Got the blueberries?

Uncovered in several recent studies is the fact that eating blueberries is good for motor skill development. Fine motor skills are what you need for playing guitar so any advantage you can get is worth paying attention to. Some scientific evidence even suggests that blueberries can slow down and perhaps reverse age-related memory which is good news if you want to be playing guitar well into old age. That's my plan.

In a University of Reading in Pennsylvania and Peninsula Medical School in England study researchers supplemented the rats regular diets with blueberries. The rats showed a 83% memory improvement within 3 weeks on blueberries. In another study at Tufts University in Boston they reveal improvements in balance and coordination.

Learning guitar is largely a function of the brain. The healthier your brain the faster you will learn and the better you will ultimately play. This is because motor skill development starts with the brain. Staying fit, getting plenty of sleep and eating right produce healthy brains. This is often misunderstood when we see the fabled life of guitar legends who seem to party for days, eating poorly and living a very unhealthy life. While this may be the life of the occasional short lived rock star it is rarely what true guitar virtuosos do. Check out guitarists like Steve Vai, Joe Satriani and John Petrucci who all have very strict health plans.

David Hart - Program Director

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Success on guitar through effective decisions

The decisions we make ultimately lead us to success or failure. Brain researcher Jonah Lehrer explains in much detail how our brains actually work in the decision making process in his book 'How we decide'. Applying his findings to guitar can be beneficial. My own interpretation goes like this.

When people decide to learn guitar it is usually the result of a dopamine rush. Dopamine makes us feel good and often motivates us to take action. The problem is it won't keep you motivated for very long. What happens is we soon get swamped with new thoughts and ideas and the novelty of learning guitar begins to wane. Our desire to play guitar never actually disappears. Even if the initial excitement has gone because it is usually connected to a deep rooted emotion lurking in the background until suddenly you hear a great song, go to concert or even see a friend playing guitar. Suddenly the dopamine comes rushing back in and you are kicking yourself for not sticking with your guitar lessons.

The trick is to separate the learning of guitar from the joy of playing. Think of it like fitness. Working out is hard work but the pleasure comes as a result of the hard work. If you take up guitar with the idea of enjoying the practice you may initially be disappointed. But if you simply timetable your practice and get on with it knowing that long term it will pay off. The actual enjoyment of practice begins to creep up on you and before you know it you can't wait to practice each day. This does take time but to get back to Lehrer's research what he points out is that we make many decisions emotionally or using the automated brain which is actually very helpful in some situations but not all. What we often need to do is think logically and be thoughtful about our decisions and how they effect us long term. Learning guitar is a long term decision.

The 2 common mistakes guitar students make..

Two of the most common mistakes when learning guitar are;

1. Intangible goals
2. Putting the cart before the horse (Putting the Song before the Skills)

Intangible goal

When I began teaching many years ago students would come to me to learn guitar. As an inexperienced guitar teacher my usual question was "What would you like to learn?" Some students would respond with the name of the song while others may suggest a general style like a rock, blues, jazz and around 50% would say I'm not really sure. The first group seemed easy enough because I had a song as a starting point. The second group was a little more challenging because I had to suggest songs in the style which they may or may not like. The third group was perhaps the most challenging because it would often take a few lessons just to find a starting point. I pondered over this problem for some time before I started to see the real problem. Very few students had any real tangible goals. Let me explain quickly what tangible goals are.

If your goal is to be a good guitarist then this is intangible. What is a good guitarist? How do you know when you are a good guitarist? In whose opinion? You see the problem is there is no way of you really knowing when you reach your goal. A tangible goal must be something you can measure. For example you could say once I can play a certain song as per the record then I will be a good guitarist. Personally I think it's best if someone other than yourself who you can trust is the judge of whether or not you have achieved your goal. This is why the AMEB exams are good goal to aim for because industry professionals are deciding whether you are of a particular standard or not.

Putting the Song before the Skills.

The reason so many people take up guitar yet very few get past the basics is simple. It is the result of a loss of confidence. When students set out to learn guitar they are focused on the songs they want to play. The problem is they are trying often to play songs that were performed by professional experienced guitar players. It is unreasonable to expect that after weeks or even months of playing guitar you can play songs performed by guitarists who in many cases have years of experience. It would be like learning a new language and expecting to be fluent within a few months. As a result after a few months of attempting only to learn such songs students begin to lose faith. This unfortunately is all too common and often perpetuated by teachers who want to keep their students coming to lessons each week by succumbing to song requests too early.

