Shooting from the hip / maybe it doesn't have to connect to a clear big-picture
The content will collectively create it's own context eventually - so - let's just talk about some guitar things and how it connects to education and design...
I was walking to the store thinking about the lyrics to the song “Say it ain’t so” from Weezer. I’d been learning how to play it (the guitar part). It’s got enough variation in technique that it’s good practice for my hands and it’s fun. Bar chords involve applying pressure with your whole finger across most of the strings.
It might be hard to tell, but that index finger is making a “bar” across, and if your fingers are strong enough, and you don’t have it down, it’s hard! Anyway… just a little backstory for you non-guitar players. There are also some fun solos with big note bends that sound pretty fancy (but are fairly easy).
What I’ve been doing as a side project in between meetings with clients/students/etc. - is thinking back to how I learned to play guitar. It wasn’t very efficient. I had many different types of teachers. But there were big gaps in time, and I never really felt very good at it. You can learn all the notes, all the chords, some songs, the scales and keys, and the theory… but it doesn’t mean you’ll be any good - or you’ll have fun. I see the guitar as a tool to work out songs and record things, but “real guitar players” are some other type of person.
“You can learn all the notes, all the chords, some songs, the scales and keys, and the theory… but it doesn’t mean you’ll be any good - or you’ll have fun.”
You know what this reminds me of? Well, when I first learned web development. I don’t know how this happened because I’d had graphic design major roommates in college, I’d been using graphics programs since middle school, I built websites with Flash and Dreamweaver - but for some reason, I allowed “real coding” to be a mysterious thing that only other people know or could know how to do. Well - I had to work through that the hard way, and now I have a very solid handle on web application design and development at a level I had no way to even imagine before. So, could this just be a mindset shift? Could I become a “real musician?” To be fair, I’m pretty happy being a weird artsy performance artist who can wield a guitar when necessary… but for the sake of exploration… and really - WHY can’t I know all the things! ;)
A mentorhip for bands?
Just before starting PE in 2019?, I thought maybe I needed to do something to bring in some money while we were ramping up and writing/testing the curriculum.
I was recording the videos for the workshops in my music rehearsal space here in LA. And my step daughter went to school across the street. I figured I could create (instead of guitar lessons) - a “Band” class. I had a room full of all the gear you need for a serious electronic/rock band - and no time to use it.
I’ll have to revive this page ^ when I get to the office. But you can see some really early “Derek trying to figure out how to be on video” experiment. The key takeaway is that I think that you have to be having fun - and you have to be gaining the right level of confidence as you go. If you start off with a bunch of hard-to-hold chord positions…
… Well, you’re probably going to have a meltdown. You hands are going to hurt, it’s sounds bad, it’s not really connected to anything you really want…
And, of course, you’d start by learning the easiest chords first - and build up.
You could start out by learning scales…
Justin is great. But - I think if you watch the first 2 minutes of this (and you’ve never had a guitar lessons) you’re going to get a real sense for what one could be like. I don’t think this is the best place to start, either.
Here’s another way you might teach guitar with no theory - just pointing to where the fingers go. And Stuart is also great, but maybe it depends where you are on your learning journey…
What is the goal?
What draws people to music? What draws them to instruments? What draws them to the people who use those instruments to create music?
It’s going to be different for everyone, I suppose, but I’d guess that people like music because it creates a feeling. They like being connected and involved in a momentum. I think they like singers and musicians and actors because they can live a little through them. They can share that confidence. They can connect. Sometimes, it’s about working through an impenetrable sadness. Sometimes, it’s about building up a powerful feeling. Music can transport you. And too few people get to experience the actual playing or writing of music.
Guitars are “cool.” I wanted one since I was a kid. I didn’t know why. I drew a picture of one on a piece of old plywood I found in my dad’s garage when I was really little. He helped me cut it out with a jigsaw. It didn’t function. But it existed, and just that wooden shape of a guitar was powerful. They’re like Dinosaurs.
And if you add Dinosaurs and Guitars - well…
(and yes, somehow I knew that intro was biting Every breath you take, way before I knew anything about guitars) (8:10 has some great music)
So, wait - what’s the goal?
I think we want to feel powerful. I think we want to feel confident (even in our grief). I think we want to have community. I think we want to dance and scream. I think we want to express ourselves.
So, should we start with chords and scales?
That seems like a strange way to get to the goal.
Let’s outline them again:
Feel powerful
Feel confident
Have community
To dance
To scream
There are a fair number of people out there who want something else, but I’m not really interested in that right now.
Of course, that doesn’t mean we have to have a guitar. It could be anything, but it probably needs to be a little physical.
I’m going to reorder these a bit:
To dance
To scream (this might be making loud noises with an instrument)
To have community
To feel powerful
To feel confident
This almost becomes a recipe.
Dance (invoke rhythm)
Scream (engage)
Cooperate and participate
Feel powerful
Feel confident
Ok. Did we solve how to teach music?
I think we did.
If you get 2 or 3 people in a room, and you show them how to make sounds and how to make rhythm… they might just have enough fun to continue learning. They might realize that they are in charge of their life - and that they can do anything they want (and that there are things worth wanting). It just takes a few key ingredients and energy.
But what about Derek’s guitar song he was learning?
Obviously, different things came up during this process.
The song “Say it ain’t so” is a fun song to play. But the lyrics are about feeling like your family is falling apart. I never knew what the song was about. I just liked the energy. As I’m going through and creating this “How to learn guitar” thought process (as a 42-year-old) I’m building a small repertoire of songs to work with. Some songs are stories. Some songs are words for the sake of making fun to say sounds. And I was going to go into that topic. But this is what happened. And if I had not sat down and worked through my thoughts - I’d have nothing here. I’m a bit conflicted about singing that song now, though. I’ll have to think about that a bit more.
Now… back to work for me! Got any thoughts on this? Remember, engaging and participating is the core of the recipe ;)