Advert description
I have about 7 years of experience playing guitar and I am now playing live shows with my band. I have experience working as a production assistant, working in recording studios and have taught guitar to friends and family who, having seen my passion towards teaching, persuaded me to take this on full time. Having been deaf throughout early childhood, music quickly became the biggest part of my life, my guitar became my therapist whilst also helping me become the coolest of the 12 year olds! I am 17 and I have developed a fun and alternative approach to guitar teaching.
I strongly believe that there are certain flaws with how guitar is taught within our grade system that not only affects the musical potential of the child, but also takes away from the beauty of what music is meant to be. Practising guitar is often taught to be a chore which kids treat the same as doing homework or washing up the dishes. Children are taught that there is just one single way to play guitar and that any variation in technique is wrong and experimentation and creativity is not encouraged.
I am a self taught musician surrounded by a classically trained family and so the negative outcomes of this style of teaching has become apparent to me. Here are some of them:
-It is common that the child stops playing the instrument as soon as they can. This is because of the lack of enjoyment and the feeling that it is less important when they grow up.
-Songwriting and improvisation is never learned (at least not properly). This is due to the lack of experimentation on the instrument and lack of ear training. I met a boy the other week who was grade 9 piano and was playing Debussy's "Arabesque n.1" beautifully but was completely stuck when trying to improvise or play something of his own.
-Tranferring skills from one instrument to another becomes more difficult. This is because children aren't trained by ear. If they were, I believe they aren't just learning the guitar but music generally.
-less life benefits. The benefits to learning music is endless: Mental health, problem solving, mathematics, patience and more. I think these can be exploited more.
Lessons vary based on the reasons for playing guitar, skill level, and are adapted to how the child learns the best. I have run out of space, I could write forever but please get in touch and I can run through the lessons in detail!