Week 1: Introduction to guitar tab and chords

 

• Introduce guitar tab using melodies and riffs on one string

• Variation of the guitar chords G and C using just one finger to play

• Get to know each other by sharing favourite musicians and reasons for wanting to learn guitar

 

Week 2: Learning to strum and play chords in a song

 

• Introduction to strumming patterns

• Practise chord transitions using open chords

• Learn to play "Three Little Birds" by Bob Marley

• How to hold and strum using a plectrum

 

Week 3: Expanding chord vocabulary

 

• Introduction to new open chords

• Practise chord transitions between old and new chords

• Learn to play "I’m Yours” by Jason Mraz

 

Week 4-5: Riffs, melodies and chord progressions in a song

 

Learn to play "Times Like These" by Foo Fighters

• Practise playing riffs and melodies using guitar tab

• Understand chord progressions and how to play them in a song

 

Week 6-7: Introduction to fingerpicking

 

• Learn basic fingerpicking patterns

• Apply fingerpicking to chords and progressions

• Learn to play "Blackbird" by The Beatles

 

Week 8-9: Rhythm and strumming practice

 

• Practise different strumming patterns and rhythms

• Learn to read rhythm notation

• Apply strumming and rhythm to songs in different genres

 

Week 10: Introduction to improvisation using the pentatonic scale

 

• Learn the pentatonic scale and how to apply it in improvisation

• Practice improvising over different chord progressions

• Celebrate our progress and achievements over the 10 weeks!

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Throughout the course, we'll be using materials from the Rockschool Grade Syllabus, Hal Leonard Guitar Method, and other resources to supplement our learning. All of these resources will be available on-screen using Soundslice, which allows us to use interactive sheet music. 

During the course we'll be learning lots of different songs across many different styles of music, not only those mentioned in the overview and if you have any specific songs that you'd like to learn I can definitely help out with that. 

 

Feel free to purchase any of these materials to help supplement your practice at home. I’ll be providing print out materials during the lessons for you to take home with you. For those that are more technically minded you can also register for your own free soundslice account where I can add you to my course page where you can access the files used in the lessons.