Teaching Philosophy
Learning to play music for the first time can seem daunting. I use a method of teaching guitar developed over 25 years which encourages and breaks the process into small steps. After all, playing music is one of the most fulfilling and ultimately rewarding things to do. This can be socially with other people or just playing for your own pleasure. In fact even people who claim to be unaffected by music will have sung along with others in one context or another.
Its no coincidence that so many people across the world have learned to play the guitar. This is due in large part to the nature of the guitar itself – they are portable and relatively inexpensive, but also to its verstility as an instrument – a singaround at a party, the solo during “Hotel California”, Robert Johnson playing the blues at the crossroads, John Williams playing “Cavatina” (the theme from the film The Deerhunter), to whatever music makes the soundtracks to your days.
It looks like a long road, but takes a suprisingly short time from learning your first chords, to playing your first songs (and most songs can be played very effectively with only 3 chords) to picking out more complex melodies. When I was learning to play, I also found that the pleasure I got from listening to music was greatly increased by my new found musical knowledge. This experience is shared by many musicians i have spoken to since, and one that has only increased over time.
So, if you want to learn to play the guitar, there are two main ways of learning:
1. The self taught (or informal lessons) route,
2. The lessons route
These shouldn’t be thought of as mutually exclusive. They co-exist together in different amounts depending on a few factors:
The Style of Music
Its not a secret that some styles of music are more associated with formal training than others. The obvious example being classical music, and to a slightly lesser degree, jazz. Both of these genres demand a high level of technical expertise, and i’m sure you’ll agree that the idea of a classical concert guitarist that has had no training is an unlikely one. What is not unlikely, however, is a guitarist, through a mixture of guitar lessons (as opposed to classical training), learning from other sources (internet, other musicians), and a good bit of practise attains such a high level of techinical expertise and musicianship that they can play classical music or anything else they want on the guitar.
There is formal training, and qualifications, available in most styles of music these days. I just picked classical music out as the style most associated with formal training on any instrument.
A kind of Mentality
Some musicians, when asked if they’ve had lessons, take a lot of pride in saying that they’re entirely self taught. Some may genuinely be, but I think for the most part, people learn through a number of sources similar to above. There are many resources available through the internet, that offer the tablature (sheet music written for the guitar) and video lessons .
So with this wealth of resources, why take guitar lessons? The most simple answer to this is that a good teacher will decrease the amount of time it takes you to progress….lessons can remove months of frustration, demonstrating fundamentals to a guitar newbie or a specific technique to a player at any stage.
The main thing about learning music is that it is not a linear process. There isn’t a beginning, an order to learn everything in to arrive at an end point. There is, of course, a starting point which is usually some chords or a melody, but after that it is often easier and more satisfying to learn from a number of angles simultaneously. For instance, this could be using the chords to the introduction to Stairway to Heaven, to get familiar with the scale for the solo and an introduction to fingerstyle guitar playing. Not all at the same time of course, but using each one to understand how it all fits together.
Most people have a goal in mind when they start playing, which may be to learn a specific song, get good at a technique, or start writing their own songs. Lessons are structured to achieve these goals, while also developing a wider guitar technique, so learning one musical phrase or solo will clear the way to playing others with little extra work.
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