I’m going to be blunt in this short article. It is about appreciation for music. Some people may say that beauty is in the eye (or ears in this case) of the beholder. I wish to refute that, at least in this context of music.

I contend that there are criteria by which music can be considered good. For it is an art, and any art that is beautiful wasn’t made so by delusion or accident. There are conditions by which something will be considered beautiful by a group [1].

If you think you will be offended in any way, I advise that you stop reading now. If not, read on.

Musical Roots of our Ancestors

I don’t think that it was a fluke that rhythmic patterns and music arose spontaneously in basically every single human culture around the world. From the bongo drums of Africa to the pipes of the church organ, we find that there are only so few rhythmic patterns that really arise.

Tune in to any pop station, and I bet you will hear some form of the standard 4 beat rhythm in the background in at least 99.99% of the songs.

My point is that these things don’t arise randomly; there is an underlying mechanism governing what we term as good music.

Appreciating Musical Theory

Because of this, we can actually dissect and try to explain why things sound that way. Out of this was born music theory.

As a few basic examples, a major scale sounds different from a minor scale, the former may sound brighter and more cheery. To take it a little further, various cadences make different sounds, for example a 2nd inversion perfect 5th chord to a 1st inversion root chord will sound like your classical ending chords in classical music.

You can even say that there are certain ways to distinguish different styles, of music. For example, Jazz players often like various diminished scales, and will be using a C7 instead of a C chord. Or they may do some improvisations on pentatonic scales, whereas classical players may prefer the Mixolydian minor scales. [2]

Pardon the more technical jargon of the previous two paragraphs, but let me make a point that the Mixolydian mode was first describe in Ancient Greece, used by some classical musicians, and is also the mode by which some modern guitarists use to write their songs. The Song ‘Sweet Child of Mine’ is one of those.

What I am saying is that this theory is Universally applicable. If you had all the musical knowledge at your fingertips, and could think of each scale in terms of the way certain frequencies of notes blend together, then you could make any sort of music that you wanted to make.

After all, the reason why we think some combinations of notes sound ‘wrong’ together is simply because of the innate dissonance of putting two or more non-complementing frequencies of notes together. Yes, music is math, and math is always perfect.

What distinguishes the Musicians from the Laymen

A layman with no musical education can easily appreciate music for its emotionally stimulating qualities. However, he/she will not see the musical structure behind the playing past the basic rhythms.

The experienced musician who has been exposed to this sort of theory understands how and why each note sounds and the way they interact with each other, both as a creator and listener. This is not dependent upon whether or not they had a formal education (and therefore know the theory formally), for the experience of creating music is the thing that leaves the impression upon the guitarist. Sooner or later, he/she will start to appreciate the patterns that are in music.

Because of this, things which sound completely indistinguishable to the layman becomes clear to the musician. A fast guitar solo may just be a long string of musical orgasm to the layman, but it is a clearly and precisely put together piece of musical progression to the musician. That in itself means that the musician is capable of appreciating something which the layman cannot.

Finally, there is the numinous quality to music which only the musician can appreciate. It’s that sort of feeling that leaves you wondering, “how the hell did he/she do that?” It arises because we have some knowledge of how, but yet could not comprehend how much further the art could be taken.

It was the same sort of feeling that many people got when they got their first ipod. The elegance blew them away, because it shows us the wonder that can arise from design principles which we recognise but cannot duplicate ourselves. It is the reason why we are particularly attracted to various arrangement of words like, “No man who ever held the office of President would congratulate a friend on obtaining it.” It is the same feeling which scientists get when they discover some new truth and then realise that there is so much more to be found.

That ‘so much more to be found’ is the essence of why we are blown away by some things. Any step towards that elusive state of transcendence simply excites the bearer of such knowledge. That is precisely the kind of appreciation for music that musicians can get. We as musicians simply ‘feel it’, regardless of whether we know how to describe it (I don’t think I fully know how to either).

Concluding Remarks

I must say that there are two main implications for what I have said. The first is that the more you know about something the more you want to know, and the more you can appreciate it. I believe this is true across all fields.

The final implication is that there are also going to be set rules by which one goes about composing music. But that is a topic for another day.

For now, do respect that if you have never created music, you will never appreciate it to its fullest. [3]

***

Notes:

[1] There may be individual nuances, but for something to be considered beautiful by something like say, 10,000 people (like there are in a small music niche), there must certainly be some key defining characteristics.

