Author: musicalitywrld

The David Hart’s G4 Guitar Method succeeds where traditional one-on-one lessons often fail. With its systematic teaching method, goal-oriented approach, and emphasis on playing, this method ensures that students remain engaged, motivated, and on track. It’s no surprise that G4, which began in a suburban music school, has enjoyed worldwide acclaim from students and teachers alike.

We invited David to chat with Musical U about why and how the G4 Guitar Method works for both students and teachers, and the secret of the 80/20 principle for learning guitar efficiently.

Thank you, Christopher. I’d love to.

I started learning music as a young teen – drums and guitar. I taught myself guitar for two years, struggled, and then went on to find an excellent teacher, who inspired me to be a teacher as well. He took me from being a hacker to a professional player – and he did it in less than a year.

I became a professional musician for around 15 years, teaching as a side gig. As time went on, I focused more and more on my teaching.

In my mid-twenties, I developed my teaching into a school, bringing in other teachers. I ended up selling my first business in my early twenties. About a year later, I took a bit of time off, came back to teaching, and built up another school, which I sold to my brother, who has had great success with it as well. It’s still well-established – it’s called Learn 2 Play Music, and it’s one of the biggest suburban music schools in Sydney.

I launched G4 Guitar Method in 2005. It was a huge success – I opened five schools within two years! We had literally thousands of students enrolling. I sold them off as franchises and expanded into the global G4 Guitar network. We now have over 50 locations around the world.

I think a lot of it was because of frustration. I see music schools whose owners employ ten or more teachers, and they’re struggling to make decent money because it’s just not a very profitable model.

We’re not lawyers, we’re not surgeons – we can’t be charging people $300 an hour for a music lesson. It’s extremely difficult to charge a fair, competitive rate and pay the teacher fairly while still making some money as a music school owner.

A music school is essentially selling a music teacher’s time. The traditional music school model relies on finding the lowest-payable teacher that would give a reasonable result, and I wasn’t comfortable with that. I wanted good teachers, but good teachers cost money, and you need to therefore charge more, and so forth.

Financially, I did okay as a music school owner. But money aside, there was a lack of freedom in the job, and I had to dedicate many hours to managing over 20 teachers. 12-hour days were not uncommon. While testing and trying many different ways and trying to get the business to adjust, I realized that there was no evidence anywhere of this model working.

I realized that only group teaching models work well with music schools because they give you leverage. And I learned that group teaching is not only better for the teacher, it’s better for the student.

One-on-one lessons are like a famous performer like AC/DC or Madonna or Beyonce playing to one person at a time for half an hour. They’re simply not going to make a lot of money. However, when these big performers play to 50,000 people at a time, charging everybody from $50 to $150 for a ticket, they make a lot of money. It’s just a better business plan.

That’s where I understood the leverage needs to come in.

When I finally sold my Learn2Play Music School back in 2003, I reworked the plan sheet from the bottom up. I’d already been doing some group lessons in my previous music school. This time it was going to be group lessons only: five students for half an hour. I implemented that model, and boom. I was making $200,000 a year within nine months, and it was just mind blowing. It went far beyond my expectations.

What’s even more important, is that the students in our small group lessons were learning better, faster, stronger – and very happy with the results.

First of all, when you teach in groups, you can’t teach like a traditional private teacher.

A traditional private teacher is what I call more like consulting. The teacher asks what you’d like to learn, and you mention a song. The teacher then says, “Okay great, let’s go from the beginning. To play that song, you’re going to play these chords, in these rhythms. I’ll teach you a little bit about what they mean as we go along.” Gradually, they put those bits and pieces together and they learn the songs.

I used this method for many years while teaching privately. To make it viable in terms of income, I needed about 50 students. We would have a half-hour lesson, and the first ten minutes would be spent asking, “Well, what did we do last week?” The lesson was half-over before I even started to teach them anything. A lot of time was lost.

To me, that was a very inefficient way of teaching.

When I started developing my method in 2001, I immediately saw the difference between what I was doing and what most private teachers do: I had a system, a specific way that things worked, and that was critical.

I often use the analogy of planes and pilots to explain the G4 Guitar Method: the reason that planes are the safest way to travel is because they follow a system. The pilots have a series of checklists that they follow very strictly.

We have a similar checklist system, so we do a much better job of tracking the students’ progress – the skills they have to learn, the way they learn them, all the things that we need.

We don’t write anything down – everything is printed and organized in a folder. The checklists track where each student is up to, so there’s no need to ask, “What did we do last week?”

We’re not wasting any time on rehashing, so we’re really stripping away all the wastage. This smart use of time is the 80/20 principle, which is what we base our system on.

The 80/20 is about focusing on the skills and the exercises that are going to create the most progress.

The importance of playing can’t be stressed enough. I’ve studied this very closely: in a typical lesson with a teacher who’s not very organized, the student plays for about 20% of that lesson. So 80% of the time, they’re not even playing!

That’s a lot of lost time.

If I can just get that to 40%, then I’ve just doubled the progress of your student. Now, what if I can get it to 80%?

That’s what we aim for – for students to be playing for 80% of the lesson.

That then transfers to home, because if they’ve practiced and worked on something in the lesson for more time, they have a better idea what they’re supposed to be doing when they get home.

You see these teachers who talk about theory, and concepts, and ideas, and whatever. What about the playing? This is what they’re here to do, it’s the skills, the physical skills, so let’s spend more time on that. Just by doing that, students progress faster.

Keeping this 80/20 ratio has far reaching implications on what we teach and how we teach it.

With the G4 Guitar method, we assume that students want to learn to play popular music – that’s the majority. We start off by teaching the chords that are most common: E minor, G, C, D, and A minor. Then you’re going to learn the C major, G major, and A minor scales, as they’re the most common.

