Back In My Day is a late level 3, early level 4 piece that incorporates all level 3 techniques and literacy, as well as introducing note reading on strings 4, 5 and 6. It could be used to move some students into level 4 while encouraging other students to spend more time practicing alternation. This piece started with a melody that a 6th grade student at Bedichek Middle wrote for a class assignment. The guitar 1 part repeats the melody exactly as written by the student.
After the melody was transcribed, it was given to another class to create content based on this melody. One 7th grade student’s idea was to quote “Neptune Run”, a piece she had remembered from 6th grade (guitar 2 m. 5), another 7th grade student had an idea for a chromatic bassline part (guitar 3 m.16), and a third student created the chord progression that the ‘C Section’ is based on (A Major, Am7, Em, C, D7). Once all ideas were compiled and arranged, the class was asked to name this piece. They voted on Back In My Day, as a not-so-subtle reference to the way adults sometimes talk-down to young people.