Is your child obsessed with guitar? "All he seems to be interested in is his guitar"

I received the following email from one of our teachers and I think it is one that is on the minds of many parents.

Hi David, I have an interesting teaching issue for you. I have heard the same concern from the parents of 13 - 15 year old boys. They say, "All he seems to be interested in is his guitar. He plays for hours, alone in his room. His teachers tell me he is not cutting it. Does my son have any smarts in guitar?" David, each one of these boys is a joy to teach. They play beautifully and do more than I ask each week. I understand that they love guitar, however, they need to stick with the grind of high school to graduate. I feel in a bit of a quandary when I speak with their worried parents. These lads have the talent to become professional musicians, still need to do the not-so-fun work to finish high school and further education. As far as I know, there does not exist an apprenticeship for budding guitarists. There are those rare few rock guitarists who have made it without formal education. Perhaps these boys are hoping for the same success. What are your thoughts?

Parents with children who seem obsessed with guitar and who are avoiding school work no doubt have concerns. There is old saying that says 'How do you get a horse to move in the direction you want? By first going in the direction the horse wants to go and gradually steering the horse around' If your child wants to play guitar encourage and support them. This will build trust because you are showing an interest in what is important to them. As a result when you suggest they also focus on school they will listen.

My advice is simple. If your child shows a strong interest in anything that has a positive outcome it should be encouraged. Some children will compromise their school work for music or sport but doing well in something usually raises their self esteem. A teenager's self esteem in my opinion is the No.1 priority. As adults we think of career and security in financial terms. We want our children to get into university so they can get a good job which is only natural. But consider the real world for a minute. Would you prefer your Doctor to be someone who has a passion for medicine or someone who would rather be a guitarist? Doctors today are in the highest risk category for early death. Ironic really considering they are in the profession of health care. The reason is stress and in my view stress comes from doing something you really don't want to be doing. Many of today's Doctors were forced into the profession by parents who wanted their children to have good paying jobs.

A professional musician has many career choices and if they are good like in any profession they can earn great money. My suggestion to those who want to be professional guitarists is to do everything they can to make their career a success. Playing guitar is not enough in most cases. You have to learn stage performance, business, basic accounting, how to network and so on. Teaching is also a great profession and good teachers are always in demand.

I hope that answers your question.

David Hart - Program Director

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5 Rules to Guitar Success

How do you achieve guitar success? This question in all its forms is the number question on a student's mind when they first begin guitar. The following 5 rules should help.

Rule No.1 - Set a clear definable goal.

A student I spoke to recently had been learning with a teacher for around 6 months. She said she felt her progress was a little slow. My first question when I hear such a comment from a student is "What were you expecting after 6 months of lessons?" The purpose of this question is not so much to see if their expectations are unrealistic but just to see if they actually have a clear goal. The actual problem that I almost always uncover is they don't have a goal therefore no clear expectation. They just know they want to be better. When I began working on the G4 GUITAR METHOD the first problem I wanted to solve was the one of ensuring there was a clear goal. But goals can be tricky because they are often very personal. How could I write a program that was personal for every student? The fact is although people have their own personal musical motivations we are all happy if we can achieve something. Anything at all. These early achievements build our confidence. Let me use a baby learning to walk as an example. A baby doesn't care where they are going to walk to. They simply begin with the idea of getting to someone or something on the other side of the room. Small steps are all that is required and each small step forward in any direction is exciting. So the goal (the song, riff etc.) itself doesn't have to be some huge achievement. There just has to be a goal.

Rule No.2 - Practice MUST become a habit.

There is only one way to improve your guitar playing and that is through practice. Once you have set the goal the amount of practice required is the distance between you and the goal. Practice can often seem laborious but once you establish the habit it soon becomes a natural part of your daily routine. If practice is not yet a habit for you it is probably because you stop and start, practicing some days and not others. Taking a shower is a daily routine and despite the fact that it take 30minutes or more out of you very busy schedule you are not going to skip it because if you do you will not feel right. You may even be clean but somehow you know that you still need to take that shower. That is habit.

Rule No.3 - Make sure you have a teacher.