Learning these common things first helps greatly, as students can then connect it to songs that they want to learn to play. This immediacy is one part of the 80/20.

The other part is the lesson itself. We structure the lessons minute by minute, so we get the most out of each one. We train the teachers in how to work with students – you know, students who ask too many questions, for example.

This is part of the method, the system. We also ensure that the materials that we provide answer as many anticipated questions as possible, so we can focus on what matters: playing!

Great question! Student-led learning is where students come to their lesson and dictate exactly how and what they learn so the experience will match what they want and become enjoyable.

This makes complete sense on the surface, but when you dig deeper, you realize that it doesn’t actually all add up.

Take the classic saying by Henry Ford (which Steve Jobs had pinned up on his wall!): “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have asked for faster horses.” In other words, Henry Ford knew that people didn’t really know what they needed. They wanted to get from A to B faster, but what they would have thought was get me a faster horse so I can get there quicker – they weren’t thinking about cars and automobiles.

Here’s an analogy that musicians can relate to. When you think about the most successful bands, did they go out and ask the audience, “What music would you like us to write?”

Or are they the bands that said, “We’re just going to write the best music that we love, and hopefully other people will love it as well”?

That’s the approach that we take. We created a method that we love. I love it, and the G4 teachers that work with me love this method. We love the way it works, the structure, everything. The method is not just thought about from the point of view of the student, but also from the viewpoint of the teacher. We ask ourselves, “Will the teacher enjoy administering this method?”

If a student or a teacher comes in and says, “I don’t like this – I just want to learn to play this or that, instead of following your method,” then they’re not right for our method, and our method isn’t right for them – we’re selling sushi and they want a hamburger. And that’s okay. We’re selling what we sell, and we’re the best at what we sell.

Similar to what you said, we’ve also realized that very few students are self-directed learners and have the insight and perspective to plan their own training. In fact, what we’ve tried to do is keep that flexibility but offer a lot more guidance. As you’ve described, there’s enormous value in having a proven system that we know is going to deliver results. And ultimately, it’s the results that the students care about.

They want to get to the destination. You don’t want to go to a patient-directed surgeon! You what the surgeon to know what they were doing.

Exactly, so I think it’s really important to understand that there are definitely better ways of doing things than others.

Another analogy that I use is this: a good chef will not cook your steak well-done. They sear it on both sides: “There it is, that’s how I cook it.”

“Oh but I want it…  ”

“Sorry, I’m a Master Chef. This is how I cook steak. If you don’t like it, there’s a restaurant down the road where you can tell them how you want your steak, but not here.” You understand the difference there?

A lot of the methods you see on the shelf at a music store were created 20, 30, 40, or even 50 years ago. For example, the Mel Bay Modern Guitar Method hasn’t really changed since it was created a long time ago. Nor has it been actually tested on students.

The first volume of the book sold over 10 million copies. We can say that’s a huge success, which it is. But look at how many Volume Two sold – most people don’t even know what the second one looks like. They can’t even recognize the cover. So what does that tell you?

And very few people actually completed book one in the first place. The method itself caused a lot of students to quit, because it progresses in big hurdles. A more logical way to do, of course, it is in small steps, and to gradually increase the intensity.

The funny thing is that the Mel Bay Method formula was followed up by most of the other major methods on the market. When Mel Bay created the format, nobody questioned it. Nobody asked, “Is this working?”

That’s the difference with G4: we’ve tested our method rigorously. We’ve asked ourselves, “Does this work? Do students quit?”

There’s something called the Goldilocks zone, or the “sweet spot”, where there is enough of a challenge for students to be engaged, but it’s not so difficult that they get discouraged.

We constantly ask ourselves: how do we keep it so that students stay in the game? How do we make it so that they want to keep progressing?

So we make sure we’re always progressing as well, that we’re always improving. This is the difference between us and traditional guitar methods. Mel Bay is the same as it was 40 years ago, whereas G4 isn’t even the same as it was three weeks ago.

The most recent way we’ve improved our system is by breaking bigger lessons into concrete checklists. For example, we have eight check boxes for each skill. Say a particular level has six chords to learn. For each of the six chords that you learn to play, we tick a new box, and bang – you’ve done that. Then we do scales; once you finish, again, you tick the box.

This keeps people engaged in real progress. By associating a checkbox with each individual task (for example, one chord = one checkbox), we’re creating a situation where students are going to be ticking boxes off very frequently. Whether it be a chord, a scale, or an arpeggio, there’ll be something that gets learned, and the student’s sense of progress will be tangible.

Making the Most of Lessons

By allotting maximum hands-on time for guitar practice, creating a support network through group lessons, and motivating students with tangible demonstrations of their achievements, the G4 Guitar Method ensures that students stick with their practice and continue to progress faster than their traditionally-trained counterparts.

The post A Guitar Method that Works – for Teachers and Students, with David Hart appeared first on Musical U.

Guitars go out of tune for all sorts of different reasons, and you won’t always have an electronic tuner around to help you out. For quick, on-the-fly tuning, tuning by ear reigns supreme.

By the end of this guide on how to tune a guitar for beginners, you’ll know how to tune your guitar with just your hands and ears, popular alternate tunings, and how to check that you’ve tuned correctly by using a piano.

Why You Should Tune Your Guitar By Ear (Instead of Relying on an Electronic Tuner)

Learning how to tune a guitar with a tuner is easy. You’ve probably got one of the thousand-and-one guitar tuner phone apps or software that can pick up your guitar sound, analyse the frequencies and tell you how you should turn your tuning pegs. You can find electronic tuner boxes all around any guitar shop. Maybe there’s even one built into your acoustic guitar.

