Heartwood Guitar Instruction

I spent the day (and a good chunk of the night) drafting the Strum Pattern Archive page. A lot of the time was spent learning about CSS and how to make tables—both new territories. I finally feel like I’m understanding all that code.

I don’t have any content in the archive yet, but I’m almost finished with organizing the basic layout.

I would love some feedback, both from guitarists who have ideas about what to feature on the page, and from those of you who actually know what you’re doing when designing web pages. I’m aware of the typo’s, incidentally.

The Great Guitar Strumming Pattern Archive

Thanks for all your comments!

Rob

I just got an email from a former student, Emily, who’s in Thailand. It was in the form of a top-ten list of great experiences she’s had there. Here’s her number one:

Bonfire on the beach, Tonsai: There were two guitars. I got to play a good guitar about half the time. “More Cat Stevens!” “What other Simon and Garfunkel do you know?” “More Cat Stevens!” “Wow, Emily I didn’t know you liked the Band, that’s awesome, play more,” and “Just play Father and Son one more time” are all direct quotes from actual people who aren’t me. People were singing along the whole time and the other kid who could play knew some awesome songs too. I know that I could experience this at home, but some how being on the other side of the world with strangers from all over the world makes it infinitely more magical. Now I just have to recreate it many more times before I go home.

The best thing about teaching guitar is helping create this kind of experience for people.

Over and over, visitors to this site say that their favorite thing about my chord charts is that many of them have strum pattern recommendations. This is a feature that’s practically non-existent in chord charts on the web.

Lately, I’ve been toying with two ideas that I think would be a big benefit to people who find the strum pattern information helpful. One is to add strum patterns to all the songs that have them missing—basically, all the songs that I wrote out over my first few years of teaching.

The second one I’m really excited about. What if I created videos of me playing each of the strum patterns found in the 450 songs on my site, and then linked to the appropriate clip on each of the songs, so that people could actually see and hear how the pattern should go? Wouldn’t that be cool?! I’m thinking the clips would look similar to the ones found on my popular How to Strum the Guitar article.

It would take some work, but it could be worth it. I could start with the most common patterns—there are about 10 patterns that can be used in probably 75% of all songs—and then fill in the gaps when I have time. And I could have a page featuring all the strum patterns for people who just want a strum-a-thon.

What do you think? Any suggestions?

I got some props at the popular Kid’s Music That Rocks blog for my contribution to Recess Monkey’s latest album, “Tabby Road.” Recess Monkey is Seattle’s awesome children’s music band, comprised of three elementary-school teachers and former indie-rockers. Music both kids and their parents can enjoy.

For most of my guitar playing career, I’ve schlepped my stompboxes and cables in a paper bag like some digital-age hobo. But last spring, a local singer-songwriter Jill Cohn asked me to join her band, and I decided to upgrade to a rig that would make it easier to get to rehearsals and gigs, and frankly, looked a little less ghetto.

I looked into buying a pre-fab pedalboard, but decided that they cost too much, are overbuilt, and don’t have enough room. It’s not like I need one of those bombproof flightcase jobbies—maybe if I were gigging three times a week instead of once a month.

All I needed was a way to transport all my pedals without having to set them up and break them down every trip. Also, I’d shelved some of my effects—a wah, a volume pedal—because I couldn’t be bothered to fool with them whenever I wanted to move my rig. The pedalboard would finally give me the excuse to dust off those really useful effects and integrate them permanently into my signal chain.

One major change I made when I decided to build a pedalboard was to invest in a switching system. I’d gotten tired of doing a frantic tap-dance routine whenever I needed to switch more than one effect at a time. A switching system enables you to program what combinations of effects you typically use, and assign those combinations to individual switches. Also, effects that aren’t being used are left out of the signal chain, which means they won’t suck tone out of your signal. SWEET!

So the following are instructions for building an awesome, pro-quality switch-system pedalboard, using the best materials and construction with the least amount of effort. I kept cost down where I could, but I didn’t skimp on electronics. I spend too much time playing to want anything less than awesome-sounding gear.

The only part that took time and skill (mostly time) was soldering custom-length guitar cables, which was a blast but is by no means necessary if you’re averse to soldering. Having used my pedalboard for a year now, I wouldn’t do anything differently. Note, however, that this pedalboard will not protect your pedals at all. I feel fine just putting it on the back seat of my car, but I wouldn’t put it in the back of a van next to a Marshall stack, ready to topple onto my $250 fuzz pedal.

