Three-Chord Guitar Songs

The final unit of Music Tech class is decidedly "non techy": it's learning how to play the guitar. Why? Many years ago the final unit was a songwriting unit using Garageband.  The students were encouraged to make their own song in Garageband using the loops that were provided.  The problem was that students stacked loops on top of each other that had conflicting chords.  How do I teach my students to hear chords? By teaching them to play chords on an acoustic guitar!

The goal of the guitar unit is to be able to play a simple three-chord song, even though during the course of the unit the students have learned five chords: G, C, D7, A7 and Em.  It reminds me of a (somewhat) famous Youtube sensation, Axis of Awesome's 4 Chord Song.  The idea is that if you know four basic chords: I, vi, IV, V (in G: G, Em, C, D) then you can play almost a thousand songs.

How many songs can you play with only three chords? Many, many, many!!

What three-chord song can you learn? Go search for "three chord songs" on Google or look through these three chord song lists for ideas:

Song Lists:

10 Famous Songs with Three Chords or Less via Guitartricks.com

3 Chord Songs: D A G via Chordie.com

Basics: 10 Famous Songs Using Only 3 Chords via UltimateGuitar.com

Top 30 Easy Guitar Chord Songs for Beginners via Guitarhabits.com

Chordie.com: Public Songbooks


Worship Songs via WorshipTogether.com:

Lord, I Need You (Chris Tomlin)

10,000 Reasons (Bless the Lord) via


Some websites will even help you with strumming patterns:

Brown-Eyed Girl (Van Morrison) via HeartwoodGuitar.com

Dance Project 1 (Block 3)

Click here to listen to my Dance Project 1.

1. Describe how to do project in simple steps for someone who wasn't in class with you.
2. Write about what new things you learned how to do in this project.
3. Write about problems you encountered and what you had to do to solve your problems.
4. Write down any questions you still have after completing the project.
5. Add at least one annotated screenshot of Audacity to your blog article to help explain what you wrote.

Screenshot of Audacity

Dance Project 1 (Block 2)

Click here to listen to my audio file of Dance Project 1.

1. Describe how to do project in simple steps for someone who wasn't in class with you.
2. Write about what new things you learned how to do in this project.
3. Write about problems you encountered and what you had to do to solve your problems.
4. Write down any questions you still have after completing the project.

How to Link from Google Drive to Your Blog

How to link your Dance Project 1 audio file to your blog:

1. Make a New folder in your Google Drive called "Music Tech" by pressing the red "new" button in the upper left corner. 
2. Upload your 39 second .mp3 file from your iMac to Google Drive>Music Tech by again going the red "new" button and pressing "File Upload"
3. Click once on the file you just uploaded to select it.



Share

4. Click on the Share button and select "Anyone with the link can view." 
5. Copy the link (Mac: Cmd-C)
6. Go back to your blog.
7. Type a sentence such as "Click here to listen to my shortened version of Dance Project 1."
8. Select that sentence with your mouse and click on the "Link" button in the Blogger menu bar.

Blogger Menu Bar

9. Paste in the link that you copied from Google Drive.  Click "Test this link" to make sure it works. Then press "OK"

URL = Uniform Resource Locator.  Most people call it a web address or a link.

10.  Go back to your blogger article and click the orange "Publish" button to see a live version of your newly created link to your song.  Click on the link to make sure it works and that anyone can listen to your song.

Press the orange "Publish" button to make your article live on the internet.

Now start typing about what you did and learned in Dance Project 1.  What should you write about?

1. Describe how to do project in simple steps for someone who wasn't in class with you.
2. Write about what new things you learned how to do in this project.
3. Write about problems you encountered and what you had to do to solve your problems.
4. Write down any questions you still have after completing the project.

WAV vs. MP3 as Explained to a Fifth Grader

I made this presentation to explain the difference between WAV and MP3 files.  I tried to make it simple enough that a fifth grader could understand it. I hope you enjoy my presentation!

Audio File Formats

Today I taught my Music Tech students how to embed a Google Slide presentation into their blogs.  It's a pretty simple procedure:

1. Go to Google Slides and find your presentation.
2. Click on File>Publish to Web in Google Slides.
3. Click on "Embed" and copy the embed code.
4. Go to Blogger and 

Analog vs. Digital