So why am I encouraging you to practice tuning by ear?

It’s because it lays the foundation of pitch ear training. If you can understand the pitch relationships between notes and become sensitive to details of tuning just by consistently tuning your guitar every day, you’ll have built a solid foundation of pitch skills.

After a month’s practice, you’ll be able to strum once and instantly tell whether the guitar is in tune or not, and a little after that you will even be able to tell straight-off which string sounds different than it should. So tuning by ear lays the basic foundation for understanding notes just by listening. Some guitarists even use it as the basis for developing perfect pitch.

Step By Step Instructions For Tuning A Guitar By Ear

Here is our guide to how to standard tune your guitar by ear. But before we dive into the nitty-gritty of tuning, it’s important to understand the basics of your guitar.

Prepare: Check Your Pegs

Then, if you haven’t tuned your guitar before, take a moment to familiarise yourself with your tuning pegs. Depending on whether your pegs are all on one side (electric style) or three on each side (acoustic style) and whether the guitar has been strung in the normal way, the directionality of each peg might vary.

You want to find out: does turning the peg clockwise make the string tighter (and its pitch higher) or looser (and its pitch lower)?

Once you get familiar with this setup on your guitar it will become instinctive and you won’t need to think about it again. Now that you know which way to turn each peg to make that string go higher or lower, you are ready to begin. Lowest string first…

Prepare: Understand How Guitar Strings Work

When you’re looking down at the six strings of your guitar, you’ll notice that the strings go from thickest to thinnest. The topmost thickest one is your low E string, also called the sixth string. Following that, the next thickest is A, or the fifth string, and so on, all the way to your first string (the high E). The pitch order of strings in standard tuning, from sixth string to first string, and therefore from lowest to highest, is EADGBE. We always tune in “reverse” order, starting with the sixth string, or low E, and continuing in order all the way to the first string, or high E.

You can help yourself remember this pitch sequence with a mnemonic, such as “Every Apple Does Go Bad Eventually”. For for something more ominous, you can use “Eddie Ate Dynamite Good Bye Eddie”.

Sixth String: Low E

Listen to any example of a “correct” E note as your reference pitch. For example you can use a recording of a standard E note like the one below and play it in your speakers, or use a pitch pipe. Listen, and play the E string of your guitar.

If you use a guitar sound, pitch pipe or other simple “tone” it is comparatively easy to tune by ear. If you have to use another instrument such as a nearby piano, you might find the difference in timbre makes it harder to compare the notes’ pitches.

Now, after playing the reference E note, let the sixth string of your guitar ring, and if you find the two sound perfectly the same, then your sixth string is in tune. More likely you will hear a slight clash (discord) which means your guitar string is slightly out of tune.

As you practice tuning and do pitch ear training you’ll find you can directly hear whether your guitar string is too high or too low. At first it might take a bit of experimentation.

Slowly rotate the tuning peg of your sixth string, gradually adjusting in one direction to see if the two notes come into agreement. If they don’t, and you hear that the pitches are becoming further apart, simply reverse your direction and adjust pitch until the two notes match.

Note: The tension of the string shouldn’t become too high (i.e. tight) or too low (i.e. loose). This means you are trying to tune the string into either a higher octave, where the note would match but the string would become so tight it might snap, or a lower octave, where the string would become unplayably loose.

Fifth string: A

Once the E string is in tune, you can put your reference note aside – from here you can tune the other strings based on your (now nicely-tuned) sixth string.

On the E string, playing the 5th fret should produce the same note as the open A string. So, place your finger on the 5th fret and play both the E string and the A string one by one. If the A string sounds higher, rotate its tuning peg to lower its pitch. If it sounds lower, rotate it the other way. Until and unless you feel that the notes sound exactly the same when played in unison, you should adjust the tuning peg accordingly.

Fourth string: D

The note on the 5th fret of the A string you just tuned will be same as the open note of the D string you’ll tune next. Play the two strings in unison, by placing your finger of 5th fret of the fifth string and ringing the open note of the fourth string. Listen for whether the two notes are the same, in close discord, or have a noticeable gap in pitch. Adjust your tuning peg until you hear they are perfectly tuned.

Third string: G

Timbre problems may arise when you try to tune your third string (which represents the G note) to the fourth string. This is because on both acoustic and electric guitars there is typically a change in string type: either from nylon to steel or from single strings to wound strings. This affects the timbre of the note and can make it harder to directly compare pitches. Don’t worry, you’ll get the hang of this soon enough!

Now you should be getting the hang of the process as you tune your third string, which should be a G note. On the 5th fret of your fourth string is a G, so you can use this to tune your third string’s open note. Once again, listen to it and check if they sound similar. If not, turn the tuning peg for higher or lower pitch until they match.

Second string: B

Nearly finished!

Place your finger on the 4th fret of the third string, which will produce a B, the same as the open note of your second string. Or at least, it will be once you tune up that second string! Adjust your B string, until the two notes sound alike.

First string: High E

Finally the last one, your high E string. You can tune this in two ways:

1. Since your low E string is already tuned, you can tune your high E by referring to this one. However, note that they are actually two octaves apart, so you may find this gap makes it difficult to compare the two pitches.
2. If you are new to tuning you might want to avoid that, and instead continue with the method we have been using: place your finger on the 5th fret of the second (B) string, and you will play an E which exactly matches your open first string. Again, rotate counter-clockwise for higher pitch and clockwise for lower pitch.

You’re Done!

Finish up the tuning process by checking each of those note pairs in turn, from your low E and A string on up. Check the low E against your source note again. If any don’t sound quite correct, adjust the peg to make them match, but make sure you follow the low-to-high sequence again. This means that if the pair of notes don’t match, adjust the tuning of the higher string to match the lower one. This way your tuning is always rooted on your low E string. If you have access to a reference note for the high E string you can also check that one directly.

