Comments for Bill Brickey http://www.billbrickey.com Musician, Singer/Songwriter, Performing Artist Tue, 13 Sep 2011 04:05:05 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.3 Comment on Guitar 1 [In Session] by Bill Brickey http://www.billbrickey.com/?page_id=469&cpage=1#comment-58 Bill Brickey Tue, 13 Sep 2011 04:05:05 +0000 http://www.billbrickey.com/?page_id=469#comment-58 Matt, FIrst of all, I love this email! So rich with questions and you are clearly an inspired learner. Congratulations on having a magnificent obsession! You have hit on a lot of good points. Let go point by point. 1.) The whole point of learning to sing with the songs as you are learning them is that there will eventually be no distinction between matching the strum to the vocal or vice versa. 2.) The reason that the Old Town School Book is so important has nothing to do with where the songs originate from. It has to do with the fact that the melodies contained in the songs in that book are foundations of modern American Music. In other words our pop music is built around those melodies or variations on the same. So, getting a TAB that you know well is a really good way to sing and strum precisely because of the point you made. You know the tune well and it gives you one less thing to think about. 3.) Slowing it down to "thinking speed" is essential to coordinating your hand motions with your voice. So, you are right again. And, finally, here is the answer you pay me the big money for. "Consonants" are the real enemy of singing and strumming. "See, I been through the desert on a horse with no name" is really a rhythm that goes Ta tee-tee Ta tee-tee Ta tee-tee Ta. Or, 1 2& 3 4& 1 2& 3~4 This turns playing and strumming into a nightmare. The solution.... When practicing don't sing the words. Humm the melody or say Ahhhh... but do not use consonants. Without those the process feels more natural. Simply put, eliminating the consonants gives you one less rhythm to deal with. Remember humm or use the word ahhhh-- do not sing the words until you have a groove going. It's all about the groove... B~ Matt,
FIrst of all, I love this email! So rich with questions and you are clearly an inspired learner. Congratulations on having a magnificent obsession!

You have hit on a lot of good points. Let go point by point.

1.) The whole point of learning to sing with the songs as you are learning them is that there will eventually be no distinction between matching the strum to the vocal or vice versa.
2.) The reason that the Old Town School Book is so important has nothing to do with where the songs originate from. It has to do with the fact that the melodies contained in the songs in that book are foundations of modern American Music. In other words our pop music is built around those melodies or variations on the same. So, getting a TAB that you know well is a really good way to sing and strum precisely because of the point you made. You know the tune well and it gives you one less thing to think about.
3.) Slowing it down to “thinking speed” is essential to coordinating your hand motions with your voice. So, you are right again.

And, finally, here is the answer you pay me the big money for. “Consonants” are the real enemy of singing and strumming. “See, I been through the desert on a horse with no name” is really a rhythm that goes

Ta tee-tee Ta tee-tee Ta tee-tee Ta. Or, 1 2& 3 4& 1 2& 3~4

This turns playing and strumming into a nightmare. The solution….

When practicing don’t sing the words. Humm the melody or say Ahhhh… but do not use consonants. Without those the process feels more natural. Simply put, eliminating the consonants gives you one less rhythm to deal with.

Remember humm or use the word ahhhh– do not sing the words until you have a groove going.

It’s all about the groove…

B~

]]> Comment on Guitar 1 [In Session] by Bill Brickey http://www.billbrickey.com/?page_id=469&cpage=1#comment-55 Bill Brickey Sun, 11 Sep 2011 06:50:34 +0000 http://www.billbrickey.com/?page_id=469#comment-55 Hi, so a quick overview of the first two weeks of this session. We started out with "Horse With No Name" and went from that to "Go Tell Aunt Rhoady". We picked out a bunch of songs with similar chords from the songbook. The following week we played as many of them in class as possible. I introduced the class to tablature and we practiced reading it a bit. We talked about lead sheets and added the E7 chord to our repertoire. This next week we decided to work on Mercedes Benz and some other songs that are not from the songbook. We will also try our hand at understanding tuning. Post here if you have questions. Hi, so a quick overview of the first two weeks of this session. We started out with “Horse With No Name” and went from that to “Go Tell Aunt Rhoady”. We picked out a bunch of songs with similar chords from the songbook.

The following week we played as many of them in class as possible. I introduced the class to tablature and we practiced reading it a bit. We talked about lead sheets and added the E7 chord to our repertoire.

This next week we decided to work on Mercedes Benz and some other songs that are not from the songbook. We will also try our hand at understanding tuning. Post here if you have questions.

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