Natalie: That music, yes, that music means it's time for Gigajam. It is lesson two of our essential guitar skills course, part one. I'm Natalie Barrass, David Young's our tutor, David how are you today?
David: I'm very well, how are you?
N: I'm feeling good
D: Very good
N: That music's got me all psyched up
D: Has it? Excellent
N: It has. Okay we're on lesson two
D: Okay
N: What are our lesson objectives?
D: Okay our lesson objectives for lesson two are to understand and be able to count half notes…
N: Mmmhmm
D: …and quarter notes…
N: Right
D: …and integrate them with whole notes which we learnt in lesson one
N: We did
D: And the chords that we also learnt in lesson one
N: A and G
D: A5 and G5
N: That's it
D: That's it. So if we can play those with half notes and quarter notes and whole notes, then we're really getting somewhere
N: Excellent
D: Okay? So I'll just grab my guitar
N: Do it
D: You may recall that in lesson one we discussed whole notes, and that a whole note lasts for four beats
N: One, two, three, four
D: And the reason that that's called a whole note is that common time has four beats per bar, so most commonly we will find in bars four beats
N: Yeah
D: Okay? So if that one note lasts for that whole bar it's called a whole note. Consequently, if we have a note which lasts for two beats, it's called a half note because it's…
N: That's half the bar
D: …half of a common time bar
N: Okay
D: It's half of a bar, okay? So when we play we would count to two and then play again, so if I had a bar of common time, in which there were two half notes, I'd play it and count it like this. I'll play this on an A5 chord…
N: Okay
D: …which we also learnt in lesson one. One, two, three, four, one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four
N: So striking it on the first and third beat of that bar
D: Correct. Strike it on beat one, it sustains for two beats, beat one and beat two, strike in on beat three, it sustains for beat three and beat four. Now, if I put that into a piece of music with a whole note…
N: Mmmhmm
D: …I'll show you the difference. I'll play a bar of half notes, and a bar with a whole note in it
N: Alright
D: All on A5. One, two, three, four, one, two, three, four, one, two, three,…
N: That's a whole note
D: …four, one, two, three, four…
N: They're our half notes
D: …one, two, three, four
N: Finishing on the whole note, okay
D: Now of course you need to understand what a half note looks like…
N: Mmmhmm
D: …to be able to read it. Now a whole note was a circle, or an egg type shaped note, with no stem, as we can see from our, from our text here, with no stem at all and that lasted for the four beats. The half note, which we can see here, is also a white note, not filled in, with a stem
N: Ahh there it is
D: The stem, by the way, can go up or down. Whether the stem goes up or down just depends whereabouts on the musical stave we put the note. If it's above halfway up the stem comes down…
N: I've always wondered that
D: …if it's below halfway the stem goes up, but it doesn't mean anything in itself
N: Right
D: Okay, it's a kind of musical grammar thing
N: Just the fact that it's there…
D: Yes
N: …and it's with a white un-filled in note makes it the half note
D: White un-filled in note is exactly what makes it the half note. So if we move on down the lesson we've got exercise number one. Now in exercise number one we have four bars of half notes
N: Mmmhmm
D: We have two bars on A5…
N: Yeah
D: …and we have two bars on G5
N: Okay
D: Now, the best way I think to work through the exercises, especially when you start out, is to watch the video clip, for people who are working with the software at home…
N: Yeah
D: …watch the video clip, which will be of me…
N: (Laughs)
D: …playing that exercise
(laughs). So if you'd just like to click on the video icon there and we'll just have a listen to this exercise and watch the video
N: It's strange seeing you sat there…
D: Yes
N: …and sat there…
D: That's…
N: …in that little box
D: …that, I, that is strange for me
N: (Laughs)
D: But there you go!