[2] This is a very big generalisation, yes. But I simply wanted to point out a scale not often used in Jazz.

[3] In this case, I do not refer to the current value by which one can derive from music. The powerlifter getting psyched up for a max lift, the yoga practitioner seeking inner calm, all can rely very fruitfully on the emotional rewards of music. That is an indispensable and very important part of the musical experience in my opinion.

At the same time, let us not forget the other side, which I say again, is largely inaccessible to those who have never created music.

No related posts.

In the previous article, I talked about how to practice like the Pros.

In this short (very short) article, I outline what I’ve felt are the 5 principles which helped me the most in getting my playing to be more consistent.

Because most people play the guitar as a hobby and often don’t have the luxury of sitting around for 10 hours a day doing nothing but the guitar, we need to learn to make the most use of our time. I would expect most people to probably have 30-60 minute blocks of time to practice, and this article is addressed to that group.

Of course, if you have longer blocks and apply these principles, you obviously still stand to gain. So here we go.

1. Practice lots of different and hard stuff

Practice tapping. Practice alternate picking. Then move to sweep picking. Then try doing sweep picking patterns using alternate picking. Try exclusively hammer-on/pull-off licks. ETC (try this link for ideas)

Stuff tends to complement, eg: outside picking complements alternate picking 3 note scales. You thus save time by doing this.

2. Drills before Songs

Practicing various licks and drills does two things:

1. They serve as a warm up.
2. They make the song ‘seem easier’ in comparison, especially the technical parts

Very likely, doing strict drills nails down the technique for a song and leaves room for further improvement. This wouldn’t be the case if you strictly try to practice a song, especially given people’s tendency to make it sound ‘good enough’.

In essence, drills breed perfection that carries over to your other playing.

3. With drills – repeat x 20 and move on

If you are doing a 4 bar scale, repeat it 20x, trying to get faster each time, then move on regardless of how good you’ve done. Don’t come back during this practice session.

Improvements happen over time, usually at the bare minimum over a day or two. This capitalises on the spacing effect and saves you time.

In this case, I urge you to try this method of practice for 1 week and see if after that week you have made great improvements in short time.

4. Have a specific set of drills which you must go through in every session

These should obey the first 3 principles. This is most importantly a reminder of what core skills need to be practiced before moving on.

5. Focus and Repeat Ad-Infinitum

This should be a no-brainer but it’s worth mentioning. Consistency is key, and results are not manifested until Years (yes! YEARS!) later.

This comes from my hypothesis that there are two successful groups of musicians. One group who is born talented and is given the time and resources to excel. And the other group who goes out of their way to stick to a certain practice schedule forever.

You and I would be much better off having a consistent, daily schedule something like this:

Scale up or down depending on needs and don’t forget to experiment.

So try it (if you haven’t already have a good schedule like this), for just 1 WEEK, and you will see this difference. I certainly did.

Related posts:

1. No time to practice? Great! – proper spacing of practice
2. Recording Your Own Practice Sessions

My Methodology for Practicing the Guitar has shifted over the years. Looking back, I see how each method was affected by its context.

However, nowadays, I believe that I need to practice like the Professional Guitarists [1] out there. Namely, my technical fluency must be comparable to that of the pros. This MUST be achieved by consistent practicing of scales and specific patterns.

That is the distinction between an amateur and a pro. A professional plays his part PERFECTLY, while an amateur plays the part so that it sounds good enough to a common audience.

If you want to skip my story and just get to know what to do, skip down to the section, “What I Should have Done”. If you’re interested in a good story, read on.

How good do you want to be?

The logical question from this is how good do you want to be? Certainly, not everybody wants to be as good as a professional guitarists. More importantly, not everybody has the time to reach that level.

It has been opined that it takes 10,000 hours to reach mastery, about 9 years of practicing 3 hours a day. Many people look at guitarists like Paul Gilbert and wonder what trick they used to get that good. I think it more likely that someone like him has been playing and drilling consistently for decades to reach that level. If you take a look at most professional guitarists, the most common feature is that they focus as hard as they can for blocks of time in drilling a certain set of skills.

What I did through the years

I did not bring this mindset to the table when I started out. I started playing guitar when I was 14, and being the typical high school kid, I wanted to look cool. My mission then was to be someone who was fit (I was in track and field), smart (get good grades), and yet was well versed in music. I was playing the piano at this point in time, but everybody played the piano.

