I hate to say it Nik, but is that not a complete no-brainer? I can't imagine any guitar tutor worth his salt insisting a pupil just tries and tries and tries to attempt a challenging riff without rewinding (reassessing?) and looking at the scale/theory/chords behind it.
You do have a very (overly?) philosophical take on learning/teaching guitar, one which I'm sure will resonate with some people, but as much as I enjoy reading your mini essays, they're really not guitar specific in my mind. I know for a fact I wouldn't retain 40+ half hour pupils per week if my lessons were biased towards a zen approach.
"without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible"
Where does it say that a guitar teacher is the person pushing the pupil?Originally Posted by colski
How can anyone be "overly" philosophical? Seriously.
Since Nik is writing a blog perhaps he's identified a content for blogging that's of use.. I mean I really hate "this is the D Dorian scale it can be used with these chords" which is all bloggers have been able to regurgitate for years.
It's not a complete no brainer at all. It may seem more obvious to some than to others, but it's a post based on personal experience based on the fact that a lot of people don't actually understand practice in terms of what its component parts really are, namely that the comprehension of the material (on whatever level the pupil may be working at) is one thing, and the reinforcement of this material is quite another. Some people can't even make the distinction between practicing and playing the guitar, and need to be shown that playing the guitar is about today (playing to your strengths), and that practise is about what you will be able to do tomorrow better (through the active, conscious, and considered confrontation of your weaknesses).
The idea that a tutor insists that a pupil just tries and tries and tries to attempt a challenging riff without rewinding (reassessing?) and looking at the scale/theory/chords behind it doesn't come into this at all. If you're conducting 40+ half hour guitar lessons per week, then you can afford to be specific and tailor ideas to pupils individual needs, but this isn't the way the CGPW project works.
The whole point of this post is about practice, and that perseverance and reassessment are actually two choices which may or may not be valid for each individual in each individual circumstance. Rather than to apply a prescriptive, generic answer in the form of "you just have to practice", it looks at an element of the nature of practice and how an understanding of the nature of practice can be used to your advantage.
If what I post seems (as you suggest) overly philosophical, it may be worth considering that the very nature of practise itself isn't guitar-specific.
From the CGPW manual:
Practice is the means by which knowledge is transferred into skills. Because of its importance, I have committed a lot of time to exploring what it is and how it works. I’ve looked at as many methods and ideas as I could find, personally trying and testing them all. Some ideas that I’ve tried and tested have produced some exceptional results. Other ideas have produced less impressive results although I have remained open minded to everything I have encountered and dismissed nothing because different things can produce different results for different people, and I would not like to consider my own subjective experience to be exclusively used as a measure of any idea’s success.
As I frequently say to my students, “no two pairs of hands are the same, so no two people will have exactly the same experience of playing the guitar”. With this in mind, it stands to reason that where no two pairs of hands (and no two minds) will experience practice the same way, and as such I would wish this section to be considered as a presentation of guidelines rather than rules.
Where it would be easy to ask what practice is? I would prefer to go much further, and ask more of it than this. To answer to this simple question would only offer an inadequate and superficial answer with limited practical application. I consider it to be it much more suitable to make a more thorough exploration of it by asking three questions rather than one. These are:
1. What does practice consist of?
2. What is its purpose?
3. How is it done?
The section then goes on to explore these questions in depth, because once this has been explored you're far more likely to be using your "guitar specific" practice time much more effectively and efficiently than if you just pick a guitar up and practise without this understanding.
Last edited by Nik Harrison; 28th September 2012 at 03:59 PM.
Where did I say that it's the guitar teacher pushing the pupil?
To the point where you spend a whole lesson/practice session talking about playing, and not playing. It has it's place, for sure, but what's the ultimate goal? To play guitar better surely.
I agree with that, it's good blog content for sure.
Wouldn't know about that, I don't read blogs generally, but that statement would contain valuable and useful information to someone, it should hardly be discounted because you hate it.
