steelstringcheese

There is no room for hyperbole in serious music review and analysis. Except in this case. Objectively, this is the funkiest song ever.

The accumulation of knowledge is empowering, but it is also inspiring: We feel compelled to seek out others who share our knowledge, even if we have to first teach them what we know. This is why fan cultures develop around highly specific topics. It’s why adults seek communities of fellow hobbyists. And it’s one reason why musicians teach.

This urge to share can disrupt the private lesson experience. I often find myself having to restrain an urge to lecture. A mundane topic, like how to bend a note, can easily grow into a dissertation on various bending techniques if I allow it. For me, one of the principal traits of an effective private music instructor is restraint.

As an undergrad I learned that, when directing a band rehearsal, one should only stop to work on one thing at a time. This principle applies to private lessons. If you hear a lot of things that need attention, don’t expect your student to remember a laundry list of corrections. Fix one problem, rehearse it, and then move on to the next. And by “rehearse it,” I mean repeat the living crap out of the passage you’re fixing. I would rather have my student spend a half hour repeating the same passage than listen to me regurgitate facts or expound philosophies.

Speaking of regurgitating and expounding, never assume that your student is interested in the vast array of information that you no doubt are prepared to unleash on the slightest prompt. If you feel that sharing a factoid will enhance the learning experience without distracting your student from just playing, then go for it. As a case in point, I was working with a student on a transcription of a fiddle tune, and suggested that she check out Doc Watson if she wants to see more good examples of fiddle tunes played on guitar. She seemed to appreciate the suggestion. On the other hand, if I followed the urge to interrupt rehearsal of the tune to watch a Doc Watson video on YouTube, or told a long anecdote about my having to learn a fiddle tune for a gig, I would be utterly destroying the pace of the lesson.

Your best students will use lessons as a springboard for further explorations, but your least motivated students are unlikely to find motivation in your demonstrations of superior knowledge. Remember that your best students are practically teaching themselves; you’re lucky to keep them. What can you do to keep the less motivated students engaged? Make them play.

Naturally, there will be plenty of opportunities to take advantage of “learning moments.” But the art of teaching depends upon your ability to sieze only the best opportunities and leave the rest for later. Even learning moments are, at their onset, distractions. Think of the best possible learning moments as climactic points in an ongoing TV series, and each of your lessons is an episode. Leave your audience wanting more.

Remember that every fiber in your web of knowledge and proficiency was woven days, weeks, months, and years at a time. You want to see your students progress, but avoid the temptation to cram all their learning into small periods of time. Let the process of their development breathe. Focus on simple, incremental steps.

Early in my private teaching career, my philosophy regarding the structure of a typical lesson was that it is preferable to encourage the student to practice independently, so that lesson time can be spent discussing finer points. “I cannot provide the experience in a half-hour lesson that a week’s worth of solid practice will give you,” I advised. “My job is to speed up the learning process, but the physical act of performing is developed solely through your efforts.” Wise words, but over the years I learned that simply assigning material and expecting to see progress stems from an overestimation of the average student’s drive and resourcefulness. Students need to learn how to practice effectively. I’d like to discuss some ways to hone students’ practicing skills, beginning with simply letting them play.

As instructors, we are passionate about sharing our knowledge — to a point that it often gets in the way. Some things that we probably do more often than we should:

1. Provide historical or theoretical support for the material under study.
2. Correct an error in the student’s performance.
3. Play an excerpt of the material ourselves, to provide a model for emulation.
4. Point out how a specific learning moment relates to previously discussed material.
5. Instruct the student to skip past a section of material that is obviously well-prepared.

None of the above examples are entirely out of place in a lesson. In fact, each one is quite appropriate in certain situations. But they can easily be overdone.

Allow your students as much uninterrupted time as possible with their hands on their instruments. When they are performing in a lesson for you, they are rehearsing for larger audiences. And concert audiences aren’t prone to hold up their hands and announce, “Oh, you see what happened there?”

The self-taught among us should recall what our most crucial learning moments were like. For me, they were usually enjoyed in solitude, under quiet reflection. If I made a connection between a passage I had just played an some abstract theoretical concept, it was through discovery, not instruction.

