Last Chance to Work With Me

Hello everybody. Happy after Thanksgiving. I hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving. I was having some technical difficulties getting on here today. I'm still up in in Vermont. You can see here's my guest room up at my in laws. Only 70 now, but warming up later today down in Florida. I don't even know. Let's see, let's see what the temperature is outside today in Vermont. It's saying 24. It is 24 here today, Don. So 70 sounds lovely down in Florida. I wanted to go live and let everyone know. I know David's like last chance for what? Last chance. I want to come live because I know some people. You're not on my mailing list and you might not know things and I like to go live on YouTube as well and give you all updates. I've been working very, very hard on the website. I have been updating all the songs because there was a little bit of a coding glitch. So some of the lyrics and chords were shifted a little bit. I've done almost through the letter P, so I've done most of the songs at this point. I'm going to try and get it done by Sunday or Monday. For everyone here, my new project, we have three play along videos done. So if you're on my mailing list, you'll be hearing more about that project next week. We are creating a series of play along videos so so that you can play along in time with songs and with music. It's going to have the chords on the screen, the lyrics. It's going to have a count on the bottom because I find the biggest thing students are asking me is timing. Lauren, how do I get the timing with the chords and the lyrics and singing and playing at the at the same time? Yeah, all fun stuff, Peter. And happy Thanksgiving to you, Ron and David, thanks so much. So today is the last day to get the Black Friday deal. So if you're interested or you've been thinking about buying one of my course, you've been on the fence. Lauren bateman.com forward/courses or I've put a link below this video to the Black Friday offer for the seven level system. So if you're a beginner, you know, just getting started with the guitar or maybe even playing a little bit on your own, but you feel like your strumming is not the greatest, your chords don't sound the greatest. The seven level system is going to be a really great option for you. So there's a link to that in the description below. And then if you want to pick up any of the other courses, say you're a little bit more late beginner intermediate. You're interested in, you know, figuring, lauren, how do I play these bar chords cleanly? Maybe you want to work on percussive strumming or finger picking. Then I would go to laurenbateman.com backslash courses. And you can go and pick up a course and save some money, including the Christmas course, because Christmas is coming up now. We can talk about Christmas. Now that Thanksgiving's done, we have Nebraska in the house. I started in March. And I love the way you teach, especially when you do the strumming technique diagrams. Yes. And, you know, in that strumming course, it's called expressive rhythm and strumming, and it goes actually from the absolute beginner level. So if you. If you got your chords and you're like, lauren, I already know all my chords and stuff. My strumming needs a lot of work. The strumming course goes from absolute beginner all the way through, like, an intermediate level. And we do. We put the diagrams on screen with the down and up. So we try to make it as helpful as possible. So thank you for. For mentioning that. Love your channel from sponsors. Spain. I'm gonna be in Spain in May. So exciting. I can't wait to go. I haven't been to Spain in. In a very, very long time. It's been over 20 years. Bernie says, welcome to Vermont. You're in the northern part of the state, and I'm extreme South Bennington County. Yes. I'm in the Northeast kingdom of Vermont. I'm almost in Canada. Sometimes my phone thinks I'm in Canada, which is the funny part. But I wanted to go live today, give you guys some updates on, you know, make sure you go and see those. Get those courses. It's the last day for the 50% off, so definitely go and check that. And I wanted to share a really cool quote. I was having a conversation with someone the other day on Facebook who is older and thinking about getting into guitar, and she sent me this, and I really want to share it with you. I shared it on Facebook, but I thought it was really important to share here. It's a quote from. I don't know who Kurt Vonnegut is, but it was an interesting story, and I'd like to share it with you. It's just a couple little paragraphs, but I'd like to read it because I think it's very, very relevant to everyone here. And he said, When I was 15, I spent a month Working on an archaeological dig. I was talking to one of the archaeologists one day during our lunch break and he asked those kinds of getting to know you questions you ask young people. Did you play sports? What's your favorite subject? And I told him, no, I don't play any sports. I do theater, I'm in choir. I play the violin and piano, and I used to take art classes. And he went, wow, that's amazing. And I said, oh, no, but I. I'm not really good at any of them. And he said something. This is the important part right here. He then said something