I always feel like I'm the one on here continually bashnig Nik's efforts, I genuinely don't want it to seem like that, I do enjoy reading his stuff, but it does seem like a lot of truisms to me.
"without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible"
I don't feel like it's being "bashed" as such. Constructive criticism is often the most valuable tool anyone with anything to say can have to better shape and articulate what they want to get across and that's how it most often feels.
Maybe there are a number of truisms in my work, but in my experience there are a number of truisms that are worthy of being pointed out because not everyone seems to see them as you do. For certain people they may be obvious, but it's not these people that I devised the CGPW and write that blog for. You already have a strong understanding of what you're doing and share that with your pupils. I appreciate that you've shared that you enjoy reading my work, but to a large extent, I can't imagine that it always applies to you.
Last edited by Nik Harrison; 28th September 2012 at 04:39 PM.
In direct response to this point, I thought I should share this because on an internet which is saturated with duplicated information in the form of scales, diagrams, chords, modes, etc. I've tried to take a different path and look towards putting this information into an effective framework for practice which isn't really 'zen', but certainly looks towards getting the very best out of the information in terms of it's practical/musical application:
Guitarists and the Pursuit of Progress
After a lot of teaching, in my experience there appears to be a strong culture of frustration amongst young guitarists. This is usually borne of the fact that desired results concerning development of the ability to play well is taking a long time, although I think that many guitarists have felt this way at one time or another, sometimes despite years of study and practice.
The rate of progress
Progress occurs at a rate which reflects three main factors:
Approach to the instrument/ attitude
Individual aspirations/ realistic goals
Availability of guidance/ resources
If you want to influence the rate of progress, each of these three factors needs to be considered, and addressed. One thing which is fundamental to effective progress and desired results is an understanding of practice. What is practice? I would suggest (based on the Contemporary Guitar Performance Workshop definition/exploration of practice) that it is as follows:
“To engage in a process that serves to change unfamiliar information into familiar information"
The information which practice serves to convert (from unfamiliar to familiar) may be mental or physical. Mental examples could include developing a strong musical vocabulary, recall of keys, scale names and chord constructs. Physically it could include dexterity or co-ordination. Also, your ears get stronger when you apply them. That involves a unique mental/ physical development through listening and ear training.
“Practising” and “playing” the guitar
Within the article “3 aspects of Guitar Musicianship”, These 3 aspects of musicianship are inseparable when you are playing the guitar. For example, if you are improvising over a chord progression using a B minor scale you need improvisation skills (musical skills), you may also be using alternate picking (technique), and your instrumental knowledge will let you know where to find a B minor scale/ chord on your instrument across multiple positions. After a certain period of time performing this, you will need musical and technical options to expand and develop what you are playing in order to maintain its musical interest. Many people do not effectively separate what is “playing” and “practising”. When you are playing you may be developing skills and becoming a better guitarist but that is not the functional objective of playing, it is to serve music and be as musically coherent and expressive as possible ('playing to your strengths'). When you are practising, the time you spend in contact with the instrument is for a very different, specific purpose. It is to become a better player. It should be 'the active, considered, conscious confrontation of your weaknesses'. With this distinction clear in your mind you can better organise your time and approach to your playing and practising.
Goal setting and the use of resources
Learning a musical instrument involves building a collection of skills. Setting goals is an important part of how you build these skills. Goals also serve to establish targets for your playing within a given timeframe. With no goals, to what end are you practising? In order to become a creative guitarist you have to make yourself a strategic plan based on what you want to be able to do, then you have to follow it. It can change, in fact I often recommend that my students reassess their position regularly and build on what they know and use the benefit of their experiences, but without goals, there is nothing to “shoot for”.