Finally, strum a few chords and play a riff or two. Does anything sound strange or wrong with the tuning? If so, listen carefully and try to identify which string is to blame. Then return to your note pair comparisons to make the required fix.

How Do I Know If I’ve Tuned Correctly?

When you’re just starting to tune your guitar by ear, you’ll want to check that you’ve done it right. This can be achieved in several ways. You’ll feel tempted to simply tune with these methods to begin with, but we encourage you to resist the temptation! Use these methods to double-check that your tuning by ear was done correctly.

Check with a Tuner

Broadly speaking, there are three types of tuners out there that you can use, with each suited to different scenarios.

A standard tuner is a rectangular, “box-shape” tuner that tells you if and by how much your note is off-pitch from standard tuning. It can be used with both electric and acoustic guitars; the built-in microphone picks up on the pitch you are playing, or you can use the tuner’s input jack for a more precise reading for electric or electroacoustic guitars.

A pedal tuner is simply a guitar pedal that simply checks the pitch of your strings instead of laying fuzz or distortion over your sound. They are incredibly precise, but unfortunately only work with electric or electroacoustic guitars.

A headstock tuner will clip onto your guitar, sensing the pitch of a string through the vibrations created when you pluck a string, and telling you whether your note is flattened, sharpened, or just right. If you’re wondering how to most accurately tune a classical guitar, this is it.

Also, if you were wondering whether you can tune a ukulele with a guitar tuner, the answer is absolutely yes: many headstock tuners have a “ukulele” setting.

Pick one that works with your guitar, and see how accurate your tuning by ear is!

Check with a Piano

As well as being an easy and reliable way to check your tuning, this is a good ear training exercise for recognizing the same pitch on two different instruments. Simply compare the pitch of each string to the pitch of the corresponding key on the piano.

The best part is, you don’t even have to worry about an octave difference. Here’s a cheat sheet for which keys correspond to each pitch for guitar standard tuning; the numbers designate the note’s position from the left on a standard piano keyboard. For example, D3 is the third-lowest D key on the piano. Middle C is shown in orange:

Alternate Tunings

The tuning EADGBE is known as standard tuning, and is the most popular.

However, it is far from being your only option. You can alter the tuning of a string or two to open up a whole new way of playing, with chords that would be impossible in standard tuning! The best part: you can do this with just your hands and ears, no tuner necessary. Electronic tuners often don’t have settings for these alternate tunings, so it’s incredibly useful to be able to do this by ear!

If you want to push limits of your guitar playing and songwriting, try one of the following alternate tunings. With each one, you’ll want to start in standard EADGBE tuning, and tweak accordingly.

How to Tune a Guitar a Half-Step Down

You may see some guitar tabs asking that you tune each string a half-step down. Fear not – this isn’t nearly as much of a pain as you may think.

1. Fret the fifth (A) string at the sixth fret. This will produce an Eb, which you will use as a reference note to tune your sixth string.
2. Fret the newly Eb-tuned sixth string at the fifth fret. This will produce an Ab, which you will use as a reference note to tune your fifth string.
3. Fret the newly Ab-tuned fifth string at the fifth fret. This will produce a Db, which you will use as a reference note to tune your fourth string.
4. Fret the newly Db-tuned fourth string at the fifth fret. This will produce a Gb, which you will use as a reference note to tune your third string.
5. Fret the newly Gb-tuned third string at the fourth fret. This will produce a Bb, which you will use as a reference note to tune your second string.
6. Fret the newly Bb-tuned second string at the fifth fret. This will produce an Eb, which you will use as a reference note to tune your first (top) string.

How to Tune a Guitar to Drop D

Drop D tuning differs from standard tuning in only one way: the sixth string is tuned down one tone, from E to D, resulting in DADGBE tuning.

To drop D tune a guitar, simply lower your sixth string by a whole tone by comparing it to the open fourth D string:

This is one of the simplest tunings, and is popular in blues, country, and folk.

How to Tune a Guitar to Open G

In this tuning, strumming your guitar without putting any fingers on the fretboard will result in a G chord. The pitch pattern will be DGDGBD.

Start by lowering your sixth and first strings from E to D by comparing them to the open fourth string. Then, lower your fifth string by a whole tone by comparing it to the third string. This may take a bit of practice because of the octave difference, but will soon become second nature!

In this tuning, you can play any major chord simply by barring your finger across different frets – no need for complicated chord shapes!

Open G tuning is popular in blues and rock, most notably because of Keith Richards, who wrote the riffs for many of the Rolling Stones’ most popular songs with this tuning. If you want to cover “Brown Sugar” or “Gimme Shelter”, do it in open G!

How to Tune a Guitar to Drop C

Drop C tuning, or CGCFAD, creates a heavier, lower sound on your guitar. This tuning is more advanced than the previous ones, as it requires you to change the pitch of every string. As always, start in standard tuning. Then:

1.  Fret the fifth (A) string at the third fret. This is your reference for what the sixth string should sound like, although the sixth string should be one octave lower.
2. Fret the newly C-tuned sixth string at the seventh fret. This will produce a G, which you will use as a reference note to tune your fifth string.
3. Fret the newly G-tuned fifth string at the fifth fret. This will produce a C, which you will use as a reference note to tune your fourth string.
4. Fret the newly C-tuned fourth string at the fifth fret. This will produce an F, which you will use as a reference note to tune your third string.
5. Fret the newly F-tuned third string at the fourth fret. This will produce an A, which you will use as a reference note to tune your second string.
6. Fret the newly A-tuned second string at the fifth fret. This will produce a D, which you will use as a reference note to tune your second string.

