LESSON # 1 

Strumming confidently. The foundational 8th-note strumming pattern. Strumming pattern for "La Bamba." Dampening the strings with the left hand. The I-iv-V progression. 

strumming confidently.

When playing songs in a therapeutic setting, it is very important that we do it confidently, with a solid and reassuring sense of rhythm.

The foundational 8th-note strumming pattern.

Exercise # 1. Strumming Pattern #1: Straight Eights

This pattern is the foundation of many strumming patterns.

1. Practice with a metronome.

2. Alternate down strokes on the strong, or accented beats, and up strokes on the weak, i.e. non-accented beats. If you subdivide a quarter note into eighth notes, the first one is strong, and the second one is weak. 

3. Find a tempo where you can comfortably play this strumming pattern, with the C chord.  Set your metronome to that tempo, eg 100 beats per minute (bpm), each beat a quarter note. 

NOTE: Make sure the low E-string doesn't ring. The low E and the root C on the A-string will create a very muddy minor 6th interval at the bottom end of the sound. 

You can dampen the E-string with 

1. Your left thumb  

2. Your third finger, more precisely, the tip of your third finger, the one that is pressing down on the A string at the third fret to finger the root C of our chord. That finger can do double duty and dampen the low E string. 

3. Alternatively, you can just try to strum very precisely and only hit the A, D, G, B, and E strings, leaving the low E string alone. 

the I-iv-v progression.

A major scale is built by moving up in stepwise fashion, with whole steps (interval of a major second) between the individual notes, except for two half steps: between scale degrees 3 and 4 (E and F) and 7 and 8 (B and C).

On each of these steps we can build a chord. Chords are three notes sounding together. We build them usually by stacking up three notes in intervals of thirds. C - E - G. You can also think of building them like this: On top of the root we stack a fifth, and in between we put a third, either major or minor, defining whether it's a minor or major chord, or in the case of B - D - F, a diminished chord.

This progression, "One-Four-Five" is the harmonic core for countless pop songs. In C Major, it is C - F - G, or I - IV - V.

*The C Major chord is the tonic chord, built on the root of the C major scale, the tonic note C. 

*The F Major chord is the sub-dominant chord, built on scale degree 4, the sub-dominant note F. 

* The G Major chord is the dominant chord, built on scale degree 5, the dominant note G. 

Roman Numerals are used to name the various chords built on the seven notes of the scale. It is very useful to use this abstraction, as it makes it easier to transpose. Major chords are upper case, minor and diminished chords lower case. 

A diatonic major key has the following chords: I - ii - iii - IV - V - vi - vii

Nothing outlines a major key better than playing "one-four-five" -- a very strong and reassuring cadence, firmly establishing the tonic chord. 

"La Bamba."

"La Bamba" is a very useful song for Music Therapy Groups. It's a much-loved song associated with a celebratory mood. It's rhythmic structure invites playing along with percussive instruments as well as singing along with the chorus, "Ba-ba-bamba!"

Dampening the strings with the left hand. 

This technique lets you add rhythmic patterns while your right hand is keeping the same eight-note strumming pattern as shown in the example above. 

The rhythmic patterns happen by the way you alternate strumming the chord and strumming the muted strings by dampening with the fingers of the left hand.

See below on how to damp with your left, i.e. your fingering hand. 

1. Finger the chord

2. Strum

3. Without taking your left hand away, just very subtly release some of the pressure, so that your fingers rest on the strings. The key is to relax the left hand.

4. Strum the now muted strings.

Exercise # 2: Strumming pattern #2 "La Bamba"

* The right hand always keeps the up-and-down strumming pattern. 

* The rhythmic accents are set in the second part of the video.

* Dampening the strings with the left hands creates a percussive sound. The placement of these percussive sounds creates the rhythmic patterns. 

* The metronome is set at 116 BPM in the example, but play it more slowly, until you're comfortable with the technique. 

THE C MAJOR SCALE, OPEN POSITION.

Below fingering of the C Major Scale uses a combination of open strings and fretted strings. All notes on the open strings (from top to bottom: Easter Bunny Goes Dancing At Easter) are diatonic notes in the C major scale, so the open position fingering uses all the open strings. 

Here is the scale diagram. Please notice to the left of the diagram the notes A, D, G, and B as played on the open strings.

Exercise # 3:

Practice the C Major scale slowly, with a metronome. It is really useful to sing along with the notes. You can use Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Si, or the actual note names: C, D, E, F, G, A, B.

Exercise # 4:

Listen to the melody of "La Bamba" in the performance of Richie Valens. Reproduce it on the top 3 strings, in the open position. For that purpose, you'll need to use the notes of C Major in the open position fingering extended over the B and high E string. 

Note: The Original La Bamba recording is in Db. So you'll have to transpose down a half-step to C to make it fit over the I-IV-V in C.

Play "La Bamba" in C Major as a duet with another musician playing a harmonic instrument. Alternate singing the melody and playing it on the guitar. Improvise using the open position C major scale. 

The I-IV-V Progression

Many, many songs use this progression, I (Tonic) - IV (Sub-Dominant) - V (Dominant).

You should be able to instantly find it in any key. It is the building block of Western harmony.