I’m going to explain a few things I use to relate movements to students later, but first, let’s talk about why we should teach (and learn) this way.

It’s All About a Relationships

Choice Research has a lot of applicability to practicing. What you’ve read here before was about analogues: relating relatively similar things to each other.

We can think smaller than than practice events for our analogues.

When we relate movements used in guitar to movements we use every day they’re much easier to understand and master. It makes sense to take this “shortcut”, spend more time practicing, and less time worrying about whether or not we’re moving correctly.

So, with that in mind, here are some analogous movements I relate to my students.

Open the Door

Sometimes we need to use different left hand positions to accommodate passages. We change left hand positions primarily with a little wrist rotation.

If you haven’t ever tried to get a young student to rotate their wrist by saying, “rotate your wrist,” you should try it out. It’s very amusing. Most students will swing their elbow around like crazy.

Instead, relate it opening a door handle (or, for others, using a screwdriver). It accomplishes the wrist rotation without the arm movement.

Pick Something Up

Common wisdom on right hand technique is to, “move all the knuckles on the right hand in the same direction.” There’s the even better, more verbose methods of explaining it as well that involve tons of anatomy terms.

How about this: imagine you’re picking something up or wrapping your fingers around something or closing your hand into a fist. In all of these instances the knuckles of the hand move in the same direction and we avoid the dense wordage.

As an aside, I use the “one hand clap” to demonstrate the fingers moving into the palm.

Any other movements relationships you use? Post them in the comments!

Did you enjoy this post? Check out Technical Exercises for the Absolute Beginner .

There are many ways to help young musicians establish a good sense of rhythm. The following post is based on the Kodály method that presents a rhythmic study in easy, fun, and sequential steps.

How would you read this example?

What happened to the note heads?

Before you got to “read” this simple two-bar example, you might have noticed missing note heads. The Kodály method utilizes stick notation (stems without note heads) to easily get students’ focus on the rhythm. It is also easier for students to write fast and accurately. This is a very useful tool for rhythmic dictation.

In traditional music reading, one could read, “quarter note, two eighth notes, two eighth notes, quarter note” etc. Or one could simply tap out the rhythm. In a Kodály music class, traditional note value names are given syllable names. These rhythmic syllables represent the number of sounds that occur over one beat. For instance, a quarter note, is called a “ta”, one sound that occurs over one beat. The symbol is |. Here is a chart of basic rhythms:

Try writing out example 1 or your own rhythmic patterns on a piece of paper to get yourself used to the notation. You will find how easy it is to write and organize.

How to introduce Kodály rhythm to students: Preparation, Presentation, & Practice

All of the rhythms in a Kodály music class get introduced through songs that contain the same rhythmic patterns. Songs are learned first, usually taught by rote from the teacher. Students sing the song, play games and engage in activities that are related to the song. Then the melodic rhythmic concepts are presented and practiced.

After you have your student hear the new piece, allow time for him/her to read and think the rhythm (inner-hearing). You can do this by having the student read the piece silently. Silent reading is prepared by teacher’s “guided steady count-aloud” for the piece. For instance, in a 4/4 piece, teacher will prep count in a slow steady tempo of a four-beat, “1, 2, and here you go”; student will begin reading silently on the down beat.

This guided steady beat can be shown by the teacher while the student is reading silently. When guiding, teacher can point to each beat while the student reads silently. The second time, the teacher can “prep count” again and have the student read aloud with rhythmic syllables. As the student builds confidence and is able to read accurately, you can increase the tempo or play extra challenge games.

One of the fun memory games my students enjoy is “Turn it Over”. For this game, you will need 4-8 rhythmic cards containing patterns your student is or will be working on. Here are 4 cards for beginners:

You can arrange the cards in this order on a music stand. In a steady tempo, the student reads the 16-beat pattern. After a solid read, ask the student, “Which one do you want to turn over?”. The student will choose a card to turn over. In the case above, almost always, student choose the first card. The next time the student “reads” the 16-beat pattern, the student is expected to remember the card he or she turns over. One by one, the cards will be turned over while the student memorizes the 16-beat pattern. Remember to give some time for your student to learn a card before turning over the next card. The repetitive nature of this game helps students retain rhythms well and accurately. And it’s a fun challenge!