Becoming the ‘best’ electric guitarist in school was a straight ticket to greatness.

Hence, my focus was:
(1): Play popular songs that were just out of the reach of most guitarists
(2): Get good enough with all sorts of techniques (bending, vibrato, sweep picking!, etc)
(3): Play only the songs that I loved playing so that I would continually play them

At the time, the song Canon in D by Jerry C was really popular, so I shot for that song. I ended up performing it in front of the school at the beginning of Year 10 (secondary 4), only about 13 months after strumming my first note. The vid is still up on youtube.

What I did ‘right’

One notable feature was that I progressed at an astounding rate compared to my other friends who were took guitar lesson or were classically taught. I think there were four reasons.

First, instead of practicing scales, I practiced songs. I played things that were practical. Because of this, I learned all sorts of techniques, from economical picking (which I now don’t use), to bending, to tapping to sweeping. These complimented each other and helped me progress faster.

Second, I went on to something new when I though I was good enough, not when someone else (teacher) thought I was good enough. I also recorded some of my playing, to see if people would think that I was good enough. This meant that my playing was very good to the layman, though a professional might disapprove.

Third, because I was playing all the songs that I loved (Iron Maiden was my favourite), I put in probably 1-2 hours on weekdays and up to 6 hours on weekends.

Fourth, I had a musical background to begin with, and am blessed with pretty big hands. I have to face the fact that I was already a piano player and thus my finger dexterity was better than most. I also knew how to ‘play by feel’ to a certain extent. Lastly, my left index finger to my pinky can stretch comfortably from the 5th to the 12th fret on most electric guitars.

These came together to make me look like I was a great player to most people, and it won me a reputation as one of the better players in the state.

The Good and the Bad

I now reflect back on that and see that I did many things that were good for my technique and others that were bad.

Let’s talk about the bad first.

Because I practiced so many things to the level of good and not great, my technique was sloppy when it came to the task. Of course, no one caught this, since playing at high speeds seems magical to most people, including fellow guitarists [2]. That bred the next problem, which was that I thought that I could continue on doing this.

Because I was seen as a great guitarist for a high school kid, everything was really good, and it fed my ego as well as some bad habits which I had to eventually unlearn (which I’m doing now). Either way, if I continued doing what I was doing, I wouldn’t get much better.

The good was that by doing things so broadly, I obviously got a lot of attention. Playing at various gigs as a 16 year old was a seriously fun thing to do. At the same time, because of my wide interest and background in music theory, I wrote some of my own songs which I also played in front of various audiences.

What I Should Have Done

However, something changed when I got out of high school, and that was the realisation that if I wanted to be good, I had to be as good as the professionals. I was being judged in a whole different way, more demanding and ruthless.

I then realised that I had to take a good look at my practicing methodology.

This is when I started to take the lessons I saw online more seriously. I decided to practice without effects, which make you sound better than you really are, and practice with a clean guitar sound. I paid attention to every note that I hit wrongly and every time I did not play something in time. I also tried to practice many different scales and licks. My favourite list of such can be found at guitar dreams, with part 1, and part 2. These exercises have now formed the foundation of every practice session.

Finally, I experimented with various ways of picking and fretting. From all alternate picking, to economical. From pick angle, to how hard I picked to the plane in which I picked. And so on. I focused on getting things right with the least amount of tension and to be able to play each one consistently well. I really blocked out periods of time where all I did was focus on practicing guitar. This naturally served to bolster and re-ignite my passion for playing, and it is what I want to do in the future.

Finally, and probably most importantly, I look up to several guitarists who can be qualified as virtuosos and recognise that in due time (probably 7-10 years from now), I will be able to be at a comparable level to these people.

What I should have done back then was to integrate these two approaches. I should have structured my practice sessions such that half of it was strict technical work and half of it was playing anything I liked. This would have kept the interest level high, advanced my technique, and yet made me look good in front of my peers.

Hence, I do not think that the traditional method of teaching is the most optimal. A traditional teacher will bring the learner through a set step of progressions which may or not be conducive for the equally important parameters of technique and interest level. One without the other is certainly going to leave the learner ultimately dissatisfied.

With that, I wish you good luck, and I hope that this story can help you review your practice methods for better progress.

****

Notes:
[1] Professional Guitarists here is referring to the professional guitarists which I draw inspiration from. These tend to be the instrumentalists, most notably, Paul Gilbert, Steve Vai and Buckethead.

