It has often been said that “those who can, do, and those who cannot, teach“. I’ve often suspected that this dubious assertion was first uttered by some classic type “A” personality; some work-driven, otherwise dysfunctional over-achiever who was more interested in promoting his/her own sterling resume than in making an accurate, relevant observation on the human condition. The phrase, I imagine, was subsequently picked up and propagated by other type “A” people with similar axes to grind. So now we typically hear these admittedly succinct yet ultimately insipid words bandied about as if they were obviously true.
Frankly, I think the assertion is patent-pending pony poo. I’ll explain why in my own round-about fashion.
From the tender age of 16 to the present day, I have often supplemented my income by teaching guitar. Many aspiring professional musicians also teach, driven to the trade by the vagaries of the music business itself. It can be very difficult to develop your chops, find your voice as an artist, and to then package that voice to meet market demands. In the meantime, there are those pesky bills to pay, and a dedicated musician often longs for some degree of constancy in the old cash flow to help make ends meet. Teaching the skill to which one has devoted so many hours provides an enjoyable way to do this, and also offers some degree of flexibility and freedom into the bargain. Beats punching a clock, to be sure.
There have been times when gigs kept me busy and I had neither time, need nor desire for teaching. I’ve always enjoyed when music paid the bills, of course, and I could put teaching on the back burner. But as with most musicians, there would inevitably come days in my career when I found myself between gigs, between bands (or to acknowledge the old joke, between girlfriends), and I would once again polish off the old resume, grab a few copies of Mel Bay, and go back into business as a teacher. At present, I am a music teacher again.
And in these days when so many Americans are finding their day-gigs being outsourced to God-knows where, and the job scene increasingly bleak, it is more comforting than ever to have what is fundamentally a service-oriented skill which can be sold locally with minimal set-up and start time. No great investment need be made to go into business. You need a couple of chairs in a quiet room somewhere, a music stand, a small amp for the electric players, and a small supply of teaching materials—method books, staff/tab paper, and a sharp #2 pencil. A boom box is handy to spin CDs. Add a phone and you’re good to go.
To really kick-start the enterprise, the better players will often find a local music store in which to ply their trade. Most importantly, it saves on advertising, as there will usually be a relatively steady stream of aspiring musicians of all ages coming through the door seeking instruction. The store supplies the teaching booth, the accoutrements, and the electricity in return for a small percentage of the take. It’s a perfect fit between merchant and artist that has been going on for as long as music shops have existed, as there’s no better way for a shop to sell an instrument than being in a position to show the buyer how to put their purchase to good use.
But back to the point I was hoping to make—the relationship between teacher and student, and the dynamic that is possible therein.
As I see it, these are the goals of any good music teacher:
- Befriend: At the most fundamental level, a student voluntarily places him/herself in the role of supplicant to the teacher, admitting the need for instruction and beseeching the teacher for help. A good teacher will accept this with humility, and go out of the way to put the student at ease. Developing at the outset an easy-going, friendly relationship with the student is crucial to this end. How this is done depends on the student, of course. One needs to relate to a young girl much differently than one would a man coming in after a day at the factory.
- Encourage: Anyone who has taken up the guitar (or any instrument) knows well the frustrations and self-doubts which usually ensue. I cannot count the number of people I have seen over the years who have succumbed to these unfortunate emotions, and subsequently have cut themselves off from reaching their true potential. A good teacher must always encourage the student to look beyond these feelings and keep their eye on the end goal—developing the talent they possess as best they can. This involves nurturing their attention span and helping them develop patience both with themselves and with the endeavor.
- Elucidate: Music is a universe unto itself; dark, unknown, and seemingly without end. A student will often experience feeling overwhelmed with the amount and complexity of the information to be absorbed. This feeling (mental and emotional) is compounded by the physical aspect of the endeavor—making the fingers accomplish that which the mind understands to be possible. Playing a guitar has no small amount of athletic requirements. Making a solid barre chord can take months of practice and strengthening of the arm and hand muscles for a young player. Hitting the right string together with both hands takes a good deal of fine motor skill and coordination. A competent teacher will clarify the mysteries of music, explaining the ethereal architecture of intervals, scales, chords and progressions, showing the student exactly how to perform the intricate finger dance needed to make a guitar sing.