In order to be able to play your favourite songs you must begin by learning how to play guitar and you should allow around two years depending on how much you practice. These first two years should mostly be spent focusing on developing the skills required to then go on and play your favourite songs. The G4 GUITAR METHOD avoids these problems while also solving the problem of intangible goal setting. There are seven junior levels and three senior levels before going on to the AMEB CPM exams. The levels cover the seven essential skills of guitar playing giving students tangible goals they can achieve in a reasonable time frame. So if you're serious about learning guitar the G4 GUITAR METHOD will help you to reach your own personal goals through a step-by-step measurable process.

David Hart - Program Director

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Ph:0405-274456

Long term thinkers make the best guitar players.

In the book 'The Winner's Brain' (A book written by two Harvard brain experts) the authors describe what the successful few do differently to the majority and have actually found their brains not only function differently but also eventually grow differently. In other words successful people shaped their brain for success in the same way athletes shape their physical bodies for their chosen sport.

A very strong point that resonated with me as a guitar teacher was that of long term thinking verses short term. Successful brains are wired for long term success. They see how what they do today affects their long term plan. But ironically they don't get caught up in the long term goal. They live in the moment but with their compass firmly pointed in the direction of their goal and avoid distraction or getting side tracked.

I can easily apply this to learning guitar. Students who understand that learning guitar is a long term challenge and who focus on the day to day enjoyment of practice knowing they will one day be performing their favourite songs with precision are more likely to possess the winner's brain. If that is you then consider yourself fortunate. For the rest of the population the good news is the winner's brain can be developed. As mentioned its like physical fitness. You just have to exercise the brain so to speak by emulating the decisions and actions of a person with a winner's brain and learning the guitar is a great way to develop your winner's brain.

When you decide to take up guitar you should focus on the 80/20 principal. 80% of your time should be spent on the 7 essential skills and 20% on songs. Most people do it the other way around so their skill development is very slow if at all. Most students get distracted by songs. Yes your goal is to play songs but they need to be done at the right time. Practicing each day with a well structured plan based on a balanced approach is the best strategy. The G4 GUITAR METHOD is a skills based plan that will help you to develop the skills necessary for almost any style. Once you complete all the levels of G4 GUITAR METHOD you can then begin to specialise. Think of it like learning a language. You need to be skilled and well versed in the fundamentals before you can branch off into poetry or creative writing. Same applies to guitar. Once you have the fundamentals in place you can focus more on the songs you want to play or on particular styles like rock, blues, jazz, flamenco or whatever your chosen style.

Conclusion - Think long term and your brain will become wired for success. The G4 GUITAR METHOD is a long term plan and will bring about success. The are no magic pills or potions.


David Hart - Program Director

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

"I didn't have enough time to practice"

Through years of teaching guitar and of course from my own personal experiences I believe there are two basic types of excuses we all use to sabotage our success. Time and money. "I don't have time" or "I can't afford it". I think we can safely say that for most of us our lives are ruled by these two factors. In this blog I want to talk about time. By recognizing when you use the time excuse you can better prepare and hopefully eliminate its dream killing influence.

"I didn't have enough time to practice" - There is now a well know 10,000 hour rule. It simply says that you can reach the elite master level of almost anything with 10,000 hours of practice. That is over an hour a day for 20 years. Of course you may not plan on being an elite master but it highlights that practice is the key ingredient to achievement. Almost any music teacher will tell you that the most common first words from their students at the beginning of the lesson are "I didn't have enough time to practice". Many students will be apologetic but even worse many teachers will just accept the statement by replying with "No problem, let's just have a look at what you did anyway". The problem with this is simple. If the student does not practice they will not progress. Most teachers accept the student did not have time to practice feeling powerless to help. So what is the solution?

A student who does not progress and will ultimately give up. Very few students will continue lessons for more than a month or two without practice. In fact lack of practice is often an early indicator of a student who is about to give up guitar. In this case the student needs to be challenged on their statement of "I didn't have enough time to practice". When we say we don't have enough time what we are really saying is we have not budgeted the time necessary to practice. In this case I will say to students "Let's have a look at your practice schedule". I will then run through the week and we will decide on a rough schedule. When they arrive at their lesson each week I begin with their Practice Log. If they say they didn't have time to practice I will revise the schedule and point out that practice is a requirement and that is important that they make the time before we can move forward. Students quickly understand that I am not going to accept their money unless I can get results. Anything less is deception.