[2] I have found that when you first start out learning something at a high speed, it all sounds like a mess. When you reduce it down to lower tempos, it doesn’t sound like anything with any resemblance to the original piece at all. Once you do learn it, you can distinctly hear and recognise each note, but yet played slow and fast, the same series of notes sounds different. This distinction must be even more blurry for those who are not musically inclined.

Related posts:

1. Practicing the Guitar Seated vs Standing
2. 5 rules for Time-Efficient Practice

Though I must say that my level of intelligence isn’t poor, neither is it outstanding.

I certainly could not compete with many of the academic geniuses I knew in my high school. They were the few who could memorise and recall information so fluidly that learning came so easily.

So I decided to try and find ways of hacking my learning to make up for this difference. Very soon, I discovered that the principles I was using not only applied to my academic coursework, but also other fields, like music.

This e-book is a short consolidation of that intention. What I present is a 30 page package with tips on the vague subject of learning, coming from my own experience.

If you want a 1 sentence summary of the message of the book (If you’re too lazy to even read 30 picture-filled pages), it is this:

Decide today, not tomorrow, to take control of your learning, and to patiently experiment to see what works best for you.

I hope this hopes anyone brave enough to venture into the dark mysteriously world of how your mind learns.

Without further adieu, Here is: Learn Like a Pro v1.0.

Click Here to Download PDF

Apply these and WIN!

No related posts.

You really don’t know what you sound/look like until you have recorded a video of yourself and then watched it.

This is a short post, because it only has one message: Every set interval (I do it once a week), record a video of your practice sessions and then watch it.

You will probably be surprised about how stupid you really sound (I found out the hard way by seeing a video of a performance I did. I was thinking, “People were watching THAT!”)

Of course, the final goal is straightforward: To see your own performance in the eyes of the audience (this applies to any type of performance like a speech, etc)

So remember, we don’t know how we look, sound or anything else for that matter…

Related posts:

1. No time to practice? Great! – proper spacing of practice

Your mind is a bounding bunny,
so innocent and meek.
It hops off in a hurry,
for it doesn’t know what to seek.

With a care, wandering hare,
bouncing from peak to peak.
But stop to ponder, the bunny can’t muster,
and its end is sad and bleak

TYW

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The bunny represents knowledge learned recently, and the pillars represent a memory recall practice session.

The analogy is describing a phenomenon, whereby learning is best done in particular intervals of time. These intervals represent the optimal spacing of practice sessions for the most effective recall of knowledge. Failure to do this results in sub-optimal knowledge retention. (And the bunny rabbit jumping into the void!)

The phenomenon I described has been coined the ‘Spacing Effect’, and it isn’t a novel concept.

Hermann Ebbinghaus conducted an experiment on himself in 1885. He attempted to memorise random syllables, varying different factors. From this, he established the first memorising and forgetting curves. But he did make a remarkable finding, from which I quote:

Simply put, memory performance is worse when material is reviewed immediately (massed repetitions); considerably more learning takes place when time elapses between reviews (spaced repetitions). The spacing effect has proven to be one of the most reliable psychological phenomena. It occurs with a wide variety of tasks and testing procedures, and has been validated in numerous studies (see Cepada et al, 2006; Dempster, 1989; Greene, 1989; and Raaijmakers, 2003 for recent reviews of related research).

I then would refer one to the study by David Gilden of the Unviversity of Austin. He mentions that this effect works on both short and long time scales. Interestingly, he is also writing in favour of frequent holidays during the school term to provide this natural spacing effect.

He cites a key study which showed that students trying to learn French vocabulary who received 10mins of practice over 3 days fared 35% better in their test scores than students who studied 30mins on a single day.

He then cites another study which showed that spacing study by 2 months improved greater knowledge retention 5 years later as compared to a spacing of 2 weeks.

What This Means

Two things:

1. The spacing effect is a real thing and should be exploited regardless of whether we know why it works
2. There is some optimal spacing time

Finally, I must give reference to the study done by Michael G. Grote, Department of Education, Ohio Wesleyan University. In this study, the researchers administered different learning approaches to HIgh School Physics Students. As expected, those who received spaced practice and opposed to massed practice (ie: the late night cramming sessions) did better.

However, he also raises two other very valid points.

The first is that there is a novelty effect in learning. I quote:

As the study continued, many students became less inclined to give their full effort. It was hypothesized that the effect size between massed and spaced practice would actually be greater if the Hawthorne and novelty effect were not present.

