Tag: Education

Relax, enjoy and make music!

Nicole NealLeave a comment

Whilst working hard, with focus, awareness and purpose and all that, don’t forget the most important thing of all – having fun and enjoying making music! Surely, this is why we started playing the guitar in the first place?

I can become all too easy to get caught up in the technicalities of playing, the mechanics of moving the left hand around the fretboard (or right hand if you’re a left handed player) and the right hand around the strings, getting the notes and phrases sounding as you want them. Sometimes we can be working so hard that we can forget to enjoy what it is we’re doing. Sometimes we can be working so hard at our practice that we can forget we’re actually playing music, which I’m sure you’ll agree is most definitely something that should be enjoyed!

So remember to stop and take a look around once in a while – kick back with your favourite piece, cut loose with the piece you’re currently learning, play for the sheer heck of it, play for friends, check out how far you’ve come so far, enjoy the experience.

And enjoy the journey. It’s not about getting to this level, or that grade, or this performance or whatever. It’s really about now, about today, about the journey and what you’re learning as you travel along. After all, you spend much longer on the journey itself than at your actual “destination” (whatever or wherever that may be).

Take a break from time to time

And do take a break from time to time. Taking a break, be it a day a week or longer, away from the active guitar playing and learning, can help us to take stock and see the woods for the trees. This, of course, can have a fantastic impact on our approach to guitar playing, music and learning.

Stepping back and gaining some or at least a different perspective can give us some much-needed rest and relaxation for the brain and body – allowing any physical niggles or injuries a chance to sort themselves out and take our brain away from the daily practice schedule and rigours of active learning and reinforcement. It allows some of those subconscious elements to do their thing in the background whilst you’re doing other things for a while.

In those moments of repose we can ask ourselves are we doing what we really want? Are we learning in the most effective way? What do we want to do differently? These moments of repose can also help to refill the creative juices.

It can also help you put a different spin on things – perhaps that tricky bit wasn’t quite as tricky as you thought. Perhaps you were putting too much energy into one particular element of your playing or practice that you can transfer over to other elements of your playing (or other parts of your life!).  Perhaps you’re over-thinking some elements that you should just relax with, let go of and just “feel”?

I’m not saying totally abandon your structured practice sessions and your hard work for kicking back all of the time, but just like a balanced diet it’s good, nay healthy, to mix it up.  So relax, enjoy and make music!

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Do I need a guitar teacher?

Nicole Neal1 Comment

 

Another question to add to this is, is it sufficient to teach myself from a book, or YouTube video or something like that?

 

My answer to that is it depends on what your reasons for playing, how far you want to take things, what you want to achieve, how patient you are, the style or styles of music you want to learn and many other variables.

 

If you just want to kind of potter about with it, happy to do just whatever, and amuse yourself and so on, and really not too concerned about too many technical ins and outs, then instruction of some description from a teacher is may not be your thing.

 

If, on the other hand, you really want to accelerate your learning and playing (at pretty much whatever level you’re at, beginner through to advanced) then there are numerous benefits in taking regular lessons from a good teacher. Of course, don’t take regular lessons from a bad teacher!! 😉

 

Why is this?

 

There are a number of reasons, but here are just a handful…..

 

1. You don’t know what you don’t know

 

One of the first things that comes to mind for me whenever people ask me this question is that you don’t know what you don’t know! There are some good books and instructional videos out there I’m sure, as there are rubbish ones. Even if you’re using the best book in the world how do you know you’re interpreting it correctly or in the most optimal way for you?  And how do you know if the book or video has missed something? Or uses words or phrases that you’re not sure of?

 

2. A teacher can tailor things just for you

 

We’re all physiologically slightly different, so having a teacher to guide you in the pure physical mechanics of playing can prevent you from falling into bad habits (albeit unbeknownst ones) and/ or storing up potentially painful trouble later on down the line.

 

A good teacher will also have an armory of tools, techniques, studies, exercises and pieces to aid and supplement your learning – and to have fun with too!! Most importantly a teacher can help you to learn in the most effective way for you, not for the mass market.

 

3. A mentor can help accelerate your learning by helping you hone in on things you need to work on

 

Having a good teacher guiding you can also save you time and frustration. If a misunderstanding, sticking point or some other point of confusion occurs during your learning or playing your teacher will be able to help you sort it out and progress.

 

And, more often that not, it’s clear to a good teacher where a student needs a little further instruction or guidance on a particular technical or musical aspect where it may not necessarily be apparent to you (see point 1 above).

 

4. As human beings we’re biologically wired to learn from others

 

You know when you see someone fall over, or bang their thumb, you say “ouch”? Those are your mirror neurones firing up and simulating a watered down version of what that person is feeling in our own bodies. Our mirror neurons are what are responsible for us as very young infants learning how to use our bodies by copying what others do, how others move and these mirror neurones keep on working right throughout our lives.

 

So by not only listening and copying what a teacher is doing, watching and observing how movements are made to make those sounds can be a key part of the learning process. Apparently (and if you want to get technical about it), the same part of the brain (the right front insula) lights up in the same way when you’re aware of what your own body is doing and what another’s body is doing. If you’re making full use of your biological wiring and learning directly from a teacher it kind of stands to reason that it’s going to aid your learning.

 

5. A teacher can help cultivate not only your playing, but also your musicality, your “ear” and your sound

 

One of the key things a guitarist must always be striving for is the production of a beautiful sound – not many people want to listen to a thin, tinny sound right? A good teacher can ensure that your attention is always tuned into this vital element of playing guitar and aid you in the techniques (physical and mental) for physical production of your sound.

 

6. It’s fun!

 

Lessons are, by and large, enjoyable – who da thunk it?! (well, that’s a key aim in my lessons, anyway). Yes, one needs to work if one wants to progress and all that, but no one said the process had to be as dry as a dog biscuit and quite frankly reading from a book or sitting in front of a video can be a bit like that eh? Interacting with other real, live, warm-to-the-touch human beings is always much more fun! And whoever heard a book say “well done – that’s sounding great!”?