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Teaching your students a few songs, classic guitar riffs
and basic chords and scales is not that difficult. Teaching
your students sufficient guitar music theory so that they
are able to understand the subject of guitar playing is one
of the things that makes the difference between a good teacher
and a great teacher.
Here is the first 'Golden Rule' about teaching guitar music
theory:
No matter how good a player your student is, nor how intelligent;
always, always, always teach theory from the bottom up.
So you get someone comes for their first lesson with you,
but they've been playing guitar since long before you were
even born:
After a decent amount of time spent assessing what they
can and can't do and what they do and don't understand about
the subject, you decide to help them put their comprehension
of music theory in place.
I start by asking what are the names of the open strings.
If they don't rattle them off EADGBE without hesitating, I
take that up right there.
Be sensitive to the embarassment this can cause your student
and reassure them that a surprising number of people learn
to play guitar brillianly without necessarily knowing such
details!
I then move on to the notes played on the 6th (Bottom) string
one fret at a time: E F F# G G# A A# B C C# D D# E F F# G
....etc If they can rattle them off in that direction I ask
them to try it backwards from the 12th fret down using flat
names instead of sharp: E Eb D Db C B Bb A Ab G Gb F E - Far
fewer guitarists can do that without steam coming out of their
ears!
This exercise alone, done thoroughly, allows you the opportunity
to clear up a whole load of the most perplexing problems that
guitarists have when it comes to theory:
- The difference between
sharps (#) and flats (b)
- Enharmonic equivalence (A# = Bb, C# = Db etc..)
- Significance of the 12th (Octave) fret
- Why does an octave have 12 notes (when 'oct' usually means
8)
- Hhow to work out the name of any note on the guitar
- Why E and B have no #s
- Why F and C have no flats
These last two points are best explained by referring to
the layout of white and black notes on the keyboard which
is how the system was originally derived.
The point is that it is of no use whatsoever launching into
chord formulas, modes, circles of fourths and fifths and all
that stuff if your student isn't thoroughly sorted on these
basics.
It must be done regardless of the level of skill or
experience of the student. If they are genuinely sure of these
points it will only take a couple of minutes anyway. You can
then move right on to the next layer of music theory.
Here are some free teaching materials that will help with this:
[The Pyramid of Learning Guitar Music Theory] [Understanding the chromatic scale]
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