This makes sense. Think of what it would be like to do math 3 hours every day for an entire year. Most would have given up after 1 week. (except of course the math geeks out there, but we know they’re all freaks!) The survey from the paper confirms that:

Click on Image View Larger Version

So my point here is that spacing out practice may make it more palatable to the trainee, especially for skills that stretch out across months or years like learning the guitar.

Gilden gives even more credit to the spacing effect, stating that it is ‘Independent of Motivational State’ and ‘Important for skill learning as well as for fact learning’.

That means that someone learning to play golf would reap the same benefits as someone trying to pass a biology test by spacing their practice.

It also means that you can take the most unmotivated bunch of high school drop-outs, and as long as they keep up with the frequent practice (which is a bold and unforgiving assumption), they would benefit from increased retention of knowledge.

In essence, if we add up the total practice times, we are getting more knowledge retained per unit time invested.

What This Means to Playing the Guitar

I have stated the argument for exploiting the spacing effect.

In summary:

• It plain works regardless of whether you want it to work or not
• There is an optimal spacing period
• It is applicable to everything

What to do:

• Schedule intervals of practice

It can be anything. Maybe 30 minutes every other day, or every day, or twice a week.

That brings me to the next point…

• Experiment with Your Best Intervals

This is going to take some time. Perhaps 1-2 weeks, but it will be well worth it. Try with the standard intervals: 1 day, every other day, twice a week, and once a week. You should know when you feel the most motivated to practice in two weeks.

Again, this is not a science. You just feel your way into it. Maybe you practice one day and then the next day you just feel like there’s no groove in your playing. Stop, and wait until tomorrow. It may even be just that you don’t feel the energy. Whatever, as long as its a palpable feeling of a decreased motivation, you know that its still too early to practice again.

Remember, lazy isn’t that bad. Lazy sometimes means that you’re overworked. Most of the time you come back stronger the next day anyway. This is key to long term motivation in learning any skill.

Sometimes, after waiting for a day, I suddenly seem to ‘get it’ with some licks in an inexplicable way. Classic Spacing Effect.

By the way, this is one of the reasons why I am not in support of Guitar Lessons, mainly because various people have their own optimal practice intervals, something that a rigid system does not allow for.

• Progress Faster than Your Friends In Record Time!

Ok, not exactly, since you would have to wait for the effect to work anyway. But the total time invested would be much less, and thus it frees up time for other pursuits as well.

Let me know waht you notice. What spacing worked best? What indicators do you use to know that you need a break?

And that’s it, so space your practice out, and don’t kill that Bunny!

• SPACING EFFECT AND MNEMONIC STRATEGIES: A THEORY-BASED APPROACH TO E-LEARNING
• The Effect of Massed Versus Spaced Practice on Retention and Problem – Solving in High School Physics
• The Impact of taking breaks on learning and memory

Related posts:

1. My Theory of Learning any skill (Guitar included)
2. No time to practice? Great! – proper spacing of practice
3. 5 rules for Time-Efficient Practice

So what does daydreaming got to do with practice?

Well, daydreaming is testament to the brain’s subconscious ability to hold many many many thoughts.

What this means, is that your brain is actually replaying many events throughout the whole day.

I’ve said a lot about practice. Practice makes perfect. And let’s be honest, nobody can skimp on practice and expect to be good at anything.

I don’t know how much practice is actually required, but I do know that clumping up practice just doesn’t work.

Just think of the time between practice – your brain is in fact practicing subconsciously between sessions!

I’m convinced that there is a threshold for how long each practice session should be. This will vary from people based upon the skill to be learnt, the individual’s level of focus, energy on that day, etc.

But one rule can be applied: If you have 3 hours to practice, never do it all on one day. Instead, break it up into 1 hour/day for 3 days.

This invariably leverages the brains ability to subconsciously replay events and thus establish the proper connections necessary for the execution of the skill in interest.

The explanation revolves around several concepts:

• Your brain learns while you do everything else (including sleeping)

Specifically for the guitar, the way we learn is to establish new mind-to-finger connections. These connections can be built while we are doing the laundry, doing homework, sleeping, etc.

Furthermore, we subconsciously replay events that we have recently experienced. This means that this subconscious practice may last for a day after the practice, but no longer. Hence, more frequent practice is better

• You just get plain tired

3 hours of straight practice is just crazy!  1 hour per day over 3 days is much better.

