Ok….I promise, no more puns. I just had to get that out of my system.

In this article, I would like to expound on a few ideas and concepts that I have found useful for myself and/or the musical development of my students. I have found that a value-added approach seems to pay off in student enrollment. There are other teachers in town who are formal, "by-the-book" teachers, in their chosen genre. I have a number of their former students! With my students, I discuss a little music history, organize the students into groups, and encourage them to try other instruments that I have in my studio, (mainly bass). I also teach a diverse repertoire. I ask each student to bring in a mixed tape of their favourite tunes, then I teach a few from each of these chosen songs to all of my students. This helps create a mini-music community, because they all know the same songs and can get together and have a common repertoire in which to jam.

I also try and make sure that they learn a handful of classics, since most likely they will never go out of style. The classics are a good idea for another reason. I have discovered that many students were under the impression that the band, Nirvana, was the first, angst-ridden, young men with distorted guitars! These students are floored by Black Sabbath and Deep Purple tunes from the late 60's and early 70's, and often start asking for other old tunes. What follows are some of what I consider to be the more important aspects of successful teaching.

Communication/Adaptation

Under the term, communication, I include social criteria, as well as, the ability to explain music to students of differing abilities and levels. One time, I subbed for a local bass instructor, and about half of the students didn't even know his name! This instructor would walk in the door and it was all business.

When students feel comfortable, they are less afraid to try things like improvising, and will ask questions more readily, when they need clarification.

At a student's first lesson, I try to get a sense of their musical history. Some of the questions I ask are, "Why they want to play guitar, if they played an instrument in school band, if there are any musical family members, what goals they have for themselves, and what kind of music they enjoy listening to". It's important to me that this be more like a conversation than an inquiry. I figure that it's their lesson, so it should be about what they want to learn, as much as what I want to teach. After all, if they're not happy, they won't come back.

In a "perfect" world, there would be one magical instruction book that worked for all students. Some books seem to go out of their way to make "simple", complicated, and the "enjoyable", frustrating. The ability to correlate music terms with instrumental terms is a necessity.

For example, the major scale tone pattern of W-W-H-W-W-W-H, can be somewhat abstract without some background in theory. Translating the scale into guitar terms, it's, 2 frets – 2 frets – 1 fret - 2 frets – 2 frets – 2 frets – 1 fret. Now, the student has a visual and physical understanding of how the scale is constructed. It really helps to be able to get concepts across to students whether they are visual, aural, or kinesthetic learners. Ultimately, you will wind up using a combination of the three approaches, but there will always be one that works best for each individual. I have heard people describe instructors by saying, "He is a great musician, but he's not a great teacher." If a great musician can add some communication skills, he or she can become a great teacher. And quite frankly, it beats a 9-5 job!

Improvising and Composition

Let's have a show of hands of those who want their students to become musical Xerox machines!

Learning to read music is a valuable skill, no doubt about it! Would it kill music education book publishers to print a few blank staves and some encouraging words?? Having students write the notes, reinforces the reading, but I've never been a fan of rote exercises. Once a student knows four notes, I get them to compose a melody. I will draw four staves in their dictation book. I write a stave above with the notes that they have learned for reference. If they are reluctant, I will write the first measure and then we alternate. I have two students who are in grade 4, and they actually request this exercise if we don't do it every two weeks. Every time we learn a new note or note value, (half notes and dotted half notes, in particular), this writing exercise can really help focus the students on learning. Don't be afraid to set some parameters, such as, only using 1 quarter note per bar, or using half notes only on beat 3.

For my teenaged students, I have them compose with the scales that we study. Once they are comfortable playing the scale, I have them compose an 8 bar melody. This gives us the opportunity to study melodic intervals, and break the habit of attempting to play scales at the speed of light!

As for improvising, I like starting with the pentatonic scale, because it is almost impossible to play a wrong note, as long as you are in the right key. This gives the students an immediate sense of satisfaction and accomplishment, and they are more willing to do more. Love it or hate it, "Sweet Home Alabama", is the ultimate pentatonic song with which to practice improvisation.

Thanks to the Forrest Gump soundtrack and to classic-rock radio stations, the song is familiar to almost everyone. It has a simple structure and can be taught in one lesson and improvising can be started in the second lesson. I find it's always helpful to link improv exercises to a current song. Smash Mouth's, "Walking on the Sun", is an excellent tune for using the A Dorian mode.