Step 1: What size?

First, you need to decide how much stuff you want on your pedalboard. If you’re a seasoned electric guitar player, you probably know what you like. But most people reading this article are probably still assembling their arsenal, learning what sounds they like, and developing their own distinctive sound. So before you build your pedalboard, peer into the future. Consider that most guitarists use AT LEAST the following three items:

Distortion
Volume
Power supply

While most electric guitarists building a pedalboard own a distortion pedal, I would guess that many do not own either a volume pedal or a single power supply that will fuel all your pedals. Volume pedals are practically worthless when you’re practicing by yourself (unless you’re into volume swells), but they’re indispensable for hands-free control of your volume when you’re jamming or performing with a band. And power supplies are better for the environment (less 9V batteries in the landfill) and will ensure that you never get caught on stage with a dead stompbox. If you don’t have a volume pedal or power supply, consider getting them, or at least making space for them, on your pedalboard. If you don’t get a power supply, leave room for a power strip.

Lay all your pedals out on the floor and arrange them into a rectangle. Make sure that expression pedals (wah, volume) and your switching system (if you use one) are in front for easy access, of course. Leave room for cable jacks and power supply jacks to poke out of the sides of your pedals (think about whether you’ll be using straight plugs or right-angle—in most cases, right-angles are the way to go). And if there’s any chance Santa might bring you a fab new fuzz pedal in the next five years, leave room for a couple unforseen additions.

You’ll want to, as much as possible, line up your pedals in the order that you want your guitar signal to pass through them, called the “signal chain.” This is less critical if you’re using a loop-based switching system, but otherwise, people typically make a sideways U-shaped path through the two rows of pedals. There’s been lots written on which order is best. Google “guitar signal chain,” or here’s a good guide.

Measure the dimensions of your pedal arrangement. This will be the size of your pedalboard.

Step 2: Building the Board

Your pedalboard doesn’t need to be made of tank armor to be durable. 1/4″ plywood works just fine, and when you’ve got 20 lbs. of electronics stuck to it and you’re lugging it three city blocks to your friend’s house to rehearse, you’ll be glad you got the thin stuff. One thing to consider is that tape and velcro will stick better to smooth surfaces than rough, so invest in the fairly high-grade plywood. I went to Home Depot and had some kid cut my wood for me because the service was free, I’m lazy, and I gave up my dream of being a DIY ninja long ago.

I spent way too much time trying to figure out how to protect my plywood from getting all bashed up–I even considered covering it in tolex, the material that covers guitar amps–before I realized I could just use duct tape. Of course! Not only would duct tape prevent the edges from splintering, but its rubbery surface would grip smooth floors, it’s cheap and easy, and most importantly, one should abide by this fundamental law of nature: Always use duct tape when given the opportunity.

Another thing to consider was how to attach the pedals to the board. Some meticulous folks who don’t want to desecrate their vintage gear strap their pedals to the board, but most people use velcro. 3M Dual-Lock is the running favorite, but I couldn’t find it at the store, so I took a risk and got Velcro-brand Industrial Strength that came in a 15′ x 2″ roll. My worry was unfounded. This stuff uses the same adhesive that Peter Parker has in his spider web formula. It’s never coming off. Because the velcro adhesive is more solid than the duct tape adhesive, I covered only the bottom and edges of the pedalboard with duct tape, leaving all but about a 1-inch perimeter of the top of the board bare, so that the velcro would adhere directly to the wood instead of to duct tape, and only barely overlap the duct tape to look nice and keep the duct tape from peeling. I suppose if you’re having trouble with adhesion, painting the plywood first would provide a better surface.

Here are the steps I took::

1. Sand rough edges of plywood.
2. Wipe down with damp cloth to remove all sawdust and let dry.
3. Cover bottom of pedalboard with duct tape. Choose the rough side of the plywood if there is one—you’ll want the velcro to bond to the smoothest side. Lay down strips of tape so that each edge overlaps the next, and make the strips long enough so that the ends wrap around the edge of the board and extend about an inch onto the top of the board.
4. Tape edges of board with duct tape by running long strips of tape along the length of the edge so that equal amounts of tape overlap the top and bottom of the board. At each of the corners, I cut slits in the tape where it made a bend so that instead of making a fold, the extra tape overlapped and lay flat.
5. Cover top of pedalboard with “loop” velcro (the fuzzy side). Make strips long enough so that the ends overlap the edges of the duct tape (to keep it from peeling off), and lay them down side by side. Easier said than done, but you’ll get the hang of it.

