Guitar Lesson.
My friend’s fifteen-year old nephew is up from Florida. In fact, he and his mom were at the Fourth of July Bash. Being the only fifteen-year old in attendance, he brought his guitar with him to occupy his time. His guitar is a Strat knockoff, but it played nicely and sounded OK through one of those tiny carry-around amps. The problem was that he really couldn’t play. Turns out that he is trying to learn some stuff from a book with no one to give him any pointers.
He’s a nice kid (and can draw and paint like a professional artist), but he’s very, very quiet and shy. So I sat with him for about ten minutes and showed him how to play a few basic chords. I said, “Too bad you don’t live up here, I could teach you how to play that thing. You won’t be Chet Atkins or Eric Clapton, but you’ll be able to play damned near any song.†Because he is so shy, he surprised me when he said that he would be here for three more weeks and asked whether I would be able to give him “a couple lessons.â€
I said, “Of course, I will, but let’s not call them ‘lessons,’ because that sounds too much like school. How about we get together and play a bit, and I’ll show you some stuff.â€
Well, tonight, I got around to bringing him over the house. After about two hours, I had him playing basic open chords and doing twelve bar blues tunes using bar chords. His fingering is still a little clumsy, but that will straighten itself out with more playing. He really wants to learn, so I am certain that this week he will play hell out of the stuff I showed him.
I’ve “taught†at least two other people to play well enough to drag the axe to a party and have fun with it. If you have an ear for music (you absolutely must be able to hear when you are screwing up) and a basic sense of rhythm, it’s not that hard to play well enough to get by. Once I teach him a couple basic hand positions and a few variations on that theme, the world will be his oyster. He should be able to play damned near anything.
I hope to have two more sessions with him before he goes home.
For what it’s worth, I think that it is better to first learn to have fun PLAYING the instrument and to be completely comfortable with it before proceeding with the rigors of real music study. I’ve never known anyone who had any fun struggling along following the notes to “Little Brown Jug†from a Mel Bay guitar instruction book.
I view the process of learning to play a musical instrument to be much like learning to drive a car with a standard transmission. Learning to drive a stick shift right off the bat is a bitch. It is better to first learn on an automatic so that you can become comfortable driving the car. Then, once you’re at home behind the wheel, you can concentrate on learning how to shift without having to worry about keeping the car on the road, stopping and the rest of the skills necessary to pilot a moving car.
I am determined to send that young man back to Florida as a passable guitar player. If he wants to proceed from there, he can find a real teacher.
Developing.
Kids learn fast, if they have fun. Your way of showing him how to play is really the best.
My uncle did that with me… sat around playing Black Sabbath, Doobie Bros… some blues. Wish I had kept it up.
Comment by That 1 Guy — July 13, 2005 @ 11:45 pm
Hey! don’t be dissin’ “Little Brown Jug” Man! I learned that song. Mel Bay is the fuckin’ Man.
Comment by Dax Montana — July 13, 2005 @ 11:56 pm
you have the most boring blog i have ever read.
Thanks. i needed to get to bed and now i am already halfway there.
Comment by bored — July 14, 2005 @ 12:37 am
Bored,
Glad I could be of service.
Comment by Jim - Parkway Rest Stop — July 14, 2005 @ 1:59 am
2010 Fantasy
MTV Awards- Florida Boy now has purple hair, and along with his bandmates, the Defunct Escaroles, wins the Newcomers Band of the Year Award for 2010.
In his acceptance speach, Florida Boy thanks his mentor, PRS, as “The coolest dude in New Jersey, who taught me how to rock”.
The following day, reporters from Rolling Stone, Newsweek and the Star Ledger converge on Union, N.J. to find this musical genius. Unfortunately, they come at a bad time and catch the musical genius asleep and drooling in a porch chair, with a half empty glass of Metamucil at his side, with a CD of Gary Lewis and the Playboys playing in the background.
Hey, Cuz, just kidding. You did a good thing. If you remember, you took me and my father to Rondo Music in Belleville to help me buy my first guitar, a Gibson SJ Delux.You also provided some real rock out music at my first wedding. The marriage sucked, but man the tunes were good.
Keith Richards got nothing on you. Rock on…
Comment by cousin gary — July 14, 2005 @ 8:00 am
Don’t you all wish you had a Cousin Gary? Cracks me up every time he drops in.
P.S. Gary, it was Muscara Music in Belleville. Maybe you should cut back on the brewskis, Cuz.
Comment by Jim - Parkway Rest Stop — July 14, 2005 @ 8:47 am
I’m sending you a DVD you can give to the young artist so he can continue on after he goes back home. It is INTRODUCTION TO ELECTRIC GUITAR part of the Watch & Learn DVD Primer seris. It has
A 60 minute video that covers the beginning material in the Electric Guitar Primer Book. Intended for the beginning electric player, this video covers riffs, power chords, chords & strumming, and scales. It utilizes many closeups to show proper hand position and technique. Our unique split screens show both hands in detail and utilizes onscreen tablature for all of the music, with a bouncing ball type pointer showing each note as it is being played. The student plays along with a full band on all of the 12 song examples. This video starts the student on the road to becoming a rock & roll player by learning how to play electric guitar.