Tuning By Ear While Training Your Ear

The first few times you tune a guitar by ear, it can be frustrating – sometimes you just can’t track down that strange-sounding string. It may be tempting to reach for that electronic tuner, but don’t give up! Your ear will steadily get better and better at recognizing those “off” notes, and tweaking them to the right pitch.

The post How To Tune A Guitar By Ear appeared first on Musical U.

The following example does precisely that. Although the original version of “When You’re Smiling and Astride Me” by Father John Misty is oozing with arrangements and colossal production, Kendra McKinley has managed to strip it down to its bare elements and craft a version of her own.

Considering that the original song is part of an album devoted to exploring the male psyche during monogamous relationships, this was quite an achievement. Let’s take a look at how this San Francisco-based singer-songwriter managed to bring this song into a female perspective with just a guitar, her vocal cords, and some creativity.

Before: Father John Misty’s Original Version

Let’s take a look at the original… beautiful orchestration, arrestingly honest lyrics, and all.

Artist Background

In case you don’t know him, Father John Misty is an American singer-songwriter whose style may be most easily classified as folk rock. He is also well known for recent headline-sparking shenanigans like covering an entire Taylor Swift album in the style of Lou Reed, or ranting about American idiocracy instead of playing his programmed set at a festival in Philadelphia.

But anyway, back to our comparison! As a songwriter, Misty usually composes with just a guitar and his voice while writing lyrics – sometimes, as he often puts it, while drunk in his bed at 4 A.M. Therefore, all arrangements are added afterward, and the song’s essence (chords and lyrics) usually remains the same.

When You’re Smiling And Astride Me (Studio Version)

In the version on Father John Misty’s 2015’s record “I Love You, Honeybear”, this song is just swarming with multifarious musical elements:

The bedrock of the song in terms of harmony is carried by the piano’s chords and the bass that marks each root note. The guitar, as opposed to how the original demo might’ve been, is doing licks here and there. There are also strings, a synth that sounds like a violin, an organ, and a female choir which presents the song’s main motif.

Once the verse kicks in, you may notice that everything compresses in order for Misty’s singing to take center stage. His style of singing is of course very masculine – but in a pleading sort of way. Like a self-conscious person clinging to remain with the one he loves.

As the song moves forward, the arrangements keep getting bigger, and Misty’s singing grows more affected. This is precisely what makes it work. You may have noticed that it doesn’t have a standard song structure: it consists of only two short verses and the “whoa oh oh oooh” motif that performs triple duty as an intro, a sort of a chorus, and an outro.

After: Kendra McKinley’s “Soulful Affectation”

Now let’s look at how a stripped down version of the song can have as much impact when delivered with raw emotion:

Rhythmic Foundation

With just a guitar in her hands, Kendra McKinley has to handle the harmonic foundation, rhythmic feel, and subtle arrangements. Pay attention to the rhythm she strokes in ghost notes with her right hand before starting the song. This eventually leads to the same cadence as in the original, a 4/4 time signature with the accent on every third beat.

Once she starts with the song’s main motif, this cadence is more evident. Kendra down-strikes the high strings with more emphasis every third beat and keeps the rest of the strokes leaning more towards the lower notes.

It’s very important to keep a steady rhythm to sing over. Otherwise, everything falls apart. This may seem obvious, but you’d be surprised how many covers fail at this. A lot of people just focus more on the vocals than on what the strumming hand is doing, but that hand provides the foundation! While it’s easier and more obvious to focus on singing, it’s hard for things to sound good without some sort of an underlying beat.

Vocal Style

If you pay close attention, you may be able to tell that Kendra is singing in a different register than Father John Misty on the original. Most likely to better fit her vocal range, she transposed the song’s key from Em to Bm. Other than that, she follows the same chord structure and intervals, adding little licks here and there as subtle playful details.

The main thing to point out is how Kendra has managed to make the song her own, not only in terms of key but also on delivery. She was able to transform the style of the melody by singing more with the back of her throat, and by not shouting as much as Father John Misty.

The result is perhaps more restrained than the original, but therefore more elegant and graceful. Even when she extends some of the notes and plays with the melody, it works very well with her jazzy style of guitar playing. It’s not trying to match the original – instead, Kendra is bringing it into her own musical territory.

Overall it sounds more smooth, soothing, and heartfelt. It just seems to work perfectly with the room she’s singing in, doesn’t it?

Transforming A Tune

As Kendra McKinley’s cover of “When You’re Smiling And Astride Me” illustrates, it doesn’t matter how intricate or “produced” a song is. With enough creativity, it can be re-purposed to just the vocal line and an accompanying instrument. It doesn’t always have to be an acoustic guitar. You might try an electric guitar with a processed signal, or even a ukulele, piano, synth, bass, or even drums.

The post Before and After: Covering Father John Misty appeared first on Musical U.

But the latest in learning research shows that too much repetition bores the brain and that learning is actually more effective when we try something new. The Learning Coach Gregg Goodhart encourages us to shake things up and “feel the blearn.” And Jennifer Foxx strategizes the most effective practice attitudes to maximize your musical growth.

Challenge yourself to write a new superhero song. Buy yourself a new ukulele. Learn a new scale.

And check out all the new happenings inside Musical U:

New Ways to Learn

As a Musical U team, we love what listening skills have done for us in our musicality. And so we are always listening to our members to find new and better ways to help them in their musical journeys.

We’ve found that although we have a wide-ranging selection of rhythm modules, some our members have difficulty connecting with the beat, the underlying pulse that measures all the other aspects of rhythm. So to close this gap, we’ve added a new rhythm practice module, “Connect with the Beat”, to build a rock-solid foundation to all your rhythmic studies.

