Guitar Pedagogy

As a complement to our feature article of this issue, “The First Lesson,” we thought it appropriate to bring up the problem of first encounters with more advanced students. These guys can sometimes throw a wrench into the works, as you can’t exactly put them through your well-oiled First Lesson plan. What’s worse, if you don’t get a good handle on how a student has progressed before reaching you, you could spend weeks grasping at straws and boring the student.

Let’s be clear about what kind of scenario we’re talking about here. It’s not the ace-in-the-hole, nose to the grindstone, 3-years-of-classical-guitar-and-listening-to-Wes-Montgomery kind of student that is going to give you problems. Students who have been keeping up their sightreading and know the names of their scales and (gasp!) understand the circle of fifths, while rare, will most likely be quite able to bring you up to speed on what they’ve learned in the first lesson. Then it’s up to you to take them to the next level!
No, the kind of students we’re talking about here are the ones who have been “playing on and off for a couple years,” who can play some Nirvana riffs, maybe the intro to Stairway, a random pentatonic scale, and some chords. These are the TAB junkies, as I like to call them. They’ve scraped together a bit here and there to impress friends, mostly picked up from internet TAB sites, and while they can “play,” they usually haven’t the slightest idea what they are actually playing. They’ll know the names of some chords, but maybe not even that.
[Note: I should state here that, while I am a major exponent of learning music theory and note-reading skills, I do not deny that some of the greatest musicians of our time lacked these very skills. Should a student bring this up, I won’t hesitate to point out that what all of those musicians did have was an incredible ear and an amazing amount of talent. Now, talent is hard to judge, but a musician’s ear is a bit easier, and I’m happy to give a quick ear-test to any student who takes themselves for the next Hendrix.]
The problem is the gap between what these students can physically play and what they actually know. Now, one approach might be to simply say, “If you don’t know it, you can’t play it,” and start from scratch. However, you’ll probably find that after a few weeks of this, most students will feel pretty discouraged.
The fact is, even if they’ve been going about things the wrong way, these kids have still been working on their chops, and it’s important to validate that. You can’t just tell them “Everything you’ve learned up ’til now is crap!” Not only will they be upset, but they probably won’t buy it; they know that they can play some things, and they don’t want to start over from the beginning.
On the other hand, if you’re too lenient, the student will end up imposing their whims on you, and before you know it, you’ll be cranking out TAB for them every week. There must be a way to get them on the right track without making them feel completely derailed…

The Rules

With any student, it’s best to be clear about what’s expected from them right from the start. I usually give them three rules right off the bat:

1. Be on time for lessons. Missing 5 minutes might not seem like a lot, but it’s one sixth of a 30-minute lesson.
2. Be prepared. Always come to class with your guitar, a pencil, your notebook or folder, and a patch-cord if necessary.
3. Practice, practice, practice. At least 30-min a day, every day. And make sure to practice what we have learned in class. You can play other tunes, jam with friends, and do whatever you want, but don’t do so at the expense of what we’re learning in class.

You don’t have to be tyrannical about these, but just being clear about your expectations from the get go can save you a lot of huffing and puffing later on.

Establish Goals

As long as you’re being up front from the get go, go ahead and talk to your experienced student about what they expect from guitar lessons. Most will probably just say that they want to become better guitar players. Great! This will give you a good opportunity to let them know what you expect from a guitar student. Instead of weighing them down by letting them know that they’re going to have to learn a lot of boring stuff for “no reason,” why not let them know that your students, guys who have gone all the way to pro level with you, are all consumate, well-rounded guitar slingers. They might have their favorite styles, but they can play in any situation. Most students at this point will be giving you the old “Yeah!? Uh huh!? Ok, yeah yeah!?” See where we’re going with this? Get them to commit to striving to be this kind of player, then they will realize (and you’ll of course point this out) that if they’re going to be able hang in any crowd, they’ll need to know their shit. This means having a good ear and being able to read and knowing their scale and chord theory.

Check their chops

At this point, I like to actually pull out a little checklist that I’ve written up myself for just such an occasion. Basically, I’ve laid out all the chords, scales, positions, and basic riffs (blues shuffle, etc.) that I like to take students through in the first, say, year or so. I’ve written these out in a rough order of difficulty, and I go through and ask the student to tell me whether he knows an item or not. The basic rule from here on out, I explain, is that the student has to know at least the name of what he’s going to play. For chords, for example, I run down a list of open chords. If the student knows them all cold by name, then good for them. If they miss one, I’ll show them quickly on the guitar and see if they recognize the shape, and if so, I hand them a chord sheet and have them write in the chord with its name, to memorize for next time. The chords that they haven’t learned yet we’ll try to work into upcoming lesson material.
I do pretty much the same thing with scales and riffs, too. I then ask them to try to give me a complete list of all the tunes they have learned or started to learn on their own (I might put a little star next to the ones that they have only started, to come back to later).
If they have seen a bit of music notation before, I’ll pull out a simple melody and see if they can get through it, just to see where they’re at.
Lastly, I like to give them a little test of their sense of rhythm, just having them strum through some basic patterns, first copying me, then actually trying to lock in with me as I play. I’ll save ear-tests like chord differentiation for another time.

Finishing up

Of course, getting through all of this in the first lesson means that you probably won’t have time to actually hear the student play. If things go smoothly, you might have a few minutes at the end to ask the student to give you an idea of what they can do, play their favorite song, or whatever. But if you don’t have the time, no worries. Most students who have been working on their own will appreciate the checklist approach, as it will give them a chance to see where they stand in the grand scheme of all things guitar. As their first assignment, ask them to prepare a tune for you for next time, no matter what the level, as close to performance-ready as possible. In the meantime, take your checklist home and see if you can find some material that will present one or two new things to get them started on right away the following week.

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