Teaching oneself seems easy. The internet offers millions of free lessons, tabs and downloads that can teach you almost everything and anything you could ever want to know about guitar. The problem is the internet misses several key learning elements. Here are just a few. A teacher can correct your mistakes on the spot. A teacher can set a program that will work for you. The right level of difficulty if you will. You can ask a teacher questions. A teacher can motivate, inspire you and ultimately build your confidence. A teacher can connect you to other musicians. But here is an often unknown fact of science. We humans have what are called mirror neurons. When we see someone doing something our mirror neurons learn their actions so we become more like them. Mirror neurons are most effective in a real life face to face situation. So just being in the same room as a good guitarist helps you to become a better guitarist.

Rule No.4 - Listen.

It was once said that learning to play music is 50% listening. Listening in music is learning. Being a great musician starts with your ears. This doesn't mean just listen to everything and anything. You should actively seek out the musicians who you most want to emulate. If you want to be a blues guitarist for example find the players who you most resonate with. Think of it like language. If you want to be a blues guitarist you need to speak (play) the language.

Rule No.5 - Choose your critics wisely.

Far too often people will criticise your efforts especially early on because what you are doing does not appeal to them in someway or worse they just want to come across as an authority on the subject. The best advice I can give you here is to always look at who is giving you the advice. If Eric Clapton was giving me advice on blues guitar I would certainly listen but if the advice was coming from Einstein I would be skeptical. Einstein may have been a scientific genius but that did not make him an expert on the subject of blues guitar. I hope you get my point.

Hope that helps and good luck.

Kind regards,

David Hart - Program Director

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"I regret to say I'm retiring from guitar lessons!"

Do you ever feel like throwing in the towel? I recently received this email from a student which some of you may be able to relate to now or in the future so I think its worth blogging my response.

Student - "I regret to say I'm retiring from guitar lessons! It's been fun and I have especially liked your tutors, all of whom have been funny and such high energy. But, I reflect on the fact I rarely practice - i just haven't been bitten by the bug. Well, I gave it a good go. I'm doing voice coaching lessons instead now."

My response - It is always great to receive an email from a student no matter what the reason. Having played guitar for almost 30 years and teaching for 24 years it is sometimes easy for me to forget those early very challenging years. I recall at the tender age of 14 watching my fingers attempting to play 'Stairway to Heaven' and telling myself "This is impossible. There is no way I will ever be able to do it" On many occasions I put the guitar down deciding it just wasn't for me. Problem was with in a few weeks (sometimes longer) something would ignite the drive again. Maybe a great song or a concert or some girl at school telling me how she thought guitar players were cool. I won't say it was always passion but as time went by I knew that it was not going away.

I recently heard a great audio book that described perfectly what I went through as a young guitarist. The book is called 'The Dip'. When we begin a new hobby, skill, job, interest etc we start with lots of enthusiasm and drive. As time passes and results are not as immediate or the physical and/or psychological pain sets in we begin to question whether its worth pursuing. This is called the dip. Most people give up in the dip. For those who hang in there and come up the other side the rewards are huge. From teaching guitar for so many years I can see a strong relationship between the first year or so of practice and long term guitar playing. Students who are unable to establish a regular practice routine within the first 6 to 12 months almost always give up completely.

The reality is it only really takes around 3 months to become a guitarist. Now I don't mean in 3 months you will be playing guitar like Satriani or Segovia but 3 months is all you need to get through the dip. You see if you practice everyday (and I mean everyday) for 30 mins or more for 3 months you will have established the routine of practice. Results will automatically follow, your confidence will lift and you will begin to increase your practice but best of all you will crave it. Where in the early stages you need to push yourself to practice once you cross this line you will have to force yourself not to practice. In your case it may not even take 3 months and I would strongly recommend you trying this even for a month. My guess is you will come through the dip.

Hope this helps and please feel free to ask me any questions.

Kind regards,

David Hart - Program Director

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Music Theory for Guitar Students

To many guitar students Music theory is not high on their list of priorities when it comes to learning guitar. In fact it would be safe to say that most guitarists have a limited knowledge of music theory. Guitar students on the whole are different to most other music students. Most guitarists take up guitar due to a passion for guitar music. I am not saying that piano players and say violinists are not passionate but the truth is most take up these instruments as young children often inspired by parents wanting to expose their children to the educational benefits of learning music which of course is a great reason. But because lets say popular guitarists tend to start of their own accord often around the same age they start identifying with their favourite music idols they are less focused on the educational aspects of music and more the performance side of the equation. Typically they just want to play in a band as soon as possible. Many guitar heroes in fact either have a very limited knowledge of theory (Jimi Hendrix was certainly no professor of musicology) but as we know this does not limit their creative or even technical potential.

