Hangout yesterday and Don McLean
Hello everyone,
Yesterday I attempted to have a hangout on YouTube but technical difficulties made it difficult. 
For those of you that were waiting and nothing happened... sorry about that. This week I'll be working with my support team to see if we can get everything up and running for next week. I abandoned YouTube and met with a few supporters on Rock Out Loud for the rest of the session.
We talked about 
  • cadences in music
  • American Pie
  • answered questions
It was fun! 
American Pie. this song came out in 1971 on Don McLean's American Pie album. You can read about it here on Wikipedia. It was a big success. Why am I talking about it? Because students are asking about it.
Here is an interesting article that came out in October 2020 interviewing Don McLean. You might be interested.
I've liked the song for years. The lyrics are cryptic to everyone and there are websites dedicated to unraveling the messages contained therein. Don gives us no help in understanding what they mean. You'll have to read that article to find out why.
My interest in American Pie is purely musical. Personally I like cryptic lyrics because they can mean to many things to many people on many levels. It's fun.
I'll record American Pie soon, as a cover, and then come out with a video guitar lesson. Not sure when that will be done exactly but it may be this next week. There are about 10 songs that I'm learning, and several videos in process, and I'll publish a couple this week... hopefully.
In the meantime I'll continue to make videos of songs that I've been playing, and performing for years, and one of those is American Pie. It looks like there is a book, a documentary, a Broadway show, and movie coming out based on American Pie. We'll see how that all pans out. 
Meanwhile we'll analyze the song a bit, play it, and enjoy it for whatever it means to us individually.
One more thing. I'm updating my book and will have a new version out in a day or so. American Pie will be in it along with an ever expanding theory section, and a few other updates. 
Have a great week.
Thank you for your support.
Hal Stead