Well the weather is still warm but it really is fall here in Poway!
And at The Guitar Aces we are gearing up for Halloween at lessons….
It’s creepy and it’s cooky and altogether spooky…to steal a line from the Addams Family.
As much fun as Halloween is it’s also a great time of year to teach about the ‘minor mode.’
Throughout, the year we discuss how minor tends to sound ‘sad or even spooky’ vs. major sounding ‘happy.’
One of our favorite ways to get this across is take a major song like Jingle Bells and ‘Spookify’ it. ‘Spookify’ is a term one of our students came up with a few years back in reference to changing songs from major to minor.
Depending on the age/level of the student we show them how to do this.
For younger students/beginners we simply show the kids how to play the song in minor. So the difference is noticed more by the students ear.
For older/more advanced students we discuss how to actually make the change themselves by lowering the 3rd and 6th notes of the key. Here they start to develop the theoretical meanings of the differences in addition to the sound.
Always makes for a great musical October! Even scarier is after Halloween it is time to start holiday music…
Have a Happy and safe Halloween!
The Guitar Aces 