Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Wichita Sam on March 12, 2010 at 4:08am

great, I need a session with my 6 year old grand daugther..... thanks Ron

the best,

sam

Blind Doughboy said:

You know, you could probably do a funny CD entirely of kid's songs done in 12 bar blues. Just about any song would work. Lots of room for riffs in there. I'm thinking Old McDonald and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star could be killer.

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Permalink Reply by michael steele on March 12, 2010 at 11:01am

i did a thing like that for my daughters 4th grade class. i talked about about the history of
music and recording here in Memphis. it was quite rewarding,and a lot of fun too.

i played my acoustic and did Robert Johnson's "Milk Cow Blues". the kids really enjoyed it.
so much in fact,they made me play it 2 more times. they were all in there singing right
along with me. like i said,quite rewarding. throwing a build into that mix is pure genious.
my hats off to you and have a great time.


Myke

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Permalink Reply by Diane in Chicago on March 12, 2010 at 12:47pm

Sam, how much of the build work are you doing in advance for the kids?

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Permalink Reply by Wichita Sam on March 12, 2010 at 1:38pm

Hi Diane,

Since this will be a younger group (9-13 year) I'm doing all the cutting (box slots, neck reliefing, etc.). I'm leaving drilling (by an adult at a drilling station) for the tuner, soundhole and the string termination, glueing up the toothpic frets and decorating the top. We're going to try to get the building done in 2 hours with 1 hour for making music...

Seriously Diane, that dulci-blues scale is a stroke of genius.... not much for making melody, but you can blow up some killer solo's on the blues scale...... Thanks for helping me out with that.

the best,

Sam

Diane in Chicago said:

Sam, how much of the build work are you doing in advance for the kids?

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Permalink Reply by Wichita Sam on March 17, 2010 at 3:55pm

Workshop yesterday.... here's a couple pics.

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Permalink Reply by Richard D. DeRoin on March 18, 2010 at 9:26am

Hey Sam, they look like some Hot Blues Ladies on there way to Stardom ! I think this is just the right age to get started. Job well done ! The kids are our future. Thanks for your good example !

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Permalink Reply by Diane in Chicago on March 18, 2010 at 11:32am

Well done, Sam! Hope they keep playing and building! Maybe you should have an advance builders class next time -- returning students can make a 2 string dulci!

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Permalink Reply by LittleBigOne on May 19, 2010 at 2:48am

Hi Sam, please let me know what songs you choose and where I can find the tabs, I am working on setting up
summer workshops for some kids too, but I am more of a builder than a player. We will make exclusively 3 strings
with dulcimer scale.

So far I have hard time to find tabs for three strings guitars. I would love to have some
of the blues played by Red Dog too, so I could show them the videos and then have the kids play the same
songs, and when they come back home they could rely again and again on the Red Dog youtube videos... It
seemed not so hard to play when I watched the videos, but without tabs I feel I'm not able to teach them...
I also found a few Backporch Mojo lovely songs but I still have to found the tabs too...

well, I hope someone can help with my "message in the bottle" :-)

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Permalink Reply by Brady Scott on May 19, 2010 at 3:16am

That's great man. Good to see you working with the kids and sharing the gift of music with them. Cool little guitars too!

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Permalink Reply by Wichita Sam on May 19, 2010 at 3:54am

Here's a link the the McNally StrumStick song page.... http://www.strumstick.com/html_pages/sssongpagetoc.html While he's a little anal about the name "Strumstick", he does share a wealth of information......

I think that will give you all you need ....

the best,

Wichita Sam

LittleBigOne said:

Hi Sam, please let me know what songs you choose and where I can find the tabs, I am working on setting up
summer workshops for some kids too, but I am more of a builder than a player. We will make exclusively 3 strings
with dulcimer scale.

So far I have hard time to find tabs for three strings guitars. I would love to have some
of the blues played by Red Dog too, so I could show them the videos and then have the kids play the same
songs, and when they come back home they could rely again and again on the Red Dog youtube videos... It
seemed not so hard to play when I watched the videos, but without tabs I feel I'm not able to teach them...
I also found a few Backporch Mojo lovely songs but I still have to found the tabs too...

well, I hope someone can help with my "message in the bottle" :-)

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Permalink Reply by Wichita Sam on May 19, 2010 at 3:56am

If you really want them playing "blues", try fretting some in a pentetonic scale... natural blues.... that's what I did with the workshop with one stringers and we were singing "Mary had a little Lamb" blues... just a thought...

LittleBigOne said:

Hi Sam, please let me know what songs you choose and where I can find the tabs, I am working on setting up
summer workshops for some kids too, but I am more of a builder than a player. We will make exclusively 3 strings
with dulcimer scale.

So far I have hard time to find tabs for three strings guitars. I would love to have some
of the blues played by Red Dog too, so I could show them the videos and then have the kids play the same
songs, and when they come back home they could rely again and again on the Red Dog youtube videos... It
seemed not so hard to play when I watched the videos, but without tabs I feel I'm not able to teach them...
I also found a few Backporch Mojo lovely songs but I still have to found the tabs too...

well, I hope someone can help with my "message in the bottle" :-)

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Permalink Reply by LittleBigOne on May 19, 2010 at 5:28am

ok thanks :-)

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