Term 3 - Lesson 4

Today's lesson was about combining chords and scales in one song. We looked at Bold As Love by Jimi Hendrix because it incorporated simple barre chords and pentatonic scales that we all knew. A new technique we learned was using our thumbs to hold notes on the bottom E string. It was difficult as I'm not used to it but I have seem this technique in songs before so it wasn't completely new to me. I think I will use this technique more often so that I'm not always using barre shapes. Another advantage to this technique is that you don't play the A string which makes the chord sound less bulky and subsequently a bit nicer.

The rest of the song involved a lot of hammer ons while holding other notes which was knew to me; I think I should practise this more and it seems to be a recurring technique in Hendrix songs and I'd like to be able to play more of his stuff.

As part of my home practise this week I am looking at From Eden by Hozier because it is the next song on our list. It is a song I have wanted to learn to play for a while because it is in 5/8 and uses barre chords in a different way to what I've seen before. At first the time signature felt weird to play but once I got the hang of the strumming and how to use the chords to count it got easier. Now I need to get it up speed and make my strumming cleaner.

I am still practising The Longest Wave and it's getting better. I've begun to look at the verse and chorus parts and I'm slowly getting up to speed with the song.
















































































































































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