LESSON PLAN: 2 Chords, 1 Finger
Objective
Students will be able to play the classic chord progression used in “Shout” by the Isley Brothers and “Hang Me Up To Dry” by the Coldwar Kids using 3 strings to play an open E minor chord and 1 finger G chord.
Resources
Printout of the lyrics to “Shout”, printout of the song chart to “Shout”, guitars, guitar picks, a sticker to mark the G chord
Vocabulary and Terms
Procedures
- Have students play the G chord on guitar, placing their finger over the sticker you’ve put on the fret board under the 1st string at the 3rd fret. Have them follow this by playing the open E minor chord.
- Count out loud “1 2 3 4” as they strum the G chord, then “1 2 3 4”
as they strum the E minor chord. Encourage them to strum the next chord as you say the number 1. Once switching chords on beat 1 becomes easy, invite them to strum down on all 4 beats while continuing to switch chords on beat 1.
- Invite students to sing the chorus with you as you play along. Since we’re playing in a different key than the original you may want to play the notes E G E G E G E as you say “You know you make me want to”.
- In the verse section the chords last for 2 measures each. Coach them on this playing through it while you count “1 2 3 4” twice on each chord.
- The pre-chorus stays on the G chord the entire time, and is held together by a bass line walking up and down the first 5 notes of the scale. Play this bass line on your guitar while the kids strum their G chords.
- Now that all of the parts are laid out, try playing them all in a row without stopping in between sections. Some students can be designated singers, students can take turns, or you can have everyone sing together. On the final chorus try to emulate the getting softer and louder effect followed by the “call and response” using the entire group.
Extension
- Have some students play this bass line to the song either on their guitars or a bass guitar
- Have some students in class designated to make the drum beat for this song by tapping their right foot on 1 and 3 and hitting their left hand on a piece of paper on 2 and 4 to imitate both the kick and snare drum in the song.
- Students can play along with the recording in the original key by using this 3 string F chord and D minor chord along with a bass line using these notes.
National Core Arts Standards (Music)
Anchor Standard 5: Develop and refine artistic techniques and work for presentation.
Example: General Music MU:Pr5.1.3 b. Rehearse to refine technical accuracy, expressive qualities, and identified performance challenges. Common Core Correlation: CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.K.CC.B.4 Understand the relationship between numbers and quantities; connect counting to cardinality.