that I will never forget in which absolutely blew my mind because no one had ever said anything like this to me before. I don't think being good at things is the point of doing them. I think you've got all these wonderful experiences with different skills and that all teaches you things and makes you an interesting person no matter how well you them. And that honestly changed my life because I went from a failure, someone who hadn't been talented enough at anything to excel, to someone who did things because I enjoyed them. I have been raised in such an achievement oriented environment, so I in my inundated with the myth of talent, that I thought I was only worth doing things if you could win at them. And I think that's a very important point. And I talked a lot with some of my students saying, you know, you play guitar. And I have some students who've been at it for a while. And even when I used to teach privately, you know, I had this student and he was an adult and he took lessons for years and years and years. And. And I will be honest, he wasn't the greatest guitar player in the world, but he kept coming because it's something he loved to do. And people are like, why do you teach him? Like, why do you keep working with. And I'm like, he shows up here every week. He shows up here every week. He's putting in the work, he's doing the best he can. And you know what? He's having fun. And who am I to judge him for having fun? Like he wants to do this. I used to have this student when I would teach voice. And that reminds me, I do have a singing course that's going to be coming out now that the holidays are over. And once I finish all these updates on the website, I'm diving back into my singing 101 course. So I will have a full singing course because a lot of people have asked me because I used to teach voice. My voice is Very out of shape because I haven't taken voice lessons in quite a while. But I did want to share some of the things I've learned about voice. So that'll be coming out either December or January, so keep an eye out for that. But I have this student that I used to teach voice to, and I don't know what his disability was. I don't know if he was autistic or had Asperger's or whatever he had, but he wanted to do singing lessons. And this kid would show up every week and he was an adult. And again, was he Pavarotti? Was he. You know, he wasn't the greatest singer in the world, but he came to his lessons all the time. He never missed. He never missed a lesson. And we recorded songs. He wrote songs, we recorded them. We created. We did recording in the. In the school. And we recorded like five or six of his, like, original songs, and we just had a blast. And I think people, you know, we get so caught up in what everyone else is going to think about us and are playing, oh, someone's like, oh, my chords don't sound the greatest, or this isn't the best right now, but if you're having fun, that's it. You know, I had an event in September, and we do have another event coming up. August 16, 17, 18. If you'd like information on that, I don't have it up on the website yet, but info infoaurenbatement.com you can always email Carolyn. She'll get you information on that. I think we've already sold out 70 or 75% of the tickets. So if you're interested in coming to my event. August 16, 17, 18, it's just north of Boston. You can email info@laurenbatement.com but we had an event in September and I had a bunch of students who came out. And there were some students who have been playing for years, and there were some students who were just getting started. They weren't really interested or not really interested. They hadn't gotten into their journey quite yet. And they're sitting down, they're like, I don't know if I can do this. We all were playing songs together. I do this thing called Song Circle where we play music together. And, you know, some of the students were hesitant and then they got into it and they were like, oh, my God, I'm over my head. I'm over ahead. But then we got into it more and more and they're like, I can do this, I can do this. So you know it's all about having fun and enjoying yourself. I understand that the majority, you are not looking to become professional musicians. And I'm totally okay with that. That's perfectly fine. You can do music because you love it and that's the most important part. You make things look so simple. And great work on the channel. Thank you, Richard. I really appreciate that. Thank you so much. Who else is over? Please make tutorial strumming again. I have tons of of strumming things. Just search Lauren Bateman strumming. But I do have an entire course that's step by step. If you want a full blown strumming course, Lauren, you will always be a gift to others from Boston. Hey, Roger, maybe I'll see you at the event in Boston. That would be great. I sing in the key of off. Donald says, I like that. I've never heard that one before. And Canada's here. Okay, I'm almost in Canada. I'm very close. Well. Well, I've never been to Spain, but I kind of like the music. Oh yeah, the Spanish music. Lovely. I don't know how to play flamenco guitar. That's a whole different style of learning. Kentucky is in the house. Hello, Michael. I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We