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Old 01-25-2018, 11:27 AM
island texan island texan is offline
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Join Date: Apr 2015
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I continue to be surprised by folks who say they have down the basics of some open chords (maybe even think they're a low-intermediate), but when you watch them in action, it's painful. No feel, all visual focus on the fretting hand with no awareness of their lack of rhythm. Although I love music theory as much as I love the rules of golf, such esoterica is rarely where a beginner wants to begin. And as has been stated, the greatest enemy of the beginner besides callouses is that overwhelming sense of no progress or accomplishment. Ask the student to name 2-3 songs they'd like to sing to. Show how posture and finger positioning makes things easier and stress the need to make chord changes quickly and smoothly (in rhythm) before anything else gets introduced. FWIW, I think D major is the best 3-chord starting point to get that sense of accomplishment going.
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