Would you love to sing and accompany yourself on guitar? Do you love to sing with friends and family and wish you know some popular and well-known songs which you could enjoy together. Would you like to be part of a Folk-group and sing at church? Do you like country music, pop music, church music, folk music?
We offer a singing class with a new song (or two!) every week, and a simple accompaniment on the guitar (4-string). The standard 6-string guitar is not an easy instrument to master, and guitar students devote hours of practise to mastering their instrument. Many get disillusioned and give up after struggling with it for a term or two. After failing with the 6-string a number of times, I turned to the 4-string and within two hours, i had at last succeeded in my dream (to play ‘Dirty Old Town’ !). It was a modest dream, but for me, it was like climbing Mount Everest. And once i had mastered this simple 4-chord song, i found many other songs that I could easily play and enjoy. I do not want to play big guitar solos, or learn complex chords and clever strumming techniques. I am happy to direct the aspiring guitarists to proper guitar teachers!
First 14 songs in Term 1 (Sept-Dec)
Song 1: Molly Malone (C, G)
Song 2: Stop the world and let me off (C, G)
Song 3: Peace is flowing like a river (2-chord. G&D)
Song 4: I have a dream (key of C. starting 2-chord. C&G)
Song 5: Elenor Rigby (Em)
Song 6; Sparks Fly (Em)
Song 7: A Little Peace (key G. starting 2-chord, G&D)
Song 8: Shady Grove (Key Em, 2-chords. Em-D)
Song 9: Happy birthday to you (GCD)
Song 10: Hold on to your hat (Derek Ryan -country)Key G (G, C, D)
Song 11: The spanish lady (3-chord, G, C, D)
Song 12: Someone you loved (Lewis Capaldi)(Key G)(G, Em, C, D)
Song 13: So Young (The Corrs) (Key G)(G, C, D, Am)
Song 14: If I were a boy (Beyonce)(Key G, low and high octaves)(Chords: G, C, D, Em)
Next songs (I will tweak this list as we progress through the term and learn what our students like to sing): Riding Shotgun (George Ezra), Flowers (Miley Cyrus), Hey Soul Sister, Its a lesson too late for the learning, American Pie, Country Roads, Spancil Hill, Star of the county Down.
In term 2, we will build our bank of chords and the number of songs which we can play and sing will increase quickly.
Church Folk Group: If you are interested in singing at church, we can add some more hymns to our repertoire list. By the end of term 1, our students will have a small collection of hymns they can sing at church. Alternatively, we can arrange some separate practices with singers and players to prepare a program for Mass, using many well known hymns and learning some lively modern numbers.
Midlands123 