So I'm teaching this class on how Rock music evolves from the 50's onward....

This sounds like a blast!

How about a wah for the the Funk class? :grin:

(I imagine your response is :facepalm:)

Actually a wah would be a part of the setup.

You're also the lone ranger now in the Funk class since Ramon switched to the Saturday Rock class and is taking a college course on Monday nights...that means I have a spot available in the Monday 7-8pm Rock class for a guitarist...
 
Actually a wah would be a part of the setup.

You're also the lone ranger now in the Funk class since Ramon switched to the Saturday Rock class and is taking a college course on Monday nights...that means I have a spot available in the Monday 7-8pm Rock class for a guitarist...
That would be cool. It would be great to be schooled properly before buying one.
Dang. I am gonna hafta step it up. I wish, really wish I could do the rock class as well. But alas...

lol
 
Dang, I wish I could be a part of this. I would love to explore the ties back to the blues too. I would tend to want to jump forward to music from the early to mid 60s then on to the connection to punk, skipping all the Woodstock stuff and forward through all the concert/arena rock. But I am sure there would be much to gain from going through the other periods too.
 
Something to think about from Wikipedia:

Rock and roll

This article is about the 1950s style of music. For the general rock music genre, see rock music. For other uses, see rock and roll (disambiguation).

Rock and roll Stylistic origins Bluesgospelfolkcountryjump bluesChicago bluesswingboogie-woogieR&Bdoo wop Cultural origins 1940s, United States Typical instruments Electric guitar, string bass or later bass guitar, drums, piano, optional saxophone(s), vocals
Mainstream popularity One of the best selling music forms since the 1950s Derivative forms Rockrockabillypop Other topics Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Rock and roll
(often written as rock & roll or rock 'n' roll) is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s,[1][2] primarily from a combination of the blues, country music, jazz[3] and gospel music.[4] Though elements of rock and roll can be heard in country records of the 1930s,[3] and in blues records from the 1920s,[5] rock and roll did not acquire its name until the 1950s.[6][7] An early form of rock and roll was rockabilly,[8] which combined country and jazz with influences from traditional Appalachian folk music and gospel.[9]

The term "rock and roll" now has at least two different meanings, both in common usage. The American Heritage Dictionary[10] and the Merriam-Webster Dictionary[11] both define rock and roll as synonymous with rock music. Allwords.com, however, refers specifically to the music of the 1950s.[12] For the purpose of differentiation, this article uses the latter definition, while the broader musical genre is discussed in the rock music article.

In the earliest rock and roll styles of the late 1940s and early 1950s, either the piano or saxophone was often the lead instrument, but these were generally replaced or supplemented by guitar in the middle to late 1950s.[13] The beat is essentially a boogie woogie blues rhythm with an accentuated backbeat, the latter almost always provided by a snare drum.[14] Classic rock and roll is usually played with one or two electric guitars (one lead, one rhythm), a string bass or (after the mid-1950s) an electric bass guitar, and a drum kit.[13]

Rock and roll began achieving wide popularity in the 1960s.[15] The massive popularity and eventual worldwide view of rock and roll gave it a widespread social impact. Bobby Gillespie writes that "When Chuck Berry sang 'Hail, hail, rock and roll, deliver me from the days of old,' that's exactly what the music was doing. Chuck Berry started the global psychic jailbreak that is rock'n'roll."[16]

Far beyond simply a musical style, rock and roll, as seen in movies and on television, influenced lifestyles, fashion, attitudes, and language. It went on to spawn various sub-genres, often without the initially characteristic backbeat, that are now more commonly called simply "rock music" or "rock."
More here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_and_roll
 
So the section on 1950's Rock and Roll is winding down for most of the classes...it's been pretty cool to watch guitar players conquer Chuck Berry, Hank Garland licks in Elvis songs, Scotty Moore's hybrid parts on Mystery Train and some ripping guitar on Rock Around the Clock and Twenty Flight Rock...drummers having to play train-style rhythms on the rim or tom mount or dealing with the rhythmic contradictions in Johnny B Goode. Seeing how rock music has come from so many places has been good for them and the technical challenges have given the students great momentum into the next unit, which is all about the instrumental surf music of the early 1960s....
 
Cool. Again, I wish it was something I could attend. Thanks for the update!