As the rhythm of life seems to move faster and faster, it’s important to maximize efficiency in our music learning. Jennifer Foxx gave a fantastic masterclass in effective practicing to help us all get more out of those precious music times.

Hearing how pitches fit into the scale can greatly accelerate our abilities to play by ear, improvise, transcribe, and sight-read. Our Resident Pros have released the latest Resource Packs helping guitar players, bass players, singers, and pianists to apply their scale degree recognition skills to their instruments.

And if you haven’t heard by now, we are super-excited about our new upcoming podcast series of interviews and teaching with the greatest minds in modern musicality.

There’s so much happening for your musicality these days when you see What’s New in Musical U: August 2017.

New Ways to Write Songs

One of the biggest blocks to creative songwriting is taking yourself too seriously! Rather than freaking out if your first song isn’t the next top hit or classical masterpiece, songwriting skills much more easy to grow when you’re having fun.

Have you ever written a superhero song? A food song? Time to loosen up and get those creative juices flowing!  Try these 10 Mini Songwriting Challenges to Sharpen Your Writing Skills.

Many top songwriters stress that “inspiration” is not the most important thing to being a successful songwriter. You can’t count on inspiration to take hold when you need to work through a song, but it can help to gather pieces of your song through different activities.

So many believe that inspiration has to come to them. But you can make conscious choices that open up this flow. Deborah Holland explains more about kick-starting inspiration.

Melodies are the most important element of your new song. A great melody can take the listener on a journey, inspiring them and reaching into the depths of human emotions and motivation in ways that very few things can. The element of a melody that captures the listener’s attention is often called the “hook”. Learn more about writing hooks with Production Music Live.

What about chord progressions? Are there standard chord progressions that we can find throughout music to inspire songwriting? The short answer is yes! Many chord progressions are very standard and appealing to the listener’s ear. Learning these progressions will certainly help jump start your songwriting or serve as a starting point for changing the progression. Sarah Spencer from Song Fancy explains more about 4 quick and dirty chord progressions for songwriters.

The ideas generated from the songwriting challenges may not lead to “The Song” that you desired to write. But, it is a valuable exercise to generate ideas and start gathering parts of songs for later. How? As much as we hear about songs that were written in one sitting, more songs are developed over time through the process of re-writing songs. Corey Stewart from All About Songwriting explains the joys of rewriting your songs.

New Music from Five Ancients

Sometimes something new is something very old indeed.

With all the emphasis in traditional music education on learning major and minor scales, we often lose sight of the fact that a huge percentage of all music can be performed with only five notes – and it’s been that way for at least 50,000 years!

The practical applications of the pentatonic scale are easy, fun, and mind-boggling in their diversity. Learn more about these Five Notes, Infinite Possibilities: the Pentatonic Scale

Learning the patterns of the pentatonic scale is one thing, but where do you go from there? Guitarists have a specific challenge to link the various CAGED boxed patterns into a continuous flow up and down the fretboard. Master Guitar Academy has this video to get you started on practicing the minor pentatonic scale for guitar.

What limits does the pentatonic scale have? Well, you are really only limited by your imagination! To get the most out of this scale, you need to explore you to use it musically, and not just as a pattern. Discover eight different ways to use the pentatonic scale more musically in this podcast from Learn Jazz Standards.

As we learned, there is a difference in the major and minor pentatonic scale, even though both can be used for improvisation over the same chord progression. How does that work? Effective Music Practice explains this cool phenomenon of modal interchange.

The pentatonic scale is a great way to easily up your improvisation game. It works so well over many other chord progressions and phrases that you can’t ignore it! So, how have some of the musical masters employed this scale? 10 Minute Jazz Lesson talks about Herbie Hancock’s pentatonic pattern from his solo in “Tell Me A Bedtime Story”.

A New Ukulele

What if learning a new instrument was easy?

The recent astronomical surge in popularity of the once-humble ukulele proves that an instrument can sound good almost right out of the box – with just a little instruction.

So did you recently receive a uke for your birthday? Picked one up as an impulse buy? Walk past the racks of ukuleles at the music store, thinking, “What if…?”

You Bought a Ukulele… Now What? Globe-trotting uke aficionado Colleen from Coustii answers the question once and for all.

It is so great to get started on a new instrument! Colleen reveals a few of the basic chords. And now you are ready to expand your knowledge and break out into the wide world of ukulele chords! To keep your path to Uku mastery going, learning the major, minor, and seventh chords is absolutely essential. Uku Guides teaches these basic ukulele chords to get you started.

Now that you have gotten the basics of your ukulele down, it’s time to break into playing a song! But don’t restrict yourself to songs that were written for ukulele. The instrument is versatile enough to play a whole range of music that will fit your musical interests. Katie from One Music School shows how to play “Before You Start Your Day” by twentyonepilots.

That song was a blast to learn! Are you ready to expand your knowledge of the ukulele into a wider array of songs? This guide to 37 easy ukulele songs for beginners from Acoustic Bridge is the perfect place to continue growing your repertoire of ukulele tunes.

When you become passionate about an instrument, there is no better way to dive deeper into the history and technique than through podcasts. So much information is conveyed in a short amount of time… and you can listen to them anywhere. For a great podcast that is focused on the ukulele, check out OokTown for some in-depth knowledge on this fascinating instrument!

New Attitude

Hey, isn’t music supposed to be fun? Launching into something new may not only be a blast, but also refresh your attitude towards the learning you were slogging through.

The post New Learning, New Songwriting, New Scales, and a New Ukulele appeared first on Musical U.

Hi, this is Christopher Sutton, the Founder and Director of Musical U, and I’d love to share with you what’s new in Musical U this month.

You can watch the video below or read on to learn more.

