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Some years ago I was approached by a would-be guitar teacher
seeking employment at my studios.
He proudly told me how he had spent two
years developing a perfect guitar course designed to teach
people from scratch to become 'Complete' guitar players in
just two years. He brought in the materials for this course
for me to look over and comment on.
They were beautifully worked out and stylishly presented
and I estimated that well over 1000 hours of work had gone
into them. I commended his efforts, but felt obliged to add,
that it was a pity he hadn't actually given a few guitar lessons
to a few different people first!
Had he done so he would have realised that his 'Perfect guitar
course' was only suited to the 'Perfect Student'. Furthermore,
that the 'Perfect Student' is an entirely mythical creature!
The truth is that even when you know a student well you cannot
rely on fixed lesson plans. Have a plan - Yes, but build flexibility
into it.
This is especially true of the first few lessons you provide
a new student with. A lesson plan must always be adjustable
to accommodate the individual's natural learning rate. Some
beginners will see a chord diagram, understand it instantly,
place their fingers on the fretboard in the right place, adjust
their positioning to get the best possible sound, apply exactly
the right amount of pressure and strum the chord to perfection.
But most won't!
Some will take half a lesson just to figure out which way
up the diagram should be read. Students' ability and confidence
varies ENORMOUSLY. So make sure your planning takes this into
account!
The key is to make the lesson objectives very small to begin
with. So instead of:
First lesson objective:
Learn to play 'House of the Rising Sun'
Think:
First lesson objectives:
1. Hold guitar the right way up
2. Play a single fretted note cleanly
3. Hold down an Am chord shape
4. Student aware of 'optimum finger positioning'
5. Hold down a C chord
6. Optimise change from Am to C
7. Understand chord diagram
8. Ability to interpret chord diagrams for chords Am, C,
D, FM7 and E7
9. Clarification of rhythm chart for 'House of the Rising
Sun'
10. Understanding the importance of arriving on time for
the first beat of each bar
11. Ability to play through the song one strum per bar
12. Understanding of 6/8 time
13. Ability to strum in 6/8
14. Ability to strum through the song in 6/8 time
15. Ability to play the song whilst teacher sings or plays
the melody
The point is that some beginners may get all the way through
this list in their first lesson, but most won't. By breaking
the objectives down this small we ensure that, at whatever
point we end off the lesson, the student has attained definite
objectives and this in itself conveys a sense of progress
to all concerned.
So build flexibility into your lesson plans. Allow the student
to set the pace - its their natural learning rate that matters
- not some pre-conceived idea about how much progress should
be made over a given time.
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