Teaching the Blues Part 5: Putting It All Together

The final and most important thing in teaching the blues is to put all the elements together while playing an actual song.  "Keep Your Hands to Yourself" by Georgia Satellites is probably the definitive beginner play-along song.  It's in the key of A, uses the beginner structure, and has a straight-eighths feel.  Chuck Berry Songs such as "Johnny B. Goode" and "Roll Over Beethoven" also have straight eighths and a simple structure.

I'd also encourage you to listen to the Blues "greats" as a class.  Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, B.B. King, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and Eric Clapton are just the beginning of list of some great Blues singer/guitarists.  Learn some songs in the keys of A and E to start, and then, branch off into other keys.  In teaching the real songs you'll  get students singing, and you'll pick up some classic solo licks and accompaniment styles.  You'll also hear variations, such as blues that are longer or shorter than 12 bars, minor blues, and numerous variations in accompaniment styles and feels.  Playing the form doesn't really mean anything without an actual song to play anyway.

Then, have the class write their own blues.  Start with, "I woke up this morning, [insert lamentation here]".  Repeat the first line, and close it out with a one-line "hook" statement which rhymes with the first line.  This is just one simple example.  You could have students do this individually as a project after you've done it with the whole class.  One of these class creations could easily be performed at a final concert with kids soloing between verses. I promise it'll bring the house down, and Johnny's parents will be blown away that he can play an improvised guitar solo.

In closing out this conversation on the Blues, I'll throw in this bit of fun. Follow this link to "How to Play and Sing the Blues".  It's is a great read.  Among other things it has the "Create Your Own Blues Name Starter Kit".  Have fun with this stuff!

http://www.sou.edu/music/pdf/blues.pdf

Teaching the Blues Part 4: Elements of Improvisation

In "Teaching the Blues Part 3",  I described how I introduce the pentatonic scale and improvisation on Day One of improvisation lessons.  In subsequent lessons I introduce the notes on the other strings, introduce new rhythms, introduce variations to the blues accompaniment patterns covered in Parts 1 and 2 of my Teaching the Blues posts, and have them individually improvise solos for the class using the phrases we've learned so far. In the days and weeks following, I introduce new material in three general areas: melodic phrasing and fretboard positions, rhythms, and accompaniment patterns. These are built upon gradually and across all of the areas simultaneously.

For example, on Day 2 I might simply teach them that the first string fingering is the same as the second string and have them practice soloing on the second string and alternating phrases on each string. Day three might involve teaching them a new rhythm using eighth notes. In another lesson I might teach them chord or blues shuffle variations to use in accompaniment.

I break up my instruction on Melodic/Rhythmic Phrasing into two parts. I teach the class whatever new notes/rhythms I want them to learn through the call-and-response method described above. Every few days, I'll introduce a new rhythm or notes from a new string into this exercise.

Then, I go around the class and have the student individually improvise a solo. Each student gets twelve bars to solo, and I encourage him/her to incorporate the new element .

At first, they may say that they don't know what to play, and you have to encourage them by reminding them that they can simply play the phrases written on the board in a different order until they're more comfortable with the process. It's a little like paint-by-numbers, but they're learning a "vocabulary" with which to "speak the blues language."

At the same time we're working on learning the entire scale. "Second string, same as the first.", "Fingers 1 and 3 on the next three strings", and "Sixth string, same as the first". After the first couple of lessons, I usually teach them the whole scale this way.

The class plays the scale as notated in the tablature at the top of this post, but in half notes with me playing a blues accompaniment. Now the scale's a song! In succeeding lessons I have them play it in quarter notes, eight notes, and triplets.

So, each day we're doing a few things:

1. As a group, the class echos my call-and-response phrases employing whatever notes/rhythms we're working on.

2. Half of the class plays these phrases from the board, simply written as numbers as a tune whille the other half of the class accompanies with chords or a shuffle-pattern accompaniment. We switch and let each side side have a turn with the other element.

3. Repeat the process from # 2 using the entire scale as the tune while the other group accompanies.

4. Go around the room letting each student solo for 12 bars.

All of this material is just to get you started. Find some instruction books, videos, and web lessons on The Blues. There’s a ton of material out there. And listen to the blues! My next post will be on putting it all together.

Teaching the Blues Part 3: Improvisation

Let me begin by saying that there are a myriad of guitar lessons and articles on the pentatonic scale and guitar improvisation on the web.  I'm sure many of them are more effective for teaching the adult student than my blog post. 

So if you're a new guitar teacher wanting to learn the blues for yourself first, check out some of these other resources as well.  The real purpose of this post is simply to present the methods I use to present this material to students of widely varying ability levels in the guitar classroom.