• You may limit the things you try in a single sessions

Sometimes we get stuck in patterns during a single practice session. We may keep trying to nail that certain chord or scale and always miss it. We may not want to try something else because we are struggling with this scale. Hence we don’t try others.

When something like that occurs, either call it a day and stop, or try something else and then come back to it later.

Coming back to a particular scale later allows for the subconscious ‘practice’ to occur. Try it! You will be pleasantly surprised.

This applies to basically any skill, including studying. Eg: Studying a subject for 3 hours straight on one day is certainly less effective than studying it for 1 hour a day over 3 days.

And thats it! Break up big blocks of practice, practice more frequently and slack while your subconscious does the practice for you!

Related posts:

1. The Spacing Effect and what it means for learning any cognitive skill
2. 5 rules for Time-Efficient Practice
3. Recording Your Own Practice Sessions

For many people, learning the guitar (or some other skill) often ends up like the first picture on the right. It’s basically a wall which is just too hard to climb. The man needs equipment

The Key at this stage is: Get the relevant resources, be it a teacher, an online guide, etc.

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Sometimes, we have a pit in front of us that stops us from learning.

Jumping straight into the pit is obviously going to hurt (if it doesn’t kill you!)

This could probably represent the utterly confused beginner trying to get something done and jumping straight into the fray despite the risks.

Just like a business venture where the cash is limited, the adversaries merciless and the customers uncaring, the beginner guitarist has to contend with the potential for wasted time, the blisters, the money spent, etc.

Either way, the obvious solution is to get a plank and bridge over the pit.

Of course, that isn’t always easy, because most pits look like this (complete with flamethrower)

This is where we either need a longer plank (a better teacher or method) or stronger legs (to jump the pit).

Either way, it’s going to take some effort.

The key here is: To figure out what needs to be done and then decide to follow through with that effort.

Basically, identify the pit. And obviously don’t turn back once you’re in it. (think of all the pain that will have to be endured on the return journey)

Then again, some problems look like this.

We simply are met with a steep slope. A barrier to learning so to speak.

This could be improper fretting of the strings. It could be excessive tension in the picking hand. It could even be the lack of enough time investment.

Either way, pushing through that steep slope often leads to a much gentler one.

That is the nature of learning any skill. Once the basics are grasped, very often the progress becomes very smooth for some time.

In learning the guitar, once the basic chord patterns like E, C, D, G, etc are grasped and chord changes can be done smoothly, the learner often finds that heor she will naturally experiment with many different combinations. This serves only to further the familiarity with the fretboard and establish new patterns, making learning much faster and much more fun.

So the key is: Push through the beginning phase. It can probably last from days to months depending on the skill

Then again, what if you’re confused like the stickman about how to negotiate the slope or whether there even is a slope?

Frankly, you, me nor the stickman has the capability to see past the slope, and thus none of us know how high it is.

My suggesstion, start with practicing chord changes religiously everyday for a month. If you’re wasting your time on the slope, you would know by then.

Rest assured though, there’s a gentler slope after you’ve managed that.

Related posts:

1. My Theory of Learning any skill (Guitar included)

Image Credit: Transporter4. Are you being distracted by the wrong points of focus?

READ the caption of the picture (if you can), it is the main reason for failure in prog

As I mentioned in the article “the value of a good mentor”, there are numerous benefits to having a good mentor. The keyword is “good”.

So let’s define good. I’m going to be strict about it, if the teacher does not improve your skills to a measurable degree, he or she is not good. Using this definition, many teachers are not good.

I see 3 problems with learning from a teacher.

1. They sometimes lack updated knowledge
2. Their methods may not appeal to you
3. You have to compromise on the timing and content of the lessons

This, is in amazing conflict with these 3 principles.

1. It’s YOUR money, YOUR time, and YOUR effort you are using
2. It’s YOUR brain/fingers
3. The resources are available on the internet

The Individual Path to Greatness

Let’s establish this one very important concept: No one can ever be responsible for your learning but yourself

There are so many factors. There’s the motivation you must possess. There’s the connections that you must make between your brain and your fingers. There’s the individual problems that you face. There’s that nagging blister on your left index finger from pressing the strings so hard because the teacher tells you so.

Unfortunately, most teachers will subscribe to a particular style of teaching. When you are being taught by a teacher, you are restricted to a certain scope of content, and subject to a certain style of conveying that message. That may or may not be suitable for you.

