Ultimate Kids Guitar Lessons » Blog Archive

Month 1, Lesson 3 Video

June 17th, 2010

Beginner Version – Old MacDonald – Lead Notes – Slow Speed

If you follow the Guitar Pro or the PDF file of this song in the lesson plan, it should be played just like this. This video is very true to the notation or tablature that is in the lesson.

I didn’t want to play this song too slow as it would be easy to “lose” the song at a slower playing speed. If you wish to start out slower than this video, I suggest you load the Guitar Pro File of Old MacDonald. You can then set the speed to your liking and use the Guitar Pro Speed Trainer to gain additional tempo speed.

This is your third song. Once again, this is a very straight forward song. About the only curve ball that is thrown at you is the use of a few dotted notes. Just brush up on those and you will find they will come very easy.

If you could memorize this song, it would be a really good one to play for your friend and relatives. Remember that when you memorize a new song like this one, that you have to keep playing songs that you already had memorized. I am amazed how quickly I forget songs I once had memorized and now forgotten. So don’t waste all that time memorizing songs only to forget them because you don’t play them.

Here are some guidelines to keep your songs memorized. For the first 20 minutes of your practice time, play your new lesson materials. For the last 5 to 10 minutes, play through your memorized songs or ones you are trying to memorize. Play each one at least 3 times per day, each time trying to improve how it sounds. Use the Guitar Pro version from your lesson downloads to make sure you play everything correctly.

The most important things to do for this lesson is to play the song slowly, use the proper left hand fingering, get the timing correct and if you can – try to memorize this song – if you can’t, it’s no big deal, don’t worry about it because you will be able to catch up as we go along here.

Notice on the video that there is very little finger movement. When a note is played, you try to keep that finger on the note, because you are more than likely going to come back to that same note. Also by keep a note fingered with the left hand, the note continues to ring and it will ring through into the notes after it, especially if they are “open string” notes and this will make the song sound much smoother.

Also note how the fingers of the left hand are placed close to the fret, not in the middle of the fret or at the beginning – but at the far end. This is where it is easiest to get a clear tone and it is easiest to press down the string at this location.

Be sure to review your lesson information at the bottom of this article. Read everything through completely, read the related articles and they try to play along with the video.