Learning Guitar and preparing for the journey

The well known saying 'An hour of planning is worth 3 hours of execution' most definitely applies to learning guitar. Think of it like climbing Mt Everest (assuming you have never climbed Mt Everest of course) its hard to know what to expect and how to prepare for it. Having prior knowledge of the climb ahead as well as information on required clothing, essential supplies such as food, water, a first aid kit, a map, a guide book etc. will make all the difference when you are half way up the mountain. The same can be said of guitar. Many students embark on their journey to the summit of guitar mountain only to get lost and confused along the way. The excitement soon wears off and the students begins to lose interest. 
 
As with mountain climbing the best plan is usually to find an experienced guide. A guitar teacher will help you in several ways.


Your teacher has many roles but in my opinion the key roles are to;

1. Set clear goals. (Which mountain)
2. Set clear expectations by giving you an idea of what to expect. How long it will take, required practice etc. (How long will it take to climb)
3. Explain the technical aspects of playing guitar with exercises to ensure development. (The theory of mountain climbing) 
4. Show you the best approach to your practice. (How to actually climb)
5. Motivate and inspire you to become an accomplished guitarist. (Staying positive during the tough climb)

If you have any question marks concerning your lessons please feel free to email me at david@g4guitar.com.au


Hope that helps.


David Hart - Program Director


Become a G4 GUITAR FAN on FACEBOOK.
http://bit.ly/G4FACEBOOK


Visit the G4GUITAR METHOD Website
www.g4guitarmethod.com.au

Why children do not want to practice guitar and what to do about it

One of the big deciding factors between children who succeed on guitar and those who give up is parent involvement. It is the emotional support from parents that makes this critical difference. This is especially true in the early phase. Statistically children of musical parents have a higher chance of success. A great example is Mozart whose father Leopold was himself a music teacher. But the reason is not so much because the parents are musical (which helps of course) but it is because they understand what is expected of their child at home. They understand that almost any child will not want to practice on a daily basis but that practice is necessary for their success. So how do you get your child to practice?


Firstly you don't have to be a musical parent. You just need to ensure your child practices on a daily basis. We typically get parents saying 'She doesn't practice so we have decided to stop the lessons for now'. That is like saying 'She doesn't want to eat vegetables so we just let her eat ice cream'. Children will not want to practice because it requires concentration and effort. Their appreciation for practice will not come until 6 to 12 months of regular daily practice when they see the rewards. Until that time it is critical that parents help their child through the early phase. The teacher will map out what needs to be done and your child will know what is required so what to practice is covered.

Children are not able to see the long term benefits of practice like adults do. Working together with your child will show them that you hard with them and that you will work through it together. Try to sit down with them and help them with their practice. Especially in the early months. Over time they will need less support as they begin to reap the rewards of practice. They will eventually look forward to their practice time.

I hope this information has been helpful but please feel free to email me your questions at david@g4guitar.com.au

David Hart - Program Director

Become a G4 GUITAR FAN on FACEBOOK.
http://bit.ly/G4FACEBOOK

Visit the G4GUITAR METHOD Website
www.g4guitarmethod.com.au
Ph:0405-274456

Inspirational drummers

I think anyone who plays electric guitar appreciates a good drummer. Here are some of my favourites.

What does Sport have to do with Learning Guitar?

We often underestimate the value of a coach.  In the NRL St George have now won 2 straight premierships under the coach Wayne Bennett. Whether you like the sport or not one can't help but admire a great coach. Wayne Bennett has miraculously taken a team that has not won a premiership in over 30 years or a minor premiership since 1985 to the top 2 years in a row. Wayne Bennett's record with Brisbane was also very impressive. Bennett will go down in history as the sports best ever coach. 

Australia's Olympic Record

On a 60 minutes program earlier this year they featured a story about how the Australian Olympic athletes were not going to do so well in the up-and-coming Olympics because our secret to success was now out. In both the 2000 and 2004 Olympics Australia ranked fourth place in the world because we had a secret. Keep in mind the fact the three countries in front of Australia have much larger populations. USA with 307 million, China with 1.3 billion and Russia with 140 million. Compare that to Australia with only 21 million. This in effect means a country like China should get 61 times as many medals as Australia to be comparable. 2004 Australia won 49 medals and China 63. China would have needed to win over 3000 medals to be comparable by population.


Bad News Predicted for Australia
 
Now the story on 60 minutes was actually predicting bad news for Australia. In the 2008 Olympics in Beijing Australia slipped from 4th place into 6th place in the overall medal tally. For many Australians this went unnoticed but slipping two places was significant. The most notable threat to Australia was Great Britain who more than doubled their gold medal tally in 2008 compared to 2004. So what is really going on here?


Aussie Secret Revealed

The reason behind the success of Australia in the past has come down to 'superior coaching'. The Australian government had a very generous budget which was spent on ensuring our athletes had the best coaches and that our coaches had the best coaches (yes good coaches have coaches) and access to the latest technology. In other words we were one step ahead of the competition not because we trained harder or had naturally better athletes but because we trained smarter and recognised the advantage of a good coach.



