Welcoming New Students for Summer!
As we head into summer and most schedules change, I would like to inform new potential students that I will be offering lessons throughout the school break. If you are interested in signing up for guitar lessons over the summer months this newsletter will briefly highlight my teaching style and paint a picture of what to expect when you register for lessons. For the time being, I will be teaching online and will be back to in-person teaching out of my home studio when the school year starts back up.
First off, I welcome any student regardless of age or experience. I am very open-minded in regards to a student's interest in music genre. Regardless of what type of music you will want to play, the guitar's basic nature will not change. What you learn can be applied to your choice of music style. I focus my lessons on technical exercises, understanding the layout of the guitar fretboard, music theory, how to improvise, how to read music, how to recognize chord progressions by ear, and how to quickly engage in the creative aspect of recording your own musical ideas using minimal technology.
1. Technical Exercises
It is important to develop good technique through the use of left and right hand warm-up exercises. I constantly remind students when they are starting out that the guitar is a very physically demanding instrument and experiencing difficulties in getting the notes to ring properly is a stage in the learning process. At first, playing the guitar requires quite a bit of finger strength and dexterity. In order to develop this, there are countless exercises to practice daily.
2. Understanding and Memorizing the Guitar Fretboard
One of the first things I give to a new student is a chart of the guitar fretboard's layout. "Don't leave home without it" is my advice. I recommend students to make multiple copies of this diagram and have it in the backseat of the car or in their locker in order to memorize it. "The note location game" is a simple exercise I use to help students memorize the fretboard layout. We pick one note and try to find and memorize it across all six strings.
3. Music Theory
I feel fortunate that very early during my own guitar lessons I received excellent instructions on music theory. Knowing how things work and why some things just don't sound right is very useful, especially if you want to get together with other musicians and be able to make music together quickly. The key to all of this is properly comprehending the circle of 5ths and realizing how all scales and chords are ultimately based on this "organization of tonal matter." In lessons you will learn why scales, chords and melodies are all rooted in the circle of 5ths and how it can also serve as a great tool in your own songwriting.
4. Improvisation Skills
Many music genres such as Blues, Jazz, Folk and even Rock music are art forms that rely heavily on improvisation. This is the ability to contribute musical ideas to a song in that very moment rather than having thought it out before and written it down in musical notation. How do you become good at improvising? Well for one thing, practice, practice, practice, and always listen to what you are playing. However, in order to start improvising, it is beneficial to have a basic understanding of how chords and scales go together. Jazz guitar players are especially fond of soloing and offer us so much wonderful music to listen to. Part of a student's growth is to become an active listener of music. I encourage students to study the various approaches musicians have in regards to improvisation. Here is an example of 4 jazz guitar players playing the jazz standard called "All The Things You Are". Can you hear how they approach the solo section differently? Listen closely to their note choices and see if you can identify different scales or notice other musical elements that make each artist sound unique.
5. Learning How To Read Music and Rhythms
Reading music on the guitar is very challenging because there are multiple locations for playing the same notes. Being able to read music is a critical part of learning how to play an instrument and becoming a well-rounded musician. Reading music will enable you to play quickly with other musicians regardless of genre. Regular sight reading practices and playing written music with other musicians is the key to improving this skill. This also lays the foundation for studying the classical guitar, which relies solely on written music. I encourage students to continuously work on this, and I use the following method books to reach this goal.
6. How to Hear Music and Understand Chord Progressions
Ever wonder why so many songs, especially contemporary pop hits, sound the same? Why is so much computer-generated music with prefabricated presets unoriginal sounding? Part of the answer is that many songs are based on chord progressions that can be analyzed and programmed easily. Once you hear and understand these formulas it becomes much easier to learn and memorize songs. Guitar players quite often learn to play songs by ear rather than relying on written sheet music. Learning simple folk and country songs by ear is a great entrance to recognizing the basic ingredients of song writing, namely the 3 chords that are called the Tonic, Subdominant and Dominant chords, which, respectively, are labeled with roman numerals I, IV and V. Here are 5 songs that use only these 3 chords. Listen closely and try to hear when the chords are changing.
7. Engaging in the Creative Aspect of Music Making Using Minimal Technology
Over the years, I have realized that learning to play an instrument means different things to different people. No matter what, taking music lessons and having a relationship with your instrument is an act of participating in the arts. This demands us to use our imagination and to use whatever knowledge and skills we have in a creative manner. I really don't like hearing people say things like "Oh, this person is just so gifted." Engaging in genuine art will require everyone to explore their emotions, matters of the heart, mind and soul in this ongoing deep inward journey of creativity and requires discipline and plain hard work.. In reality, not being creative has much more to do with psychological issues and self-imposed blockades rooted in fear and shame and perhaps even in denying the value of artistic beauty itself. I encourage all students early on to take the plunge into the creative aspect of playing the guitar and making their own music. Modern recording technologies make home recording easier than ever and serve as an inspiration to get your own creative juices flowing.
Learning to play the guitar opens the door to the many benefits of music like the cognitive boon offered by the engagement of our auditory, visual, and kinesthetic senses all the way to stress-relief. I strive to bring these advantages of learning an instrument to my students. Whether through technical exercises, understanding the fretboard, exploring music theory, learning how to improvise, reading music, recognizing chord progressions by ear or boldly engaging in recording your own musical ideas, all of it is geared towards growth and gaining more knowledge while also having fun. I hope this newsletter inspires you to start guitar lessons or perhaps you know someone who might be interested in taking lessons over the summer months. Please send them my way at: chrisdimondguitarlessons.com
I look forward to our first lesson!
Chris