All of these basic notation introduced in this post usually get covered in Kodály music classes in Kindergarten – 3rd grades. If you are a private instrumental teacher teaching young students or older beginner students, I suggest that you start your students with these syllables from the beginning of their lessons with you and build your rhythmic vocabulary with them. You can determine when to switch over to the traditional notation names (or use interchangeably) as you assess each student’s understanding and growth.

Did you enjoy this post? Check out Video Lesson: Beginning Slur Exercises .

Before any student can start following dynamic indications, they have to know what the markings mean. I suggest starting with two different dynamic levels: Mezzo-Forte (a normal, full sound) and Piano (quiet). This way the student can begin to learn the difference between normal playing and softer playing while avoiding the tension that naturally crops up with louder dynamic levels. Because what we do musically is so tied into our movement patterns in both hands, learning dynamics like this often improves the student’s technique (a bonus!).

After the markings are explained, I like to have students practice them by incorporating dynamics into easy arpeggio pieces. I do this for three reasons: (1) Arpeggio pieces tend to be easier for students, freeing up some mental power to focus on dynamics, (2) the use of a variety dynamics is a great way to practice arpeggios, and (3) arpeggio pieces sound like a piece vs. a single-line melody. My students (in both group and individual lessons) have responded better to arpeggio pieces than single-line melodies.

When the two dynamic levels are mastered, the student can start incorporating some graduated dynamics (crescendos and diminuendos). Again the markings have to be explained, then I like to use arpeggio pieces again to practice the concept. Then the student can move on to incorporating more and more dynamic levels into their playing. After some simple graduated dynamic stuff is nailed down, it’s very easy to get the student shaping melodies so the dynamics rise and fall with the line.

If you use repertoire books, methods, or other anthologies that lack dynamic indications, I strongly suggest you mark some in for your students. I tend to write my own little pieces for students, all of which end up with some dynamic indication, even if it’s only one at the beginning.

Did you enjoy this post? Check out The Thing About Dynamics… .

On Business

• If every musician spent 30 minutes each day developing relationships and networking there would be many more successful musicians.
• Reputation and developing your brand is more valuable than any amount of money.
• If performing is part of your brand, a performance degree will do nothing to help you get there. Seek out concerts (see the first item).

I gave a talk about some of the business stuff here

On Teaching

• The longer I teach the less interested I become in teaching styles other than classical.
• Recitals for students are extremely valuable–nothing makes a student more excited than experiencing success in a performance situation.
• Students get very excited when you let them express creativity in music. It’s very easy to get a student composing from the first lessons.
• Beginning guitar technique has very little variation. It’s never boring to teach it, however; every student is different and needs different sorts of cues and explanations.
• It’s easy to teach even the youngest students to incorporate basic musical elements.

On Performing

• Living with a piece for a long time–performing it often–is the best way to overcome anxiety. Or at least get used to it.
• Performance anxiety doesn’t go away, but the feel of it becomes a sort of thrill.
• Talking about a piece before playing it is much more terrifying.
• Start strong and end strong. The stuff in the middle is nice too. I guess.

On Practicing

• Efficiency is king. If I can get the same amount done in less time, that leaves more time in the day for me to pursue other interests or network (see the first item).
• Part of efficiency is managing repetition. 7-10 perfect repetitions is fine. The problem is finding ways to play a passage perfectly! (see practice techniques).
• three hours per day is just about right.
• Slow/fast alternation is awesome.
• Never wait to develop an interpretation. Never wait to get the piece “in the fingers” before starting to make musical decisions.
• There’s no reason why a multi-movement piece has to be learned start to finish. Hit the hard stuff first.

On Music in General

• If you want to understand music analysis, take composition lessons from a good teacher. It changes the way you look at music–you’ll see connections that have previously gone unnoticed.
• A good repertoire selection will include challenging pieces that take months to work up and pieces that are easily prepared in a few practice sessions or weeks.
• It’s more fun to play pieces that no one else does.
• Form and motivic development interests me more than harmony.

Misc.

• Pool is a good game.
• I really enjoy learning things–even a lot of random stuff.
• The music binder is a good idea.
• Sometimes little things can add up to a big difference.

In the fall I begin a DMA at the University of North Texas, and I’m excited to keep posting as I learn more.

Did you enjoy this post? Check out Color Coded Music .

Did you enjoy this post? Check out Three Ways to Develop an Arpeggio .

Teaching a student how to end a piece is easy: it just requires a bit of a ritard. A teacher should write both the full word, ritard, the abbreviation, rit., in the score. After an explanation of the word has been given, demonstrate the effect to the student. Ask them to play along with while you slow them down and finish the piece. Then have them try it on their own a few times experimenting with how much to slow down and where to place the rit.

This often becomes a sort of game to get it just right. (and the student will know when it is!)

Art of the Cut Off

In addition to the rit, the basics of stage deportment can be taught at this stage. Show the student how to mute the strings and finish the piece. I like to rest my right hand on the strings in a certain way.

Right Position to Finish a Piece

Then have the student do a brief moment of poise then relax.

All of these things are extremely easy to show even the youngest of students. Last Saturday an eleven year-old student of mine did all of this on his very first piece. Teaching interpretation and stage deportment should be done early. By the time they are ready to walk on stage for a public performance the habits from lessons will be well ingrained and second nature.

Did you enjoy this post? Check out Teaching: Incorporating Dynamics (Interpretation 101) .

You might ask, “Why should I bother teaching children classical guitar?” There are many reasons. One that comes to mind immediately is that children who study music and classical guitar are the future core audience for classical guitar concerts. In addition, a good music education broadens a young person’s interests. We have the opportunity to encourage a young person to grow in depth and sensitivity.

Besides children love playing the guitar the world over. Why not introduce classical guitar instruction in addition to folk and popular guitar to your teaching program for children?

From past experience I’ve found that initially many kids sign up with me thinking that we’re going to learn the latest pop song and just strum and yodel a few I IV and V chords . And that’s all right. Most children have no idea what classical guitar is let alone why learning about classical music is such a joy.

However, with lots of patience and a sincere interest in each child’s welfare, you, the teacher, can stimulate a child’s interest in playing classical guitar and discovering the beauty and magic in music.

Please note though that it is very important that the classical guitar teacher has an excellent musical background, fine technique and must develop a real love for teaching children. Then this teaching program can succeed.

Working with Parents

How on earth do you get a parent or both parents seriously involved with their child’s musical progress? How do you get a real commitment and interest in their child’s practicing at home? Answer: It takes imagination and enthusiasm.

Most parents these days are so fragmented and so busy with multi-tasking that they don’t have the time or patience to talk with you as their child’s teacher, let alone time to practice with their child. Of course they want their child to take guitar lessons. However, they don’t want to be involved during lesson time or at home with practicing or musical progress. In reality they just want to drop their child off at the lesson and then be off to the next errand or appointment

So what is the answer to this problem? A few practical suggestions:

• First of all insist over the phone that the parent attend the first two lessons in order to see you teach. This gives the parent a definite idea of what it is you do during lesson time. This is especially important for parents who have never had music lessons themselves as children.
• Suggest to the parents that they set a regular time at home for their child’s practice and mean it. That is, no baseball or soccer practice until he has practiced for his 30 minutes first!
• In my own teaching practice I always hand out a Practice Sheet. Each of the seven days of the week is listed in a separate column. The student is required to fill in the amount of time he practices each day. If the child is still not old enough to tell time, I suggest that he mark the day’s practice with a check. He brings this sheet to each lesson.
• Incidentally, I hand out this Practice Sheet in a folder to the parent at the first lesson, along with a flyer from my Michelson Studio stating my teaching goals, when payment is due (4 lessons in advance) a business card, and a friendly welcoming smile. Since the Practice Sheet is in a folder there are fewer chances for it to be lost! Be firm but fair. Both the student and their parents will get the idea that you do mean business, and that you are a serious teacher and that you expect responsible behavior and a positive attitude toward practice and payment.
• Now back to practice time itself. For older students I expect a practice time of about 30 minutes for five days out of seven. For younger ones I start off with 15 minutes four days a week. It takes quite awhile for young students to learn to concentrate and to be regular in their practice time. Try to establish good practice habits right from the beginning of lessons. Be patient.
• I always suggest to the parent, right at the very first lesson, that the family should have a “Home Concert” at least once a week. Treat this seriously. Suggest to the parents that they meet in the living room after dinner and ask their child to perform. Even though he may only be able to play the first two or three measures of a piece, it will show his family what is being done in lessons and practice. In this way the parents are involved in their child’s music making. The young student feels good about the support he is receiving from his family and what he is doing at practice time.
• Another way to involve the parent is to make a friendly phone call a few weeks after the semester begins and Johnny has had a few lessons. Mention to the parent that their child will be in a Workshop in several weeks and that you expect the parent to attend giving time, date and place.
• If giving a Workshop is too hard to fit into your busy schedule as a teacher then mention that the Annual Winter Recital or the upcoming Spring Recital will be held at such a time and place.
• Parents do worry about how their own child will perform in a public place so they sit up and take notice. Parents usually show much more interest and involvement with their child’s practice and Home Concert after such a phone call. Naturally they want their child to be a success especially performing before family, friends and neighbors.
• I usually print up an attractive flyer about the upcoming Recital or Workshop a month before the performance. The student takes this home and it usually appears on the family kitchen refrigerator for everyone to see and to remember!
• Create a monthly Newsletter and give special mention to those students who have outstanding practice records. Also mention which students will appear in the next Workshop or Recital. Parents love to see their child’s name in print and will probably be more cooperative and involved in their child’s music lessons as a result of your Newsletter.
• Ask the parent, with either a phone call or a note home to buy a CD of an outstanding classical guitarist playing either Spanish music or romantic music. Something that is easy listening! Easy to digest. Have your parent write down the name of the artist and the CD. Don’t forget we, as teachers are trying to educate our parents as well as our students about music and classical guitar. Have the student listen at home or in the car. Ask the student during his/her lesson time which piece he liked best. Be kind and interested.
• Kids know when you like them and respect them. Just because the child may be only 5 or 7 years old he certainly has ideas and opinions. Listen to him carefully and thoughtfully.
• In addition to a CD you might suggest watching an outstanding performer playing a beautiful classical guitar piece on youtube or another video service.

Teaching Materials: Recommended books and Websites

The following Websites and books might interest you and will help keep your parents and students involved in their music and lessons.

• www.practicespot.com
• www.musicteaching.info
• yespublishing.com
• Not Until You’ve Done Your Practice (aff. link) by Johnson and Sutton. This book is written mostly for piano students but can easily be geared toward guitar practice.
• Helping Parents Practice: Ideas for Making It Easier (Vol 1) by Edmund Springer – available at Yes Publishing.

Please have understanding and patience with both your students and their parents. Show enthusiasm for the student and his parents and you’ll succeed. Good Luck!



Did you enjoy this post? Check out For Teachers: Choose Words Carefully .

]]> http://www.classicalguitarblog.net/2010/02/on-teaching-children/feed/ 2 http://www.classicalguitarblog.net/2010/01/three-ways-to-get-yourself-students/ http://www.classicalguitarblog.net/2010/01/three-ways-to-get-yourself-students/#comments Fri, 08 Jan 2010 18:56:55 +0000 Christopher Davis http://www.classicalguitarblog.net/?p=2764 Teaching is a great source of income for professional musicians, and it can be an extremely rewarding form of employment. Marketing yourself, however, sucks. Unless you get a gig at studio or local music shop, you’ll have to do all the leg work yourself. Here’s three simple things to help.
1. List yourself on Google Maps. Why? Search results on Google are tailored to the searcher’s location. Which is why Adsense shows ads for local business in your searches. This also means that a search for “guitar lessons” in your area will pop up results listed on Google maps near the top of the list. You need to get in on that action. This assumes, of course, that you have a website which people can go to check you out. If you don’t, there are some great cheap website options.
2. Play gigs around town. You need to get noticed as a musician. Most gigs are played for adults, and some of them will be interested in lessons or have kids interested in lessons. Playing gigs for charity organizations is also a good way to get some local press with out paying for an advertisement. Talk to local libraries or charities and offer to set up a benefit concert. You won’t make any more, but the exposure could easily be worth it (just don’t hesitate to call the local newspaper about the gig).
3. Have promotional materials on hand. This is basic common sense: have business cards to hand out, and give them to everyone. Give your current students two or three–when their friends ask them where they take guitar lessons they can give one of them away. There’s also the option of setting up advertising promotions around your town, which would require some leg work. The idea is to be the first person that comes to mind when someone says, “guitar lessons,” and you should use any tools available to spread your name around. Business cards are a good start, but anything is possible. Guitar picks with “Guitar lessons” combined with your name and phone number could be a great promotional tool. There’s no end to the possibilities.

Did you enjoy this post? Check out Technical Exercises for the Absolute Beginner .

Why practice slow?  What do you get out of it?

Slow practice is very beneficial for a variety of reasons.  Obviously the results of slow practice are different with each individual.  However there are certain things a student/practicer is able to do while practicing slowly.

1. Listening.  Not just hearing that you are playing music, but really listening to what is going on in the piece of music.  Listen to each individual note, how one goes to another.  What kind of tension is created by the moving line?  Listen to the harmonic structure under the melody.  Does it add or take away from the melodic tension?  Is your piece contrapuntal, or have parts where there is counterpoint?  Listen to how the voices move in relation to each other.  Playing slowly gives you time to listen to all of these aspects and allows you to solidify your musical interpretation.
2. Resolving Technical Issues.  What does practicing slow give  you in terms of working on technical issues.  Well, it gives you time to create habits that you’ll use when you play faster.  I’m constantly telling my students about training their hands.  The time that we train them is when we are doing slow practice.  It gives us the time to actively make our hands do what we would like them to do.  We can catch movements or things that we don’t want to see, especially if we are rebuilding a technical issue.

These are just two points, but I feel are very important ones.  I also believe that these points apply to people just starting to learn how to play and people who have been playing for years.  This points are universal, and if applied while using the slow practice method can be very rewarding.

Incorporating Slow Practice into your routine.

Chris states that slow practice doesn’t get a piece to concert tempo.  With that point I have to disagree.  While it is true that just playing slowly will not get a piece or section up to concert tempo, using slow practice to clarify your physical movements is quite useful.  There should difference in how you play slow verse how you play fast.  It should feel the same.  As a matter a fact you want to strive to have your fast tempo technique feel the same as it does slowly.  Playing guitar (or any instrument for that matter) shouldn’t feel like it is work.  It shouldn’t be hard, or painful to do (if its painful…that’s BAD!).  Rather, playing should feel effortless, like the body understands and knows exactly what it needs to do.  This comes about not through playing fast, or playing slowly, but through clarifying what you need to do to make a certain passage work.  I use a system of 4-5x’s slow for every 1x fast.  The purpose of practicing slowly is to integrate certain movements into the body.  Things like “efficiency of motion” and limiting excess movement shouldn’t be worried about.  If you are looking for effortless playing, that will carry through into the faster tempi, as long as your goal is keeping the same feeling between the slow playing and fast.  The movements and motion of your technique will naturally become smaller due to the speed.  However, if you create the smaller motion because you want to play fast, that is creating tension.  The playing at the fast tempo is to confirm what you’ve been working on.  At this tempo you shouldn’t be trying to do anything, rather just observing.  How do the hands feel?  Are they working the same way fast as they did slow?  At what point are you forcing the speed rather then allowing it to happen?  These points, and more, are ones that I’m looking at while playing fast.

Recently I’ve started to use slow practice in a completely new way in my own practicing.  With pieces that I’ve been playing for a while, I’ll play them at a variety of tempi; 1/4 speed, 1/2 speed and 3/4th speed.  I’ll very rarely actually play at tempo, maybe once or twice in my practice session of a piece.  Rather I’ll work on sections of a piece (or even a full piece depending on the size and length) at these varied tempi with a few goals and objectives in mind.

1. Refining and clarifying my interpretation.  I want to make sure that everything from phrasing, to my dynamic shape, rhythmical accuracy, color changes, to rubato is clearly defined and understood.
2. Right and left hand balance.  Here is a pure technique thing.  If I feel that the left hand during a shift is out of balance, I’ll work on how to land with a balanced hand, or see where the imbalance occurs.  Things like buzzed notes, unclear chords or slurs and other technical aspects as well are also looked at.  With the right hand, things like chord balance and balance of voices as well as balancing a single melodic line (making sure that individual notes don’t spike out of the line) are looked at.  To me its hard to separate these things from my musical interpretation.  In my mind, its these technical aspects that allow me to create and communicate musically what I want to say to an audience.
3. Memory work.  Playing slower then what you hands are used to doing forces you to rely on other aspects of your memory of the piece, not just the fingers.  Things like your knowledge of the piece, what it should sound like, and visual memory are all worked while your muscle memory is challenged because the movements feel foreign.  With slow practice you can really see how much of the piece is being forced through muscle memory, and how much of the piece you really do understand and know.

With this kind of work, I don’t worry about how far through a piece I get, but rather the quality of the work that I do.  I remember using this method for the first time with the Fugue from J.S. Bach’s 2nd Lute Suite, BWV 997.  On the first day that I did this (a 30 minute practice session) I barely got pasted the 1st page!  But the clarity that I got was astonishing.  Even better, the next day that I went to practice the Fugue in this same way, a majority of what I worked on from the previous practice session was still there.  This allowed me to move further through the Fugue the next day, and more importantly it becomes easier to work.

I do agree with Chris that slow practice is not dead.  However, I do think that as with anything else there needs to be a purpose to why you are working slowly.  It’s great to listen to your instructor when they tell you to slow down, but strive to understand why.  What do they want you to get out of playing slowly?  What’s the purpose?  Work towards those goals and objectives.  As with anything else, these things are constantly changing, and we have to be able to adapt.  One week you’ll have an issue, and the next a new one might come up, its our flexibility in dealing with new challenges that helps us produce results that we want to see.  The most important thing of all is to become the detective.  Try these things out for yourself, don’t wait for your instructor to tell you to do something, especially if it is something that you’ve been told to do in another piece before.  Start creating a bag of tricks for yourself to use in practicing.  The more you use them, the more you’ll be able to address certain issues in your own playing.  That leaves more time for the instructor to work on newer concepts or refine older ones.

Did you enjoy this post? Check out Guitar Technique is Not Rocket Science .

Sor’s method offers a very good continuation of what I describe.

First: Constructing Major Scales

The cool thing about scales is that they always maintain the same relationship among the notes no matter what key. That is, to be a major scale the arrangement of whole and half-steps is always as I describe below. The numbers represent notes in a scale (called scale degrees). WS=whole-step or two frets. HS=half-step or 1 fret.

1 (WS) 2 (WS) 3 (HS) 4 (WS) 5 (WS) 6 (WS) 7 (HS) 8 (same notes as 1, octave higher)

If you think in terms of of the C major scale:

C (WS) D (WS) E (HS) F (WS) G (WS) A (WS) B (HS) C

This arrangement of whole and half steps is the same for any major scale.

Sor’s Method

Sor describes treating each open string first as the tonic of a Key area. Take the sixth string, E, for example. If it’s the first scale degree (the tonic), we’d be in the key of E. We’d then run the E major scale up the sixth string:

E F# G# A B C# D# E

After finding all those notes on the sixth string, we’d then treat the open E as the second scale degree. To find it’s tonic we’d have to go down a whole step (remember the distance between the second scale degree and the first is a whole step). We’d be in the key of D, and we’d run the D Major Scale from E to E.¹

E F# G A B C# D E

E can then be treated as the third scale degree of C major, and run the C major scale from E to E on the sixth string:

E F G A B C D E

Then it can be treated as the fourth Scale degree of B major, and so on until E is treated as every scale degree.

Here’s a PDF (Ex. 18) with all the combinations for each string.²

Why Practice This Way?

This method could add some interesting variation to learning the notes. It also lets the student practice major scales in a more theoretical sense — especially if the student, instead of looking at the PDF linked, figured out everything on her own.

________
¹ Sor is describing running each of the modes — Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian and Locrian — using the open string as the tonic for each mode. He doesn’t say this, however. It’s probably easier to think of it in terms of a major scale starting on different scale degrees (a way modes are commonly described anyway).

²The PDF linked is taken from this version of Sor’s method by Frank Mott Harrison. This “translation” is an english adaptation (and expansion) of the original English translation by A. Merrick. The exampled I pulled out, however is the same in both versions. Brian Jeffery dismisses the Harrison version as “a work of small value” (source). The A. Merrick translation is published by Tecla and Brian Jeffrey in facsimile. However, Dover (aff. link) offers the Merrick translation for much cheaper.

Did you enjoy this post? Check out Rethinking Slow Practice — A 2nd perspective .