No problem! It;s really fun to teach and I'm learning a lot, too...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surf_music
Surf music

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Surf music is a genre of popular music associated with surf culture, particularly Orange County and other areas of Southern California. It was particularly popular between 1961 and 1965, has subsequently been revived and was highly influential on subsequent rock music.[1] It has two major forms: largely instrumental surf rock, with an electric guitar or saxophone playing the main melody, pioneered by acts such as Dick Dale and the Del-Tones, and vocal surf pop, including both surf ballads and dance music, often with strong harmonies that are most associated with The Beach Boys. Many notable surf bands have been equally noted for both surf instrumental and surf pop music, so surf music is generally considered as a single genre despite the variety of these styles.[1]

Instrumental surf rock

[edit] Form

Surf music began in the early 1960s as instrumental dance music, almost always in straight 4/4 (or common) time, with a medium to fast tempo. The sound was dominated by electric guitars which were particularly characterized by the extensive use of the "wet" spring reverb that was incorporated into Fender amplifiers from 1961, which is thought to emulate the sound of the waves.[1] Guitarists also made use of the vibrato arm on their guitar to bend the pitch of notes downward, electronic tremolo effects and rapid (alternating) tremolo picking.[2] Guitar models favoured included those made by Fender (particularly the Mustang, Jazzmaster, Jaguar and Stratocaster guitars), Mosrite, Teisco, or Danelectro, usually with single coil pickups (which had high treble in contrast to double coil humbucker pickups).[3] Surf music was one of the first genres to universally adopt the electric bass, particularly the Fender Precision Bass. Classic surf drum kits tended to be Rogers, Ludwig, Gretsch or Slingerland. Some popular songs also incorporated a tenor or baritone saxophone, as on "Surf Rider" and "Comanche".[4] Often an electric organ or an electric piano featured as backing harmony.
[edit] History

By the early 1960s instrumental rock and roll had been pioneered successfully by performers such as Duane Eddy, Link Wray, and The Ventures.[5] This trend was developed by Dick Dale who added the distinctive reverb, the rapid alternate picking characteristic of the genre, as well as Middle Eastern and Mexican influences, producing the regional hit "Let's Go Trippin'" in 1961 and launching the surf music craze, following up with songs like "Misirlou" (1962).[1] Like Dale and his Del-Tones, most early surf bands were formed in Southern California area, with Orange County in particular having a strong surf culture, and the Rendezvous Ballroom in Balboa hosted many surf-styled acts.[6] Groups such as The Bel-Airs (whose hit "Mr. Moto" was released months before Dale's "Let's Go Trippin'"), then The Challengers released their album "Surfbeat", and then Eddie & the Showmen followed Dale to regional success.[7] The Chantays scored a top ten national hit with "Pipeline" in 1963 and probably the single most famous surf tune hit was 1963's "Wipe Out", by the Surfaris, known for their cutting-edge lead guitar and drum songs, which hit # 2 and # 10 on Billboard charts in 1965. The group had two other global hits "Surfer Joe" and "Point Panic".[8]
The growing popularity of the genre led groups from other areas to try their hand. These included The Astronauts, from Boulder, Colorado, The Trashmen, from Minneapolis, Minnesota, who had a number 4 hit with "Surfin Bird" in 1964 and The Rivieras from South Bend, Indiana, who reached #5 in 1964 with "California Sun".[1] The Atlantics, from Sydney, Australia, were not exclusively surf musicians, but made a significant contribution to the genre, the most famous example with being their hit "Bombora" (1963).[1] Also from Sydney were The Denvermen lyrical instrumental "Surfside" reached #1 in the Australian charts.[9] Another Australian surf band who were known outside their own country's surf scene was the Joy Boys, whose hit "Murphy the Surfie" (1963) was later covered by the Surfaris.[10]
European bands around this time generally focused more on the style played by the Shadows. A notable example of European surf instrumental is Spanish band Los Relampagos' rendition of "Misirlou". The Dakotas, who were the British backing band for Merseybeat singer Billy J. Kramer gained some attention as surf musicians with "Cruel Sea" (1963), which was later covered by The Ventures and eventually other instrumental surf bands, including the Challengers and the Revelairs.[11]
[edit] Vocal surf pop

Although beginning as a purely instrumental form, surf music achieved its greatest commercial success as vocal music. Most associated with this movement were the Beach Boys, formed in 1961 in Southern California. Their early albums included both instrumental surf rock, including covers of music by Dick Dale and vocal songs, drawing on rock and roll and doo wop and the close harmonies of vocal pop acts like the Four Freshmen.[1] Their first chart hit, "Surfin'" in 1962 reached the Billboard top 100 and helped make the surf music craze a national phenomenon.[12] From 1963 the group began to leave surfing behind as subject matter as Brian Wilson became their major composer and producer, moving on to the more general themes of male adolescence, including cars and girls, in songs like "Fun, Fun, Fun" (1964) and "California Girls" (1965).[12] Other vocal surf acts followed, including one-hit wonders like Ronny & the Daytonas with "G. T. O." (1964) and the Rip Chords with "Hey Little Cobra", which both reached the top ten, but the only other act to achieve sustained success with the formula were Jan & Dean, who had a number 1 hit with "Surf City" (co-written with Brian Wilson) in 1963.[1]
The surf music craze and the careers of almost all surf acts, was effectively ended by the arrival of the British Invasion from 1964.[1] Only the Beach Boys were able to sustain a creative career into the mid-1960s, producing a string of hit singles and albums, including Pet Sounds in 1966, which made them, arguably, the only American rock or pop group, that could rival the Beatles.[12]
[edit] Influence and revival