Train (practice) Smarter

So how does this relate to learning guitar? While guitar and music also have an artistic component becoming a technically great guitar player is similar to becoming a sports champion. It's not enough to simply train harder you must train smarter. The message in this story is the power of a coach. Australia's significant advantage in the Olympics has come about not as a result of superior athletes but as a result of superior coaches and technology. The reason Great Britain has dramatically improved its performance is because they increased the budget allocated to training their Olympic athletes. In other words they now spend a lot more on good coaches than they did prior to 2004 even poaching some Australian coaches. Apparently they fund their Olympic training program through the national lottery.


Find a Great Coach

The moral therefore to this story is simple. If you want to be good at almost anything start with a good coach. If you want to be great then find a great coach. Successful people know that trying to achieve success alone while a noble idea is not the choice of champions. The 60 minutes story was perhaps trying to create controversy over the fact that some of our best coaches have now defected to Great Britain but was also pointing out that whoever has the best coaches will win. My conclusion and advice is to make sure you have a good coach.

David Hart - Program Director

Become a G4 GUITAR FAN on FACEBOOK.
http://bit.ly/G4FACEBOOK

Visit the G4GUITAR METHOD Website
www.g4guitar.com.au
Ph:0405-274456

How to trick yourself (and others) into practicing guitar.

Taronga Zoo's (Sydney, Australia) magazine 'Wild Life' (WL)  featured an article about training seals to do tricks. Throughout history animal training was largely based around cruelty but most of today's animal trainers  have learned to use positive reinforcement techniques. In WL the author says "Today's training is based on operant conditioning where seals change their behaviours because off positive reinforcement".  They use a variety of fish snacks as well as toys and even gelatine. They also incorporate the use of a whistle which creates an association that a fish snack is on the way.

So how does this relate to you? 

Comparing you to a seal may seem strange but the reality is you are not so different. The seals change their behaviour because it brings an immediate positive result. Everyone loves an immediate positive result. This is often termed as instant gratification but usually in a negative sense. The results of your life whether it be learning how to play guitar or getting fit or almost anything else comes about as a result of your behavior. Reinforce the right behaviors through positive reinforcement and just like the seals you will learn to associate the actions to the rewards.

Can you train other people to do tricks? 

You might ask what kind of manipulative person would want to train other people to do tricks. In the WL article they mention how a common question is 'why do trainers want to train seals?' Their answer is that it allows them to take care of the seals. For instance getting them to open their mouth allows them to keep their teeth clean and getting them to lie down and rollover allows them to inspect their body for any problems. They have even trained female seals to lie down for an ultrasound to monitor their pregnancy. This same idea is probably applied every day in your own life. Anyone who is parent is constantly training their child to behave in a certain way. By using positive reinforcement you can usually get your child to want to brush their teeth, eat their vegetables, go to bed on time and to do their homework.

Cause and Effect.

We are basically motivated toward pleasure and away from pain.  Think about what drives you to go to work even if its a job you hate? Either the pleasure of being paid or avoiding the pain of poverty. Credit card companies, airlines, department stores are all examples of organisations that use reward systems (point cards) to keep you motivated to buy their products. They know the power of rewards all too well.

Frequent flyer reward system for guitar

How you ask? Firstly create a reward system based on your practice. The positive behaviour. Create a rewards catalogue for yourself that rewards you or your child for minutes spent practicing. E.g. 1 minute of practice equals 1 point. So for 1000 points you might get a choice of a movie ticket or an iTunes card. At 5000 points you might reward yourself with a concert ticket. 10,000 points and its time for that new guitar.

Guitar practice becomes its own reward

The final destination is getting to the point where practice becomes its own reward. This is where you begin to really enjoy the the practice. From my experience it is connected to confidence. Lets use say learning to swim. If you can't swim learning is hard word and a little scary but once you can swim at a reasonable level it becomes fun. 

So good luck and let me know how it works out.

Hope that helps.

David Hart - Program Director

Become a G4 GUITAR FAN on FACEBOOK.
http://bit.ly/G4FACEBOOK

Visit the G4GUITAR METHOD Website
www.g4guitarmethod.com.au
Ph:0405-274456

Why isolation in learning guitar is so important

The brain learns firstly through a deliberate step by step process. Remember when you were a child learning to tie shoe laces? It was a challenging task that required serious concentration and practice. This is referred to as 'Deliberate practice'.  Playing guitar is about learning and developing a range of skills such as picking technique, finger placement, pitch recognition, rhythm, reading and so on. Isolating each of these elements is important for development but also for recognition. Recognising the different elements of what you hear is the first step to being able to play what you hear. 

Watching a TV music quiz show recently I was impressed by the woman who was able to identify instantly the instruments being played in a complex orchestral arrangement after just a few seconds of listening. It made perfect sense when they announced she had spent years touring with some of the world's best orchestras. She was able to single out the different instruments instantaneously.

