Tag Archives: mallet instrument method book

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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 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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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.