N: And here you are
D: And here I am, okay
(Exercise starts playing)
N: Although I can't see your face
D: Two, three, four, one, two, good thing…
N: (Laughs)
D: …three, four, one…
D & N: …two, three,
N: That's our G note
D: …four, one, two, three, four…
N: Back to A
D: …one, two, three, four. So two beats per chord…
N: Yeah
D: …or two per strike, one, two, three, four
N: And as we talked about in lesson one, just hitting the sixth and the fifth string
D: Make sure you're…
(Exercise stops playing)
D: …make sure to only strike strings six and five. I mean you need to loosen up, you wanna be so terrified that, you know, you don't hit…
N: (Laughs)
D: …anything at all or you're too rigid. So, you know, have a bit of a go…
N: Yeah
D: …but try and have some finesse where you can maybe only hit those two strings. It'll definitely come in time anyway…
N: Okay
D: …definitely that will come. So I think what I'll do now is, if you've already booted up the…you've done this before
N: I've pre-empted you
D: You did. So we've got the Analyser up there, I'm going to play along to this particular exercise. Again remembering that all the exercises come up at eighty beats per minute, which is the speed on the video
N: Mmmhmm
D: So, if you'd just like to hit play I will play along with this, and hopefully I can keep relatively in time
(Xtractor starts playing)
N: So that's…
D: G
N: One, two, three, four. That counting really helps to keep you in time, doesn't it? One, two, three, four, one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four. And you're changing the chord there right at the very last moment, so we get the full sound of that full half note on both A5 and G5. Three, four….two, three, four, one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four
(Xtractor stops playing)
N: I've stopped you
D: Okay
N: That was very good
D: Now then, I think what's absolutely essential for anybody using the course, they will understand this once they have the software, is that may be a little bit too fast…
N: Right
D: …for somebody who's getting into it for the first time, or certainly their second guitar lesson. Playing those chords, that quickly, is probably a little bit tricky
N: Mmmhmm
D: So if we go to the tempo button on the guitar Xtractor, if you knock that down to say seventy
N: Seventy bpm…
D: It'll go…
N: …beats per minute
D: …seventy beats per minute, it'll go right down as slow as you want to go, or as fast as you want to go. If you think you're really a bit of a hot shot…
N: (Laughs)
D: …you can go quicker than eighty, of course you can speed it up, practise it that way
N: Yeah
D: But let's run it at seventy and I'll play along at seventy. We'll just do half the exercise, then stop me…
N: Okay so this is…
D: …and we'll carry on
N: …exercise one
D: This is still exercise one, but at seventy
(Xtractor starts playing)
N: So that's coming in with our A5 chord, half notes…
D: Two…
N: …for two bars
D: …three, four, one, two…
N: Then the G
D: …three, four. More comfortable
N: It is important to count, isn't it? Because, I mean, you could get lost, you don't know where you are, or which chord you're on
D: Essential, three, four
D & N: One, two, three, four, one, two, three, four
(Xtractor stops playing)
D: Okay, so you can use, anybody who's working through the course can use the Xtractor to help them play at their own pace
N: Mmmhmm
D: That's the thing, you play at your own pace
N: That's it, well it's the whole thing about Gigajam isn't it really?
D: Exactly, run at your own pace, and it's all set out nice and clearly
N: Yeah, exactly, and these TV shows as well, only half and hour…
D: Exactly
N: …we get through a lot of stuff
D: We get through a lot of stuff, and you can take your own time at home obviously
N: Alright
D: If you'd just like to scroll on down. If you move down to the next exercise here. Now exercise two, we can see here's got three bars of half notes, and one bar of a whole note at the end
N: Ahh, on that fourth bar, I see it there
D: That's it there. Now normally we'd bring up the video and have a little look but let's just move straight on and I'll play this exercise to the guitar Xtractor
N: Okay
D: If you'd just like to bring that up, I'll play my two bars of half notes which are on an A5
N: Mmmhmm
D: One bar of G5 half notes, and then one bar of a whole note, also on G5. So now we're beginning to mix and match for the first time, our different types of notes, using half notes and whole notes
N: It's adding, I mean it's adding more interest isn't it? And sort of…
D: Of course, when you, when you play any form of music we have all sorts of different rhythms involved, we wouldn't just play in one note type the whole time anyway…
N: Yeah
D: …so we need, subdivisions we call it, to, you know, make the music interesting
N: And good to bring it in at this stage, quite early on I think…
D: Absolutely, yeah
N: …don't be scared of it
D: Of course
(Xtractor starts playing)
N: Here it is, counting you in for four. Two, three, four, one, two, three, four, so that was A, down to G, three, four, one
D: Whole note
D & N: Two, three, four
N: Up to A
D & N: One, two, three, four
N: Down to G, and then our whole note, two, three, four
D: Okay?