- Inspire: For the teacher, this can be the easiest and most fun part of the gig, as all that is required is to perform some hot riffing for a moment or two so the student can see up close and personal the potential of the guitar, and hopefully gain some perspective on his/her potential on the instrument.
Why Those Who Can Both Do and Teach
There are so many great players in the world. Such artists seems to have been born with a particular aptitude for their instrument and for music in general. It would seem that with minimal effort, they pick up the instrument and music flows like water downhill. This talent is what makes them great artists, and it is a gift from the One that cannot be explained or transferred to another. Many of them never teach because their talent and perseverance has opened the doors of commercial success to them. Those upon whom fortune has so smiled seldom take the time to sit down and analyze what they do, breaking it down into digestible bits of information which can be transmitted to another. The stars who do also engage in teaching (putting out instructional videos, writing method books, etc) are rarities, and should be acknowledged for their service above and beyond the call of duty on our behalf.
But the world enjoys a relatively limited number of such players. There is a much larger number of similarly talented players upon whom fortune has not smiled so generously, who somehow managed to NOT be in the right place at the right time, and so find themselves not so flush with the cash needed to indulge themselves and enjoy the big time. Such players often turn to teaching, neither reluctantly nor with a feeling of resignation, but rather with a heart full of music and a deep need to keep the flame burning within themselves by sharing it with others. These player/teachers are found scattered throughout our country, holed up in home studios and music shops, patiently imparting the rudiments of their art to thousands of aspiring musicians.
Why the Web Sucks
For myself, I’ve always loved teaching music. I enjoy sharing the joys of making music with others, helping them develop their hands and mind so that they might be able to grasp this great mystery we call music and engage in this most wonderful means of human expression. In many ways, StringDancer is really just an extension of that endeavor, and ever since I first began writing instructional articles during my tenure as forum leader of AOL’s GTR area, I have tried to use the internet as a means to enhance my teaching tool box.
But in my heart, I remain unconvinced of the efficacy of internet-based music instruction resources compared to the dynamic of a teacher/student relationship. Even though the technology now exists for two-way audio/video interaction (in theory making online lessons possible), I suspect that an inordinate amount of time would be spent tweaking the lighting, camara and mic placement and other parameters required to attempt a virtual replication of a teacher and a student sitting down with a couple of guitars and a music stand with a dog-eared copy of Mel Bay sitting opened to a page, with the teacher scribbling out notes and diagrams personalized for the particular needs of the student that day.
Web-based resources can be of great value, no doubt about it. Well, at least unless we’re talking about the sort of hacked-together tablature commonly found online, which I typically find of questionable value and too often taken at face value by curious young players. That aside, I sure wish the web had been around when I was a fledgling player back in the 60s. Man, that would have been great for my musically voracious young mind! But after exploring this virtual world within which we presently meet, I find myself more convinced than ever that the traditional real-life teacher/student relationship is the best way to learn to play guitar.
We need more than brief sound bites and canned video clips to learn the art of playing guitar. We need to sit up close with a great player who is personally involved with our progress, who can critique our awkward techique on the fly and push our fingers around with the soft end of a well-worn pencil. Someone to grab our picking hand and show us how to keep our movements small and concise so we can increase our speed and accuracy with the plectrum. Someone to scan our entire body, observing our posture and stance to the instrument, looking at our playing from various angles to see the minute variations that no web-cam can pick up. Someone to share a joke with on the way into lesson and a word of encouragement on our way out. Someone we can call a friend and share a beer with afterhours.
So yeah, grab all you can from wherever you can. Steal those chops with impunity! Such has been the way of musicians since the beginning of time, and the web only enhances that dynamic—but cannot replace the human side of it. If you want to seriously improve your playing, find a local teacher who has the goods, pay the fees and start practicing in earnest.
Toward this end—you can search one of the largest online registrars of professional player/teachers, MusicStaff.com, with thousands of teachers from all around the country represented:
CLICK HERE TO SEARCH FOR A TEACHER NEAR YOU
Copyright 2005 Jeff Foster. All Rights Reserved.