had a nice day. Actually took one day off. I worked Wednesday. I started working this morning. Obviously I'm working now. I'm on live here with you guys. But this is fun. This is how I get to say hello and. And see where everyone is. Pennsylvania. Okay. Another year on the east coast. I know some of you are on the west coast just waking up and if you're in the uk, you've probably just had your afternoon tea and you know, maybe you're in Australia where it's the nighttime. If you're in Australia, you might be sleeping. I had a lot of people. I went on the evening on Tuesday and we had a lot Australians on Iowa. Also. I've never been to Iowa. Love your teaching style from Canada yet. Well, hello and welcome. Thank you so much for being here. And again, if you're on my mailing list, you got an email this morning letting you know that the last chance today to get those Black Friday specials. So if you've been sitting on the fence thinking about getting a course. Okay. There's so many courses. There's music theory, there's finger picking. There's power and bar chords. We even got some lead guitar stuff. I just completely updated the lead guitar course. How to play scales. We added a really, really cool solo. How to play a Solo from beginning to end is in that course. That's lead guitar 101. I have my blues guitar course 101. So if you're people that are a little bit more on electric side of things, you might want that Blues Guitar 101 and that Lead Guitar course. Those two work really great together. And the blues course, there's some beginner stuff and there is some more late beginner and then intermediate stuff as well. It's a really great course. That's a big course too. I think that one's like 50 or 60 videos. It's, it's a really extensive course that you could work over over a period of time. So if you're someone that loves the blues, I highly recommend go pick that one up off for 50 off today. It's usually 190. Um, so you can get a good savings on that one if you buy that one. Half off today. I did have a wonderful Thanksgiving. Um, I actually slept in. I allowed myself to sleep a little bit. Uh, cause on, on what was it? Monday. I was supposed to fly home from Texas on Monday. My flight got delayed and I didn't get in until 3:30 in the morning. So by the time I got home it was 4:00 in the morning. So I was a little exhausted when we drove up here to Vermont. Um, but I did let myself sleep sleeping on Thanksgiving and I watched some TV which I rarely do. Megan goes, I know you're relaxing because you are watching a movie which you never do. So I was of all things, I was watching Talladega Nights Will, Will Ferrell movie. So just watching some funny things and I watched what's the Christmas one? It's a Wonderful Life. We watched that yesterday. So it was nice to relax and, and, and watch some movies. And today we're going to be doing some, some holiday decorating. I got a snowman to put up. We have this tradition where Megan's dad sends me up on a ladder somewhere. So I'm gonna have to go climb a ladder. I'm sure at some point today. And then tomorrow we're going to see the Trans Siberian Orchestra. I don't know if anyone has seen them before. If you've seen this Trans Siberian Orchestra put a one in the chat. They're really amazing. I'm, I'm friends with one of the violin players. His name is Roddy Chung and he is fantastic. He's played for Shania Twain, he's played with Celine Dion and it's going to be fun. I've wanted to Always go and see Trans Siberian Orchestra for years and it's so hard to get the tickets. But we're actually going to be going tomorrow night at the Worcester Centrum. So we got to drive home from Vermont tomorrow and then we got to drive out to Worcester, which. So there's going to be a lot of driving. Someone asked, how do I improve my finger speech with chord changing? Hope you had a great time, Thanksgiving. I did have a lovely Thanksgiving. Thank you. And I hope you all did, too. And core changes. It's really about repetition. I always mention my favorite quote by Bruce Lee and it's, you know, I don't fear the man who knows 10,000 kicks. I fear the man who knows one kick and has practiced it 10,000 times. And it's this. I have a video that's going to be coming out next week on muscle memory and learning and how I use muscle memory in my teaching method to help people with these different things. Because it's just like typing. You know, when I was in high school, I had to take a typing class. And I'm sure some of you, some of the women out there are familiar. In high school or elementary school maybe you had to take a typing class. And it's the same thing with learning how to type. At first you're very, very slow because it's a. It's a new mechanic. But then you get a muscle memory because your fingers start memorizing the distance between the letters and where all the keys are and how to hit different things. It's the same thing with the guitar. So I don't have a guitar with me, but I will use the back of my phone. So say this is my fretboard and I have to make a C chord, you know, and you've got your C chord shape. So you can see, even though I don't have a guitar fretboard, I can make a C chord on the back of my phone. Now what I want to do is slowly pull these fingers