Tammy’s back for her first lesson since recording her original tune in Lesson 8! Lots to go over, as you can imagine.

Filling the role of her producer, I offered Tammy some pointers on where things could possibly be improved in her song – lyrically, compositionally, etc.

Some proposed improvements:

Think a bit more about the rhythm and dynamics on the guitar front, making sure to stay aware of the rhythmic patterns and the timing.
More planning! Be a bit more deliberate about the overall composition of the tune. For instance, think about how to start the tune, how to distinguish between the verses and the chorus, and how to build up the song from beginning to end.
Revise the lyrics. In this lesson, we discussed the lyrics line-by-line and noted where they could be tweaked and improved upon. Having a neutral party go over lyrics with you can be a massive help when it comes to crafting a song that will make sense to and resonate with a general audience.
Think about layering. Once the bones of the track are laid down, think about where the song could benefit from maybe an electric guitar, a keyboard or organ, or maybe additional vocals.

New Lessons:

One-minute changes - Tammy didn’t go through my actual beginner’s course, so she never learned this practice technique. She was having some difficulty with certain chord changes, especially when they involved barre chords, so I suggested focusing on that one specific chord change for one minute straight. She’s to write down how many times she can change chords within that minute, and over time, she should see that number go up and up.
A new finger-picking technique - I gave Tammy a groovy little finger-picking pattern to play around with. It’s quite versatile, so we’ll see what she’s able to do with it.

For Next Time:

Practice the new finger-picking pattern and play it with a few different chord progressions
Practice the one-minute changes with a few tricky chord changes
Practice strumming along with the drum track for her tune
Review and revise the song’s composition
Review and revise the song’s lyrics
Practice singing the new and improved lyrics