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The
prospect of 'Learning music theory' will be right up there with
'Filling out my tax return form' , 'Cleaning out the fridge'
and ' Visiting the dentist' on your student's personal list
of 'Things They Most Look Forward to Doing in Life'.
So unless you give them some good reasons for
applying themselves to it, there is a high chance that you
will struggle to engage your student's interest in the subject
at all.
Which is why My Golden Rule Number 9 says:
Before embarking on any stage of music theory
teaching do all you can to motivate your student to attack
the subject with strong interest
There are two main aspects to this: Firstly
there is the question of timing. When do you decide to teach
a particular level of music theory to a student? I think the
best answer to this is: When their continued progress will
noticeably be enhanced by their understanding that particular
level of theory.
An example of poor timing: Your student says
after a few weeks of lessons:
"My C and F chords are sounding a lot better
now, but I am really finding it hard to change quickly from
one shape to another."
"OK" you say "Let's go over some
chord construction theory"
WRONG!! You could explain chord construction
to them until you are both blue in the face, but it will have
no effect whatsoever on their ability to change from C to
F. Chord changing is a Physical Problem. It requires a Physical
solution. Out with the stopwatch:
"Let's see how many C-F changes we can make
in 30 seconds"
Have a couple of goes at that noting down the
results.
"Okay, now lets see if we can change a few
things here: Drop your wrist half an inch, fold that first
finger over instead of taking it off the fretboard completely
when you change from C to F, relax, breathe .... okay now
lets do another couple of timed runs."
Physical solutions for a physical problem.
An example of good timing: Your student says
after a few months of learning:
"My barre chords are causing me a lot less
pain now after those finger-strengthening exercises you gave
me to do, but I can't figure out which chord is which, where
do I find a Bb, or an F#m?"
"Okay"' You say. "We need to learn
a bit of music theory to help you with this. It will take
half of this lesson to cover, but at the end of it you will
be able to find 72 new chord shapes at the drop of a hat!"
You can then launch into the basics of the
chromatic scale. Clear them up on their basic E and A shaped
barre chords (E, Em, E7, A, Am, A7) and show how the 'E' shapes
are rooted on the 'E' string and the 'A' shapes on the 'A'
string according to which fret they barre the chord at.
That's a good theory session. At the end of
it you should put it to the test so that they can see that
you have delivered on your promise: Get them to find a Bb,
an F#m, a Bm, another Bm higher up the neck, two fingerings
for a Gb7 chord etc etc.. Then play a barre chord at random
and ask them to name it. Continue this until they are sure
that they have learnt 72 new chord shapes.
So that's timing. When is it right to teach
what? - When their continued progress will noticeably be enhanced
by their understanding that particular level of theory.
The second aspect to motivating your student
is selling. You have to sell the idea of tackling the next
layer of music theory to the student. This is done by enabling
the student to understand what the pay-off is to that particular
level. Here are some examples of pay-offs:
Learn names of open strings and steps on the
chromatic scale.
Pay-off: ability to figure out the name of
any note on the guitar.
Learn major scale formula.
Pay-off: Ability to play a major scale in any
key and find simple melodies.
Learn chord formulas.
Pay-off: Ability to create chords anywhere
on the fretboard instead of trying to remember them all.
Learn modes.
Pay-off: Ability to play more distinctive lead
guitar.
...and so on. It's worth spending a bit of time
demonstrating to your student the musical results you expect
them to gain from working diligently through each level of
theory.
So there you go - its quite businesslike really!
Don't deliver what's not needed and sell by focussing on the
pay-off!
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