Are you willing to score “Bless me, prayer of Jabez”; don’t go too far, check out the score sheet here
which contains the treble, alto and tenor parts. click here to view
The Tonic Solfa Score Sheet of “Bless me Prayer of jabez”; tenor, treble and alto parts included
Secrets to becoming a successful musical instrumentalist
Do you ever go to a church and see the band play and you wish to be able to play like them?, maybe because you feel that the ladies like them and you want to be the “ladies man” of the church.
Have you ever been to a live performance show, where the all the sounds are produced by members of a band on stage i.e the bass guitarist, lead guitarist, drummer, saxophonist, singer e.t.c
Do you ever wish you can play like them, Do you ever wonder how?
If you can stick to all these
principles below, I can assure you that in no time you will become a professional:
1. Listen to music constantly, try to focus on the way the instruments accompany the songs.
2. Have your own musical instrument.
3. Spend quality time practicing useful techniques with the instrument everyday (30-60)minutes. It requires self-control tho’.
4. Listen to musicians that specialize in playing your instruments and score a lot of their own songs.
5. Make youtube your friend, watch and download youtube videos of guitar tutorials or whatever musical instruments you want to play.
6. Join a band or a church choir, the church really helps in developing instrumentalist, especially those ones who feel they can never know how to play musical instruments. You would learn how to recognize and put sounds together in no time.
8. Call a few people together and let them listen to you while you play; and let them tell you how they feel about you playing, that way you are building your confidence.
7. The last but not the least, be humble and be eager to learn new things. People love to teach humble people, if a professional sees that you have a good attitude, he could give you some secrets to improve in your playing.
Solfa notation of 10 common Nigerian praise songs
This is the solfa notation of 10 common Nigerian praise songs.
Do you ever dream of playing the solo of a song you are hearing for the first time. It’s pretty easy. All you have to do is to train your mind and ear towards achieving it. How do you do that? By scoring out the solfa notation of almost every song you know; take these ones below as examples:
Immortal God, Invisible God
d m m d
d f f m
s m m d
m r t d
Ogozimagozi
s s m m f f
s s r r m m
s s m m f f
s s r r m m
s s s m d:::d d s s l l
f r t:::t t t t d d
Akanakwe
s l s===d
m m d r
f f r m m m d r : r : r : r
f f r t t r r d d d
Since I was born
d m f s
s d
m m l l s
m m s s
f f s f m m
s s s l s m
m s f l m s r f m m s s
f f s f
m m
Father to you oooo
s s s d s
m s f m r r s s s l s
r f m r d d
My Praise
m r m r d
m r m r d r r m
m m r r d d t t d
s m f m r
f r s f mr re
s m f m r m f
m m r r d d t t d
We lift your name higher
s s m s d d
s s m s f f
f f m r s s
s s d r d d
Hallelujah na your own ooo
s s l l m m f r
r f m
m m f f d d r t
d r d
Baba!!!!! mi loke Baba
d d s s l l f f r l l s
s s
mrd mrd
l r d t d d
How To play all over the fret board of a guitar
Firstly the numberings on the images signify the fingers used to play the notes.
1 is the pointer finger
2 is the middle finger
3 is the ring finger
4 is the pinky
I want to teach you on how to play all over the fret board of a guitar using the pentatonic. Pentatonic as the name implies means five-tonic,
which is C D E G A, it does not matter whether you start from C or D; in fact in this lesson we are starting from A on the first fret.
Yes we are running from the first fret down to where we want to stop. So A C D E G A and so on and so forth, that is what we are going to keep doing.
I prefer to call the notes by their solfa notations, it makes it easier for me to recognize sounds e.g L D R M S L D.
First pentatonic shape
So in the image above, starting from the sixth string we have A C D E G A C D E G A C, using solfa notations I would say L D R M S L D R M S L D.
Second Pentatonic Shape
Now this is the second pentatonic shape which is interwoven with the first pentatonic. For this shape you would just place you middle finger where your pinky was(in the first shape). this one says C D E G A C D E G A C D, using solfas it says D R M S L D R M S L D R.
The third pentatonic shape starts with the middle finger, It is also interwoven with the second pentatonic shape, Its notes are D E G A C D E G A C D E, using the solfas, it is; R M S L D R M S L D R M.
First pentatonic shape
The fourth pentatonic shape starts with the pointer finger, It is also interwoven with the third pentatonic shape. Its notes are E G A C D E G A C D E G, the solfa notations are M S L D R M S L D R M S.
The fifth pentatonic shape is the one I like the most, it is interwoven with the fourth. Its notes are G A C D E G A C D E G A, it’s solfa
notations are S L D R M S L D R M S L.
NOW LET US TAKE A LOOK AT ALL THE NOTES USING THE SOLFAS
L D R M S L D R M S L D
D R M S L D R M S L D R
R M S L D R M S L D R M
M S L D R M S L D R M S
S L D R M S L D R M S L
If you look at the begining of the notes above respectively, you wil see that they are arranged in a uniform manner in which they are arranged in music [ L D R M S]; likewise too, if you look at it from the ends of the notes respectively going down [D R M S L].
