Hey Teacher, my Guitar Desert Island Disks
If I was being shipped off to a desert island tomorrow and had to choose a handful of music to take with me to inspire my guitar learning, then a quick flick through my iTunes library has come up with this lot:
Mary Gauthier, Smiths, Radiohead, Turin Breaks, Snow Patrol, Simon and Garfunkel, Pink Floyd, Neil Young, Natacha Atlas, Bright Eyes, Bob Dylan, Belle & Sebastian, The Arcade Fire…
This little exercise was inspired by a comment below by Jon H:
And there’s why I question your match with the teacher. He has started you off on a typical classical guitar path, and a bit of an academic one at that. Did he ask you what you wanted out of the guitar? Did you ask yourself? [….] If I was trying to teach you, I would begin with this: “Ben, what guitar players do you like? Who are your favorite performers? Shall we try to learn a song by one of them today?. Then next week we’ll try another…”
Yes, the exercises he has given me are a bit academic and not very motivating. I just want to start learning some songs! So, I’ve got ten days to make up my mind before the next class, but I may:
a) change teacher
b) explain to him carefully what I want and see if he gets it
c) teach myself the songs I like, use fun books that get me strumming fast then go back to a teacher a bit later on once I have a bit of guitar under my belt
Confusion, confusion…. I’ll do the finger exercises he set me as I can see they are useful for getting the fingers moving over the frets, but I certainly don’t want to slave through that classical piece he gave me though, when I could be learning my first Radiohead or Mary Gauthier song instead…
Comments
Comment from jon hundt
Date: October 29, 2007, 7:34 pm
good, Ben. I’m glad you’re looking at it this way.
I really think you should look at some simple chord books. Here in the small town of Bussum, Holland our public library has 1000 or more music books, with artists from Louis Armstrong to the Foo Fighters. Some of them are especially designed for beginning guitar players. Once you understand the chord diagrams a little you can just take off. I imagine you can find books like this locally in Madrid.
I learned this way, plonking my way through Bob Dylan, the Byrds, etc. The important thing is that you have a quick reward for your trouble - you are playing songs that you know. After a while you can take lessons from someone who understands your needs.
BTW - I’m a big fan of lessons, though I never took any. One lesson with a good (and well-matched) teacher can jump you ahead by weeks or even months. But good teachers will be even happier when you show up with a few basic chords and songs figured out.
There are also numerous video DVD lessons available. I’m sure some are very good, and useful. But I am not familiar enough to recommend any.
Jon
Comment from Ben
Date: October 29, 2007, 9:05 pm
Thanks Jon, I have actually found some really good stuff on youtube to keep me going for now. I need to get those chord changes going first, then find a nice song to get going on - actually right now I have option paralysis - see the next post!
Comment from Gary
Date: November 5, 2007, 2:14 am
I taught myself and when I finally went for lessons I was playing Angie and alices Restaurant, so got bored very quickly with he exercises, to be honest and with hindsight i wish Id stuck it out but I was 15 not 34. If you want to play a simple folk fingerstyle accompaniment and thats all then fine - but remember its accompanyment - ie someone should be singing.
Enter Marina….
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