I begin by presenting the notes of the pentatonic scale (here in A minor) by playing something like the following for them:

Here is the Pentatonic scale presented as a guitar chord grid. (I got it from justinguitar.com.  His site is an awesome resource for players at any level.  Tons of blues lessons too.  Check it out!)  Place your first finger on the fifth fret for this position:

Then, I might play and sing some blues, inserting scale licks between the sung phrases, so that they get an idea of where we're going, but my purpose is not to intimidate or give them the impression that this will be incredibly difficult.

Next, I introduce scale notes on the first string only. I instruct them to place their first finger on the fifth fret, and we pulse that note until everyone is there. Then, fourth finger, 8th fret. Leave the first finger down for this one (at least to start).

After going over this for a couple of minutes, we do a call-and-response exercise using a simple quarter, quarter, half note rhythm. I say finger numbers, but fret numbers would work as well. I play and say, "One, one, one" etc. They repeat in rhythm. Then, "Four, four four".  We spend a couple of minutes here playing combinations of the two notes on the first string.

Now, it's time for a break. Using this three note structure, I ask them to tell me combinations of 1 - 1 - 4 that we could play, and we'll list them on the board. I say, "The first one's '1 - 1 - 1'." Here's where the analytical, creatively-challenged kids will breathe a sigh of relief, and some of their panic will subside.

By the end of this exercise you should have something like the following written on the board:

1 1 1         1 1 4         1 4 4         1 4 1
4 1 1         4 1 4         4 4 4         4 4 1

Then, we play this as a "song" with the quarter, quarter, half note rhythm I talked about earlier and including a measure of rest in between each phrase. I like to count it, "One, one, one - . Rest, rest, rest - ."

The measure of rest is key. Without it, inexperienced musicians have trouble playing anything which sounds like real phrasing. At this point, if you've taught them a 12-bar blues shuffle pattern, you can divide the class in half and have one section accompany the other. This can be pretty easily done even with very young students.

The real musician in you may cringe at the thought of breaking down blues phrasing in such a methodical way and essentially removing most of the creative aspects of improvisation, but you're not just teaching improvisation on Day One. You're teaching the scale and some basic elements of phrasing.  This is their beginning blues "vocabulary".

You're also quickly getting the class playing non-notated music as a two-part ensemble. When the kids hear both parts together, they'll be really pleased with the result. Of course the most important consideration is that you can’t improvise a single note solo as a large group. This exercise gets them all playing together.

Continued in part 4...

Teaching the Blues Part 2

Armadillos Taste Like Chicken


Last year I had an epiphany during a morning jog. I was trying to come up with an easier way to teach the 12-bar blues structure. For me the problem is that the pattern repeats within one measure. So, it’s sometimes difficult to teach students to count four bars when they’re actually saying the fret numbers 2-2-4-4 twice per measure. It dawned on me that if I had an eight-syllable phrase to go with the shuffle that it would be easier to remember. Then, I thought, “What if it was a phrase beginning with ‘A’ for the A spot and so forth.

What I finally came up with was:

“Armadillos taste like chicken”, “Don’t you know they’re finger lickin’”, “Everybody loves to eat ’em”. If you sing it over the following changes you get the highly singable last four measures, “Everybody loves to eat ‘em. Don’t you know they’re finger-lickin’. Armadillos taste like chicken. Armadillos.”

A A A A
D D A A
E D A A

It makes for a great ending. It’s funny because the kids think of it as a real song. I had immediate success with this. I even taught it to a 9-yr-old in a private lesson to memorize “Johnny B Goode”. She doesn’t even practice but came back the next week still able to play it. I’ve never had that kind quick retention with a young student and the 12-bar blues shuffle.

Here's the pdf of the tune as sung while learning the pattern.

Swing and the Palm Mute

I usually introduce the blues shuffle to beginners with a straight-eighth feel. Many rock and country songs use this straight feel and it’s easier to teach. However, to get a real blues sound it needs to swing. Swing is usually indicated in notation with something like this:

This is an oversimplification of what is really a “feel”, but is probably the best way to notate what is desired. Listen to some real blues music! The long-short, triple feel is a big part of it.

Another important technique for getting a good blues sound is the palm mute. Here is a pretty good video explaining it. Pay particular attention to the blues shuffle sound he gets at the beginning of the video. That’s the muted sound you often hear with the blues.

