A question to teachers..

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  • DulcetJonesDulcetJones Frets: 515
    A recent development that started happening last year for me, an adult student who was struggling with a basic strumming pattern asked if she could video my hands with her phone playing the pattern slowly for a few bars.  I agreed and she came back the following week playing it perfectly.  She has since done this with several technique issues and is excelling.  I've started suggesting this to some of my other students and have made some real improvements happen.  Some of them now bring an iPad to video my hands on.  My hands are video stars now....., but seriously, this works. 

    “Theory is something that is written down after the music has been made so we can explain it to others”– Levi Clay


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  • LestratcasterLestratcaster Frets: 1079
    Yep, I always encourage learners to film on their phones but very few take the chance to do it, citing "they'll remember it..." only to come back the next week and its not right or they've forgotten it. Use technology when you can, as an aid not a replacement for playing well!
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  • VibetronicVibetronic Frets: 1036
    I'd probably give it a few more lessons and see how it goes; it may be just that stuff needs to sink in a bit more, or his teaching style really isn't for you. Personally, if he's playing most of the time, I'd have some doubts about that, but it may work for some people. I try and only play to demonstrate something, and prefer the student to do most of the playing as I'm just there to help and that's what I'm being paid for; so it's more talking than playing on my part, generally. Do you get notes/handouts to take home and work on, or is he relying on you remembering everything? If it's the latter, you could just be blunt and ask for him to write stuff down so you have something tangible to work on, rather than you relying on your memory (and remember you're paying him for this - I make sure I'm well prepared and have handouts ready for every lesson, otherwise it'd be like studying for an A-Level in something without any textbooks or reference material!).
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  • LuttiSLuttiS Frets: 2243
    Yeah i get handouts, scale diagrams and such, as well as being told to email any time with questions etc..  I'm going to stick with it for now, as to be fair i did ask for theory and improvisation, and he is showing that. Not a huge choice of teachers in the area either.
    Just think i'm going to have to be a little more blunt in the lessons, perhaps at the start discuss the lesson plan and what we want to achieve by the end or something. 

     
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  • BlueingreenBlueingreen Frets: 2582
    I only took a few lessons, maybe 3 or 4, when I first started playing.  I was busking pentatonics, learning basic chord shapes, trying to cop licks from John Mayall albums and making what felt like decent progress and I thought a teacher might speed things up.

    So I went along and basically he  started teaching me how to read notation in the first position.  And I thought, this isn't taking me where I want to go and quit.  My teacher wanted me to be a good all round guitarist in 5 years.  I wanted to be in a Rolling Stones cover band in six months.

    While I can totally understand why young me made that decision and can't really criticise myself for it, it was a big mistake.  I've absolutely no doubt I'd have ended up a far better player if I'd stuck with the lessons.  But it's easy to be in a hurry.
    “To a man with a hammer every problem looks like a nail.”
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  • LestratcasterLestratcaster Frets: 1079
    I have never taught any of my learners to read notation, not even for grades as its all in diagrams/guitar tab format. Unless they want to be a professional session musician I can't see much benefit from it, as 90% of my learners play for their own enjoyment. My first steps are get them playing something asap, and strengthen their rhythm skills as that's what makes up 95% of guitar. Drummers who want to learn guitar are good to teach as they already have a good a understanding of rhythm and timing.

    If I was that tutor I probably would have got you playing some tunes using scales and enhancing the theory.
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  • Phil_aka_PipPhil_aka_Pip Frets: 9794
    I have never taught any of my learners to read notation, not even for grades as its all in diagrams/guitar tab format. Unless they want to be a professional session musician I can't see much benefit from it, as 90% of my learners play for their own enjoyment. My first steps are get them playing something asap, and strengthen their rhythm skills as that's what makes up 95% of guitar. Drummers who want to learn guitar are good to teach as they already have a good a understanding of rhythm and timing.

    If I was that tutor I probably would have got you playing some tunes using scales and enhancing the theory.
    You serious ??!?? You're failing to develop the capability to read music for other instruments, or for them to communicate with non-guitarists! Why is it always guitarists who think that reading music isn't necessary? Everyone else learns it, why shouldn't we?
    "Working" software has only unobserved bugs. (Parroty Error: Pieces of Nine! Pieces of Nine!)
    Seriously: If you value it, take/fetch it yourself
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  • LestratcasterLestratcaster Frets: 1079
    I have never taught any of my learners to read notation, not even for grades as its all in diagrams/guitar tab format. Unless they want to be a professional session musician I can't see much benefit from it, as 90% of my learners play for their own enjoyment. My first steps are get them playing something asap, and strengthen their rhythm skills as that's what makes up 95% of guitar. Drummers who want to learn guitar are good to teach as they already have a good a understanding of rhythm and timing.