It's important to me that students learn to create and contribute in a musical context. Once upon a time, I knew a guitar player who could play almost every Hendrix tune, note for note. Everyone was impressed, until we jammed, on a 12 bar blues. This guy was lost! It's been my experience that well-rounded musicians, with good attitudes, get more gigs. If you want to hear Hendrix note for note, there are CD's available.

The "I Can't" Students

Everyone has a few of these. Whenever you present some new material, the first words out of their mouths are, " I can't do that!" I'm a fairly "laid back", easy-going, fellow, but nothing gets under my skin more than someone who says, they can't. I don't believe in, "can't." The only people that can't are the ones who won't try. This line of thought often comes up when we start composing and improvising. The almighty ego is on the line!

The first thing I do is reassure them that the sky will not fall and that their friends will not desert them, and that Mom will not serve liver every night for a month, if they play a sour note. I point out that there is just US in the room, and that no one else will know. It's also important that they know that everyone makes mistakes. I tell them that the solo on their favourite song was the result of meticulous study by the player and several takes, in the studio. If you can, record some of the improvisation sessions, to play back to them in a month or two, so the student can hear how much they improved. It's important to point out the good points of their improvising. There is no need to point out the sour notes – they will have heard and felt them. Reassurance and support are the two most important ingredients for success. I like to check my watch, and then say something like: "5 minutes ago you said you couldn't do this. Now you can. What do you think of that?"

History

It's not hard to build a sense of history into the lessons and repertoire. One of my students who is into the current ska and punk bands, had been reading an interview where his heroes, "du jour", mentioned the Clash. I seized the opportunity to discuss how this English band fused elements of American and British blues and rock with the Caribbean sounds and political consciousness of acts such as Bob Marley and Burning Spear. Using this as a jumping off point, we have learned 3 Clash songs, 3 Bob Marley songs, and at least, 2 Cream songs. In a recent lesson, this same student informed me that he had ordered a CD of each artist from the record store. As alluded to earlier, a lot of students don't realize blues, or classic rock, or heavy metal, were the "alternative" music of their time. The live version of the Kinks, "You Really got Me", was a bonafide hit with my students. Most didn't believe it was from twenty years ago. Well-written, well-played, well-recorded music is a timeless resource – use it to your advantage.

A little bit of theory

I'm of the opinion that a little theory never hurt anybody, and if it does, they must have had it coming!

Most of what I try and teach, theory-wise, is the scale/chord relationships, chord changes and song forms. If students show interest, I will get into voice leading and chord substitution, but few ever do.

Scales and Chords

First, I show how notes of a scale are used to make the chords used for songs in that key. Let's use C major to demonstrate.

C   D   E   F   G   A   B   C

Rather than use the notion of moving in thirds, I ask students if they've ever played leapfrog. The concept becomes clear to them, almost immediately. I'll have them draw the jumps, then write the notes under the letters in columns, and give the chord it's name.

Next thing is to tell them not to worry about Bmb5, unless they plan on playing jazz. From here, I explain how the most common chords in any key are the I, IV, and V chords, followed by the VI and the II. To illustrate my point, I will go through songs in the students' lesson book, or charts we have learned. 90% of the material will prove my point. Amanda Marshall, (Let it Rain), Matchbox 20, (Push), Bob Dylan, (Knockin' on Heaven's Door), Bob Marley, (No Woman, No Cry)… the list could go on forever. My goal is to get students to understand that just because something sounds good, doesn't mean it's complicated. From Beethoven to Coltrane to Megadeath, everyone uses the same 12 notes, and anyone who learns them is free to use them to create!

Forms and Phrases

12 bar blues is a great place to start with this. If you write it out as three rows of four measures, the four bar phrasing is readily apparent. And the fact that blues songs repeat this form over and over reinforces the idea that a song is made up of repetitive phrases and sections.

Another song that is valuable for demonstrating this is Knockin' on Heaven's Door. The Verse is a four bar phrase repeated twice and the chorus is a two bar phrase repeated four times.

The next phase involves learning to recognize Verse/Chorus/Bridge type structure, such as, the standard. I encourage students to conduct while the music is playing, but quite frankly, there is a lot of resistance.

The goal is for my students to develop their skills for listening to a song, and to teach them to create their own "road map", so to speak. I teach my students to recognize the differences between the verse and chorus; to be able to identify the key by the chords; to hear where chords change, and eventually recognize what those chords are.