Quote:
Originally Posted by SunnyDee
I'm that kind of student. I always say I can't afford a teacher better than I am. Which is true. But I'm also an international teacher trainer at university level. It's my job to be a good teacher. Not everyone has those skills.
I've been following this and especially your comments, but you are exactly right if you are politely saying that much of the teaching out there is quite weak. A good teacher has to have a good big picture view so that s/he can simplify things without making them too simplistic by presenting the most salient points clearly. I haven't found too much of that online, but I will say, I'm incredibly grateful for the technology of the internet as well as the generosity of so many people sharing information and music. I can't imagine having learned all I have this year without these things even if it does require near endless googling.  |
Well, I wasn't really commenting on the quality (or lack thereof) of teaching since that is a whole other subject, but instead on the sometimes over-reliance of the student on the teacher. The student should be thinking for him or herself, coming up with ways to internalize the information being given.
I suppose the appropriate cliche is that you can bring a horse to water, but you can't make him drink.
As an example, since Toby Walker has been in this thread...
If you buy one of Toby's lessons and maybe even watch the video, unless you work hard to find ways to put that lesson to work for you, you won't have really gained anything from that lesson. Toby did his job, but it is really up to the student to do the rest.
From what I have seen of his video samples, Toby is a good teacher, so that is not at issue in my example. What the student does with that material is.
As a completely separate issue, what I see missing in the guitar learning market is a comprehensive course for guitar that would bring the student up to a level, building a solid foundation, to be able to make maximum use of all the various DVDs and books available. All these books and DVDs seem to focus on one thing or another, with varying suitability for a given student's learning style and/or level of capability for that particular DVD or book.
A student who has a solid foundation in music theory and how all that applies to the guitar, along with the ability to already play at least some tunes, maybe play some lead, can hear, can read and write music and TAB, should be able to drop into most any DVD or book and benefit from it. The course that gives this to the student is what seems to me to be missing from the whole guitar learning market landscape.
When self-teaching, it is a case of the "blind leading the blind". If a person decides to go into a wilderness or jungle he or she has never been to before, wouldn't it make sense for that person to have a guide? If that person is instead familiar with the territory, then going in alone, the person will likely fare much better.
I worked as a software engineer for about 10 years before going back to college and getting my degree. If we were to list all the skills one really needs to do the job well, prior to going to college, there were several of these skills that I would show having a very high degree of skill in, while others would show none.
The thing to understand is that I was completely unaware of these other skills, so how would I even know I needed them, especially if I was getting by with what I did know? We don't know what we don't know, no matter how much we might insist otherwise.
I know that I could do a lot better in my arranging. When I have looked into those arrangers for solo guitar who seem to put out really excellent work, they all seem to have a solid handle on fretboard harmony. This goes WAY beyond knowing the notes on the fretboard, the CAGED system, and how to apply it. So now I am studying that, as well as the work of these arrangers. In order to study their work, I need to understand what it is they are doing, and I can promise that it is a lot more than just slapping chords under the melody!
When I finished college, that same list of skills would show a much more even level of knowledge, and across all the skills. This gave me a much broader array of skills to make use of, resulting in much more efficient and solid algorithms and code, so that the quality of my work increased significantly. I expect that kind of return from my studies of fretboard harmony too (not the financial, but the intrinsic satisfaction).
I should clarify the type of arranging and playing I am talking about. One could easily make the correct argument that the old blues guys and many of the folk artists don't know much about music, but do know how to make use of what they do know to good effect (i.e. all that musical knowledge is not necessarily a prerequisite for these performers). I am thinking more along the lines of folks lke Earl Klugh playing standards and pop tunes on solo guitar, or Laurindo Almeida, and players along those lines, arrangers such as Stan Ayeroff and Howard Heitmeyer, and others of that caliber, arranging standards and pop tunes for classical guitarists. In that realm, you can really hear the quality (or lack of it) in arrangements. A person can get by nicely slapping chords under the melody in this realm, but to really take control of what is happening in these arrangements musically and shape them at will, takes some real knowledge of harmony.
Contrary to a belief that I used see among some guitar players (not so much lately) knowledge IS power and it makes you a better all around musician, just as it did for my career. Whether a person really needs this knowledge depends on the person's musical goals.
Tony