Lessons from an MIT Grad

[ghodaddyyo]

Well, this thread has come up from parties interested in the instruction I'm receiving from a MIT Grad. My instructor has a degree for Professional Musician, and played for an 80's metal band called Hari Kari.

About my own experience, I've played guitar for 14 years, some years more serious than others. If you've read my past posts, you'd see that I've decided to begin anew and take the time to really learn the guitar, not just be content with learning from tab books and learning songs by ear. Having a good ear is a great tool, but it doesn't tell you how to construct a D#min7aug5 inverted chord substition (I don't even know if that's a real chord, but you get the point).

Pardon my long winded intro, but it's quite that simple. I'm beginning with basics so that I have a solid foundation. My first lesson consisted of learning several isometric hand, elbow, and finger stretches to loosen you up. I was given the Amin Pentatonic scale in the first 2 positions of the fretboard. I was taught to sit correctly, and finger the notes with my finger tips only (this ensures an optimum sounding note). My teacher made a point of identifying the root notes and insisting I commit them to memory for each position.

My teacher believes humans to have the attention span of approximately 7 minutes, before your full focus is taken from your task at hand. He suggests practicing scales no more than 5 minutes per scale position, and these he practices very, very slowly. The metronome was set for.... 42 bpm. This grindingly slow pace with emphasis on the perfect sounding note and timing, instills memory, both mind, and fingers. When your timer reaches 5 min., stop. Forget what you were working on and go about your routine of fiddling around or stretching before you move on to the next scale, and not to take in too much at once.

A final word on my teachers philosophy is, "Practice does not make perfect, perfect practice does".

[ghodaddyyo]

One thing I'd like to mention. I'm no spring chicken on the guitar. I played in a gigging band for nearly 3 years, and can learn fairly well by ear, as when my band gigged, there were no tablature pages on the internet, and only the filthy rich had access to the internet. I learned the old fashioned way; play, rewind, mimick, repeat.

I came to my second practice ready to impress. Right away, I'm given a warm up exercise which immediately challenges my dexterity http://www.zentao.com/ubb/Forum4/HTML/000017.html

After this, the 3rd position of the Amin Pentatonic scale is given. This time I'm to practice it along with rhythm changes ranging from whole notes to 8th notes, to 16th notes, one right after the other during the above mentioned 5 minute drill. I blew this left and right. When faced with a rythm change, my scale memory fell apart. This is what I've been practicing to perfect for this week. I'll keep you guys posted.

I wonder if my teacher would appreciate me posting this?

Now, I pose a question to you, what are the pros and cons of studying under a live teacher VS studying online? I do, both, but I seem to excell at having a "coach" around. Online studying allows me to scratch the surface.


[This message has been edited by ghodaddyyo (edited June 14, 2000).]

[StoneDragon]

You might pass it by your teacher and see if he has any objection to you posting stuff here... maybe have him check out the site and board to get a sense of the nature of things around here.

As to learning online vs learning from a real live teacher... I think that having a person there who can show you stuff and check your progress is absolutely the best way to go. The internet is more like learning from a book... with the added benefit of being able to talk to the author and ask questions about the material, have the book updated regularly, hear examples of how things should sound and in some cases watch video footage of things being played.

I just read an article in a newspaper where the journalist went online to see if she could learn to play guitar via the internet. She also consulted with area instructors to get their opinions on the matter. The article was cast in a very negative view of the whole thing, with the instructors acting like they were somehow threatened by the idea and needed to defend their turf or something.

I find that attitude very insulting. I learned how to play by copying songs off of records, digging through every theory book I could get my hands on and trying to figure out how to apply all this stuff onstage with a band. If I would have had access to 10% of the resources available on the internet today it would have saved me years of hunting and searching for a few answers. So, the idea that you can't possibly learn how to play online is just plain silly.

If I were actively teaching today, I would definitely integrate online learning with live lessons. I would put pages together that detailed each students lessons with pointers on exactly what they needed to be practicing each week, all the resource material that they needed, links to follow for further study.... you name it.

