We have learned a lot so far. Now it is your turn to be the teacher!
Show us how you play the guitar:
Show us how you play the guitar:
- How do you sit?
- Where does the guitar touch you?
- What do you do with your right hand?
- How do you “walk the dogs”?
- Where is the G string?
- What does your left hand do?
- Where does your thumb go?
- How do you play ‘A’?
So good! You are really picking up some skills!
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One of the best ways to learn something is to teach it. This is also a good way to gauge how well the student understands the material. In the process of doing this exercise, it is useful to purposefully make mistakes—cross your legs when sitting or forget to anchor your thumb when walking the dogs.
With any luck, the student will catch the mistake and correct you. If they don’t, continue on and then interrupt them with a question or comment that addresses the mistake.
This question or comment should be focused on the result of bad technique. For crossed legs, incorrect points of contact, and other posture mistakes a comment like “I don’t feel like the guitar is steady,” or “I don’t feel comfortable doing this” would be appropriate. If your thumb is not anchored on the top string say, “I am not always sure if my fingers are touching the strings. How can I know they will?” This is also an opportunity to reinforce the idea that our fingers never go under the strings and strings should never be snapped away from the guitar.
Also, this is a great opportunity to get other family members involved, even those who haven’t done anything in the book so far.
With any luck, the student will catch the mistake and correct you. If they don’t, continue on and then interrupt them with a question or comment that addresses the mistake.
This question or comment should be focused on the result of bad technique. For crossed legs, incorrect points of contact, and other posture mistakes a comment like “I don’t feel like the guitar is steady,” or “I don’t feel comfortable doing this” would be appropriate. If your thumb is not anchored on the top string say, “I am not always sure if my fingers are touching the strings. How can I know they will?” This is also an opportunity to reinforce the idea that our fingers never go under the strings and strings should never be snapped away from the guitar.
Also, this is a great opportunity to get other family members involved, even those who haven’t done anything in the book so far.
Let's play another game with pizza!
- Put your thumb on the top string.
- Find the G string (three up from the bottom)
- Walk your pointer and middle fingers over the the G string.
- Make the string say “Pep-per-o-ni Piz-za”
- Play it again.
- Now be quiet for the first note, like you do when you sing the song Bingo! _-I-N-G-O
- Then keep taking away notes until you only play za.
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Use the videos below to get the hang of it.
First, Say It.
First, Say It.
Then, Play It!
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This is a fun way to start developing the student’s rhythmic skills. Specifically, the exercise forces them to internalize a pulse distinct from playing. Separating the pulse from thinking about the notes being played is an important skill to have as they progress in their study of music. It might be helpful to sing through “Bingo” one time to refresh the student’s memory of how the game works. Try singing/speaking through the exercise the first few times, before they try playing it on their instrument.
You can use the written words to help guide the student. Point to each syllable or use a blank sheet to cover all of the lines, then reveal each line as the student gets to it. This will help focus their attention.
Get your favorite colored marker or crayon.
Now write the notes to Jelly below or on a separate sheet of paper.
Have someone cover up some of the letters on the page and see if you can still play the song.
Keep covering up more and more of the song and see how much of it you can play from memory.
Now write the notes to Jelly below or on a separate sheet of paper.
Have someone cover up some of the letters on the page and see if you can still play the song.
Keep covering up more and more of the song and see how much of it you can play from memory.
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Hopefully at this point the student can play this song without too many mistakes or hesitations. Memorization helps students get beyond just getting through a song and to start really thinking about making music. Writing the notes to the song in their favorite color is a fun way for kids to start memorizing the song. After the student has written the song out, try having them play the song while you use your hand to cover up different parts. This way, some of the notes they play by reading and some of the notes they play by memory.
The song easily divides into three sections:
G A B B A G A A B A G
This is a very effective way to start targeting areas that need extra attention. Since we know the last phrase (A, A, B, A G) is the most challenging, you might start by covering up G A B and have them play all the way through. Then cover both the G A B and B A G sections, leaving only the A A B A G section visible.
Another fun way to do this is to cover one note either at the beginning or the end, then two, then three and so on. The most important thing is they are getting lots of repetition playing the song and practicing shifting between reading and trying to remember.
Different notes have different sounds. Some are higher and some are lower.
Can you play a low-sounding note? How about a high-sounding note?
In “Jelly”, G is the lowest sounding note, then we go up to A and up again to B.
Use your fingers to walk up the steps below and sing the names of the notes while your fingers walk.
Can you play a low-sounding note? How about a high-sounding note?
In “Jelly”, G is the lowest sounding note, then we go up to A and up again to B.
Use your fingers to walk up the steps below and sing the names of the notes while your fingers walk.
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Now walk back down the steps.
Now move where you want on the steps.
Take turns playing this game with a partner!
Now move where you want on the steps.
Take turns playing this game with a partner!