    If I was that tutor I probably would have got you playing some tunes using scales and enhancing the theory.
    You serious ??!?? You're failing to develop the capability to read music for other instruments, or for them to communicate with non-guitarists! Why is it always guitarists who think that reading music isn't necessary? Everyone else learns it, why shouldn't we?
    Yes I am. Unless you class rhythm reading as notation then yes its important but not the notes on the lines and stuff. I reckon if I did that from the first day many learners would quit!! I'm saying there's not just benefit TO THEM if they're only playing rock tunes for fun.
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  • Phil_aka_PipPhil_aka_Pip Frets: 9794
    That's a bit like teaching your kids to boil eggs and do beans-on-toast and then letting them leave home knowing only a fraction of what they could do in the big bad world outside. Once upon a time all I wanted was rock riffs, but now I also want jazz standards and those nice classical tunes. I would have no access to them if I hadn't been taught to read, and wouldn't be able to communicate with real musicians who don't use tab.
    "Working" software has only unobserved bugs. (Parroty Error: Pieces of Nine! Pieces of Nine!)
    Seriously: If you value it, take/fetch it yourself
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  • BlueingreenBlueingreen Frets: 2582
    I have never taught any of my learners to read notation, not even for grades as its all in diagrams/guitar tab format. Unless they want to be a professional session musician I can't see much benefit from it, as 90% of my learners play for their own enjoyment. My first steps are get them playing something asap, and strengthen their rhythm skills as that's what makes up 95% of guitar. Drummers who want to learn guitar are good to teach as they already have a good a understanding of rhythm and timing.

    If I was that tutor I probably would have got you playing some tunes using scales and enhancing the theory.
    It was a different era.  In a medium sized city I knew of no-one teaching electric guitar.  The teacher I went to was a good electric player (jazz) and all round musician who went on to head up the jazz faculty at a university, but he wouldn't teach electric (once you'd established a relationship with him he'd pass on useful advice on electric, but the core lessons would have been classical).

    Having said that, I disagree about reading: I taught myself to read (much later) and even though I'm not a great reader I think it's been hugely valuable.  I play in a swing band which is a reading gig for most of the other players and a jazz/fusion quintet where keys bass and sax are all reading at least some of the material.  My reading skills are good enough to be a big help in learning the material, but nowhere near good enough to sight-read anything I haven't already learned at my own pace.  I dearly wish I'd learned to read properly as a kid, when it would have come a lot easier.
    “To a man with a hammer every problem looks like a nail.”
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  • LestratcasterLestratcaster Frets: 1079
    edited July 2018
    Well for most of my learners playing rock tunes is enough for them, they never stay long enough to be able to want to become a jazzer or read music. I do use tab, rhythm stems, chord charts and diagrams, just not the dots.
    It pays the bills and keeps them interested for the duration they're with me.
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  • BlueingreenBlueingreen Frets: 2582
    Yeah I'm seeing it from my own perspective.  I've been an on-and-off player, going years (decades!) of not playing but on the whole I've still taken it more seriously than the guy who just wants to play a bit of rhythm on a few tunes for his own amusement.
    “To a man with a hammer every problem looks like a nail.”
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  • VibetronicVibetronic Frets: 1036
    I think reading is really useful - wish I could do it better. I can read, slowly - learned as a child - definitely a useful skill to have, and even being able to read slowly has come in very handy. In the context of lessons though, I've barely used it. I do offer it, but generally students (the ones I have, anyway) don't want to learn it, and just want to learn songs they like/styles they like for fun, and don't want to read music. I do have a couple of younger students who've dabbled - one actually asked to learn it, but getting him to keep his attention on it is another matter as it's a fairly dry subject imo. I always try and teach the rhythmic aspect of it though, as that's definitely invaluable (again, imo) whether you read properly or not. I did have an older student who wanted to read, and we started on that, but it was really only to tide her over until she found a proper classical guitar tutor. Which I am definitely not :)
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  • DulcetJonesDulcetJones Frets: 515
    I don't push note reading but I do try to get students to pay attention to the chapter on time and how to count.  I'm a reasonably fluent sight reader but in recent years no students want to go that route.  One surprise a few years ago, I had a 15 year old that was starting bass lessons.  After a few lessons using just tab it was looking like he wasn't really getting it and he suggested we start from scratch with notes.  Within a year he was playing in a cover band doing "Rage Against the Machine" etc, and killing it.(in a good way)

    “Theory is something that is written down after the music has been made so we can explain it to others”– Levi Clay


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  • LestratcasterLestratcaster Frets: 1079
    The thought of reading notation scares learners sometimes, so its only rhythm reading, tabs and chord charts I normally do. Rhythm notation is probably the one I stress the most as it doesn't matter what it is you're playing or what style it has to be in time and accurate. Some can learn by just watching my hands but I will always do the tab and rhythm so its there.
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