Using HS for Guitar tuition

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Gareth
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2006/11/19 06:08:04 (permalink)

Using HS for Guitar tuition

This semester I started teaching guitar at a local music school. My brief is to take on beginners who are interested in playing popular music as opposed to the classical classes already being offered.

I've been thinking of ways in which I can use HS to support these students.
So far what I've done is to produce a CD with a number of songs that I use with the kids. These are in the form of backing tracks that can be played along to at home. These progress in difficulty from basic blues structures to more harmonically interesting stuff such as 'Yesterday'.

I'd be very interested to hear from anyone out there in forumville who're doing something similair
Thanks, Gareth

post edited by Gareth - 2006/11/19 08:56:58

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    fep
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    RE: Using HS for Guitar tuition 2006/11/20 11:29:57 (permalink)
    This is a great idea Gareth.

    I think anything you can do to make the learning experience more enjoyable is going to increase the likelihood that your students practice and learn.

    The backing tracks that you suggest are the first thing that comes to mind for me also. Some other ideas:

    - Drum track at different tempos for the student to use in place of a metronome. Most find it much easier and more fun to play to a drum track than a metronome; this is useful for practicing scales, songs, chord changes, rhythmic patterns.

    - Recording a student playing can would be extremely useful but is probably only feasible in private lessons.

    - Theory, recorded examples of how certain cadences sound or how certain scales sound against a chord progression etc. would help get the theory into the students ear. I think all music theory should probably be backed up with audio examples.

    - Ear training, a very neglected area of music training in my opinion. With HS it no longer needs to be neglected, there is so much you can do here, interval recognition, an exercise in singing the middle note of a three note chords/clusters, chord type recognition, chord progression recognition etc. etc.

    Just some ideas.

    Frank
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    Slugbaby
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    RE: Using HS for Guitar tuition 2006/11/20 13:51:32 (permalink)
    Good idea, Gareth!

    I did that myself in the 80s, with a 4-track machine. It really helped my dexterity, ear, and ability to improv.

    Like Fep said, throw in a variety of keys, styles, and tempos.

    Another idea would be to find/ download the MIDI files for some popular songs, and run them through synths, to get a similar version of the song. Then, just delete the guitar tracks that you'd want the listener to play.
    I don't know if it's legal (copyright issues) or not, but I'd have loved it when I was taking lessons.
    post edited by Slugbaby - 2006/11/20 14:10:14

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    yarimurray
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    RE: Using HS for Guitar tuition 2006/11/20 15:21:47 (permalink)
    Our singer is trying to learn to play the harmonica and I just used Project 5 to make blues backing tracks in several keys for him to improv over. I used MIDI bass so I can just transpose to change the key and then I recorded rythum guitar tracks in the various keys. It's then easy to burn CD tracks of the various key configurations and several repetitions.

    Works great for improving improvisation on any instrument. I like the idea of recording students' performances as well so you can critique technique and also as a basis for measuring progress.

    Michael

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    Gareth
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    RE: Using HS for Guitar tuition 2006/11/21 06:54:17 (permalink)
    Thanks guys for those suggestions. I particularly like the drum tracks in different tempos; easy and quick to do and something the students would probably not have access to at home.
    When I used to give tuition from my house I used to record the kids' efforts on cassette and give them a copy to take home. In my present situation I can't do this with HS.
    Another problem I encounter is that the students are French so we don't exactly share the same cultural backgrounds and my knowledge of Chanson Francaise is pretty minimal! Fortunately blues and the Beatles are pretty universal.

    Thanks again, Gareth

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