Chords and Other Variations of the Shuffle Pattern

One way to vary what you’re doing with the blues is to have some students play a chord accompaniment while others play the shuffle and improvise. There is great section on the blues in Jerry Snyder’s Guitar School. He introduces the basic seventh chords used to play over blues changes as well as some chord variations which can make the chords sound more like a real accompaniment. He even includes a chord shuffle pattern. Snyder’s mute-strum pattern which is taught in the preceding lessons provides a great resource for teaching a real blues rhythm feel. 

He’s got versions of the 12-bar blues in the keys of A and E with standard notation and tablature. These are common variations of the really basic one in my first blues post and include a V chord turnaround. There are numerous other books on playing the blues if you’re interested in learning the many variations of the12-bar blues' structure, solo licks, shuffle pattern variations, and blues turnarounds.

Jerry Snyder's Guitar School is reviewed in a previous post and comes highly recommended. It has a notation section in the back, and in the front section he fully integrates rhythm playing into learning an ample number of basic/intermediate chords. This one's a must-have for the guitar classroom.  

In my next post I'll discuss blues improvisation and how I teach it to very young beginners.

Teaching the Blues

Teaching the Blues

Learning to play the blues is essential in the guitar classroom.  Kids love playing it.  It's easy to learn, doesn't require reading skill and easily leads right into improvisation. I have found that often kids who have trouble with note-reading, such as special education students, can have success in playing a blues shuffle and especially with the corresponding improvisation lessons.

Also, it's a great way to get everyone performing together again when you reach the point in the school year where kids are at different levels. With the shuffle and the improvisation component, there are ample opportunities for remediation and enrichment while still playing together as a class on the same piece. You can pretty quickly get three groups playing, with one on a shuffle pattern, another playing a chord accompaniment and the last group playing simple patterns which will make up the “vocabulary” for later improvisation.

Finally, it can’t be overemphasized that the blues offers perhaps the best answer to the question of what to do to keep students engaged for 50 minutes (or longer). With its simple structure, abundance of recognizable song examples and endless variation, the blues offers a fun alternative class activity. It can be used as a laid back end-of-class activity and even as a reward to encourage students to work harder on other daily studies.

Basic shuffle Pattern

It is common practice to teach young guitarists the blues shuffle in A. The reason for this is that the shuffle patterns based on the I, IV and V chords can all be played in open position and using the same fingering. Also, a basic moveable minor pentatonic scale is easily played in A at the 5th fret. For the I Chord, which I call “the A spot”, I teach them the pattern below by rote.

Then, the two other positions, the “D and E spots”:

 

Teaching the Structure

There are many variations of the 12-bar blues, but at the beginning, I usually go with one which is structurally very simple. The following is my beginner blues structure with each chord symbol representing one bar or measure:

A A A A

D D A A

E E A A

If you are a musician, this sounds a little simple, but most students aren’t as familiar as you are with the blues, and this structure is simple enough to be immediately memorized. I usually just write on the board like this:

A 4x
D 2x
A 2x
E 2x
A 2x

I strongly urge you to resist the temptation to notate all of this for students, especially if they’re younger than high school age. It’s the blues, after all. Besides, it takes the focus off of the overall structure and encourages a note-to-note perspective which may be distracting for beginners. Later, it may be helpful to have some notation or tablature when introducing variations of the shuffle.

When students are comfortable with the basic version, I introduce this common variation:

A A A A
D D A A

E D A A

There are many more variations especially when you include turnarounds. It’s probably most effective to teach them in the context of songs which have a 12-bar blues structure.

In my next post I’ll discuss memorizing the structure, variations and including chords. 

Gama Guitar Workshops

I decided a few months ago that I was going to get my continuing education credits in guitar this year. So, I registered to get on the GAMA Guitar Workshops' "hotlist". Supposedly I'll be more likely to get a scholarship and have my tuition paid for.

They sent a link with the application a couple of weeks ago. I wish I'd gotten it off sooner because the scholarships are on a first-come-first-serve basis. We'll just have to see. I think it's $150.00 to register. You also have to be an MENC member and I wasn't. It costs $92.00 to sign-up in Mississippi. So, I've already spent more money than I like to for CEU's but usually they're for something lame and this is in 'guitar'! I'm going to try and save some money by staying with my brother-in-law in Atlanta for the workshop.

The website says that they give you hundreds of dollars in merchandise and materials for teaching guitar. Read about the program's success in boosting guitar sales and you'll see why they offer so much free stuff. The course is actually pretty inexpensive too. If you haven't seen it yet, watch the GAMA video I have linked to this page. Also check out the workshop here.

What to do with 50 minutes

A couple of months ago someone sent me a message commenting on the difficulty of keeping a classroom full of guitarists on task for fifty minutes.  As some one who has done it for several years, let me just say that I understand, and yes, it does get easier. 

