Continuing on from the previous blogAre piano students just better students? the second lesson I gained from the piano teacher experience was to observe and question every situation especially where someone is getting results. In this case the answer was not obvious at first but I realised the power and influence of the teacher is…
Tag: school
The Art of Persistence
I will often say that persistence is perhaps the most important trait required by a successful guitar student but lets take it one step further by understanding how you become persistent. After all persistence is obvious in hindsight. When we look at successful people in anything it is all too easy to say they were…
Why do children really want to stop lessons?
This is perhaps the most important question parents will need to ask at some point because understanding the answer may prevent your child giving up guitar unnecessarily. In fact I would go as far as to say over 90% of children give up on guitar due to a misunderstanding. When I take teachers through…
The importance of fundamentals
I recently watch a football game where both teams were evenly match but the more experienced team (the average player had played more games at this level) appeared to be sticking to the fundamentals even when the pressure was on. The less experienced team took the lead in the last 10 minutes and it looked…
Advice for guitar teachers (and parents) of young children
Parents of young children (under 6 years) often ask two important questions. 1. Do you have experience teaching young children? 2. What do you actually teach? Teaching young children guitar is an extensive subject that would require a book or two to really cover in detail but a good way to answer these questions is…
Guitar mind games
When we set out to learn music we rarely consider the psychology involved. Our main considerations tend to be connection to the physical aspects such as how to hold the guitar, where to put our fingers and perhaps the theoretical aspects like string names, general music theory and so on. Dealing with the monotony of…
The art of learning guitar
Many musicians see music purely as art. Some will even see structure and planning as the enemy of the artist. Art is in fact the expression of one’s imagination and really has nothing to do with ‘learning’ guitar other than the teacher finding creative new ways to teach when required. Learning guitar is about acquiring…
The average 21 yo American has spent 10,000 hours on video games. Why not guitar?
This is an intriguing question. Almost every 21yo I speak to would love to be able to play guitar but few find any real satisfaction in their mastery of video games. In fact they usually won’t even admit their gaming obsession. There are no real long term benefits to playing video games and in fact…
Do you enjoy guitar practice?
If your only reason for practicing guitar is to one day become a great guitar player ironically you may actually be decreasing your chances of success. After many years of teaching guitar, associating with guitarists, reading about and living among guitarists and wannabe guitarists you begin to see patterns. Maybe its just a coincidence but…
The G4GUITAR METHOD for intermediate to advanced guitarists
As an intermediate guitarist it is likely you are wanting to know how to get to the next level. At this stage progress can often seem slow but the fact is if you are working on your skills they will improve. It’s kind of like evolution. You don’t notice it day by day but look…
Learning guitar and instant gratification
Instant gratification seems to be a hot topic these days. I often hear the older generations complaining that young people need to have everything now. If it’s not instant they are not interested. I tend to believe we all feel like that at times but extensive research shows that children who learn to wait usually…
How do you become conscientious?
Continued from the last blog I will attempt to answer the above question. Just to recap in the first blog we spoke about the research that showed conscientious people tend to live longer. To read the first blog please visit the G4 GUITAR website and scroll down to the blog. This is a tricky question because their…
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