Teaching Approach
I've taught guitar for over 25 years now and played for 37 years. I love seeing the light come on in students' eyes when they 'get it'.
I teach guitar lessons remotely via webcam. I currently teach students remotely in NZ and the USA, but have also taught students located in Australia, South Africa, and the UK.
Lesson materials are influenced by the student's age and musical background, and I'm able to adapt the learning process to meet students where they're at.
I employ a well thought out and proven basic curriculum to start off the lessons. Once I become familiar with a student and their musical interests, I adapt the lesson direction going forwards. Students are most motivated to learn and practice when they're moving towards goals they're invested in!
Overall, there is basic technique that every student must learn. But after achieving a good grasp of such technique, my experience has proven that students learn best through songs they're already familiar with and enjoy, increasing motivation and momentum to help them "push through" more difficult technical activities until they becomes easy.
The basic curriculum that every student starts off with is as follows:
# Guitar anatomy - learning the parts and the functions of the important parts
# Guitarist posture - best sitting practices, hand orientation etc
# Guitar 'alphabet' - I use guitar tablature notation (TAB) as a foundational language through which to teach the majority of the students' first songs. I've found that manuscript (or formal music notation - which I read and do eventually teach) is too much of a hurdle for beginner students to tackle when starting learning the instrument. By using TAB, I can engender within the student a high level of loyalty and enthusiasm which can then be used later to help with the introduction of more formal notation. Basically speaking, I get the student loving the instrument - then they're OK with tackling something a little foreign, like manuscript!
Lessons are typically 30 minutes or one hour long every week, though I can accommodate other arrangements as needed.
Contact me to talk about guitar lessons!
A student needs to supply their own guitar - preferably a nylon string/classical guitar (to start with) as the nylon strings are softer on the students' fingers, so they tend to play/practice for longer! All other lesson materials are provided.
I expect two main things from all students: honesty and practice ie. 20-30 minutes of concentrated hard work every day.
Honesty is with regards to the in-lesson attitude ... students must communicate if they don't understand something. Many feel pressure to appear that they've "got it all together" ... this is a fallacy: building on a lack of knowledge. It really doesn't matter how many times I need to explain something, in however many ways. We can only go forward once we're all on the same page.
Practice is just that - high levels of repetition. The student can utilize a variety of techniques I give them to make their practice time effective and enjoyable!!!