(Xtractor stops playing)
N: Good stuff
D: So now, obviously, you play these exercises round and round and round and round and round, until you're completely comfortable. Make sure they're pretty perfect really, before, before moving on. So that's half notes, and whole notes
N: Brilliant stuff
D: So again, if you'd like to move on, we'll talk about quarter notes
N: Quarter notes, okay. So we've had whole notes, we've had half notes
D: Yes
N: Now we've got quarter notes
D: Okay, so a whole note lasts for the whole of a common time bar
N: Yeah
D: A half note lasts for half of a common time bar, it's consequently worth two beats
N: Yeah
D: Quarter note is worth one beat, and lasts for a quarter of a common time bar
N: It's simple really
D: Okay? Simple. The note looks completely different, in as much as, it's a filled in note
N: Yeah
D: It's a black note with a stem, worth one beat, and as we can see written there where you would count them as one,
D & N: Two, three, four
D: I'll just play a bar of quarter notes and count through
N: Absolutely
D: One, two, three, four, one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four, etcetera
N: Mmmhmm
D: So, for example, if I was to play a bar of a whole note, a bar with half notes, and then two bars with quarter notes, so we hear the differences, whole notes then half notes then quarter notes…
N: Mmmhmm
D: …it would sound like this. One, two, three, four, one, two, three, four, one, two…
N: That's our whole note
D: …three, four…
N: There's the…
D: …one…
N: …half note…
D: …two, three, four…
N: …and then the quarter notes
D: …one, two, three, here's the whole note. One
D & N: Two, three
D: Here's our half note
N: Four
D: One, two, three, quarter notes, one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four
N: Lovely stuff, and obviously we've got an exercise, exercise three
D: We've got an exercise here, let's have a look at this
N: That's practising our quarter notes there
D: Now then, what's happening here is we are learning how to change between A5 and G5, but using quarter notes
N: Mmmhmm
D: So we haven't got all that long on each chord, one bar of each chord. So you've gotta get your chord changes together quite fast
N: Mmmhmm
D: So if you'd just like to bring that one up, I'll just quickly play you a couple of bars of that, showing how we go from A5 to G5 on quarter notes
N: Mmmhmm, and this is what we looked at in lesson one wasn't it? The sort of change between two chords
D: The change, trying to move quite swiftly, move as late in the bar as you can after beat four
N: Okay, well I'll set that off now…
(Xtractor starts to play)
N: …why don't you play us off into the break. So there's our bar on G5
D: One, two, three
N: There's A5. Join us back for part two
(Xtractor still playing)
N: Welcome back to part two, you can stop now David
D: Okay
(Xtractor stops playing)
N: You did that fantastically all the way through the break
D: All the way through, it was brilliant wasn't it?
N: You were very good
D: Ah, fantastic
N: Alright, so that was exercise three. That was quite good cos that was showing us, or that was teaching us and helping us to practise, the quarter notes…
D: Yes
N: …the pace of it…
D: Yes
N: …and also the changes from the A5 to the G5
D: A5 to G5, exactly. So what we're going to carry on and do now is mix up the different note values that we've learnt to create rhythm
N: Mmmhmm
D: Now some instruments, or the drums, for one anyway, don't have any pitch, or have to worry about any harmony, they're mainly rhythmic. The guitar has rhythm, and pitch. So it's quite difficult trying to learn to play rhythm and change the pitches simultaneously
N: Mmmhmm
D: So what we're gonna do is introduce some rhythms right now, quite early on in the course, while we're just learning two chords, just A5 and G5. Not trying to overcomplicate that at all, but get used to playing whole notes, half notes, and quarter notes. So once again, a whole note last for four beats, because it lasts for the whole of a common time bar
N: Mmmhmm
D: A half note is worth two beats so it lasts for half of a common time bar. And a quarter note is worth one beat cos it lasts for a quarter of a common time bar. So moving on here to exercise four…
N: Yeah
D: If you'd just like to dial that exercise straight up, I'm gonna play along with that, and what we've got in this particular exercise is a combination of half notes and quarter notes. There aren't any whole notes in this exercise, they're just half notes and quarter notes, split between the A5 and the G5
N: Yeah
D: Okay? So I'm gonna give that a play and see how it sounds
N: Here it comes
(Exercise starts to play)
D: Okay
N: One, two, three
D & N: Four
N: One
D & N: Two, three, four
N: One, two, three, four, one, half note, quarter notes, down to the G, two quarters and then the half, two quarters and then the half again. Back to the beginning, that half note. There's two quarters, the half, two quarters, down to G. And from the top, half note, two quarters, half note, two quarters, down to G, two quarters, half note, G quarters, and then our half note
(Exercise stops playing)
D: Okay?
N: Very good
D: So you're quite right, that's exactly how we need to count it, one, two, three, four. And the more you practise reading these exercises, it just becomes like learning to read words. Eventually you just see it and it computes in your head straight away without having to calculate it. Which is why we've written quite a lot of exercises in this particular lesson. What's also, I think, a very useful thing when you start off, is to have a look at the videos, as we've discussed previously, listen to what it's supposed to sound like, see how it looks, get used to the sound of the guitar chords…
N: Mmmhmm
D: …all that kind of thing, then try it out for yourself. However, after a little while, I think it's better to play the exercise first without looking at the video
N: Really, why is that?