Imagine you are a really good guitarist and can play three pieces of music that would confirm your status. Once you have done this, you have established three long term goals! All you need to do now is establish all the shorter term goals you will need to reach before you get to the long term ones. That way you can monitor your progress and establish a clear progressive path for your playing which will offer you much better results than to just work your way through random material hoping that it will enable you to play the way you want to play. Whenever you practice ask yourself why am I doing this? What benefit will it offer me? Where does it fit into my view of the “really good player” strategic plan? A strong structure is built on strong foundations and guitar playing is no different. Learn the basics as well as they can possibly be learned. A lot of the time, what is considered to be “advanced” playing can usually be analysed and identified as a practical demonstration of the basics being done well.
Throughout the “conventional” study of any instrument where a course is being followed, a teacher will make a strategic plan for you, changing it if necessary, and adapting it to your individual needs. For the purposes of this article, a teacher can be considered a “resource” based on their role. The role of a teacher when learning how to play a musical instrument is to provide information, guidance, and encouragement. No teacher can realistically take responsibility for a student’s progress. Without a teacher, self regulation of study and practice is necessary. Within this self-regulation, realistic goal setting (in conjunction with frequent assessments and evaluation) is very important because if you want to play something that is particularly difficult, in order to be able to do it you will need to be aware of what steps you will need to take to get there. This is where the availability of guidance from a teacher or from books and magazines can be helpful. How successful your study of the guitar will be will always depend, in part, on what guidance/ resources you have available to you. What you have available to you should offer a basis for devising a clear and logically progressive series of long and short-term goals. If you feel that you need help goal setting, or in the organisation of the resource material you have available to you, then this is where the help a teacher can be an invaluable long term time saver.
Without the aid of a teacher, if you can offer a context to each fragment of information you are studying, you can place it into a logically progressive order. Following a program (with clear objectives) which you have devised for yourself is actively building the foundations of your playing rather than just repeating exercises and “hoping for the best” which a lot of players do. I often tell my students that they would never get any better in the lesson. They would only get better when they took away from the lesson the information I had given them and applied it. I used the analogy of building their guitar playing like building a house. Each lesson I gave them a brick, some mortar, some other materials, or a demonstration of the practical skills necessary to put these materials together in order to build something. I couldn’t do it for them though, and it was up to them to take home what I had given them that day, and position the materials I had given them (using the skills I had shown them) where they wanted them.
Aspirations
Aspirations as a guitarist are very important. As far as your individual aspirations are concerned, if you don’t know where you are going, the chances are you will not get there. Your taste in music will invariably draw you to style-specific techniques/ chords/ scales and related material, but your aspirations alone will give you the discipline necessary to achieve your goals. Your aspirations should guide what material you practice, and where “what it is that you practice” should also reflect your taste in music, you should never be stuck for any inspiration or discipline. This being said, in my experience, the measure of patience and discipline which you have are usually not proportional to how good you want to be, but how much you want to be that good!
Last edited by Nik Harrison; 30th September 2012 at 09:29 AM.
To me that says you're imagining all the advice is aimed at teachers rather than self-taught.
To me that says you're imagining all the advice is aimed at teachers rather than self-taught.
Nik's threads cater for widely ranging awareness to music, coaching and practice and are inclusive - he's got a brilliant handle on teaching and coaching. In order to be effective it's got to be understandable and explain things for all people... it's folly to waste time bemoaning that you know some or all of the stuff... that means you know stuff - celebrate it.
Hopefully you're not a database developer and can therefore see the moon and not the finger pointing to the moon in this example:
If I said a database is most comprehensively effective in 3rd normalised form - it'd be a truism between database developers. If I wanted to help aspiring database developers it'd be foolish to assume they knew what normal forms existed or which is the ideal in which circumstances.
I can't tell you when I learnt most of my craft as a software developer as I started learning COBOL aged 11... other kids got zx spectrums... however I work with top developers and there are gaps in my abilities and in theirs... some people react badly to being taken back to school - some can't learn from other people - I prefer to listen to all of it even if it is like teaching my grandma to suck eggs... sometimes I learn something, sometimes I learn about other people's prejudices.
As much as I take interest in Nik's posts, I also enjoy yours, frustrating as they can be at times, however in this case I think we're discussing different things.
