Welcome to the inaugural post of Songs from the Guitar Studio!
I often tell my students that there are really two ways we can learn stuff on guitar:
1 – We can pick a new technique or concept and find a song with which to apply it.
2 – We can pick a song and see what we can learn from it.
The first method – pick the technique/concept – is a cleaner, neater way to handle things. And in the early stages of playing, this is usually the smarter way to move a student along. After all, they need fundamental things. So you pick a fundamental and run with it.
But I find that it can be a lot of fun, especially with students that have been playing at least a few months, to go with method two: find a song and see what it can teach you!
The is definitely a messier approach, and you may find that you run into some parts that the student isn’t ready to handle. But my tactic is usually to just acknowledge that and concentrate on the stuff they CAN handle. If you use a little foresight in picking the song, there shouldn’t be any real surprises.
In the Songs from the Guitar Studio series, I’ll talk briefly through the songs featured in my lessons during the past week or two. We’ll see what they can teach us and maybe inspire you to check some of them out! Continue reading “Songs from the Guitar Studio, Vol. 1” »