D: Yeah, well the reason for doing that is, if you, you know, once you get used to, people listen to a lot of music and if they've taken up the guitar or any other instrument, chances are they listen to music anyway…
N: Yeah
D: …they're probably quite musical. Once you've heard the exercise, you might just be able to remember what it does, and we wanna make sure that you're actually reading it, and understanding the notes clearly. So it'll be better to actually bring up the exercise, read it through once on your own…
N: Mmmhmm
D: …if you want, without the Xtractor, there's no problem there. Bring up the Xtractor and play to it, and then watch the video, and see if that is in fact what you did play
N: Ahh so you're almost training yourself
D: Yes
N: But it's obviously there as an added backup
D: You should find, after a little while, that you only really need the videos to just check everything was okay, and after, you know, a certain amount of time you probably won't even need to read the videos, or watch the videos at all I should say, because you understand what the music's telling you to do, you can hear the backing track you're playing to anyway, and you're away
N: Okay, and obviously, cos if we're on stage, of if we're jamming with our mates…
D: Yeah
N: …those videos wouldn't be there
D: They wouldn't be any use to you then
N: Okay, alright so…
D: So move on to exercise number five
N: So what's the difference between exercise four and five?
D: Okay, now what we have to get used to again is the way that we can jumble up the different note types. At this stage in time there will only ever be four notes in a bar, that's to say the notes will add up to four beats
N: Mmmhmm, so there's our quarter, our half and our whole
D: Exactly, any permutation of that that adds up to four beats is all we'll have. But we have to get used to reading different exercises. Once again you might pick up the first exercise, let's say it was exercise four there. You play it quite a bit, you might struggle you might not, but let's say you struggle, you play it for a little while, and then you get it
N: Mmmhmm
D: You've been playing it for a long time, you might now be remembering what it sounds like ecetera. We wanna get you to the state where you can read it, and get it right pretty much first time. So by reading lots of different of different exercises although they only contain the same…same information, they're just jumbled into different orders…
N: Mmmhmm
D: …you need to get to the stage where, by exercise seven or eight, or before that hopefully, you can just bring up the exercise, you can just read it…
N: Yeah
D: …straight off. So we'll have a little look here at exercise number five, which is a sort of variation on the theme of exercise four, but again it's slightly different. We've got our quarter notes and our half notes, still no whole notes in this particular exercise, but again the rhythm's been jumbled up, and I have to read that straight away and hopefully play it correctly. Which is what anyone, any musician would have to do if they were in a session, recording a, you know, a record or any of that type of stuff. They have to read it fairly, you'd probably get a practise go at it, but you need to be able to assimilate the information quickly
N: Would you almost sort of count it out in your head…
D: Yes
N: …so you had an idea of it?
D: Very good…
N: So it's one, two…
D: …idea to count the rhythm out
N: …three and four
D: Get into the feel of it. Tap out, you'll probably notice I'm sort of tapping my foot at bit, or anything that keeps you in time so you know where those four beats are, and keep you in rhythm is essential
N: Absolutely, well, as we mentioned earlier, let's take, may we take the tempo down a bit?
D: Okay, yeah fine
N: Seventy bpm
D: Certainly that's fine
N: And this'll help us, you know, count it out, so we're not rushing ourselves…
D: Absolutely
N: …so that you guys can get a clearer idea of it. So here we go, this is…
D: Okay
N: …exercise five if you're following along with your notes
(Exercise starts playing)
N: So it comes in with two quarters on the A5, and then our half note, then our half note, two quarters, then down to G, two quarters and a half, half, two quarters, and back to the beginning. Two quarters, that's our half, there's our half again, two quarters, carrying on with the quarters, then the half, that's on the G5, then the half again, two quarters. Down to the G5, and we'll finish it at the end of this bar
(Exercise stops playing)
D: So I think that would be very useful. Definitely slow it down, even slower than seventy if that's what you need to do…
N: Mmmhmm
D: …and then build it back up. I think it would be very useful if you practiced down to sixty, seventy, something of that order. If you go too slow there's no momentum
N: Right
D: You need a little bit of momentum and a, kind of, natural feel to it. You don't wanna be waiting for the next chord to come along, so to speak
N: Almost something to challenge you just that little bit
D: Yeah just a little bit, you know, and then start speeding it up, if you've done it at sixty can you do it at sixty-four? And can you do it at sixty-eight? And work you're way up and maybe see where you can get to before it falls to bits…
N: (Laughs)
D: …you know? So you can push you're way up and that'll help you learn to move your chords faster. It's like anything, if you play with a better tennis player than you, you'll get better, so if you play with the Xtractor in, having started from a point that you can do it of course,…
N: Mmmhmm
D: …then move it up a little bit and see if you can keep up. That's also a good exercise to do
N: Alright, well I'm looking through the notes here…
D: Okay
N: …obviously there's loads in this lesson
D: Quite a lot for people to get their teeth into, yeah
N: I wanna to jump to exercise seven…
D: Ahah
N: …cost there's a more different, sort of pattern here, and also we've got our whole note there…
D: Exactly…
N: …at the end of the last bar
D: …I'm glad you brought that up because this is the first exercise where we actually mix all three note types; whole notes, half notes and quarter notes. So again if you'd just like to run that through, if we bring up the guitar Xtractor, I'll play along to this one. And it's quite interesting, I've found with some students, that when they're used to playing quarter notes and half notes, suddenly holding onto a whole note for a four whole beats seems like an impossibly long time
N: Really?
