Wanted- Guitar Education Opinions

[wdegillio]

Greetings! I’ve just posted a video to my YouTube channel titled “Learning the Guitar in the 21st Century”. After years of teaching, I’ve developed some opinions concerning how the guitar should be taught, especially if the student wants to eventually play in a band or ensemble. If you’re a guitarist or guitar teacher I’d love to hear your reaction to my theories. Thanks in advance for checking it out!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=snJgribW3cU

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Hey man, I was able to watch about 15 minutes of your video and have a couple of comments.

First and foremost, PLAY! Victor Borge could get away with sitting at a piano and NOT playing, but us mortals aren't so comedically gifted. But seriously, the way to hold an audience, especially in a music lesson and certainly in most video productions for public consumption, just talking gets monotonous. Even little snippets of songs or musical examples would really help the flow.

I'd also drop a lot of the historical facts that are irrelevant to the subject at hand. Cut to the chase! You don't need printed scores. Here's how you hold it. Learn your chords and arpeggios. Copy great players and try to figure out what they're doing and how they're doing it. Then assign tasks that relate directly to the methods you are teaching. If you do go into historical facts, don't go too far down that rabbit hole. It just distracts from the main objectives.

Hope that's helpful. What you could do to salvage your existing video is cut in some playing and maybe cut out some of the history. I should also mention there's nothing in the video that I would disagree with. I was ready to, for sure. I was being super critical of everything you said and it is all valid, AFAIK. I did appreciate your mentioning improvisation in later piano studies but on a personal level, take exception to that. I started out as a drummer, then moved to guitar, then moved to classical piano at about 17. Couldn't site-read music well and used improvisation to develop my classical technique (something I continue to this days, some 50 years later. But again, I'd cut that from the video anyway. The part about orchestral players reading is valid and interesting to the uninformed, but the improv aspect isn't as relevant. Suffice it to say orchestral players usually are reading and "provincial" musicians often don't.

Also, I don't really accept the separation between learning classical techniques and rock techniques. As you well know, great blues and jazz players have amazing technique that rivals the classical rep, IMO. I'd hit on jazz guitar as the predecessor really early in the video as well and hit the improvisational aspects in that context, where it is relevant.

Most importantly, keep on keeping' on. Us old cats still have a lot to offer these whippersnappers. Now where'd I put that pipe again... lol

[stubbsonic]

Your video covers some important points, but is quite wordy and a bit repetitive. Perhaps it would benefit from you spending time writing a script and then editing it so that it is much more concise.

The other challenge is that you are trying to cover so much ground in one lecture. It might make sense to either break it into a few shorter videos, or just be more brief in your overview. You can always flesh those concepts out in single-topic vids later.

As a general piece of advice, respect your viewer's/listener's time and the gift of their attention. Don't take the groceries out of the bag one-grape-at-a-time. Give them a finished meal that is well-designed.

Learning music in the 21st century is different. It is, first and foremost, less linear. It is somewhat less focused on a single style or track (classical vs jazz vs pop). The paradox is that there are more paths, more varied goals (different kinds of players to become), and more tools-- but there seem to be more challenges to distract from the kind of deep discipline that was more common back in the day.

[wdegillio]

Gentlemen, thanks so much for your feedback.
MIDI Life Crisis, I now agree that I should have included played examples; not only to improve the flow, but it would have been clearer in spots. I was also guilty of trying to provide too much information to "prove" my points. As in music, you don't always need a lot of notes; just the right ones!

Jon, great observations as well. I had forgotten that the video medium is well served by tight editing and making every second count. Shorter videos are usually more effective at "reaching" your audience. I'm glad you found some of my points worth mentioning, but you're right; it is repeditive and wordy. And, when you're trying to communicate, presentation is everything!

I will probably re-do this video at some point (or at the very least, edit it), so I appreciate your comments. I will also take them into account for future productions.

[leigh]

Check out http://discoverdoublebass.com. I think their lesson format is very good.

**Leigh

[wdegillio]

Hi Leigh- thanks for the recommendation. I don't play the double bass, but I'd be interested to see their presentation and production. Also, I remember seeing David Allen Moore on campus when I was a student at USC. He was a great player back then; he must be a monster now!