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High and Low Sounds
This exercise introduces the concept of pitch. In music, the term pitch describes the perceived “highness “or “lowness” of a sound as determined by the frequency of vibrations. It is easy to confuse pitch with volume. High sounds, like a mouse’s chirp, aren’t necessarily loud, and low sounds, like a bear’s growl, can be quite loud.
High and Low Sounds on the Guitar
On the guitar the lowest sounding string is the thick string on the top of the instrument and the highest sounding string is the thinnest string, located at the bottom of the instrument. We give each pitch a letter name.
The Musical Alphabet
The musical alphabet goes from A to G and then repeats. That is why in this example, the note G is actually below A (A, B, C, D, E, F, G, A). We will explore this more in the next lesson. For now, have the student use their fingers to walk up and down through the three pitches used in “Jelly.” Have fun exploring how to move between pitches.
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Let’s learn the notes on the B string:
- Play the B string.
- Press down with your pointer finger behind the 1st fret on the B string—this is C.
- Press down with your ring finger behind the 3rd fret on the B string—this is D.
Now sit down and play each pattern on the guitar.
Be sure to say the Ta’s and Too’s while you do.
Be sure to say the Ta’s and Too’s while you do.
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The note C is played by holding down the B string behind the first fret. The thumb stays in the rectangle.
The note D is played by holding down the B string behind the third fret. You your 1st and 2nd fingers should still touch the B string.
Now play this:
C
C
C
D
D
D
Now try:
C
C
C
D
D
D
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The B string has two notes in first position (when the thumb is in the thumb rectangle): C and D. C is found behind the first fret of the B string and D is found behind the third fret of the B string. The two lines above will help the student practice changing between notes.
As the student plays, look for the three key points for the left hand:
As the student plays, look for the three key points for the left hand:
- The thumb is in the thumb rectangle behind the middle finger with space between the neck and the palm of the hand.
- The finger is pressing down close to the right hand side of the fret (if you are too far back to the left in the fret you will hear a buzzing sound).
- The string is making contact with the center of the tip of the finger.
Last lesson we learned about Ta and Too. Can you march and clap them?
1)
Ta
Ta
Too
(Hold)
2)
Too
(Hold)
Ta
Ta
3)
Ta
Too
(Hold)
Ta
Step
Step
Step
Step
Now, clap one without saying the words out loud. Try to have a partner guess which rhythm it was?
Take turns playing this guessing game.
Now, instead of marching and clapping, try playing them on the G string of the guitar.
In music we use a different symbol for each rhythm.
Take turns playing this guessing game.
Now, instead of marching and clapping, try playing them on the G string of the guitar.
In music we use a different symbol for each rhythm.
Ta-Ta-Too is
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What is this?
That’s Right, it’s Too-Ta-Ta!
Now try this:
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Try playing these three rhythms on any note you like!
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Building on rhythmic skills from last week, this lesson focuses on rhythms using Ta’s and Too’s and how they are written. Remember Ta gets one count and Too gets two counts.
The symbols for Ta and Too are shown in the student section. You will notice that sometimes they are written with the stem going up and other times with the stem going down. This doesn’t change the rhythm of the note.
After you have gone through the rhythms with your student, take turns clapping one of the rhythmic patterns (labeled 1,2, & 3) without saying the syllables. It is up to the other person to guess which rhythm was clapped. Switch back and forth between clapping and guessing.
Next, move the game to the instrument and have the non-guesser play the rhythm on the G string. Finally, try making up your own rhythmic patterns.
You probably have noticed that all of the patterns we have used so far take up four counts, with Ta’s getting one count and Too’s getting two. For example, Ta Ta Too is 1+1+2. Four beats is a common rhythmic pattern for beginning musicians—in fact, it is called common time.
If you are comfortable with the patterns above you could try coming up with some different groups that take up 3 beats (Too-Ta) or 6 beats (Too-Ta-Ta-Too).
The goal is to have fun exploring Ta and Too!
The symbols for Ta and Too are shown in the student section. You will notice that sometimes they are written with the stem going up and other times with the stem going down. This doesn’t change the rhythm of the note.
After you have gone through the rhythms with your student, take turns clapping one of the rhythmic patterns (labeled 1,2, & 3) without saying the syllables. It is up to the other person to guess which rhythm was clapped. Switch back and forth between clapping and guessing.
Next, move the game to the instrument and have the non-guesser play the rhythm on the G string. Finally, try making up your own rhythmic patterns.
You probably have noticed that all of the patterns we have used so far take up four counts, with Ta’s getting one count and Too’s getting two. For example, Ta Ta Too is 1+1+2. Four beats is a common rhythmic pattern for beginning musicians—in fact, it is called common time.
If you are comfortable with the patterns above you could try coming up with some different groups that take up 3 beats (Too-Ta) or 6 beats (Too-Ta-Ta-Too).
The goal is to have fun exploring Ta and Too!