Step 3: Sticking the Pedals to the Board

This part’s technically easy, but about as much fun as putting down a lame horse if you’re as attached to your effects pedals as I am. See, in order to attach the “hook” velcro to your pedals, you’ve got to peel the rubber off their base. I know I’m a sentimental sap, but it was tough ripping apart the BOSS DD-3 I’d gotten for my 16th Christmas. Charlie Bucket has his golden ticket, Citizen Kane has his Rosebud, Ralphie Parker has his official Red Ryder carbine-action 200-shot range model air rifle with a compass in the stock, and I have my DD-3. Like a band aid, it’s best done quickly.

Scrape all the residue off the base and stick a rectangle of “hook” velcro on.

Step 4: Connecting With Cables

If you’re not using a switching system, you can probably get away with just using store-bought patch cables (medium or high quality). Make sure they’ve got right-angle plugs so that they don’t take up too much space. If you are using a switching system, or have a pedal arrangement that requires cables of many different lengths, you’ll need to make custom cables.

The quick and easy way to do this is to buy a solderless cable kit like the Core X2 DIY Cable Kit. Here’s a video that shows the process.

The more time-consuming way is to solder your own. After a lot of poking around, I went with the advice of a fella named Lord Valve, mostly because of his name, and because he recommended using hot glue, which is almost as much fun as duct tape. Soldering all the cables for my board took about 12 hours, but it was fun knowing I was probably making the most awesome patch cables in the universe.

Here are Lord Valve’s instructions:

For guys what rolls their own, here’s the best combo I’ve found: Canare GS-6 cable and Switchcraft 280 plugs. I know the temptation is to use the snazzy-looking Neutrik plugs; they are hard to solder to without a *really* powerful iron, and the strain relief system is bogus. They cost twice as much, too. Stick with the Switchcraft; they were good enough for Grampaw and they’re *still* the best. (I sell both kinds, in case anyone is wondering.) If you want to make a cable that is damn near indestructible, use a piece of 3/8 HST over the inner part of the plug; fill the inner portion with hot-glue and slide the shrink over the glue while it’s still hot; it’ll begin to shrink immediately. Finish shrinking it with your heat- gun (or a 1000W Par-64 can, or a propane torch set on low, or a cigarette lighter, or a hot-air popcorn popper [all of which I have used successfully in the field]) and wait for it to cool before removing any glue that squished out the edges while you were shrinking it. This is the *best* termination system that I’ve been able to devise; I have guitar cables in the field that are still going strong after more than a decade of use.

Once you’ve got your cables, that’s it! Plug those puppies in and let ‘er rip.

Pedalboard Components

Here’s a list of all the ingredients, with links to stores if you’re going shopping. Note that the cable-building gear is about twice what I’d need if I wasn’t using a loop-based switching system, and even then I had some left over to make a few 10′ cables.

Board:
15″ x 30″ 1/4″ plywood
Scotch Heavy Duty All-Weather Duct Tape
Velcro brand Industrial Strength Black Tape, 15′ x 2″ roll

Cables:
60′ of Canare GS6 Instrument Cable
20 1/4″ Switchcraft 280 straight plugs
20 1/4″ Switchcraft 226 right angle plugs

My Effects

I’ve linked much of my gear to zZounds.com, which I like to shop at for their rock-bottom prices and quick delivery.

Ibanez Tube Screamer TS-808 Reissue, modified by Robert Keeley – Most of my guitar heroes use effects that are so obscure or expensive that I’ll never own them. But the Tube Screamer is one of those pedals that you see in several pro’s signal chains: Steve Ray Vaughn, Carlos Santana, and Trey Anastasio to name a few. Even the cheap TS-9′s sound great.

BOSS DD-3 – This was the first effect I owned, back when I was obsessed with U2 and, specifically, The Edge’s guitar playing on The Joshua Tree album. Got it under the Christmas tree when I was 16, and spent a couple frustrating weeks trying to sound like The Edge before putting it in storage for 15 years. Now, aside from occasional nostalgic U2 jam sessions, I mostly use it for a slight slap-back effect along with reverb for a spacey, atmospheric sound.