Furthermore, it is always a fact that for any program to be successful (for whatever it attempts to obtain), the student needs to follow through with the program entirely. This represents a significant investment of time and effort, in which other methods may not be pursued.

Because of this, your time could well have been invested elsewhere, as with your money.

Also, beginners by their very nature of not knowing much of the skill, will tend to progress very fast, regardless of the teacher being present or not. The reason they progress so fast is because of all the brand new connections that are being established within the brain. Even if they do get 50% results, its still going to be significant. All the teacher does in this period of time is to provide the resources for learning.

Why I ultimately decided to teach myself

I think it is safe to say that regardless of who you are, the internet has changed your life in a significant way. There is no exception in this field.

Just take a look at Ultimate Guitar.com, and you will find a community forum, tabs, videos, demos and all the resources you could possibly need. Hence, the teacher cannot provide anything which websites like this can. You could possibly even find informal ‘teacher’ on such forums.

Next, there’s the 100% flexible learning schedule, as opposed to the 0% flexibility of taking lessons.

For most lessons, there will be a fixed time for the lesson, and it will operate for a fixed time interval. This of course gives rise to the need to insert guitar lessons into your busy schedule. By teaching myself, I obviously did away with this. So I learned at 6am on Mondays, skipped tuesday’s lesson, practiced again at 9pm on Wednesday…..

That said, at this stage of learning, what do you think matters more, the teacher’s contribution, or your own practice?

Everything can be summarised by the fact that though your teacher teaches you for 1 hour a day, you teach yourself for the other 23 hours. Hence, I really don’t see a reason to take guitar lessons.

Lousy Teachers

We also have to contend with the fact that many teachers are hopelessly unqualified at their job.

Some teachers are simply University Students trying to make an extra buck by charging $15 a lesson. The better teachers with actual qualifications may sometimes also be incompetent or perhaps enforcing a particular (and strict) methodology to learning. The really good teachers probably cost $60 an hour.

Add that to the fact that many classes are group classes, meaning less attention for you and more money for the teacher.

So no, I don’t think that learning from such teachers is worth the time, money or effort.

One Big Assumption Here

Do note that the assumption I have been working with is that YOU ARE A BEGINNER.

This may or may not hold and is a very important condition to note.

For those who are intermediate to semi-advanced, grappling with random inputs from various people and practicing day in and day out may not be the most time-efficient or effective approach.

When it does come to getting the knack of sweep picking or other more advanced techniques, sometimes you may want to find a good teacher to actually tell you the pitfalls and mistakes in approaching the skill without actually making the mistakes for yourself.

My 3 keys to finding a Good Teacher

Make no mistakes, a good teacher is probably the single best resource in learning. It’s just that in this convoluted age, the quality of teachers is really lacking. Thus, these are my 3 keys in looking for a good guitar teacher.

1. Small Group Size (Ideally 1 to 1)
2. Thorough Competence in the Field
3. Positive Feedback from Students

The first 2 points are pretty obvious and self-explanatory. More focus on the learner, more time dedicated to the learner, updated knowledge, friendly approach, are all characteristics of a good teacher.

However, the last point should be stressed upon. If you ever do get a teacher, ask around first. Ask friends for details about lessons. Ask about the methods the teacher uses. Don’t settle for brief remarks like, “Oh he’s really good, tells you all the details.”

Instead, I’m looking for feedback like this, “His approach to teaching is really great. He talks about the way in which you should press the strings. He even comes up to you and tells you to point your focus on your last finger to get a smooth scale. If that doesn’t work, then he tries another possibility, like relaxing the fingers and then focusing on hitting the index finger note correctly. Like one time…….”

After compiling all your detailed anecdotal evidence, you should have a picture of whether the teacher is competent, caring and ultimately, effective in his/her teaching methods.

Alright, so there’s my take on Guitar Lessons. I am still firm on the fact that as a beginner, given today’s abundance of resources, you are better off fiddling with some internet guide and trying things out for yourself. When it comes to an intermediate stage, you may or may not decide to take lessons (hey I didn’t and plan never to have any).

If you do, hopefully the points above have given you some insights.

Related posts:

1. The value of a good mentor/instructor/coach/teacher

Image Credit: AhavatHaEmet

Despite the fact that I am self taught in the guitar, I am always in support of getting a good mentor.

There was basically only 2 reasons why I could effectively teach myself the Guitar. At the same time however, I encountered 3 problems.