away. And for a lot of you, this is what's going to happen, okay? Because this is the muscle memory in your fingers is to be flat. You don't have the muscle memory yet to hold this shape, okay? So what you want to do is slowly peel this off. I call them like finger push ups. Look, you can see just very barely coming off the surface. And I call them finger push ups. And then eventually, you know, you can pull your, your fingers away from the guitar, but it's really about the repetition of getting those cords into your fingers, into your Muscle memories. It's called neuroplasticity. The ability to create new neural pathways in your brains to do different skills. And as we age, as we age, it, it does happen a little bit slower. Usually around, I think it's the mid-20s. You have until your mid-20s. And then this process slows down dramatically. And it slows down more and more as we age, but it never stops. And it doesn't mean that saying, you know, you can't teach an old dog new tricks. You can. Sometimes it just takes a little bit longer. It takes a little bit of patience. Okay? So if you're not there today, don't worry. And that's why I said, you know, I have the Black Friday deal link in the description below for the seven level system. Okay. That system, some people go through it in six months, some people go through it in nine months, some people take a year, some people take a couple years. It's your guitar journey. You have to move at your pace. All right? Some of my students are in their 40s, some of my students are in their 80s. Okay. The 40 year olds are probably going to move through it a little bit faster than the 80 year olds and there's nothing wrong with that. Okay? We just have to be where we're at. It's like that quote I was talking about earlier. Do something because you enjoy doing it. And the longer you do it, the better you will get at it and eventually you will be good at it. Okay? But do something because you enjoy doing it. Do something because it's what you've always wanted to do. I have so many students who email me and they say, Lauren, this was on my bucket list for years. And I watched your videos on YouTube and I found them very helpful. So I bought your course. I'm so excited to get started. So, yeah. Namaste from Nepal. Oh, hello. That's a first. Just a hobby to play guitar and leisure time. It's easy to play after learning your guitar tutorial. Oh, you are so welcome. From Nepal. That's amazing. I love that. I think that's the first time I've seen Nepal on here. And yeah, I see a few people who said that they've, they've seen the Trans Siberian Orchestra. Great, great. I cannot wait for this show. We have Switzerland in the house. Arizona, Illinois. Oh, three dog night. Yeah, I actually, I don't know if I have a three dog. Did. Did. Who did? Cecilia. Was that three dog night? I know they did. Jeremiah had a bullfrog. I should probably do a three dog Night Song on here, though. They're. They're a good band. I think Paul Simon did Cecilia, but that's another one that I have on the list of to do's. So now once this website gets done, they're bringing out new songs. We have a new song coming out tomorrow. It's going to be a Christmas song. So that one, I think it's going to be Felice Navidad. Since I saw a lot of people were looking that up on my website, I said let me get a video up for everyone that's practicing their Christmas songs. Now John says, I have an acoustic and friends with the Gretsch hollow body, but I don't see any lesson tutorials with them. Do you have one? Cecelia is Simon and Garfunkel. Yeah. So he is an acoustic. Yes. The Blues 101 course, I use the Gretchen the Gretsch that you guys usually see hanging on the wall. But my George Harrison model, I use that entirely. In the Blues Guitar 101 course, I use my Ibanez electric on the Lead Guitar 101 course. And then in the expressive rhythm and strumming, I do have a rock rhythm section with some electric guitar on that. I actually use my first electric guitar. It's my Fender Squire strap because I wanted to show show people that you don't need a super expensive guitar to make it sound good. Okay, So I did that. So you'll see all three of my electric guitars throughout these courses. But the blues guitar course, I almost exclusively use the Gretsch. There's a couple songs that I do pull out the Ibanez, but I think the Gretsch is a great song for that. That blues course and that blues sound nice to catch me live. Hello from Manchester. Yes, UK folks in the house. Try out in the country by Three Dog Night. Okay, fantastic. I'm liking these song suggestions because now that the website's up, we can get some new songs up there. So there'll be more updates coming. But I wanted to give you guys a final reminder. Today's the last day. I'm going to be closing down these sales tonight at midnight. So get on there. If you've been on the fence about getting a course, hop on over laurenbatement.com backslash courses. Okay, jump on. Grab a course course and get started. Just remember, it's not about being perfect. It's not about being good. It's about having fun. So go have fun with your guitar this weekend and I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and I'll see you in a lesson tomorrow. Goodbye, everyone. Have a great day.