AnalogMan Sun Lion Fuzz/Booster – This is a boost and a fuzz pedal in one package. I haven’t fooled around with the boost much, but the fuzz gives me a great Hendrix tone. Sounds great with my wah.

Electro-Harmonix Holy Grail Reverb – I had reverb in the old solid-state Fender Deluxe ’85 I used in high school, but it sounded so lame I convinced myself that I didn’t like reverb. But I recently decided to give in and buy a Holy Grail–the most popular reverb pedal around, and found in many pro’s rigs–and now I can’t imagine playing without one. One minor bummer was discovering that I can’t hook it up to my power supply–the instructions emphatically state that you need to use the accompanying wall wart adapter because of the Holy Grail’s unique power requirements. So it takes 10 more seconds to set up and break down my pedalboard. A small price to pay for awesome reverb.

Dunlop Original Crybaby Wah – I’ve had this thing since high school. It hasn’t weathered the years too well–the tone pot crackles sometimes–but I figure I can just replace it without buying a whole new pedal. Sounds great with my fuzz pedal (when it’s not crapping out on me).

Ernie Ball Volume Pedal – Solid construction, perfect action, never had a glitch.

Keeley Compressor – I only started using compression recently, but I love it. It smooths out my sound, and adds sustain and volume when playing quiet, delicate melodies and arpeggios. Very subtle effect when the sustain knob’s set to 9:00. The only time I turn it past that is when I want feedback, which I can get at very low volumes when the sustain knob’s cranked. A cheaper, and still awesome, compressor is the MXR dyna comp.

BOSS TU-2 Chromatic Tuner – This is the industry standard, and it works perfectly. One of the great side-effects to having a pedal board is being able to tune quickly. Previously, I couldn’t be bothered to add a tuner to my signal chain when I was gigging, and would just tune by ear while onstage. But now the BOSS tuner is a permanent part of my signal chain, with no hassle. I’m in better tune, and the audience and my bandmates are spared the whiney sound of me tuning after every song.

Rapco AB-100 A/B switch (works OK, but if I could do it over, I’d get the Radial Bigshot because it has true bypass) – Lately I’ve been using a two-amp system when I’ve been gigging. This box splits my signal, sending it to both my little Fender Vibro-Champ, which has clear highs, and my Marshall 18 clone, which provides mids and bass. With the amps miked separately and panned into the left and right channels of the PA, I get a huuuge sound.

Voodoo Lab Pedal Power 2 Plus power supply – This wonderful box powers all my pedals except my A/B switch (which has a battery only to light the LED’s), and my Holy Grail Reverb, which requires its own power supply. I love it that I don’t have to dispose of any more 9V batteries or worry that a battery will die while I’m performing.

Carl Martin Octa-Switch – This slick piece of Danish engineering has been worth every penny. There are two main benefits to using a switching system. First of all, you can program the eight switches to use any combination of pedals, eliminating the need to stomp on multiple pedals when you switch between your favorite combinations. Secondly, each effect has its own send-return, which means that the guitar signal only passes through the pedal when it’s being used. Why does this matter? All pedals suck at least some tone and add noise to your guitar signal when they’re not being used, if for no other reason than that they’re making the path from your guitar to your amp longer. Try playing your guitar through 50 feet of instrument cable, and you’ll see how much of the high’s you lose–your amp will sound like it’s got a pillow over it. What’s worse, many cheap or vintage pedals suck tone like a leech. With a loop-based switching system, your pedals are only part of the signal path when you’re using them.

I did quite a bit of poking around, and decided ot go with the Octa-Switch because Carl Martin is a highly respected name in guitar equipment (he was interviewed in a recent Guitar Player article about pedalboards), and the Octa-Switch got accolades in the reviews I read.

My only concern is that if I were ever to spill something on it, liquid could easily get into the little toggle switches on the top of the unit. Don’t use the Octa-Switch if you have a permanent gig at a waterslide park or your fans like to dump a cooler of Gatorade on you after your encore.

Guitars and Amps

1990′s-era Fender American Standard Telecaster with a Duncan Antiquity bridge pickup – My favorite guitar. Sparkling tone and a nice feel. Sorry, no photo–it’s in California on vacation.