My first 3 years I taught my class as a general music class and had written work for all or part of class several times a week. That's how I dealt with it because I didn't know what to do either.  By the third year, I was getting irritated with "wasting time" on busy work because I was pretty much able to fill the entire class period.

I generally broke my class up like this:
Students practice their piece of the week as I take roll and do other beginning of class tasks. 
Note-reading whole-class instruction
Individual practice time
Note-reading review with whole class
Bonus activity such as playing the blues, playing chords or working on a cool riff.  Later in the year this is often ensemble rehearsal time.

This is just a general idea.  Second semester I spent a lot more time on chords.  So the chord instruction actually replaced the note-reading time and we were working ensemble music at the end of class.

Teaching methods
I have found that the most important factor in being able to keep students engaged for an entire class period is the way you teach.  Having taught years of private guitar lessons, I kind of approached classroom teaching the same way, and it was really difficult.  The method of explaining, asking them to perform it while you move their fingers, stopping them and explaining again like you might be inclined to do in a private lesson is slow and frustrating. 

The incredible thing about the guitar is that you can talk while playing.  For example, if you're introducing the note E on the first string, just start playing it on a pulse of quarter notes.  Instruct them to play with you and that no matter what, you're not going to stop pulsing.  You can walk around the room and correct things, taking time to look at what each student is doing.  Then, while you continue to play as a class, you say something like, "Now I'm going to show you how to play the note F.  I'm going to move my finger to F, but I don't want you to move until I say, 'F, ready, go'."

Then you show them how you finger F, taking note of the position of the thumb and other fingers.  Then you tell them that when you say, "F, ready, go" you're all going to play it.  When they change to the new note, half of them may be doing something wrong.  This is the point where I used to stop the entire class and say, "Wait, wait.  Look. It's this.... I said, 'Stop playing!".  It's much easier to let them continue pulsing the new note while you go around and move fingers, give verbal instruction and/or instruct everyone to look at their neighbor and make sure she's doing it correctly. 

I know I've posted something about this before, but I used this technique all year and it greatly reduced my stress in teaching guitar.  I learned it at the GAMA workshop and give proper credit in the posts about that workshop.  At this moment, I can't remember the instructor's name, but he wasn't even a big guitar player.  He was a choral music guy who basically learned to play so that he could teach some guitar. 

Individual Practice Time
During this time I generally walk around helping students who are having trouble and give enrichment assignments to students who are ahead.  I had a lot of skill levels in my room of 6th, 7th and 8th graders and by the end of the first 9 weeks of school they were on many different levels including special education.  I used this practice time to walk around and give students their assignment for Piece of the Week, marking it in their book. 

Of course, in doing this, you eventually get to the point that kids aren't equally engaged in the whole-group instruction time.  You'll have kids that are lost and kids that are a litttle bored.  That's why it's important to have efficient classroom teaching practices that can help keep these times short and sweet.  Then, at the end of class, supplement with something such as blues improvisation or a new riff so that everyone is on more equal footing.

In a future post I hope to cover teaching the blues.  The blues and improvisation are great ways to fill time and are essential for any classroom guitar teacher.

Arranging ensemble music for beginner middle school guitar students

It's getting close to the end of the year and I'm aiming to have my general music kids play guitar at my spring choir concert. I share a concert with our high school choir. So I'll have to keep it short.

We're working on a couple of things I've transcribed from beginner band arrangements. We're doing "What'd I Say?" by Ray Charles and "Don't Cry for Me Argentina".

The top two parts are mainly the first three strings of the guitar, the bottom part is the more difficult to read bass range stuff and the 3rd part is somewhere in between. I've got a 5th part written for Don't Cry for Me, Argentina that is a symplification of the 1st and second parts for my special ed students. I've made it mostly whole, half and quarter notes and have taken out most of the rests. I've also limited it to the first 3 strings.

I did the same kind of thing at Christmas. We performed a 3-part arrangement of Jingle Bells that I arranged, O Come All Ye Faithful and Up on the Housetop transcribed from a Sax trio book and Little Drummer Boy which I transcribed into 4 parts from a beginner band arrangement. Little Drummer Boy was so nice that I decided to do a couple for the spring concert.

We performed in the lobby of the hospital in town.

I really should be doing some of Bill Swick's Guitar Trios for first year but I'm out of money and can't purchase them now. The samples at classroomguitar.com looked perfect for a concert.

Right now I'm registering for the summer guitar workshop from MENC and GAMA. I'll try to post links later.