes with occasional quarter notes, dotted quarter notes, and rests, and Unit 6 added 16th notes to the same set of meters. In the updated versions Unit 5 is all of the compound meters (3/8, 6/8, 9/8, and 12/8) first using mostly 8th notes with occasional quarter notes, dotted quarter notes, and rests, and then adding 16th notes to those same compound meters, and Unit 6 is the complex meters (two versions of 5/8 and 3 versions of 7/8) first using mostly 8th notes with occasional quarter notes, dotted quarter notes, and rests, and then adding 16th notes to those same complex meters.

It had also been a long time since I worked on my Drum Set Method Book, so it was in need of some updates. I realized that in addition to 4/4 which is the most common meter in music, I should also include exercises in 2/4 and 3/4 at the beginning of the book since they are also relatively common. I followed the same format that I originally used to introduce 4/4 on drum set: building a basic quarter note beat, building a basic 8th note beat, learning how to navigate four-measure phrases, and then playing a whole song form. I added 2/4 and 3/4 versions of those exercises parallel to the 4/4 versions, so that the students will be well versed with all three meters right from the beginning.

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.