I like your "coaching" analogy though, similar to the concept that if you're a good manager, you can manage any job/role/people, whether you have specific knowledge or not. I think Nik would be a great coach (not just for guitarists). His concepts wouldn't sit right with me in the guitar tuition studio though. Not disagreeing with them, they're just not for me, as I think I outlined above.
"without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible"
I think there are several reasons I like Nik's posts. Part of it is when I read Music the Inner Game - I realised most of my problems in playing guitar are psychological based on enforced practice regimes (aged 8) and a lot of negative attention.. but I want to play guitar for me, I want to own it - so I've got demons to confront.
In addition to that discovery, I found I had no understanding of how to learn constructively (more demons) - it might seem strange but it's not something I've ever done; I learn on the job, I've never learnt anything in a classroom that hadn't been emphasised to me in "real life" first. Attending Dario Cortese's Jazz Masterclass at Bath Guitar Festival for a few years emphasized that. I learnt a lot because I applied it. The first half-day I didn't pay attention - but having to play in front of the class in the second part of the day got my attention!
In the masterclass we learned about modes but more importantly about breaks, objectives, approaches to learning, attention and focus, a lot of stuff self-taught people cannot learn because (until Nik) it's not been written down, it's been taught verbally - teachers don't recognise the worth of the discipline they bring - to them it's just the means of doing the job.
The other reason I like Nik's stuff is because it contains elements of introspection rarely found outside of philosophies such as Zen, coaching approaches, counselling, psychology, business disciplines and martial arts. All of these things say many of the same things - if you're lucky, you get them from parents and mentors, often as appropriate adages (don't count your chickens) - but some people aren't that lucky.
I once wrote a story about a a dyslexic psychic pizza delivery man. He had visions of the doors and if the door was a distinctive colour he delivered to the right address a minute after they'd put the phone down... but if it was a terrace of similar doors and a number or name... he'd fluff it up.. he had part of a talent.
These kind of things we'd all inconsistency and without the tools to describe what was happening would not be able to explore or discuss, or understand or share or learn from.
Noone gets the complete package so tools like Nik's are really useful and promote a more rounded approach to learning and self-sufficiency - which is a really noble thing to be doing. People peddling books of scales, special plectrums or training devices are selling dependencies - there might be an eventual route out of dependency but after you've bought the product, where's their incentive to get you being independent?
I'm sincerely appreciative of your kind words, and this has reminded me of one thing which irritates me greatly. This is the sentiment which permeates the majority of tuition material available (which ranges from books, to videos, to online courses, some of which has a very hard-sell approach) that people sell 'dependency' (which is often the manner in which much tuition material is presented). I find this to be thoroughly deplorable and if I may be so bold, criminally counterproductive!
Any guitar tutor of any calibre ought to be seeking to make themselves redundant as timely, effectively, and efficiently as possible. If any tutor isn't following this core principle, then to my mind they are short-changing their students. I've long held the belief that all music theory should be freely available because I can't find any cause to believe that any individual (or indeed organisation) has any claim to it in terms of 'ownership' and as such I don't recognise anyone's right/entitlement to sell it.
In the CGPW manual (which is taking me seemingly forever to get revised!) it does have scale diagrams, chords, keys, modes etc because they are essential for reference purposes but to my mind they are not offering the project any 'value'. The true value lies within the strategic means by which this information may be applied and this is why the blog content is focussed on this area. In the end, every chord, mode, scale etc can be found in so many places online, I don't see the benefit in duplicating this in the CGPW blog.
Surely the desire to improve should be strategised to incorporate the development of both the relevant knowledge, and the skills to use this knowledge in an independent, creative, and musically effective way. The 'knowledge' that guitarists need is already "out there", so I have turned my attention as a teacher/blogger to the exploration of how this knowledge may be most effectively applied.
Last edited by Nik Harrison; 1st October 2012 at 09:32 PM.
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