But it really comes down to the individual and how willing they are to pursue learning. I've tried to teach people who no matter what you did short of learning it for them just refused to budge. Others, you could give them a hammer, a nail and a 2"x4" and by the next week they would have turned it into a skyscraper.

[ghodaddyyo]

I wish I had the ability to absorb and comprehend music theory from a book like you did. It would save me a lot of money. As it is now, I buy all of these books that promise to be easy to understand, and they are for the first few chapters, before it turns into an incomprehensible mess.

[This message has been edited by ghodaddyyo (edited June 15, 2000).]

[geoffreyt]

Im new to guitar also. Ive had a guitar for about 4 years. I took lessons for 1 year, but I did not seem to make a lot of head way. The teacher liked beer and we worked to make his computer run better at every 3rd lesson. BUT, lo and behold there was a residual effect from these lessons. About a year ago I picked my interest back up and took to the interent for understanding. I seem to be mapping out my learning plan and following it on my own. I have learned some theory, open and Barre chords and I am now in the process of studying the Major scale and the 7 modes. I figure it will take me a few months to commit to memory the modes to the degree that they become useful. Im still gaining strength in my fingers to shoulder. Anyway, the long and short of it is that you can learn to play from the internet. But there is a time that instruction is without substitute. I wait for my progress to reach the point I am ready for instruction. One must know what one wants in order to seek it out! The statement "to play guitar" is just too broad. If someone wants to play, they will find a way. Oh, and I just bought a new guitar. A Gibson Blues Hawk. That will keep the interest sparked. Almost plays itself!

[StoneDragon]

Hmmm... I need to get one of those guitars that plays itself. That way I could still get in a good 8 hours a day practice time and still do all this typing and site maintenance http://www.zentao.com/ubb/smilies/alien.gif

Hey ghodaddyyo ... got any new crumbs you'd like to drop our way?

[ghodaddyyo]

Well, after spending about 30 minutes a day working on the 4 scale forms of Amin Pentatonic that I know, I took to jamming with a buddy. The results are so satisfying. I'm able to flow from one scale form to another and use so much more of the fretboard than I ever have before. I have one more scale form to learn and then my teacher will better help me understand how to move the forms to other keys. I'm already decent at this, but I have trouble figuring out the open/nut position in an improv situation.

I highly recommend studying scales the way I described above.

Now I need to learn more scales so that I don't get stuck in that constant blues mode!

[ghodaddyyo]

I thought I'd bring you guys up to speed with my lessons here. I have since learned the Min. Pentatonic scale, Blues scale, Maj scale, and now Min. Arpeggios. I have learned diminished scale runs and an endless amount of "licks".

Let me tell you where my lessons are really paying off. My teacher is strict about picking, hand/guitar position, and rhythm, rhythm, rhythm. My teacher is adamant about metronome work, mixing in whole notes, 1/2 notes, 1/4 notes, and triplets. This is an area of discipline I was not quick to catch on. After all, I used to play in a band, yada, yada, yada.

The importance of good rhythm became apparant when I had difficulty ending phrases on the right note, or comming out of a fast hammer-on, pull-off run. My phrases either seemed incomplete, or rushed to get the last note in.

I never thought I needed work on my Vibrato, but soon discovered the importance of this tool as well. It is in the Vibrato that you make your guitar "sing". Vibrato is the feeling and signature in which you mark your playing. Blues players... this is your thing. Your mojo.

I look forward to each lesson I have. My playing has dramatically improved with each new lesson, especially in areas such as confidence. The confidence of knowing where to go on the fretboard, as well as the confidence of having the tools needed to get my sentiments across in my playing.

[StoneDragon]

I had difficulty ending phrases on the right note, or comming out of a fast hammer-on, pull-off run. My phrases either seemed incomplete, or rushed to get the last note in.

Hey... Zappa made a whole career out of that style http://www.zentao.com/ubb/smilies/tongue.gif

It is way too cool the opportunity you are having to get with someone who really gets you to take a look at your playing like that. Keep them updates coming.