Duet Song

We are going to split the class into small "bands" for the purpose of playing a short duet song. Each member of the group must learn both the chords and the single note melody of the the song. We will perform the song at the end of class with each group member alternating between chords and melody.

If you need to review the notes...

Notes on the 1st string

Notes on the 2nd string

Quarter 3 Self-Evaluation

As we near the end of Quarter 3 it is important to reflect on your progress. Please complete and submit this Self-reflection survey with your thoughts on your progress to this date.

Travis Picking Examples

In class we have been working through the Travis picking technique. It is a slow process to become comfortable with this common and useful guitar technique. I wanted to share some examples of songs that use this pattern. These might help you stay on course for mastering the technique.

Landslide by Fleetwood Mac

Dust in the Wind (example) by Kansas


Both examples have minimal chord movement and I have simplified some aspects of the chord progressions to make it easier to focus on the Travis Picking.

Good Luck!

Mapping Your Own Fretboard

Please review the post on mapping the fretboard. Using the information in that post, please complete your own fretboard map highlighting the natural notes. You will find a blank fretboard in our Google Classroom. Upon completion please submit your fretboard in the assignment post in your classroom.


Period 7 Guitar I: Class Code- dy3pecf

Period 4 Guitar I: Class Code- 3r2y7hn


Feel free to work together and collaborate on the fretboard layout. While it is important to get the 
layout correct, it is more important to work through the layout as opposed to looking it up...

Mapping the Fretboard

As guitarists, you have many ways to learn how to do nearly anything on the guitar. Many of those ways will give you short cuts (not that it's a bad thing) that certainly solve the problem of immediacy, but often those methods lack long-term understanding of the guitar.
It is easy enough to show you where to place your hand for chords, scale, etc. but as you advance, you are going to want to have the freedom to build your own chords, find new voicing, and expand your understanding of how to build and shape scales. In order to do this, it is important to have a solid working knowledge of the landscape of the guitar fretboard. While it can seem daunting ("Geez, there are a bunch of strings and a whole mess of frets...") there is a method to the madness if we take a moment and investigate...

Here is where you can find all the natural notes on the guitar. The natural notes consist of A, B, C, D, E, F and G (No #'s and b's)



First off, the distance or interval from one fret to the next is called a semitone or half step (that is the smallest interval in Western music) . The distance between two frets is called a whole tone or whole step (basically 2 semitones or half steps).

Important questions to consider...

• Do you notice any patterns on the fretboard when you look at all the natural notes?

• What happens in those frets that don't have a letters or notes shown in the diagram?

As you work through the map of the neck, your first priority should be the E strings and the A string. These strings are the starting points for most of your chords and scales.

Time to Teach!

Okay folks it's time to show me what you can do. Today you are going to teach something you can do on the guitar to an audience of non-guitarists. 

 

The result will be a short (1-2 min.) video demonstrating a chord, technique, tuning, etc. Keep in mind, your video is aimed at an audience of inexperienced guitarists so you have to be clear with your explanation and your demonstration. The video does not need to include your face, just your hands, the guitar and your voice.

Your video lesson will be posted to Google Classroom by the end of the class period.

Guitar I Period 4 Class code: 3r2y7hn

Guitar I Period 7 Class code: dy3pecf