Contents Include
Holding the Guitar
Tuning
Using the Pick
Proper Left and Right Hand Position
Strumming
Power Chords
Barre Chords
Scales
Songs Include Instrumental Arrangements of:
Old Time Rock & Roll
Johnny B. Goode
Miss You
Black Magic Woman
Don’t Be Cruel
Kansas City
That’ll Be the Day
Rock & Roll Girlfriend
All Along the Watchtower
Send him home with more drive.
Comment by Willy — July 14, 2005 @ 9:24 am
I’m sending you a DVD for the young man.
A 60 minute video that covers the beginning material in the Electric Guitar Primer Book. Intended for the beginning electric player, this video covers riffs, power chords, chords & strumming, and scales. It utilizes many closeups to show proper hand position and technique. Our unique split screens show both hands in detail and utilizes onscreen tablature for all of the music, with a bouncing ball type pointer showing each note as it is being played. The student plays along with a full band on all of the 12 song examples. This video starts the student on the road to becoming a rock & roll player by learning how to play electric guitar.
Contents Include
Holding the Guitar
Tuning
Using the Pick
Proper Left and Right Hand Position
Strumming
Power Chords
Barre Chords
Scales
Songs Include Instrumental Arrangements of:
Old Time Rock & Roll
Johnny B. Goode
Miss You
Black Magic Woman
Don’t Be Cruel
Kansas City
That’ll Be the Day
Rock & Roll Girlfriend
All Along the Watchtower
This is a real good basis for the electric guitar.
Comment by Willy — July 14, 2005 @ 9:26 am
I took piano lessons as a kid, but quit soon because I couldn’t get into “Autumn Leaves” and “Yesterday.” I kept playing, by ear. Oh yes. It’s a gift. Taught myself Great Gig In The Sky and Stones and Aerosmith. Sure enough, the next thing I knew, I was playing tons of cool songs. Today, I have a grand piano, and I am not a famous professional musician. I also can’t tell a guitar blog post from a piano blog post. My Gibson elec is in the closet with a broken string, it’s been a few years now. Too much espresso, you see. Autumn Leaves. I feel my eye twitch revving up again.
Comment by dogette — July 14, 2005 @ 9:47 am
Little Brown Jug
EGGFAAGBABCDE EGGFAAGBABDCC
Comment by Joseph — July 14, 2005 @ 9:48 am
.. Mr. Bored, you obviously don’t know what bored is…
Comment by Eric — July 14, 2005 @ 3:59 pm
Yeah Mr. Bored… what Eric said! You will when he hits your noggin’ with one though.
Jim, it’s damned cool of you to show the lad around the block with the axe, but I don’t remember Velociman sayin’ he was comin’ up to Joisey? I must’ve missed that one. 😉
Good on you Jim. My boy tried to learn a while back, but I don’t play(anything but the musix box) so I wasn’t much help, and they cut the program from the schools ’round here.
Comment by RecNeck — July 14, 2005 @ 6:38 pm
Teach the boy the basics and if he has the want-to, he’ll learn to play. Too many people just want it to come easy.
Comment by Acidman — July 14, 2005 @ 7:34 pm
As a music instructor, I agree with the car transmission analogy, but only for instruments where you can actually play chords. As dogette said, the guitar and piano are similar in that respect (and I you could add accordion and even autoharp to that list). However, I teach trombone, where such a luxury doesn’t exist. There is no learning of cool rock songs, because you are not able to play entire chords. In fact, there is no playing around with the horn and figuring things out before the rigors of reading music and such, because to even make a respectable tone on the instrument requires a knowledge of the embouchure and other associated muscles. There is of course the occasional genius who can figure it out perfectly, but without a guiding force from the beginning one can learn horrible technique which takes years to unlearn.
Comment by Auskunft — July 15, 2005 @ 2:23 pm
Yeah, Jim…what he said. I was a band director, and a clarinet player in a previous life. It takes a day just to teach kids how to assemble a clarinet and get the reed wet, and create the embouchure, and a week before you have enough notes to play simple songs. You make guitar playing sound so enticing I want to run right out and get one so I can get started!
Comment by buffy — July 17, 2005 @ 11:55 pm
Hey Jim, Just wanted to say thanks again for the guitar lessons, I can finally understand some chords instead of just reading some tabs offline. I had a great time jamming at your house, hopefully next time I come up we can meet again for another session.
thanks again,
Matt
Comment by Matt — July 23, 2005 @ 5:49 pm
Good for you and kudos for that young fla. man. It’s seemingly one of the tougher things to do (teach a string instrument) and then on top of it find the passion in the student who desires to self progress as a guitar player.
Nonetheless, I loved the story and your blog,
Take Care
Brian
Comment by guitar lesson man — September 18, 2005 @ 4:35 pm