Week 9 of 27
Goal: You accompany songs with three chords – A, D and E7.
Review
Last week: D and A7. Warm up with Old MacDonald in D.
Step by step
- With three chords you can play hundreds of songs! In A they are A, D and E7.
- Practise the changes one by one: A – D, D – E7, E7 – A. The hardest one gets the most time.
- Trick for A – D: your index finger slides at the 2nd fret from the D string to the G string – it stays at the same fret. The other fingers jump around it.
- Then: Alle meine Entchen in A. If you like, switch on the tab in the song to see the melody.
Time to make music: your piece
Alle meine Entchen in A with A, D and E7 – with down-up. Then Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star in A. Two songs, three chords!
Homework for next time
Five days, about ten minutes each:
- Tune first every day.
- Day 1: switch A – D and D – E7 ten times each.
- Days 2–3: play along with Alle meine Entchen in A.
- Days 4–5: Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star in A.
- Fun: chord game “A, D, E” – write down your record.
Done when …
- you play A, D and E7 one after the other without stopping
- you play a three-chord song all the way through
If you get stuck
- One change always gets stuck? Play just that change for a minute, very slowly. Afterwards the song gets easier.
- Fingers sore after a while? Take a break, shake them out, carry on. Five minutes twice beats ten minutes at once.
For teachers: lesson plan
- ≈ 10 min Warm-up: chord call – the teacher calls A, D or E7, everyone grabs the chord as fast as they can and strums once.
- ≈ 15 min Practice: three groups, each takes one chord. The teacher points to the group that plays.
- ≈ 20 min Together: Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star in A – everyone plays, a few children sing.
Differentiation: those who are confident play the piece with down-up or help a partner; those who need more time strum only on beat one of each bar.
For the board: openstring.de/gitarre/en/lesson/9/