The use of instrumental surf rock style guitar for the soundtrack of Dr. No (1962), recorded by Vic Flick with the John Barry Seven, meant that it was reused in many of the films in the James Bond series, and influenced the music of many spy films of the 1960s.[13] Surf music also influenced a number of later rock musicians, including Keith Moon of The Who[1] East Bay Ray of the Dead Kennedys and Pixies guitarist Joey Santiago.[14] During the mid- to late 1990s, surf rock experienced a revival with surf acts, including Dick Dale recording once more, partly due to the popularity of the movie Pulp Fiction (1994), which used Dale's "Misirlou" and other surf rock songs in the soundtrack.[1] New surf bands were formed, including Man or Astro-man?, The Mermen and Los Straitjackets.[15]
 
Most of the classes are transitioning into the first section of Beatles...pretty much the era up to and including Help!

I'm actually a bit more impressed with Ringo's drumming than I thought I would be.
 
Most of the classes are transitioning into the first section of Beatles...pretty much the era up to and including Help!

I'm actually a bit more impressed with Ringo's drumming than I thought I would be.

I just had that realization, too. Really fits with the approach of the whole group: nothing overdone, everything just right.

I enjoyed reading about your class and your approach to teaching it. Among other things, I teach people how to be teachers IRL. Great class you've put together. Thanks for sharing your process here.
 
I just had that realization, too. Really fits with the approach of the whole group: nothing overdone, everything just right.

I enjoyed reading about your class and your approach to teaching it. Among other things, I teach people how to be teachers IRL. Great class you've put together. Thanks for sharing your process here.


Thanks!

The reality is that I started with one concept and through teaching 4 classes concurrently it's constantly evolving. The basic idea stays the same but each genre that we delve into produces new challenges both for the students to conquer and for me to reinvent the wheel to get them through the new set of challenges. What I thought would be a throw away unit (surf music) has been hugely beneficial just in terms of making guitarists and bassists learn longer form melodies and chord progressions. Even the drummers have to focus more on arrangements than they have had to in the blues classes and 50's rock and roll sections of this class.

We've just started the first of three units worth of Beatles music and the Ringo star thing has been huge. The drummers need to learn more specific parts and even drum fills note for note in order for the songs to work. Bass players are now having to wrestle with the fact that Paul McCartney plays the bass like a constant counter melody instead of a walking bass line or riff and the guitarists now have much more in the way of dedicated guitar parts and more varied chords to play.

We haven't even started with the vocal harmonies yet :)
 
You never learn more than when you try to teach something.


By the way rock 'n' roll goes way back



maybe even farther

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Thanks!

The reality is that I started with one concept and through teaching 4 classes concurrently it's constantly evolving. The basic idea stays the same but each genre that we delve into produces new challenges both for the students to conquer and for me to reinvent the wheel to get them through the new set of challenges. What I thought would be a throw away unit (surf music) has been hugely beneficial just in terms of making guitarists and bassists learn longer form melodies and chord progressions. Even the drummers have to focus more on arrangements than they have had to in the blues classes and 50's rock and roll sections of this class.

We've just started the first of three units worth of Beatles music and the Ringo star thing has been huge. The drummers need to learn more specific parts and even drum fills note for note in order for the songs to work. Bass players are now having to wrestle with the fact that Paul McCartney plays the bass like a constant counter melody instead of a walking bass line or riff and the guitarists now have much more in the way of dedicated guitar parts and more varied chords to play.

We haven't even started with the vocal harmonies yet :)

Studying "Things we said today" for the recordingfest was a real lesson for me...Ringo's deceptively simple drumming and the way Paul's bass line works with it and across it..just brilliant. The vocal harmony on that song is interesting in that Paul seems to randomly move between double tracking and 3rd's...sounds instinctive rather than worked out. Very cool...and that's before you get to dealing with whats happening with that Bb7 chord at the end of the bridge..resolving to the verse chord of A minor :messedup: :love:
 
not one mention of Cliff Gallup on this whole page....

not one mention of Grady Martin on this whole page.....

not one mention of Reggie Young. on this whole page....



not one mention of James Burton.

on.
this.
whole.
page.

there is only so much I can cover for folks who don't want to spend 6 months on one style. And Tom Harknerider has a complete Rockabilly class for that material if someone DOES want to get into that kind of depth.

What a great idea and an awesome opportunity! If I were local I would love to experience something like this.

It is a pretty fun class to teach. It really takes longer than I expected to get through, though...over a year to get to about 1970 or so. I only have one adult class that made it that far (they are playing on March 3rd, btw) and the kids class bailed out after the Beatles :)
 
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