Teaching Strategy

Playing music is one of the most fulfilling and ultimately rewarding things to do, whether socially with other people or just playing for your own pleasure.  Even people who claim to be unaffected by music will have sung along with others in one context or another.

Its not a coincidence that so many people across the world have learned to play the guitar due in one part to the nature of the guitar itself – they are portable and relatively inexpensive, but also to its verstility as an instrument – a singaround at a party, the solo during “Hotel California”, Robert Johnson playing the blues at the crossroads, John Williams playing “Cavatina” (the theme from the film The Deerhunter), to whatever music makes the soundtracks to your days.

Starting an instrument for the first time can seem quite daunting, but its a suprisingly short learning curve from starting to play the guitar by learning your first chords, to playing your first songs (and most songs can be played very effectively with only 3 chords) to picking out more complex melodies.  When I was learning to play, I also found that the pleasure I got from listening to music was greatly increased by my new found musical knowledge, a pleasant side effect, shared by many people i have spoken to since, and one that has only increased over time.

So, if you want to learn to play the guitar, there are two main ways of learning:

1. The self taught (or informal lessons) route,
2. The lessons route

In my experience, these should definately not be thought of as mutually exclusive, but instead co-exist together in different amounts depending on a few factors: