When approached by someone interested in taking guitar lessons, it’s important that I determine what musical skills or experiences they may have already acquired. So I make it a point to ask a series of questions.
-
- Are you just starting out on guitar, or have you been playing for a bit?
- Have you played any other instruments in the past?
- If so, did you learn to read music notation, even a little?
- What would be your musical goal? IOW, why do you want to learn guitar?
The third question, did you learn to read musical notation, is perhaps the most fundamental of the lot. Generally speaking, I always encourage my students to learn to read music. There are other ways to learn that produce more immediate results, but they tend to be short-term injections of material (scales, chords and tunes) that mostly help the student only so long as they continue taking lessons.
When the student discontinues lessons (which is inevitable), they may have learned what the teacher taught them, but to a great degree remain unequipped to take that knowledge, understand it, take the reins of their own study and, in essence, teach themselves what they want/need to learn going forward, using the massive libraries of written music and instruction available today.
I’m talking about a musical literacy which, just as with literacy in our native tongue, gives you a massive advantage in understanding and using the language of music. I saw this in my own development as a musician early in life, and my half-century as a teacher continues to reinforce it.
My personal philosophy of teaching is this: If we both do our jobs, within two to three years my student should be equipped to strike out on their own, follow their muse, and advance their playing to suit themselves, no matter how ambitious their goals might be.
If you decide to take lessons with me, we can discuss this topic in greater detail. Frankly, if all you want to do is learn a few chords, how to strum and play songs you like, you can save yourself the bother of taking formal lessons and learn all that for free on YouTube. The cost of taking weekly lessons amounts to a considerable sum over time, and I want to know I’ve earned my money. I can best do this not so much by teaching you how to play songs (which happens in any event), but by teaching you how to teach yourself how to learn and play songs for a lifetime.
