Amanda Monaco says her first experience learning guitar helped shape the way she teaches it today. Her father had played guitar in a band with his brothers when he was younger, but sold his instrument when Amanda was a toddler, figuring she\u2019d never take up the guitar herself. He was wrong. Two days after her 12th birthday, she got her first guitar, and her delighted father wasted no time teaching her a song: \u201cWooly Bully<\/a>\u201d by Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe first chord is an F7 chord! It\u2019s a barre chord that uses all four fingers, including the pinkie, to play the flat7,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s not an easy chord, but he didn\u2019t know and I didn\u2019t know! So I played it!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Today, Monaco teaches Guitar Fundamentals<\/a><\/em>, Guitar Chords 101<\/a><\/em>, Guitar Chords 201<\/a><\/em>, and several levels of private lessons<\/a> for Berklee Online, where she brings that same willingness to tackle challenging material to her students. In the following conversation, she discusses her teenage metal years, the teachers who shaped her musical journey, her adventures onstage (and on TV), and why she believes hard work matters more than natural talent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Amanda Monaco: <\/strong>I really like playing ii-V-I using 2nds, which is super stretchy, but I like the way it sounds. I had a great teacher in undergrad named Ted Dunbar<\/a>. He wrote a book about the ii-V-I chord progression, and he would make us play that chord progression in 2nds, or in 4ths, 6ths, or in triads. I got used to using different intervals instead of just thinking about chords, but thinking about how the notes fit together and how they stack on top of each other. \nWhat is your favorite chord progression? \n <\/strong><\/h2>\n
\nI always try to encourage my students to think intervallically, which with all the information that we have with the guitar and with music, it can be really hard to think about the intervals.\nI try to encourage that with all my students. Pretty much every jazz standard is a ii-V-I. \u201cSatin Doll\u201d starts with ii-V.\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n