Teaching Summary

[Danny Poole]

Some teachers have a strict rule to how and what they teach and as a teacher this makes life much easier. Format to lessons are very important and you should always try to keep a written record of a student’s progress. This also helps if you have a large number of students and you need prompting on what was taught in previous lessons.

The 1st goal of every student is to play a song, as their teacher you should let the student know, it helps to play songs if you understand:

• notes and their timing
• the music staff or tablature and its symbols
• that you shouldn’t start playing until you know how to hold & place your finger on the instrument

These are three broad steps but it gives you an idea on what steps are involved when tutoring new students. I always explain to my beginner students that the first few lessons will be slow, even a little boring to some as we have to get the basics out of the way before we can move onto songs. After all this is why they have come to you for lessons, not to be bored but to learn the correct techniques. Having students understand the importance of learning the correct technique is a priority. I like to explain it like this; you can play the guitar with your thumb, one finger or even your nose if you want because most songs you’ll start off learning will be that easy. But once you’ve learnt the song you will then move on to a more difficult song. That song will probably require you to use two or three fingers, this means all that work you did learning with thumb, nose or one finger has gone to waste and now you have to relearn using two or three fingers (the correct technique). So in summary, if you learn using incorrect technique it will take you longer because you’ll have to keep on correcting your style as the styles and songs get harder.

I will always try to incorporate a student’s favorite songs into a lesson as soon as possible and base learning around that. If they’re more interested in what they’re learning then they will learn faster. It is a good idea to have at least 10 beginner songs for them to choose from if they can not think of one themselves. I find the hardest students to teach are lessons that like any form of heavy metal or screamer bands as these styles of music are usually,

• Fast
• Detuned
• Have odd or difficult timing
• Almost no easy (beginner) songs in these styles

Most of all, the people that like this style of music are usually in opposition to most other styles and this makes their learning scope narrow. For these types of students I will explain to them why they won’t be able to start on these styles and let them know that even some of their favorite guitarists started with simple songs first up. I also like to get a list of some of their favorite bands/guitarists and do a simple Google search on their influences. Usually you’ll find some easier songs & styles, then it relates to their favorite artist.

In other cases a student may not care about what he or she plays, this is good at first because it gives the teacher control over what to teach. I always encourage them to pick some of their favorite songs or styles to keep their interest level up in lessons.

As a teacher I would prefer to keep all lessons on finger exercises, playing technique, theory & scales for the first 6 months before even touching a song but then I wouldn’t have any students so it is a good idea to find a compromise between the two and don’t teach one more than the other.

I would be interested to hear other teachers or learners views on this!

[Vix]

I'm self-taught and have been learning for about a year now. I can't play many songs, compared to what a normal person could have learned in a year. For example, one of my cousins who has been learning for the same amount of time knows many more songs but no theory. Instead of concentrating on songs, I concentrated on the 'why'. I also taught myself to read music and I really improved in that as well. Now, I really don't regret it. Sure, I feel like a total fool when someone asks me to play a song and I'm like 'I know only a couple...' but in the end, I can probably beat them with my theory knowledge. :P I'm not saying I'm an expert by any means, though.

But maybe that's just me. Maybe other people need to constantly learn new songs (even if only simplified versions) in order to keep their interest there. I didn't need that. The simple fact that I was learning was enough. I must admit though that I wasted a lot of time when learning to switch between chords. I could have learned that by learning a song. But my rhythm sucked too much. >.<

I guess your method is even better! Learning songs and theory/technique/scales/ect. at the same time. After all, guitar IS about songs, in the end, hm?