2000′s-era Les Paul 1957 Custom Historic Black Beauty (actually, mine has a cherry finish). Gorgeous, incredible feel, quite heavy. Sounds great distorted through my Marshall, but a little muddy through my Fender. I got it cheap(er) on eBay because it had a big gank in the back of the neck. One person’s blemish is another person’s mojo.

1990′s Gretsch G6118 Anniversary w/a post-production-installed Bigsby tremolo – Great looks, twangy tone. Awesome feedback.

1964 Fender Vibro-Champ – Bought for $400 on eBay. Best music gear purchase ever. These old blackface Fender amps (1964-1967) really do sound amazing. I record with the volume at about 9 for a little crunch.

Marshall 18-Watt clone – I built this from a kit, and got a lot of guidance from the website 18watt.com. You can read the whole story of building the amp here (start at the bottom).

Have fun building your pedalboard, and let me know how it goes!

Hi Heartwood Beat Subscribers,

I hope you’re all enjoying February. I want to let you know about several updates I’ve made to the website.

Print or Save Function

One of the fun things about having a popular guitar instruction website is bumping into people (usually at guitar camp) who’ve printed music from my site to make songbooks. But I wince when I see what their web browsers did to my careful formatting—chords aren’t aligned with lyrics, margins are miniscule so that binder ring holes obliterate information, and there’s tacky-looking text at the top and bottom of every page.

I recently started doing some limited advertising on my site, and realize that this will make printed song pages even more cluttered. So I’ve added a “Print or Save” link to the top of every song page that links to the original MS Word document. Click the link, and either save the song on your hard drive or open it in Word and print it.

Now go make a songbook, if you don’t have one already. Print twenty of your favorite songs and keep them in a binder to bring to parties, camping trips, etc. Punch holes in both sides of each page, and orient them so that both pages (most songs are two pages long) face one other. No more frantic page flips to take the oomph out of your orgasmic pre-choruses!

Better yet, make two or three binders so that other musicians can get in on the fun, page numbers and a table of contents for easy navigation, and a stack of lyric sheets for singers (paste all songs into one document and delete all guitar information, just leaving lyrics). And when it’s time to play, don’t forget music stands and light sources (headlamps work well) if your eyes are like mine.

All the songs can be found on my Free Guitar Chords page.

And if you don’t have MS Word, or have an old version that won’t read your song file, you don’t have to go out and buy it. Bill Gates will still be able to pay his mortgage if you use this great free online service that converts Word docs to PDF docs (chances are good you have Adobe Acrobat, which reads PDF’s). Download song, convert, and print.

Guitar Pro

For the past few years, I’ve been using the tablature editor/player Guitar Pro to teach myself new songs and write out music for my students when chord charts don’t show enough detail. Being able to play back written music so that you can hear how it’s supposed to sound makes learning so much more efficient. If you’re interested in learning how to pick individual notes, add a cool riff to your repertoire, or learn your first guitar solo, Guitar Pro makes it a lot easier. Experts and teachers love this program, too.

I’ve started adding links to Guitar Pro song files on some of my more popular song pages. Think of the chord charts as Cliff’s Notes, and the GP songs as the unabridged versions. I’ll also be supplementing all future blog guitar lessons with GP files.

Click hear to learn more about Guitar Pro and watch my little video tour of the program.

Chord Chart Update

I just added seven new songs. Hope you enjoy them. They are…

All-American Rejects – It Ends Tonight
David Bowie – Ziggy Stardust
Islands – Creeper
Pedro the Lion – I Am Always The One Who Calls
The Presidents – Naked and Famous
Bonnie Raitt – Love Has No Pride
Townes Van Zandt – Pancho and Lefty

All the songs can be found on my Free Guitar Chords page.

That’s it! Please feel free to leave comments, especially concerning the advertising I’ve added to the site. I want Heartwood Guitar to be a pleasant place to visit, so let me know if I’m harshing your mellow.

Enjoy the music,

Rob

Dilemma: Baby likes peaceful music. Mom and Dad like Nine Inch Nails.
Solution: Rockabye Baby

You haven’t fully appreciated AC/DC until you’ve heard “You Shook Me All Night Long” played by a music box.

I teach kids as young as three years old to play guitar. One of the keys to teaching really little kids, besides knowing how to spontaneously burp, wiggle your ears, and listen to that orange/banana knock-knock joke 3,000 times without going AWOL, is choosing the right material.

