Goals and Education – Page 4 – Getting To Know Trees

Goals and Education

Rain, Rain Go Away – First Guitar Lesson

Here is a quick guitar lesson for total beginners. This is my usual first lesson for both youth and adult musicians. If you can do this, you can do anything on the guitar! This will get you started. If you do get started with this lesson and are looking for some more in depth study, let me know! I’ve moved all of my teaching online for the time being and would love to meet with you. We’ll have you playing in no time! Here’s the Rain, Rain Go Away video lesson and here is a free download of the lyric and melody sheet.

'Ukulele

How to Find the Minor 2 (ii) Chord in a Major Scale – Video Lesson

During this challenging time of life I’ve been inspired by the Marquette Makers’ Project to keep busy with some creative work. I’ve made a lot of lessons like this, but this is the first one where I used a virtual whiteboard and recorded my voice along with the drawings I made on the whiteboard. It turned out pretty well and I learned a lot! In the video I mention two songs that use the minor 2 chord. Here are lyric and chord sheet for those to songs Old Devil Time by Pete Seeger Hungry Heart by Bruce Springsteen [vimeo http://vimeo.com/400364601] Here is the weekly schedule for Marquette Makers’ Projects during the physical separation from our communities. Cool stuff. I’m excited to see what people are working on.

Goals and Education

Recap: Family Harmonica at Winter Roots Festival

Wow! What great musicianship at the packed house for Family Harmonica Workshop at Saturday’s 2020 Winter Roots Folk Festival! Most of the attendees had never played the harmonica before and they plowed through ALL of my teaching material for the day. Three of the songs were the classics – Hot Cross Buns, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and Boil ’em Cabbage Down. The last was an original song by me called Juice Box (which you can learn to play here.) We even had some juice boxes at the end to celebrate our music. Looking forward to another opportunity to play together! Photos and video by Susan Rutter Divine, Katy Divine and Sue Demel. [vimeo 392247139 w=640 h=1138]

Juice Box – A Harmonica Song for Youth Musicians – Notation Download a Audio Recording

Hi everyone, Today I’m teaching my first workshop as part of Winter Roots Festival in Marquette, MI. In honor of this big day I wrote a new song for you to learn on your harmonica! It’s called Juice Box and it’s all about everyone’s favorite drink . . . a juice box! Here is some recordings of me singing and playing the song. The first recording is just the harmonica part. The second is my harmonica, my guitar and my voice. You can download a FREE .pdf of the notation of this song. Print it double-sided an cut the paper along the dotted line to make your own zine! The zine also has the notation to another favorite song, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.

Snowy Day – A Song for Young Musicians – Video and Zine

Recently, it was a very snowy morning here in Marquette, MI. I was waiting for some of my students to have their lesson and I wrote this song. I made a video of me playing the song, and there is a .pdf of a zine that you can print out to help you learn it. Print it double-sided and then follow the instructions to make the zine! The zine contains the lyrics, standard music notation, and specialized notation for harmonica, guitar and ‘ukulele. I was wondering, what would happen if we changed the lyrics from “snowy day” to “cloudy day” or “sunny day”. What changes would you make in the rest of the lyrics so that the song is about your day? Download the Snowy Day Zine here. Be sure to print it double sided and then watch the short video below to learn how to fold your zine. Thanks to Ore Dock Brewing Company for letting me use their beautiful community space to make some music.

Harmonica Orchestra in Cedar Lake, IN – January 2020 – Wrap Up

Last Friday, the 3rd graders at Jane Ball Elementary in Cedar Lake, IN and I had a great time starting up our Harmonica Orchestra . We got right down to business, learning how to hold it and learning how to play only one note. Then we dove into some Hot Cross Buns and Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. Reports are that it went over very big with the students. One grandmother wrote to me and said, “He’s played it every day since. Thank you for inspiring him to enjoy music in a different way ” That is awesome to hear.

Evening Session at Fargo Skateboarding

[vimeo 387363157 w=640 h=360] Fargo Skateboarding January 2020 from Jason McInnes on Vimeo. It was a packed session tonight at Fargo Skateboarding. These photos are from later in the evening when it was starting to slow down. Something interesting happened that I wasn’t anticipating. Because I was so full I had to make the most of my opportunities. When I went to drop in for the first time (my first drop in since spring 2019), I just had to do it. I didn’t have time to talk myself out of it. I found that I could just GO and I didn’t need to psych myself up nearly as much. Cool! This was my first long session since I broke my elbow. It felt a little strange to be the only one in full protective gear, but I’ve decided that I’d rather look a little out of character and be safe, than look cool and either break something, or be too nervous to really skate. Last year I dropped in 100 times, which was a big accomplishment because I was so scared. Today, I dropped in countless times, and I think I can kind of do it now, at least on the medium size half pipe. Still trying to get my kick turns to be more compact. I don’t have video of it, but I can feel that I kind of bail out of a full 180 turn when I’m going fast, and end up doing two 90 degree turns. Just got to keep working. Check out this video. I feel very accomplished! (It’s hilarious to watch the video because it seems so slow, but when it is happening, it is terrifyingly fast!) #workinprogress #workandprogress

Teaching Station at Ore Dock Brewery

Originally posted on Facebook, Jan. 11, 2020 My teaching station this morning at Ore Dock Brewing. I have just a few lessons today, but I sure hope to do more here. It’s been a long time since I taught a chunk of lessons on a Saturday and I am feeling nostalgic and loved. Thanks to everyone who helped me get here. I’m thinking of you.#JAMuary2020#musicmakesmesmile

Tackling Marquette Mountain – First Snowboarding Lesson

Life has been so full of upheaval that I feel like I haven’t really been able to take advantage of the natural wonders I’m living among. I made an “artist date” with myself today to go snowboarding at Marquette Mountain. I’m REALLY missing skateboarding, and I figured that this might quench some of that thirst. It didn’t , but I still enjoyed the experience. I am super sore! The first pic is from the top of Tyro, the “bunny hill”, which kicked my butt all day. The clouds are the beautiful scenery you see when your backside smashes into snow that a moderate speed. It’s just that the snow is harder than it appears. Ouch! I’m going to feel that one for at least a week. Snowboarding is a more “all-around” physical activity than I had anticipated. It’s different than skiing because there are no poles to aid with keeping still and standing up after getting strapped into the board. My arms are exhausted from picking myself up from the ground, and my neck is sore from the two times I fell trying to figure out how to use the tow-rope. Hilarious! The video is at the end of a lesson that I took. It’s supposed to be an “S” curve, but dang, that is difficult to do. I did it earlier, I just need to practice. Then, I went to the bar for an après-snowboard of Two-Hearted Ale, which is on tap everywhere here. You could say I was relaxing, but really I was so exhausted I could barely get the money out of my wallet to pay for the beer. I could not move at all. You’ll notice . . . no coaster (why?). No photo of the bottle of ibuprofen I bought, or the salt water bath I took the second I got home. #workinprogress #workandprogress [vimeo 385110912 w=640 h=480]

Join the Band! – Music with Jason at Ore Dock Brewing

Award-winning music educator, Jason McInnes, will be leading youth, family or adult music lessons this January at Ore Dock Brewing. Sign up for a 30 minute lesson in: * Guitar * Harmonica * ‘Ukulele Beginning, intermediate and advanced students welcome. Jason has over 17 years of experience leading music lessons that empower students to find their own musical voice. Space is limited! Contact Jason at 773-369-8268 or jasonplaystunes@gmail.com for details, to schedule a Saturday lesson, or to find another time to make some music. More information at www.jasonmcinnesmusic.com