So with all this in mind why bother learning music theory? Good question really. Most of us speak perfectly good English yet have very little knowledge of English grammar. Here is what I think. Music theory facilitates your understanding of music. Theory can help you to compensate for other areas you may be weak in such as aural which is common amongst late starters. When I started learning music at age 14 years I was relatively late. Music is like a language and languages are best learned from birth. In fact there is now scientific data that shows how the brain actually filters out sounds based on your environment. Children who live in Japan for example only here 5 sounds in their language. In English it is 8 sounds. This explains why Japanese people speaking English have trouble distinguishing between the sounds V and B. Ask them to say "I love you" and they will say "I lub you".

In music hearing the different scale or chord sounds may be difficult but a knowledge of theory can help believe it or not. Here is how. When I was a teen I had friends who had been learning music since as young a 2 years. They could easily pick the difference between the different chords. I could not. My ears were just not trained. So I studied music theory and after about 12 months I came to understand the possibilities. I started working out how to play songs from ear through a process of elimination. I knew for example that if a certain scale sounded okay with the song there were only so many chords that would fit the song. By trying different chords I established the best matches. It was my theoretical knowledge that allowed me to do so.

The book I started with many years ago is the same one I still recommend to this day. Its call Brimhall's 3 in 1 theory. To order a copy just visit G4 GUITAR SHOPPING and use the Amazon SEARCH.

David Hart - Program Director

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Amazing Guitar Stories - The 'NO STAIRWAY' era

When I started learning guitar as a young teen in the late 70's I remember thinking how great it would be if I could play 'Stairway to Heaven'. By the time I could play it every guitar store had a sign saying 'NO STAIRWAY'. They were obviously sick of hearing people like me playing it for ten thousandth time that day. At the time I felt very disheartened because I had work long and hard to play a song that was essentially band in public. There have been a few songs that come close to the same level guitar worship over the years but I can't think of any that would get you kicked out of guitar shops across the English speaking world if you played them.

I recently became curious about this phenomenon. Firstly what was it about Stairway that drove so many people to want to play it on guitar. After all there were thousands of great songs that were just as worthy. And secondly why did it eventually get banned in guitar shops? Wasn't this song responsible for a surge in guitar sales? Why weren't guitar shops celebrating this craze?

I think this demonstrates Malcolm Gladwell's 'The Tipping Point' theory. In the late 70's Stairway had tipped and suddenly everybody wanted a copy of the album (the song was not available as a single in many countries). This then created a wave of new guitarists including myself. Because most of us were new to the guitar we were not really able to do Stairway justice. This meant shop owners were listening to poor renditions of the song all day everyday. The pain of hearing kids struggling through Stairway for 8 hours a day verses the extra guitar sales was too much. Somewhere in the world in a guitar shop someone stuck up a sign saying 'NO STAIRWAY'. The word soon spread through out the world and it seemed at one point that playing Stairway anywhere at anytime was worse than terrorism. Strange times.

Do you have an amazing guitar story?


David Hart - Program Director

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Improve your guitar skills faster by playing socially

A challenge for many musicians is staying motivated. To be a successful guitarist requires daily practice for years. Guitar is not like riding a bike. Guitar is more like fitness. Use it or lose it as they say. So how do we stay motivated to practice? The best way I believe is to either build or become involved in a community of local musicians. When I was a teen learning guitar my teacher put me in contact with other kids of a similar level of skill. We would jam on Sundays usually. Sometimes it went well and other times not so good but overall it motivated me to practice. If I performed poorly I would go home and practice harder than usual. On the days it went well I felt my practice was paying off. Either way I was inspired to practice more.

In no time at all we were playing gigs (and getting paid to do so which was really just a bonus). It was the connection to other musicians in my neighbourhood that pushed and inspired me to keep improving and eventually go pro. I see many students who play guitar but not in a social way. They are looking to improve their playing by isolating themselves in the hope of one day surprising the world and as a result they don't play socially. Almost all great musicians mix it up with others. Regular jams should be a part of weekly routine. Music is like language. Making conversation is the best way to improved your range.

David Hart - Program Director

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Ph:0405-274456