Thursday, February 28, 2013

Every guitar/music teacher’s . . . . .

022813_001  "I'm not really into jazz, but I respect it and I want to learn to incorporate some jazz ideas in my lead playing' -Every Failing Jazz Student.

Tab isn't for sight reading. If you have to look at it then it's because you don't know it.

You don't have to understand why C=Am.... I'm just asking that you believe me.

I'm not upset because you're not getting it. I'm upset because you never tried it.

No, you have to play all the notes. There are eight notes on the page. You can't stop after three notes every time. You have to play all of them.

I didn't write out the bassline to 'Shots' by Lil Jon for my health. I wrote it because YOU suggested it. Don't make me report to your parents that you need to work harder on your gangsta rap riffs....as if it was my idea to base your guitar curriculum off Lil Jon synth lines. I just wanna give you something you'll play.....

I'm not expecting you to play with perfect rhythm. I do expect you to play with an 'awareness' of rhythm. That means playing the first note and trying to get to the next note with some minimal urgency. Play it like you care whether or not you get to the end. Don't play one note and look up for approval....

I didn't ask you tell me about your week. I asked if you played your instrument this week. I'm not interested in why you didn't play your instrument, just whether you played it or not. Also, it's not your mom's fault you couldn't play.

If you have to take your jacket off in between switching chords....then you don't have it yet. Try it again.....

Until you play it a couple hours a day....my response to your question will be 'gee, I dunno, try playing it a couple hours a day and see if that helps.'

Most of what we do in our lesson isn't hard... But you'll never realize that if you never try it.

How much could you have practiced if you can't remember what we worked on last week?

Reading the numbers out loud on the tab from start to finish won't help you play it. You need to touch your hands to the fretboard to get started.

You have to try it again....once isn't enough for anyone to get it right. Try again....we have 20 minutes left. And please, don't waste so much time in between tries....

The above were grabbed from a guitar teacher’s facebook postings.  Well said, Eric.

No comments:

Post a Comment