Bloopers

Homework Song for Session 4 - None But Jesus

This song introduces the key of "D". As we mentioned during this morning's session, if you can master the keys of "G" and "D", with the use of a capo, you will be able to play almost any song in a worship setting.

The only tricky bit with this song is the "push chord". The beat is syncopated and it means that at certain points in the song, you will be changing chords on the "upstroke" rather than the "downstroke".

The female vocals is none other than my lovely wife, Ling.

Music Theory

During Session 3, we started going into some music theory but I suspect that many of you might have found it hard to grasp the concepts. Don't feel discouraged if this is the case because your learning curve has already been very steep in this class!

But do try your best to understand the theory that will be taught in the coming weeks. I encourage you to ask as many questions as you need to. Your tutors are there to help you out as much as they can.

You'd need to learn both the practical and theoretical side of music to excel in the instrument. You'll soon find that a good foundation in music theory will help you learn the practical side because you would understand what you are doing and not simply mimicking finger shapes.

See you all on Saturday!

Darren

Homework Song for Session 3 - Magnificent

The homework song for this week is "Magnificent", strummed in eigths.

We chose this song because it incorporated all the chords in the key of "G", namely G, C, D, Em, Am and Bm.

You will notice that Darren keeps his wrist moving in eights, but he strategically does not "hit" the strings on every stroke. This is just to give the song some "colour". As you get used to constancy in your rhythm, you will naturally get the feel for a song as to when to actually strike the strings with your upstrokes and downstrokes.

I suggest you also try some other songs which appear at the back of your notes in the key of "G" so you have a feel for the different permutations of chord changes between the family of chords.

If you can master changing between these six chords and get a consistent strum going, you can essentially play most of the songs we do at church!

Module 2 is Starting

I hope you've all been practising hard and mastering G, C and D with eighth notes. We've now finished Module 1, and starting this Saturday 31 Oct, we will be into the Second Module.

We will be learning new chords in the key of G, so by the end of this week's session, you should be able to play most songs which are in the key of G. We'll be uploading the homework song for this Session 3 shortly.

You should by now have a thick layer of dead skin on your left hand. Cherish it as a trophy of your hard work over the last 3 weeks. If you don't, you're not trying hard enough! Just kidding!

Remember to keep practising. If you find some songs that you like at the back of your notes, why not try to play them and figure them out for yourselves?

Looking forward to our session this Saturday.

No Class this Saturday

Just a reminder that there is no class this Saturday. We have deliberately scheduled in breaks between sessions to give you time to practise and consolidate what has already been taught.

The only way to improve is to practise in your own time, so we encourage you to pick up the guitar even for 20 minutes a day to go through changing chords between G, C and D and trying to strum in eighths.

We'll see you next week for Session 3!

Note New Dates

Please note that there is a change in date for the last session. It was originally scheduled for Saturday, 28 November. It has now been pushed one week back to Saturday, 5 December.

We will remind you again closer to the date.