We had three exciting new developments at Musical U this month. The first is a brand new module to help you connect with the beat in music. The second was our monthly masterclass this month with Jennifer Foxx talking about mindful practicing and how to kick those bad practice habits to the curve.

And, the third was new Resource Packs for guitar, bass, piano and singing on the topic of scale degree recognition and helping you to identify notes by ear and apply that directly on your instrument.

Let’s dive in!

New Rhythm Module: Connect with the Beat

We already have several rhythm modules at Musical U, including ones to help you learn the basics of rhythm, learn how to use speaking methods to get rhythms right in music, practicing, getting rhythms correct on your instrument or when clapping and to read rhythmic notation, as well as applying it to real music.

So why a new rhythm module? Well, what we found was that some members were coming in and although the concepts were clear from what our What is Rhythm and Tempo and the Beat modules, they then found there was a step missing when they went onto our Rhythm Practice module. In particular, they had difficulty finding the beat reliably in music.

Everything we do with rhythm depends on having a sense of the beat or the pulse of music, and so we’ve created a brand new module called Connect with the Beat. This new module helps you to connect with that beat in music to relate it to different instruments and to do exercises to help you connect with the beat in real music.

For example, there’s a walkthrough for Eye of the Tiger, a song I’m sure you know and then I think we go onto Taylor Swift. This whole module is about making sure when you hear a song, you can tune into where the beat is, clap along and then use that as a foundation for all of your rhythm skills.

We’re really excited to add this new module to the rhythm section of Musical U because it’s going to fill in that gap and help our members who are a bit more unsure about rhythm to get a rock solid sense of the beat before they move onto the more advanced material.

New Masterclass: Mindful Practicing

Every month at Musical U, we run a live masterclass, and this month we were delighted to have Jennifer Foxx from musiceducatorresources.com come and present on the topic of mindful practicing.

Jennifer is a real expert on helping students to get more out of their practice time and whether you’re a 13-year-old learning piano for the first time or a 30-year-old hobbyist guitar player, whatever stage you’re at with music, making the most out of our practice time is one of the most important things if we want to really reach our goals. I was so happy to have Jennifer with us to present both the problems and the solutions. Let’s have a quick peek.

Clock watchers. Clock watchers pretend to practice with the wrong reason and that’s basically to pass the required time. I know this happens a lot with younger students and that’s why I tell my parents that when they ask how long I want students to practice, I typically tell them, “You know what? I would rather them set practice goals because practice goals are going to be more efficient than watching the clock”. You can waste a lot of time say in 30 minutes of practice and get absolutely nothing done if you’re not focused.

Musical U members now have access to the full recording of this masterclass, as well as the helpful handout Jennifer prepared with all of the resources and links mentioned.

Resource Packs: Scale Degree Recognition

The third big addition this month with new Resource Packs for all of our Instrument Packs in Musical U. This month the topic was scale degree recognition. We already have a training module on scale degree recognition to help you to spot different notes from the scale by ear. Inside Musical U, we use the solfa system which calls those notes do, re, mi and so on but it’s exactly the same if you want to call them 1, 2, 3 or Bob, Jeff and Freddy. It’s just about giving an identity to each note of the scale.

That module works great for helping people develop the core skill of recognizing the notes of the scale. But, this month we had our Resident Pros prepare tutorials to help you apply that directly on your instrument.

Let’s take a quick peek at the tutorial video Clare Wheeler put together for our singers.

This week’s subject is learning scale degrees which is a great topic to continue on from the audiation and pentatonic videos that I’ve already done. It uses a lot of the same ideas. Essentially, we’re just taking one step further. This is great for getting your starting note if you sing in a choir or you’re a soloist. There’s no magic to it. It’s not this mystical thing that some people can just do. It’s all about knowing your scale degrees.

It’s really imperative for sight-reading. I think that in your module for sight-reading you learned about key signatures and stuff and you can learn all the theory you want but it’s going to be no good to you if you can’t find the note that you’re looking for.

And of course, my favorite thing is always how to use these things in improvisation.

As always that tutorial video is accompanied by a Quick Reference guide with all the key information and exercises taught, and some practice MP3s to help you really drill these exercises and practice them until they’re second nature.

So those were the three big additions to Musical U this month:

1. Our new rhythm module to help you connect with the beat
2. Our monthly masterclass, the recording of that masterclass, which was on the topic of “mindful practicing”.
3. Our new Resource Packs for singing, piano, bass and guitar on the topic of Scale Degree Recognition.

WAIT! One more thing. We are launching a podcast in September. If you haven’t already heard about this, it’s going to be interviews and teaching, all on the topic of musicality.

I’m super excited about the new show, and we’ve been recording episodes in advance. We’ll be launching in just a couple of weeks now.

If you want the inside scoop and behind-the-scenes information, bonus content, all that good stuff – or if you just want to be notified as soon as it comes out, please head to musical-u.com/podcast-insiders and you can sign up for insider exclusives and all of the full information about this new show.

It’s going to be totally free, you can listen on your phone, tablet or on your computer, listen at your convenience and it’s going to be a fantastic way to dive deep into the world of musicality and how to develop your own skills to feel more like a natural musician.

Thanks for joining me for this look inside what’s new inside Musical U this month, and I hope to see you inside soon.

The post What’s New in Musical U: August 2017 appeared first on Musical U.

If you’re brand new to learning ukulele, don’t worry, it’s not as difficult as you think! If you want to learn more about playing this fun little instrument, we’ve got everything you need to kick your playing into high gear!