Your job as a private lessons instructor is easier than you probably expected, or even wanted it to be. Be there to field the tough questions, and guide your students through the moments that truly need hand-holding, but otherwise get out of the way and let them play for you.

The chief benefit of giving your students as much performance time as possible is that you will learn what they need to learn. When you are talking, you are dominating the lesson agenda. But when you are listening, you are allowing your student to set her own agenda. You are allowing the student to reveal her areas of opportunity. Ask your students to play their assigned material, then patiently listen and take notes. That last part is very useful; take real notes, with a pen and paper. It shows you’re listening, and it gives you some bullet points to address.

With regards to the above list of well-intentioned pitfalls, here are some countermeasures:

1. Remember that your student has a lifetime to learn minutiae. Keep nerdy details to yourself unless you can offer knowledge that helps your student with his immediate objective. And even then, try to limit yourself to dispensing about one factoid every few weeks. You don’t want to create a guitar lover, you want to create a guitar player.
2. Correct weaknesses, not errors. Students are quite likely to recognize errors on their own. Telling your student, “You slowed down here” is merely pointing out the obvious. Do you tell your spouse she gained weight? If you must correct an error you feel a student missed, try opening the discussion with a question: “What happened here?” or, “Let’s play this phrase again. I’d like to see if you hear what I heard.” Weaknesses, or bad habits, on the other hand, are worth pointing out: “I just wanted to hear that a few times to make sure it wasn’t a one-time thing, but let’s talk about the intonation on this bend.”
3. Are you demonstrating, or showing off? I understand how important it is for students to hear exemplary performance; they need models for good sound and execution. But don’t play for the sake of hearing yourself play. Your students already know you’re the pro, or they wouldn’t be coming to you for lessons. There are indeed situations in which a student would be grateful for hearing something played properly. Ask yourself, what are these situations? How can I recognize them?
4. Don’t force connections. Have you ever noticed that you can create a diminished seventh chord by forming a dominant seventh chord one half-step lower and simply changing the root? When I noticed this during a practice session, the experience was more meaningful and the knowledge I gained was more lasting. I’m certain that if a teacher spelled it out for me, I could have easily forgotten it as soon as I heard it. You’re not cheating your student out of a learning experience by withholding unsolicited knowledge; you’re providing a chance to discover it independently. Remember point one: Your students’ journeys are in their early stages. Each of the myriad of patterns that exist on the fretboard will reveal themselves when the moment is right.
5. Avoid the phrase, “Sounds good, moving on…” First of all, you’re trying to teach good practice habits. I believe that if you’re playing through a selection (versus repetitious drilling of smaller fragments within the selection), you must play it as you would on stage. That means slow passages aren’t rushed, repeats are observed, and easy sections are not skimmed or skipped. Naturally, if assigned material is mastered, you should move on to the next item in your curriculum. But allow run-throughs to be performed in their entirety, uninterrupted. Look for opportunities to discuss finer points that usually don’t come up when you’re drilling smaller fragments, like variation between repeats, dynamics, and rubato. In short, if the material is under-prepared, focus on tiny fragments (more on that later); but if the student can play a piece comfortably, for Pete’s sake, sit back and enjoy listening to it for a while!

You can sum up this whole article with one simple rule: Let your student play as much as possible. The weak students might be practicing more in your lessons than during the week, in which case they’ll leave with a sense of accomplishment; and your stronger students will benefit from the more informed insight you can give after listening very intently to their performance.

After some practice, I’ve almost got the hang of this podcasting thing. In case anyone still follows Wired Guitar World, I’ll be relaunching it soon.

I’ve been very slow to release new episodes, largely because of the immense time commitment. The new format will be shorter, with each episode focusing on a single narrow topic. I will not offer supplementary pdf’s as before; the material should be easy enough for experienced guitarists to follow without printed tab.

I already have about half a year’s worth of semi-monthly episodes mapped out in advance. I’ll revisit some of the topics discussed in the first run of WGW, but gradually transition into fresh material. Thanks to anyone who has not only waited patiently for updates on this pathetically unreliable feed, but who also has found their way here to catch the news.

I will post an update when WGW is back online.