The following video is a visual awareness test was conducted by Daniel J Simons at the University of Illinois. You may have seen this already but if not try watching this short video and doing the exercise before you read below.



I, like many people who were unaware of the real test also missed the appearance of the surprise guest. I was completely focused on the number of passes by the white team.

The above experiment demonstrates how our brain filters when it is focused on a task. This is important because irrelevant information can just get in the way. Learning music is a real trap because the music itself can get in the way. Ask the average non-musician to count the number of beats in Happy Birthday and they will have trouble because they just want to sing along to the words they know.

To learn music effectively you need to isolate its elements. Learning music can resemble the 'Rub your belly and pat your head simultaneously' challenge most of us did as kids. If you did learn it I bet you can still do it now. If not you will probably find it challenging. The secret is to not to begin by doing both. Start by rubbing your belly in circles until it is automatic and then stop. Now pat your head until it is automatic and stop. Now start the belly rub and then introduce the head pat after 15 seconds. If it doesn't work start all over again. Keep isolating and then combining and you will have it down in no time and once you do you will probably never forget it.

The reason this works is because the part of brain that needs to learn has difficulty trying to multitask. In fact multitasking is not recommended when trying to learn something new. If you try doing a complex action your brain doesn't know which part to filter out so it will filter depending on where you focus. Breaking down a complex action or thought is the key. Learn one element at a time. Once your brain understands one part of the task it can more easily incorporate another part. Now how does this apply to guitar? 

Students (and I don't just mean beginners) invariably pick up a guitar and try picking out a riff with the left hand moving around the fret board and the right hand picking out the right strings at the same time. This rarely works because you need both hands to execute correctly yet the brain can only focus on one at a time. So begin by picking out a few notes and then focusing on just one hand. Once say your left hand knows its part go to your right hand and rehearse its part. Then like the 'Rub the belly, pat the head' exercise bring them together. Keep doing this until you have it.


David Hart - Program Director

Become a G4 GUITAR FAN on FACEBOOK.
http://bit.ly/G4FACEBOOK

Visit the G4GUITAR METHOD Website
www.g4guitar.com.au
Ph:0405-274456

How children learn music

For children repetition is key to developing skills especially in music but this can sometimes be challenging for those who have to listen. As adults it can become a little aurally challenging to hear the same song again and again. Children on the other hand like repetition for several reasons.

This is a topic that many organisations understand all too well. When Walt Disney built his first theme park he literally walked around on his knees to see how Disneyland would be seen from the child's perspective. TV shows like Blues Clues would test their shows on children to see what would engage them prior to going to air. The results were often surprising and contrary to popular adult beliefs. Blues Clues became the highest rating children's show in US history because it was designed for the way children viewed the world. The enormous success of The Wiggles comes from their understanding of how young children view live entertainment. Take them to an opera and chances are they will be bored within minutes.

Teaching guitar to young children

If I could only offer one sentence of advice to teachers working with children it would be 'Small steps and lots of repetition'. Children will assess any challenge and if the step appears too big they will find a way to avoid it. This could be anything from using diversion tactics (E.g. Asking irrelevant questions or acting up) to emotional outbursts (E.g. tears) to simply saying they are bored. All these signs indicate that the challenge is either inappropriate or perceived as too hard to the child. 

The importance of repetition

Repetition helps children to master a skill and gain confidence before moving to the next level. Think how with a child you can play the same simple game again and again and they never seem to tire of it. E.g.'Peek-a-boo'. Through repetition they are developing and refining a motor skill. If they were to learn a new song or skill every week they would not have time to develop each skill and would quickly lose confidence in their ability. Lets use the example of the alphabet song. Children will sing this thousands of times and still not be sick of it. This gives them a foundation to learn the English language. Adults on the other hand are imagining a scene from The Simpsons where Homer is strangling Bart.

Slow and steady wins the race

We do of course want them to progress and move forward and not get stuck on one song for too long so while we encourage repetition we also keep a balance by ensuring students are moving forward. We have found that children need to go through stages when learning any song. The first stage is learning the new material followed by developing the skills required for a period of time and finally enjoying a level of accomplishment. Pushing them onto new songs or skills too quickly can by pass the last stage and ultimately erodes their confidence because they feel no real sense of accomplishment. Children need to know that a skill that is seemingly difficult  can be accomplished through persistence. This builds their confidence to go on and master almost any skill and not just in music.

Conclusion

The early stages are more about building their confidence with achievable challenges and lots of repetition. If children are happy playing the same song again and again we applaud them for it. Their confidence will grow as they master each song or exercise especially when those who hear them for the first time playing the song remark "Wow. That was fantastic".

David Hart - Program Director

Become a G4 GUITAR FAN on FACEBOOK.
http://bit.ly/G4FACEBOOK

Visit the G4GUITAR METHOD Website
www.g4guitar.com.au
Ph:0405-274456