The Fender Guitar Method - Tom Dooley - Lesson 34

Well I have finally started to learn some chords in The Fender Guitar Method book.  The song Tom Dooley in this lesson only changes between 2 chords 3 times so to the more experienced person, this would be extremely easy.  But to me, it was a little more difficult to get used to.  I had to practice playing each chord C and G7 one at a time over and over again and changing between each of them.  So it took a little time to get used to.  So with this blog entry I play the chords and then I play the melody. 

From the Lesson and the notes above, I interpreted it as only playing downward notes.  If anyone else would interpret it dfferently, please let me know.  So here are the chords.

And here is the Melody.

I think that the trick to getting the chords is to just keep practicing.

Enjoy.  Next up I will be learning the G chord and the D7 chord.

The Fender Guitar Method - Worried Man Blues - Lesson 31

Well it has been a little over a week since I last posted a new blog entry.  We have been pretty busy during the last few Days.  Well, this next song is called Worried Man Blues.  I did some brief research on this song and I think that Johnny Cash sang it once but I don't know if he was the original one to sing it or not. 

Lukily for you guys reading this, and as promised in my last blog entry, you get a chance to see me sing this song.  It will probably not be as good as Johnny Cash but it is bearable to listen to as long as you have earplugs in.  

The notes for this song was really not very difficult.  The lesson added in the fourth string, but since it was pretty easy to learn.  I didn't even look at any of the  my notes when I played this song either. 

Anyways....

Here are the notes...

Here is the song without singing....

And here is the song with me singing....

The Fender Guitar Method - He's A Jolly Good Fellow - Lesson 27

You would think that since "He's a Jolly Good Fellow" is a common song, it would not take so long to learn but for some reason this was difficult for me.  The notes were not that difficult since it is what I have been practicing and learning throughout the entire book.  But since this was using 3/4 time, it was somewhat difficult for me to get the beat down.  But anyways, I got the beat down on the guitar pretty good, I think.

As noted in the previous blog entry, this song is a tribute to my dad because he is a jolly good fellow. 

On a side note, I got this cool book from my parents called "Country Classics For Easy Guitar" and I am slowly trying to learn some full songs in the meantime.  Those will take a while to learn so don't expect anything anytime soon.  The first song I am learning is "Achy Breaky Heart" by the one and only Mr. Mullet himself, Mr. Billy Ray Cyrus.  Hopefully we will get some really embarrasing singing of that song on here in the next couple of months

Anyways, back to the video and the notes for "He's a Jolly Good Fellow"

Here are the notes.....

Here is the video.

The next blog entry I will be learning notes on the fourth string (notes D, E, F) and I will be embarrasing my self singing a song called "Worried Man Blues".  Stay tuned...

The Fender Guitar Method - Aura Lee - Lesson 25

The next song I am learning is called Aura Lee.  Apparently it is some kind of civil war song about a maiden.  Even though I had never heard of the song before, the beat was familiar, once I started learning it and playing it a little.  It was a fun song to learn since I am still a beginner. 

If you look at the notes that I posted for this song, I decided that instead of just writing the string number and fret number underneath the notes on the sheet music that is given to me, I would also write down the note name below it as well.  I then decided to go back and revisit all of the other previous songs and write down beneath each note which note I am actually using (E, C, F.....).  My hope is that the more I write this down, the easier I will be able to remember it in the future.

Here are the notes to the song...

Here is the video.  Ignore the crunching in the background because that is my crazy dog chewing on her bone.

The next song on the list is going to be a tribute to my dad, "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow"

The Fender Guitar Method - Au Clair De La Lune - Lesson 24

So I originally had never heard of this song "Au Clair De La Lune" mainly because it is a french name and I don't speak french.  According to Rusty Shackleford, who commented on my last entry, the song means in english "By Moonlight".  Since Rusty Shackleford speaks french, I believe him.

This is a 2 part song meaning that one guitar player is supposed to play the top line and the other is supposed to play the bottom.  Since it is just me, I get to make 2 videos playing each part individually. 

I also had to google what the song is supposed to sound like since I had no clue what the song was.  So this song used the first, second, and third string.  I am going to present my videos with a youtube video of someone else playing the song right after my video.  So enjoy the french song.... most non french people have probably never heard of.

Here are the notes.....

Here is the video of me playing Part 1 of Au Clair De La Lune.

