Follow Up: How Good Should a Guitar Teacher Be?
Ask the Readers
Last week, I posted a poll asking how good should your guitar teacher be? Not a ton of votes, but the results seem to indicated that it depends. Several very good points were made in the comments: James said that, “The best teachers are the ones that can inspire you and open the doors to […]
Read MoreMonday Motivation: Duo Edition
Monday Motivation
“Shit happens, and if we just want to restrict ourselves to things where shit can’t happen…we’re not going to do anything very interesting.” -Laurence Gonzales, from Deep Survival I’ve happened upon several news stories about the Brasil Guitar Duo lately. So I was pumped to find them on youtube. This is a video of them […]
Read MoreChanging Your Binding
Classical Guitar Practice Tips
I don’t really understand the way they bind books of music. Without a coil binding or something similar, the book doesn’t stay open on the on the stand. And every time I make copies of music I misplace them (and all my fingerings and notes on the score), so I like to work from the […]
Read MoreLinkage: 5/1/09
Guitar Related Links
Did you know that Mel Bay has an online guitar magazine? I didn’t. It’s free. Check it out: guitarsessions.com. Matt Marvuglio, dean of Berklee’s performance division, wrote a great article on Memorizing Music. It’s interesting stuff. Essentially the process is about describing the music to yourself. As someone on twitter put it: it’s really about […]
Read MoreThree Etudes
Updates & Activities
I had to write some etudes for and end of semester project in Guitar Pedagogy, so I thought I’d share. I’m no composer, so be warned! The etudes are an intermediate level. The first deals with music in two voices and thumb/fingers RH alternation. The melody should be a bit louder than the bass. This […]
Read MoreFor Teachers: Choose Words Carefully
Guitar Teaching
The subtitle of those post would be how the right words can say the wrong things. This is an especially important topic for those teaching young people. During my guitar pedagogy class this semester we discussed quite a few things. But one of the first was about developing technique. Playing the guitar is not a […]
Read MoreSeven (very important) Reasons to Get a Guitar Teacher
Guitar Teaching
Repertoire Many guitarists injure themselves or build in bad habits by playing pieces beyond their level. Good repertoire will offer challanges, but also things that are easily accomplished. To take that further, current repertoire should include both easy and challenging pieces. A teacher will be able to choose effective repertoire that’s just what a student […]
Read MoreHow Good Should Your Guitar Teacher Be?
Ask the Readers
How good should your guitar teacher be? Should he/she be a virtuoso? I’ve often thought about this, and I’d like to see what others think. I had a good teacher during undergrad who did a great job of getting me excited about guitar. He was a good musician who forced me to think. My current […]
Read MoreMonday Motivation: Piazzolla Edition
Monday Motivation
“The important thing is for the student to do, with conviction, what he feels to be necessary for his complete self-expression. Such a procedure will be of more value, to him and to others, than his blindfold imitation of any prevailing fashion of the moment, which today may be new, but tomorrow already tarnished and […]
Read MoreOdair Assad: Kenmore, WA Concert Report
Ask the Readers
This is a guest post from Rich and Evelyn, two active members over at the Delcamp Guitar Forum. They had the opportunity to see Odair Assad in concert. Odair Assad Kenmore, WA 22 April 2009 About six weeks ago during a lesson, Kevin Callahan mentioned that Odair Assad had a break in his schedule and […]
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