Kids this young can barely pick their own nose, so there’s no way I’m going to try to get them to fret chords. Instead, I teach them a lot of melodies and bass lines on either the first or sixth strings (the easiest ones to pick).

By the way, I have lots more ideas for teaching kids guitar in my handbook for guitar teachers.

Riffs and Melodies On One String

Smoke on the Water
Deep Purple
“Smoke on the Water” is God’s gift to guitar teachers. I believe it’s listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as The Easiest Cool Riff Ever. Normally played on the 3rd and 4th strings, I transposed to the 6th string to make it easier.

The “Riffs and Melodies On One String” are all available in one Guitar Pro file here. Don’t have Guitar Pro yet? Learn more.

Mary Had a Little Lamb
I promised myself I’d never teach this song, until I was in a pinch during a lesson with a 5-year-old and played this for her. Her look of delight at recognizing the melody cured me of any prejudice I had against this cute children’s song.

Louie, Louie
The Kingsmen
If a child’s dying to learn a particular song, I’ll often figure out a way to play the bass line to the song on the 6th string of the guitar. Here’s “Louie, Louie,” still recognizable because of its distinctive rhythm.

For What it’s Worth
Buffalo Springfield
This is my all-time favorite beginner’s song. The whole thing can be played with just two chords, E and A, if you skip the C and D in the chorus. I have kids learn both the bass line for the song, simply playing quarter notes, and a fretted version of the harmonics that are played during the intro. Once they learn harmonics, they can play the real thing (12th fret harmonic, then 7th fret harmonic).

What’s really cool is when I get a couple kids to play the part together. Here’s a video of Emma, Axel, and Conner rocking out with me and some other students at one of the Coffee Shop Jams. Just wish their guitars were turned up higher…grr…

Songs With Simplified Bass Lines

If a child (or a total-beginner adult) wants to sing and play at the same time, I distill songs to their most simple form: Their bass line, played on the 6th string. Any song can be simplified this way. You just have the guitarist play the root note of each chord in a steady rhythm (usually quarter notes or eighth notes). Music is easier to read if you identify the 6th string fret number instead of the note name (A, B, C#, etc.)

Note that several of my young students have…shall we say…non-standard tastes. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend some of these songs to kids, but if they request them, here they are.

Bush – Glycerine
Cake – Love You Madly
Johnny Cash – Wide Open Road
Bob Dylan – I Threw It All Away
Robbie Fulks – Godfrey
Green Day – Good Riddance
Green Day – Holiday
Merle Haggard – Mama Tried
Lady Gaga – Paparazzi
Iggy Pop – The Passenger
Bruce Springsteen – Chicken Lips and Lizard Hips
Neil Young – Needle and the Damage Done

Strumming Songs

Once kids learn how to arch their fingers and gain some strength and coordination, they graduate to playing chords using my finest invention: The String Mute 4000. This state-of-the-art device employs military-grade hook-and-loop adhesive to minimize sonic vibritization.

Yep, it’s just a little square of Velcro, cut from a long strip I bought at a craft store. The “hook” side had an adhesive backing, which was a bummer until I realized I could stick my business card on it.

The String Mute 4000, in all its glory

Rip the velcro apart, and slide one half under the 4th, 5th, and 6th strings at around the 9th fret, being careful not to touch the 3rd string. Sandwich the other half on top. Now you can play a one-finger G (1st string, 3rd fret), G7 (1st string, 1st fret), and C (2nd string, 1st fret).

Get that edge lined up between the 3rd and 4th strings. Kids will need help with this.

Here are two great one-chord songs that kids can sing while strumming a G chord using the string mute. Just Google ‘em to find the lyrics:

Are You Sleeping, Brother John?
Row, Row, Row Your Boat

Here’s a song from Peter Pan that sounds lovely sung over the C chord:

Tender Shepherd

And once they get good at these 1-chord songs, they can graduate to some songs that just use C and G7:

Ain’t No Bugs On Me
The Hokey Pokey
My Darling Clementine
London Bridges
Buffalo Gals

OK, those songs should get ‘em rolling! Remember that young kids have the attention span of hummingbirds, so if you’ve gotten them to focus on a song for at least two minutes, you’ve hit a home run.