About These Lessons
Source: Guitar Lessons
Mary Had a Little Lamb Have fun with this, the first of many lessons to be coming your way!
About This Lesson:
This is a great lesson to kick things off. Just about every kid and adult knows this song very well and that is an important factor in our first few months of teaching these lessons. Let’s learn the familiar “Old Favorites” and have some real fun with the guitar. This will spike your kids’ interest and hopefully keep it spiked for a long time.
Also this allows us to slip in some theory, under the radar, because that is required for the proper playing of this and future songs. This song is played strictly on the Treble Strings. That is the easiest place for us to start because the treble strings are the easiest to press down and will sound the best for the very first song.
Learning Points:
Quarter Notes: Most of this song is written in quarter notes. Each Quarter Note receives one beat of time. If you tap your foot, you play one Quarter Note every time you foot taps the floor. Quarter Notes have a solid black head and a stem.
Half Notes: There are a few half notes in the song. Give them 2 beats each, or 2 foot taps. Pick the note on the first beat and let it ring for the second beat. Half notes are easy to spot – they have an open head and a stem.
Whole Notes: There is just one Whole Note in the song, at the very end of the song or the last measure. Give it 4 beats, or 4 foot taps. Pick the note on the first beat and let it ring for the three additional beats for a total of (4). Whole notes are easy to spot – they have an open head and no stem.
Tabulation: This is how I actually want you to learn this song. Look at the section oh How to Read TAB music instruction on this type of staff. Later we will be playing by note as well.
About the Tab Notes:
All the timing is shown just below the upper staffs. There is 4 beats per measure and Quarter Notes receive that beat 4/4 time. Take a look at the note names and in future lessons I will have you say this name as you play the notes. This song has 8 total measures for a total of 32 beats (8×4). play it smooth as you can. Keep track of timing.
Articles You Should Read:
How to Read TAB
Notes on the Treble Strings Review your notes, fingering etc.
Music Terms For this first lesson, try to learn all of the terms you see on the notation staff.
Proper Left Hand Position Note how your hand is positioned on the neck. Keep your fingers right behind the fret.
Note and Rest Timing Brush up on Whole, Half and Quarter Notes. They are all used in this song.
Music Theory You Should Know:
Music Staff
Measure
TAB
Quarter Notes
Half Notes
Whole Notes
Treble Clef
TAB Staff
Goals:
Since this is our first song, we have many goals. It may not be possible for you to meet all of them, but in the weeks to come, we can come back and visit this song and brush-up on our goals.
Goal #1: Be able to play the song from the TAB staff accurately. This is the basic goal and must be met because you cannot play the song without meeting this goal. Remember when playing your TAB you first say your String, then your Fret. You only need to do this until you know the song.
Goal #2: Once you are comfortable with the song after playing it for a few days, focus on the timing on each note. Make sure you give each note the proper time value. Remember quarter notes = 1 beat, half notes = 2 beats and whole notes = 4 beats. Tab your foot if you can too.
Goal #3: This one is hard at first. Try to play the song smoothly, without pauses. Start out very very slowly and try to play smoothly with the correct note timings as mentioned in #2 above. Play along with the Guitar Pro file and set it as slow as you need it.
Goal #4: Only play the song faster if you are playing in smoothly at a slower pace. No need for speed at this point.
What You Should Practice This Week:
Basically I’m only asking that you can play this song accurately and slowly. If you can play it smoothly that is all the better. If you can play it up-tempo (this means a little faster) that is great, but don’t play it faster if you loose your smoothness. You do not need to memorize this song, but if you do, congratulations! If you memorize part of it, maybe you should read the article on Tricks for Memorizing Songs to give you some pointers.
See our How To Practice article:
If you are having trouble with your practice techniques, or can’t seem to get “in the groove”, review the article on How to Practice and this will help you develop a consistent practice method.
Help Us Out:
Lastly and most importantly, give us feedback, either good or bad. We want to improve this site and we want kids to learn how to play the guitar. If you have suggestions for us, leave a comment. If you appreciate these lessons, leave a comment on that too.
Songs in Downloadable Format:
If you have difficulty reading this score information, we have this score information available free of charge for you with an instant electronic download. Just click on the song title below and you will be taken to our secure server site. You will get a PDF file of the above score complete with the Tab Notes. Be sure to download Adobe Acrobat Reader v6.0 or above. This version will allow you to turn the Tab Layer on or off.
Also you will get the Guitar Pro file. You can download Guitar Pro and get a free trial so you can play along with this song in real time on your computer. If you upgrade to the full version of the song you will have a lot more features available to you.
Guitar Pro File
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Go to Mary Had a Little Lamb Score
Tags: free guitar lessons, Kids Guitar Lessons, mary had a little lamb
April 26th, 2010 at 3:15 pm
File Downloading Solved:
Well, after several months of frustration in figuring out just how best to download some of these file, I have finally come across a solution. I found a WordPress plugin that solved the problem with the Guitar Pro files that were giving me fits.
It seams that a file with the Guitar Pro extension was not acceptable by WordPress, so I had to pursue other alternatives. After trying several alternatives, which did not work I found the plugin.
It works, is tested and you can now download any PDF or Guitar Pro lesson file that you like Just click the Download icon or word at the bottom of each lesson page.
Sorry for the inconvenience, but I think you will like the result.
Now – more lessons on the way!
David