That’s exactly the ways it looks on the fret of your guitar. I hope this post was helpful.
Basic guitar chords you will need to play any song
If you can get to play all the following basic chords without touching the other unnecessary strings and holding the right strings firmly, you are good to go, you will be able to play almost any song on your guitar that you hear today. It might take a while to get it right, but if you keep practicing, your hands will develop the muscles that you require and with time you will be good to go
.
This is a video illustration to playing all the open chords below:
Firstly the numbering on the images signify the fingers used to play the notes.
1 is the pointer finger
2 is the middle finger
3 is the ring finger
4 is the pinky
Basic guitar accessories you should get
Picks: You would surely need these picks as they would make it easier for you to solo on the guitar; they also make it easier for you when playing chords. Some people do not use it because they’ve mastered the finger style technique and they are comfortable with it. They vary in thickness, so you might want to choose whichever
one you are comfortable with.
Tuner: As time goes on, you won’t be needing this but as a beginner you might want to get it because you might not be able recognize the correct sounds that should be produced as you begin to practice; its not about only being able to play tutorials that you’ve been given, you should also be able let the sounds be an essential part of you, it gives room for more inspiration.
Extra Strings: You should make sure that you have at least two full sets of extra strings in your bag, you might be practicing and a string or two might snap; it might even be in a show. So to avoid disappointments, always have extra strings at hand.
Straps: When you want to perform in a public place which might require you to stand while playing, it is very necessary for you to use the strap so the guitar can balance well on your body.
Strap Locks: If you do not want your guitar to fall suddenly while you are in another spiritual realm of playing the pentatonic blues or some kind of inspirational scales, you should get one of these.
Metronomes: they are god for building your speed and are very necessary for your rehearsals. You can download an app for it to save your self some money.
Capo: They help you to easily change your key whenever you are playing. They are not very necessary but you would find them fun to use. They differ by the types of guitars, so I would advice you to take your guitar to the store whenever you want to get one.
Recorder: You can use a recorder to record a chord progression and solo to it when you are done. It is a good Jam Buddy.
For example, you can record a chord progression for about five minutes and after recording, you play it and start soloing to it, that way you will be improve.
Two basic Daily Guitar Finger Exercises
Many people have a guitar and they do not know what to rehearse everyday; These exercises could help you while away time and they could be very useful also because as time goes on, you will see that you are increasing in speed and your fingers would be all over the fret board in no time.
Triads:
C D E F G A B C
D R M F S L T D
D R M
R M F
M F S
F S L
S L T
L T D
That is in ascending order, do the same in descending order.
D T L
T L S
L S F
S F M
F M R
M R D.
You can also decide to do them in four’s also, like
D R M F
R M F S
M F S L
F S L T
S L T D
And in descending order
D T L S
T L S F
L S F M
S F M R
F M R D
Chords:
You should be able to play these chords in the by their notes, they will help your flexibility
C D E F G A B C
D R M F S L T D
D M S
R F L
M S T
F L D
S T R
L D M
T R F
D M S
You can do it in the descending order also
S M D
F R T
M D L
R T S
D L F
T S M
L F R
S M D
This exercise will enable you easily play the notes that you want to play very easily.
Three Guitar tricks that would make you sound like a professional
After learning to do all the exercises that you have been given, there are a three basic techniques that you should add to your playing, they will add a little feel to your rhythm.
The Vibrato Effect
Hammer-on’s
Pull-off’s
Slides
Vibrato effect: I call it the vibrato effect because the sound is going to reverberate in a up and down way. How do you do this, you simply sound whatever note you want to play and while holding it slide it upward and downward in a uniform manner, sometimes you can slide it up only for a long period to really feel it or vice versa; people who play the blues use this technique very
much.
Hammer-on and pull-off: This is when you are holding a note on a particular string and without plucking the string you use your finger to tap the next note to play it, that is called the hammer-on.
The Pull-off technique is like the opposite of the hammer-on. It’s like releasing the second note that you hammered. When you are holding two notes on a particular string, releasing the higher note makes it a pull-off.
Slides: This technique is very very important, it makes you feel like a pro whenever you are soloing. Let’s assume you want to play a note, for example C, the note before C is B, so instead of playing C directly, instead play B and immediately slide to C. You can do it for subsequent notes, just makes sure it sounds cool. You can even decide to do that and add the vibrato technique.
How to tune your Guitar as a beginner
Tuning your guitar is a very easy thing to do, whenever you siblings play around with your guitar and dis-tune it, you should be glad because it gives you more experience with the guitar. You can use a piano to tune your guitar or you can do it with
your mind, that is if you are already very familiar with the sound of the notes of music. You could download an app on google play or in the apple app store for it.
So for begginers, i will advise you to use the piano.
If you look at the strings of the guitar, the strings have their respective notes when they are open. look at the diagram above. The first string has the E note when open. the second string has the B note when open, the third string has the G note when it is open, the fourth string has the D note when it is open, the fifth string has the A note when it is open and the sixth string has the E note.
On the piano
All you have to do is to play the respective notes on the piano and whine the knob of the string you want to tune until they make the same sounds. Be careful as you whine so the strings will not snap.