Here is some random dude playing Part 1.

Here is the video of me Playing Part 2 of Au Clair De La Lune.



And Here is some random dude playing Part 2.

The next song on the list is called "Aura Lee."  Here is a brief history about the song http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aura_Lea.

The Fender Guitar Method - Surf Rock - Lesson 23

The next song that we are learning from the book is called "Surf Rock".  I don't know if this is an actual song or not or whether or not surfers listen to this beat over and over but it was a fairly easy song to learn to play.  It uses the first, second and third string but only one note from the third string.  There is no singing on the video this time. 

So here are the notes....

And here is the video...

The next song in the lesson is some french song called Au Clair De La Lun, which means, the clair of the lun.  Just kidding, I have no idea how to speak french.

The Fender Guitar Method - Yankee Doodle - Lesson 22

Allright, here we have Yankee Doodle.  A common tune that everyone has learned since they were a child.  This tune didn't take all that long to learn to play.  However, I did some experimenting and decided to make a video of me just playing the tune and me actually playing the tune while actually singing.  I realized it is easy to play the tune while singing the beat under your breath.  However, when you begin to actually sing the tune aloud while playing the melody, it becomes fairly difficult.  I also learned that the song sounds better if you sing with some confidence and don't mumble while you sing. 

So here are the notes.....

Here is the melody without singing......

And here is me embarrassing myself singing the song while playing the melody....

Enjoy and please comment and share if you want to.

The Fender Guitar Method - Rockin Robin - Lesson 21

So now we are at Rockin Robin.  I was pretty exicited to learn to play this one since I somewhat know the song from hearing it when I was a kid.  So I started playing it and it took a little time to get used to the notes and adding in the third string (even though the third string was not getting used that much).  I think the difficulty was using my middle finger when all of the previous lessons only used my pointer finger and my ring finger. 

So here are the notes and the video. 

I didn't think that my song was all that bad until I did some youtube video searching for someone else playing Rockin Robin on an Acoustic Guitar.  Check out how awesome this dude sounds.

Coming up next is Yankee Doodle.

The Fender Guitar Method - Blues - Lesson 18

So the next lesson in the list was called "Blues". This song took me about 3 days of learning the song. This one was pretty fun to play and I can feel myself getting used to moving back and forth between the first and second string and the first and third fret. Playing the guitar is slowly becoming ingrained in my head or something like that. It feels a little weird knowing that once you play something and practice it long enough, you can look away from your notes and just play what you are supposed to be playing by memory. So Strange.

Anyways, here is the song and as you can tell I am looking at the camera the whole time this time.

My next song may take me a while as I will be getting used to using the First, Second, and Third string.  Coming up on the song list is Rocking Robin and Yankee Doodle.  I am pretty excited to learn these next two songs.....

The Fender Guitar Method - Ode To Joy - Lesson 17

So what song is "Ode To Joy"?  I know that I have never heard of it before.  So I googled the song on youtube again just to see what it was and apparently it is very popular and it was composed by Beethoven.  Since I am musically challenged, I had never heard of it until I heard the sound and it was very familiar.  This song took me about 4 days to get a decent full song on the guitar.  Part of my problem was that I realized my second string was out of tune.  Once I tuned it, then the melody began sounding alot better and the song became easier to play. 

Here are the song notes (wow 4 whole lines)..... I feel like I accomplished something. 

And here is me playing the song. 

Enjoy.  Let me know if you have any tips, tricks, or suggestions.

The Fender Guitar Method - World Beat - Lesson 16

This next song in the Lesson for the Squier is called "World Beat".  I had no clue as to what World Beat was when I played it.  So what I had to do was find someone else on YouTube that had already played it.  Thank goodness for YouTube and for people posting videos out there.  Here is the video/sound that I found.



And here are the notes that I got from the book.

And here is the Video.  It took me about 3 days to figure this song out and get my hands used to moving back and forth from the first and second string.

Next on the list is Lesson 17 - Ode To Joy....

The Fender Guitar Method - Spanish Theme - Lesson 8

After 4 days of getting used to my fingers on the first string using the first and third fret, I finally got my first song down, it is called "Spanish Theme" Lesson 8 on Page 7.  Below are the music notes that is in the book.

"Spanish Theme" using the first string.

"Spanish Theme" using the Second string.

That is it for the First song