D: Yeah, seems like as if, 'oh I should play something by now', and then they play
N: Ahah
D: But count, stick to your guns, count out the four beats…
N: Yeah
D: …and don't play until they're over
N: Cos it might feel a bit weird cos it's, especially you've gone from a quarter note there…
D: Yes
N: …in the third bar, the tendency may be to keep going…
D: To keep playing…
N: …you wanna get…
D: …precisely…
N: …in that rhythm
D: …and decide, you think, you know what it sounds like…
N: (Laughs)
D: …rather than reading what it's telling you to play…
N: Alright, so…
D: …very, very important
N: …gotta do what we're reading there, what's in front of us
D: I would try and read this accurately and not guess what is going to do
N: Okay, well just to let you know, we've got…
D: What speed are we up to then?
N: …we've got two halfs…I've taken it down for you…
D: Thanks
N: …to seventy
D: Okay
N: That's alright, so for our benefit…
D: Mmmhmm
N: …for our benefit, not for your benefit
D: Right
N: (Laughs)
D: Of course
N: I know you can do it
D: That's fine
N: Here we go, pushing play, we've got our four counts in
(Xtractor starts to play)
N: So two half notes on the A fifth, down to G, two quarters and a half, back up to A, quarter, half, quarter. Here's that tricky bit, and that whole note
D: Two, three, four
N: Half note, another half note, quarter, quarter, half, quarter. Whole note again, and one more time through. A fifth, half note, half note, down to G fifth, quarter, quarter, half. A fifth quarter, half, quarter, whole
(Xtractor stops playing)
N: Good timing
D: Thank you
N: (Laughs) Okay, so that, you sort of mentioned that one was a little bit more tricky there, going from the third to the fourth bar
D: That one was a little bit more tricky also the chords were changing in each bar…
N: Yeah
D: …as opposed to every two bars. Okay? So up until then I think all the exercises we played were two bars of A, two bars of G…
N: Mmmhmm
D: …whereas in that particular exercise we're changing chords every bar. You have to pay attention to that so you're worrying, well you're not worrying so much…
N: (Laughs)
D: …but you're practising, you know, trying to change your chords frequently. And eventually they'll change more than once in one bar
N: Oh really?
D: Yeah but for the time being it's one chord per bar on that exercise number seven there, and getting used to the variations in the rhythm. So getting used to that rhythm is essential. This is fairly, once those rhythms are in there they will serve you perfectly well through the rest of your musical career, so to speak
N: Yeah
D: So it's great to get them in right at the beginning, at this sort of time…
N: Mmmhmm
D: …no question
N: You're talking about the variations in the rhythm. Let's just, by the end of this, go to bar three…
D: Mmmhmm
N: …and we've got the quarter, the half, which is awkward isn't it? Cos…
D: Yes
N: …then you're coming in with another quarter
D: Well it's quite strange that, I've found that some people struggle when you put a half note on beat two, for some reason it feels…
N: Really?
D: …odd to us, whatever. I think when we play one on two, we expect one on three, or something, but having that half note right in the middle of the bar feels a little bit strange. And you've got your one beat on beat four, and then you've got the whole note for the final bar there. But actually, if any of you runs through all these exercises, I think there's eight or nine exercises…
N: Yeah
D: …in this lesson, then, your quarter note, whole note and half note reading will be great by the end, I'm sure
N: Fantastic. It's gonna be great by the end of this course, and that's the end of lesson two. Join us back here again for lesson three where we'll be getting even more rhythmic