Firstly, all the resources were readily available to me.

I have a guitar. I had score sheets. I had suggestions from online forums on how to start playing. And I had the will to play. So play and progress I did.

More importantly, I had prior knowledge in Music. I knew what a cadence was. I could quantify rhythms. I knew how each cadence would sound. Most importantly, the mind-body link to my fingers was already there. All I needed to do was to modify it from that of pressing piano keys to pressing guitar strings.

Any prior knowledge in a field is always an added advantage. Many skills have overlapping areas, and the guitar was no exception. The finger dexterity, musical ‘feel’ and interpretation of a Grade 6 piano student directly affected my approach to the guitar.

This made technical progress much easier. For example, telling somebody to relax their wrists while pressing the strings won’t get through to the average beginner. How is it possible to convey a feeling as an instruction? If you listed down everything going on in the brain by trying to relax, it could basically fill a book.

The fact is, no one can teach you these skills but yourself. But then the next question is: What use is an instructor then?

Very simply, any good instructor has experience. They have seen numerous students and in a certain way, can look into the student’s mind and guess how he feels. At the same time, the instructor has gone through the learning process himself. These 2 keys make it possible for the instructor to receive feedback from his/her student, make an educated guess of the problem the student is facing, and then draw upon past experience to help to bridge the gap in the student’s skills.

Even myself, despite being musically trained, had trouble getting the knack of the some of the subtleties of the guitar. How should picking feel? How should the stroke be executed?

The only way I could approach the problem was to simply try it out. And if it did not work, I dumped the method. Not only did this create uncertainty of my own progress, it caused the other two problems.

Wasted Time

If you have read the article “A Discusiion on picking – how to hold the pick“. You would know that I started off with a holding and picking technique with did not give me enough technical flexibility. The method which I chose to hold the pick was completely arbitrary.

It turned out that I was wrong. However, to correct that mistake, I had to spend at least 2 months unlearning the old picking style and then learning a new one.

This applies to virtually any skill, and can come both in the form of learning incorrect skills which have to be unlearned, or from learning things which are unnecessary. In terms of the guitar, one unncessary skill which I tried to pick up was fingerstyle. As a rock player, I did not need to focus on effective fingerstyle playing to be able to play rock music effectively.

A good mentor will thus always have a distilled form of information and skills relay which allows the student to grasp the basics in the fastest time possible.

After the basics have been grasped, the student can then obviously have an enhanced experience of musical exploration.

This brings me to the last problem.

Frustrations and Bad Habits

Let’s face it, all of us hate to be newbies at any skill.

Sure, it’s fun for awhile, but when no consistent progress is made, motivation can wane. At the same time, we may try to take shortcuts that lead to destructive habits.

My favourite example involves weight lifting.

Suppose we have a beginner trainee who decides to get into lifting weights. He starts out light, and then progresses nicely for 12 weeks.

After 12 weeks, his gains halt. Furious and dedicated like he is (aren’t we all?), he pushes harder, refusing to take a break. The result is using bad technique to lift the weights in order to try and lift heavier weights.

Then, due to this bad form, he gets into trouble and herniates a spinal disc, effectively sidelining him for 3 months.

In guitar terms, it was like my picking problem. It can easily be a case where through experimentation, you possibly learn bad habits which cause you harm, or hamper progress.

Having a good mentor invariably eliminates this problem. He or she ‘knows the ropes’, and prevents bad habits from forming. Sure, optimal progress may not be gauranteed, but constant progress will be.

That said, because the mentor has knowledge in the field, he or she will more easily internalise new knowledge and thus be able to apply that knowledge better than a beginner can.

For example, a programming teacher will be able to internalise and update his students on the current compiler software and collaboration tools available, something that has to be distilled from the vast smorgasbord of information from the World Wide Web. The student just starting programming may not know this, and may end up with a lousy software with a lousy interface that hampers his rate of progress.

A Good Mentor

From the above I guess that you can guess what qualities a good mentor should have.

To end this post, I will summarize this in 3 points.

1. Sufficient experience in the field
2. Updated knowledge in the field
3. Willingness to teach from the student’s point of view

I’d suggest you look out for these qualities when seeking any mentor.

That said, we know too that a bad mentor can be equally distructive. That shall be the next topic to discuss.

Related posts:

1. Guitar lessons (and why you should approach with caution)
2. Rank Beginners (no musical experience) Guitar Tutorial 3