The point here is simple. If you're serious about learning guitar try to eliminate the time excuses right from the very start. There is always time if it is important. If your schedule is truly that busy that you do not have 30 minutes a day to practice guitar you may need to reevaluate your goal of becoming a guitarist. At least for now. At the very least discuss your schedule with your teacher to see if they can help or feel free to email myself.

David Hart - Program Director

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Buying a Guitar Amp? Here are TOP 10 tips.

Here are Jay Irsaj's (Wildflower Amplifier's) Top 10 tips for buying a guitar amp.

1/ what /where do you want to use it

2/ what styles of music / sounds are you after

3/ tube or solid state ( I would prefer tube) But you remember the old PEAVEY Renown’s they weren’t that bad

4/ what amp configuration / Combo / head and cabinet. Would also come into the equation of what style (blues /rock combo ok) all the heavier and louder stuff Head and quad my recommendations.

5/ Marshall style amps – medium – heavy (AC/DC , led zep. ) depending on what model you purchased

6/ Fender is classic clean ( country, blues rock ., jazzy, Light rock) probably a little more versatile than the Marshall type but it will not get you into the heavier stuff.

7/ $500 - $600 – would be very basic entry kind of amp (new)

8/ Go into the shops and try / before you buy ask question

9/ Don’t rush into it until your exactly sure of what you want /need in a amp. (other wise it will become a boat anchor)

10/ Have fun doing it.


David Hart - Program Director

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How to improve your guitar lessons by repeating

A perfect memory

Kim Peek born 1951 can read two pages of a book at the same time and remember all the content perfectly. Peek was portrayed by Dustin Hoffman in the movie Rain Man. Peek was not actually autistic He had a remarkable ability to remember large amounts of information after only reading or hearing the information once. In other words he had a eidetic memory more commonly referred to as photographic memory.

Peek helped neuro scientists to discover and learn more about how memory actually works and better still how to make it work for you and I. Memory as we know it involves 4 basic steps. Encoding, Storage, Retrieval and Forgetting. Peek was able to encode information with one swipe like a computer swiping bar codes but for most of us encoding is selective. Our brain actually spends a lot of time forgetting and this happens for a very good reason. Peek's ability came at a big price. Our brains prioritise information based on evolutionary survival. We are more likely to remember that a stove is hot after one touch than we are to remember where we left our car keys simply because one is painful and the other only inconvenient.

Using pain to teach piano

Now I do recall hearing stories of piano students in days gone by who had teachers that would hit their knuckles with a ruler if they made a mistake. Connecting pain probably helped with the encoding process but unfortunately it often encoded the wrong message. 'DON'T PLAY PIANO'. While this may seem humorous in hindsight I have met many adults who said they learned piano this way as a child but have not touched a piano since. You could see the fear in their eyes.

The solution? Repeat, repeat, repeat.

Encoding information improves with each repetition. A German psychologist named Hermann Ebbinghaus was one of the first to really study memory. He discovered that people usually forget 90% of what they learn in a class within 30 days and most of the information is lost in the first few hours. Ebbinghaus proved that you could increase the length of a memory by repeating the information in timed intervals. This tells us that efficient learning is not about cramming as much information into a students brain as possible. The quantity theory if you like. Its about making sure that what you learn is remembered. The quality theory.

Song overload

This supports my long held theory that learning new songs every week is not only ineffective its frustrating for both teacher and student. In my early years of teaching students would turn up for their weekly lesson and I would ask 'What would you like to do this week?' They would hand me a recording and I would spend the lesson working out the song and teaching it to them based on what I heard. I ended up working out thousands of songs but after about 3 years it dawned upon me that neither the student or I were remembering any of these songs. I knew that teaching students in rapid fire was not the solution to real learning. It may have kept them happy in the moment but I knew there was no real learning going on.

Maximise your memory - Here are some important things to remember.

• Repetitive learning is the key.
• Decide on a few songs and commit to learning them in full.
• Try to choose the songs you rant to learn carefully so you can stay committed.
• A good teacher will keep each lesson to a few topics and also keep you focused on the goal.
• A good teacher won't allow you to learn new songs every week. Yes good teachers don't fold under pressure.
• You should walk away from a lesson feeling clear about everything you have learned.
• Your teacher should repeat the information several times throughout the lesson and should have you repeat it back.
• Immediately revise the information learned asap once the lesson is over. If possible revise several times to dramatically increase the chances of submitting the information to memory.

Hope that helps.

David Hart - Program Director

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