Lesson on March 20th

During my last lesson with Jay, we went over the song Rondeau where I am playing classical style line with a moving melody in the bass over chords that ring out. Jay showed me how to pluck and finger the various chord voicing’s. This song really challenges me to learn the music well enough to be able to play the piece with others while keeping control of my right and left hands on a different level than most music that I would just use a pick or my thumb to play.

Jay told me that learning just the bass part of the song first might impair my ability to later add the full chords. He told me to break the song down and learn it note by note, phrase by phrase at a time while repeating all of the old material the whole time. This can be slow going at first but it really helps when it comes time to sit and play the piece again the next day when I can remember more of what I have learned and I can feel my muscle memory working faster and faster for my plucking fingers to get where they need to go.