Learning to play guitar?

Burning Down · 08-03-2013, 02:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheBig3

I assume both of you are coming at it from experience, but its not a good way to teach (imo). Sure, if a parent is forcing their child to learn it will work, but Rosetta Stone has taught more people to speak a language than traditional high school classes.

Done is better than perfect. Once a person enjoys doing something, they'll naturally want to improve. No one enjoys scale practice.

But how do you know it's the wrong way to teach? You don't teach instruments right? There are a lot of wrong ways to teach an instrument and I've had some bad teachers myself - the kind who throw a challenging piece of music up on the stand and then expect me to play it perfectly, even though they never coached me through the proper technical exercises to get there. Or the ones who stand there and say to improvise in some ridiculous key for that instrument without reviewing the scale in question. Guitar and other stringed instruments do not have this problem with wacky keys, as all the scale patterns are the same for every key.

I want all my students to excel but I don't expect them to be perfect. Some are better than others. There's nothing wrong with constructing a lesson plan that includes learning theory and then tweaking it based on the individual student's needs, abilities, and what they'd like to learn.

At the very least I'd recommend getting someone to show you proper posture and playing technique. It's really easy to injure yourself overtime when an instrument is played wrong, especially guitar because there is a lot of strain on the fretting hand and the wrist.