Getting to Know Your New Instrument

You may notice that the ukulele is similar to a guitar, but it’s smaller and has its own distinct sound. The ukulele is composed of three sections: the head, the neck, and the body. The head of the ukulele features only tuning knobs, the neck features frets, fret markers, and a fretboard, and the body features the sound hole, bridge, and saddle. A fret is the strip of metal that goes across your ukulele.

Playing different chords on various frets will allow you to create different sounds. The fretboard is the entire vertical piece on your guitar where the strings are extended and it also features the fret markers, which are small colored circles that help you to remember which fret your fingers are on. Lastly, the bridge and the saddle are where your strings are attached on the bottom of your ukulele.

Getting in Tune

Once you are familiar with the different parts of your ukulele, you need to learn how to tune it! We know that tuning can be a pain and seem like a waste of time, but you’ll quickly realize that if you don’t tune your ukulele, your music will be off-key! Tuning can be achieved with the use of a tuning app on a phone or an electric tuner, but it’s even better if you learn how to tune your ukulele by ear as well.

The first thing to know about tuning is that when you tighten the strings using the tuning knobs, the note will go higher in pitch, and when you loosen them, the note will go lower in pitch. If you’re new to tuning, ask someone else to help you, and remember to be careful when tightening the strings. If you tighten your strings too much you risk ruining them!

There are several different tunings that you can use. The most common method is G-C-E-A tuning. If you are tuning your ukulele strings to G-C-E-A, you can use the re-entrant or the linear method. Many people choose to tune their ukulele using the linear method, which allows you to open the note range of your uke!

Other tuning methods include slack-key tuning, English tuning, and Canadian tuning. Feel free to research each method and see what works for you. If you have an ear for music, you may find it easy to tune by ear and start with the G chord, re-adjusting each string as you find the correct note.

Holding the Ukulele

Typically, ukulele players strum or pluck strings with their dominant hand and hold it with their non-dominant hand. When you are holding your uke, hold it against your chest and place the body of your uke in the crook of your elbow. You can also make use of a ukulele strap, or rest it in your lap if you are sitting. Don’t forget also to keep your back straight to avoid back and shoulder pain later!

Ukulele Tabs, Chords, and More!

Once you know how to tune your ukulele, or at least have downloaded a phone app, you are ready to learn how to read ukulele chords and tabs.

Chords

A quick refresher: chords are a cluster of notes played together, simultaneously. Ukulele chord diagrams look a little something like this:

On a ukulele chord diagram, there are four lines. Each line represents a string on the ukulele. The G string will be the string on the left side of the tab, and the A string will be the string on the right side of the tab. You also will see circles on each line that tells you on which fret you need to pluck the string. For example, looking at the above chord, there is a circle on the second fret on the leftmost line. That means that you need to pluck the G string on the second fret.

Tabs

Though chords are the more common way of providing written notation for ukulele music, you may come across tabs, too!

Tabs (short for tablature) are simply a way of telling you which strings to play in what order, as well as which frets to play on each string. Here’s an example:

As you can see, there are four horizontal lines, as opposed to the vertical layout of the chords. In tabs, the bottom line represents the G string, and the top line is the A string. The numbers on each line tell you the fret of that string that should be played.

If you see a series of numbers stacked vertically, the tab is indicating to play all these notes at the same time. In fact, you may be looking at a chord! Sometimes, tabs even indicate the name of the chord over a tab.

There are also some other symbols you may see when reading a uke tab, such as an “X”, which means to not play the string at all, or an “O”, which means to play the string open. You may also see an “h” (hammer-on), a “/” (represents sliding), or a “P” (pull-off). As you learn more about reading uke tabs, you’ll also learn the different symbols and what they mean.

Get Practicing!

If you think you’re ready to learn some beginner ukulele chords, try the C major chord, which is by far the easiest chord! You only need to place your ring finger on the A string on the third fret, and that’s it:

Once you’ve mastered C major, try A major. For A major, you will need one finger on the G string on the second fret, and another finger on the C string on the first fret:

Coustii has a ukulele chords for beginners’ guide to get you started. If you’ve just learned how to read ukulele tabs, you can learn new chords by reading uke tabs by yourself!

Putting it All Together

Once you have conquered a few basic chords, it’s time to try some easy songs.

Here are a few songs that everyone will love, and won’t be too difficult for the beginner: 

• Stay With Me – Sam Smith
• Sweet Home Alabama – Lynyrd Skynyrd (a classic song for stringed instruments!)
• Margaritaville – Jimmy Buffet (for those who prefer an older sound)
• Whistle – Flo Rida

There are many demos of these songs and others on YouTube so that you can learn quickly by watching others play the song. If you prefer to learn on your own, you can also research ukulele chords or tabs and give it a go on your own!

Another way that you can learn ukulele is by using ear training. Sometimes, people naturally learn to play music by listening and playing the notes that they hear. If it is difficult for you to learn by just using your ears and trying to replicate the notes you hear, you can also use Musical U’s training exercises and resources to be a more natural musician and play by ear.

Stay Motivated: Join A Musical Community!

Whether you are in the beginning stages of learning the ukulele or are just starting to play again, one of the biggest hurdles to overcome while learning any instrument is staying motivated!

It can be very difficult to stay motivated if you feel that you are not making progress and improving. The best way to stay inspired is to keep practicing! Make it easy for yourself by creating a regular routine for practicing. If learning the ukulele is important to you, find time in your hectic schedule for at least 15-20 minutes of practice a day, or create a routine that works for you. See what you can do to keep yourself motivated and learning!

Also, imagine being able to pick up your uke and playing any song you want, just by listening to it a few times. This may be a pipe dream for many musicians, but it’s in fact a very tangible goal! Ear training is a great help in helping you understand chords and find your way around the fretboard, and will help you improve faster with your ukulele.

The post You Bought a Ukulele… Now What? appeared first on Musical U.