Beginner Guitar Students

Hi, everyone.
Over the past 30 years or so I've had the opportunity to work with a lot of beginner guitar students. Many of them had unrealistic expectations about what a guitar teacher can do for them. Most of them thought I would just show them where to put their fingers and they would play like Eddie Van Halen, or Jimmy Page in a couple of lessons. They think that it is purely an intellectual exercise and they don't realize there is much more to playing guitar.

It is as much a physical activity as golf or baseball; you just use smaller muscles. You have to condition your fingers, build dexterity and build muscle memory. This takes a lot of repetition of basic movements. It doesn't happen overnight.

I often get asked how long will it take to learn to play guitar. That's a difficult question to answer and I don't know if it can be answered. It depends on what your goal is, how far you want to take it. Do you just want to learn a few chords and play a few songs? Do you want to be a rock guitar hero? Or something inbetween. Having a clear goal is important and your teacher should help you define a goal.

I hear people say that it is easier to play the electric guitar than an acoustic. Or that it is better to start with an acoustic guitar first, then switch to electric. That is true only from a mechanical level; it is easier to press the strings against the frets on an electric. But you still have to condition your fingers and develop the dexterity. I do believe that it is good for your finger strength to start with an acoustic then play an electric later.

But for kids, I think it is better to keep them interested. They want to play the latest cool songs from Drowning Pool or even Jonas Brothers. They want to play AC/DC and Led Zeppelin. They want to sound like their heros and they want to do it on an electric guitar. I say it's OK and it will help keep up their interest.

The Great American CAGED Shoot Out

We had our CAGED contest and it was a great hit! Lucas won by performing 9 chords in 5 keys in 16 seconds! Everyone did very well. 

Here is a link to the pictures from the evening.

http://picasaweb.google.com/candrewmorrison/CAGED2008

Thanks to Marc Morrison for taking the pictures. I was busy running the contest. 

We had a lot of fun and after the contest, the kids got to jam. They got to play whatever they wanted, with whomever they wanted and as loud as they wanted! It was great!

The Great American CAGED Shoot Out

Hello everyone.

As I was teaching my teenage students the value of the CAGED system an interesting thing happened; they all began to compete to see who could play all five keys the fastest. It has become a real focus among most of them. So I decided to have a formal competition and see who really is the fastest. 

March 15th at Vocals and More, ( 481 N., Suite 100, Commons Rd, Aurora  630-851-3262,) 7:00 to 9:00, we will hold our Great American CAGED Shoot Out. I'll be sending out emails and fliers once I have to rules formalized. It looks like there will be up to 15 of my teen students competing. After the competition we will try to have one big teen jam, hopefully in blues. Anyone is welcome but only the teens can compete and jam. 

For those of you not up on CAGED, it is a systematic way to learn notes, scales and chords up and down the guitar fingerboard. It makes it easy to learn to play in other positions without brute force memorization.  Many songs use CAGED shape chords and variations so it is helpful to learn these. That cuts down your learning curve for a particular song. And the hand and finger exercises are worth the effort. 

thanks and keep playing guitar.

Terry