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When you embark upon the learning of a new subject you can
find yourself in a very confusing situation. Unless you are
taught the subject in a systematic way you find yourself bombarded
with all kinds of new words, concepts, actions, events, names,
exercises, tips and advice - the sheer volume of which is enough
to make you feel that the subject must be really difficult
to learn.
This is often bad enough to stop a person from teaching themselves
altogether.
The problem however, is not the volume of information.
The problem is that a newcomer to any subject has no way of
evaluating the relative importance of data about the subject.
Lets take a random list of concepts associated with the subject
of guitar playing:
Neck, fret, fingering, note,
Aeolian mode, rhythm, scale of C#minor, melody, chord, music,
flatted seventh interval, scale, string, harmony, modulation,
chord substitution, strumming, picking, improvisation, key,
guitar, music theory, technique .
Now lets see how, with hindsight, we can organise these concepts
in our mind:
Neck. Fret and string are all parts
of the Guitar
Melody, Harmony and Rhythym are the three
main components of Music
Fingering, Picking and Strumming are three
main areas of Technique.
How Notes, Chords and Scales relate to each
other in Keys forms the backbone of the study of
Music Theory
All these concepts could be considered pretty central to
the subject no matter what style of playing we are discussing.
Of the remaining concepts: modulation, chord substitution
and improvisation are all general subjects relating
chiefly to Jazz styles of playing and Aeolian mode, scale
of C#minor and flatted seventh interval are all
specific detailed elements of music which may be of
interest at a more advanced level of playing.
So if we assume the viewpoint of a complete beginner wanting
to learn to accompany a few pop songs on acoustic guitar we
might arrange these concepts on a scale of decreasing importance
as follows:
Guitar,
Technique,
Music,
Music Theory
Neck, Fret, String, Fingering, Picking and Strumming Melody,
Harmony, Rhythm
Notes, Chords, Scales and Keys
All the rest (Because at this stage they all have Zero Importance)
The main point is this: As a relatively experienced musician
you have a structured appreciation of the subject that enables
you to instantly decide just how important a particular concept
is. Your beginner student doesn't have this advantage.
When teaching your students try to stick closely to using
only concepts that have importance to them at the level at
which they are right now. At all costs avoid the temptation
to 'Blind your student with Science' or show off your own
'Advanced knowledge' of the subject. By avoiding all but the concepts most immediately relevant to them you quickly
help them build their own structural grasp of the subject
and develop a feel for the relative importance of its component
parts.
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How
learning got a bad name for itself
