As a guitarist who learned formally and informally the process of playing by ear, picking up riffs and solos “off the record”, I’ve found that playing by ear is part of the process of becoming a guitarist.  However, in a classroom setting we generally do not have the amount of time required to allow this concept to evolve organically.  My thought has been it is possible to teach a student how to play by ear, learn something “off the record” by providing a scaled down, isolated musical events.  Here are a few tips:

1) Focus on teaching students to hear chord changes through root movement
Record a simple 4 bar pattern like the one below playing only the root of each chord.  Have your students pick out the bass note on the guitar and name the note (F# for example).

Listening Chord Progression

2) Have students decide what the quality of the chord is
The next step is to provide your students with the same progression, this time playing the full chord.  Have your students idetify the chord quality.  Most will feel comfortable referring to major chords as “happy” and minor chords as “sad”.  This is the worst designation I can think of when it comes to chord quality, but to be honest I cannot think of anything better. Sidebar: chords are neither “happy” or “sad”, it is simply our perception of the chord, and that is not a consistent thought among people.

Have the student label the chord next to the bass note.  The student now has the chords he needs to play in this example as they have the bass note, the chords name, and the quality of the chord, major or minor.

3) Identify the rhythm
The last step in learning to play this example by ear is to figure out the rhythm.  Due to this being an entry level exercise the rhythm played on the recording should be quarter note strums.  You can record more complex chord progression with more exciting rhythmic patterns once the student has a grasp on the concept.

Once a student feels comfortable with this idea, have them try to go through the same steps with a more difficult chord progression/strumming pattern.  The goal should be to assist the student in hearing chord inversions, timbral differences (notes played up the guitar neck sound different than the same note played down the guitar neck), and rhythmic complexities.

After a lengthy hiatus I will be posting regularly.  Next post: “Learning to Play by Ear”.

For information or if you have questions about the summer guitar camp leave a comment in the comments section and check out the guitar camp flyer.

It would seem odd that a music educator would say to a student, “be creative”.  Isn’t that what music performance is about, being creative?  Yes and no.  The answer to this question lies in your definition of creativity.  Is creativity the ability to create something that no one else has done or is it the ability to take something that already exists and re-create (I’m thinking musically here)?

In music education the later is most likely the definition that is embraced.  Schools of music spend a great deal of time teaching their students how to take a musical object, a piece of music, and re-create it.  Music students spend countless hours learning how J. S. Bach composed music (this is the basis of much of our undergraduate theory training) and the historical situation(s) that surrounded him, for example. The act of re-creation can be a creative endeavor.  However, due to the use of music notation performers can simply interpret certain symbols in a way that they were instructed and be rewarded with good grades and applause from audience members.  If you can play Bach well, you must be creative….

Creativity, I feel, lies in a persons ability to take something, extant or not, and breathe into it something of themselves.  Imbuing a composition with your own feelings and instincts is what being an artist, and creative, is all about.  Educators must free students from the shackles of that we place on them… do it this way… Bach would have done this… etc., etc.  Improvisation can be a means to help students tap into their innate creativity. When the word improvisation is invoked, most people feel a great deal of fear.  The mere thought of improvising, the act of creating something on the spot, is a form of paralysis to most.  In order to make someone feel comfortable with improvisation the rules of the game, improvisation, need to be established.

Improvisation is somewhat of a misnomer.  It is not creating something from thin air, but following certain guidelines.  When a student understands that there are parameters in improvisation, I would leave free jazz out of this discussion by the way, and that improvisation can be learned the level of discomfort begins to retreat.  In guitar, students can be introduced to improvisation through a simple left-hand finger exercise.  One of the great things about the guitar, there are many, is that it is a pattern-oriented instrument.  When a student learns a pattern at one point on the guitar, a lick for example, this can be moved to another location and played, resulting in something completely different.

Below is an example of taking a four-note, chromatic, exercise, used to work on finger independence and dexterity, and turning it into a major scale pattern.  This is accomplished by changing the order of the left-hand fingering.  What follows below is an introduction to improvisation and not the end, simply a stepping stone.  The foundational elements, knowing how to interpret the guidelines, are the same in all genres and styles.

Chromatic Exercise/Major Scale Lesson:

Objective: Student will be shown how to play a four-note positional exercise across the guitar neck.  The order of the fingers will be changed as to result in a major scale.  Students will then be given the opportunity to explore the sounds of this scale through improvisation.

Chromatic Exercise:

Note: Encourage students to leave each LH finger down after it plays.  This is to work on finger independence and positional playing.  How the strings are articulated is not important in the first lesson.  The RH thumb, p-pulgar, would suffice.  Have students start at the 7^th or 9^th fret, as the frets are closer here.  Descend fret by fret.

Two-Octave Major Scale:

Note: The 2^nd finger on the 6^th string is the tonic note of the scale.  Therefore, whatever note the student begins on is the resulting scale.  Have the students start at the 8^th fret, 6^th string (the note C).  After the students display a level of comfort with the scale, have them mix up the order of the fingers.  They must use the same fingering, just not sequential.  Play the following chords from the key of C to accompany their “noodling”.

C             Am        F             G

/ / / /    / / / /     / / / /       / / / /

Practice:

Have students practice this scale pattern in different locations on the fretboard.  Later, give students the following chart indicating where the twelve “keys” are on the 6^th string.  Students should practice this scale in all twelve keys.  (Students only need to know what note they need to start on, not all of the notes in the scale – this comes later).

This leads me to the music education component of this post.  While in the world of washers and dryers the adage might be appropriately applied.  I fear, though, that in music education we believe this as well.  “We don’t educate music students, or students in general, like we used to” and therefore need to go back to the way it was done before.  There is something in us as educator’s that believe the world of education was better then than now.  We did make washers and dryers that lasted twenty years, right?  My fear is that we are stuck in an old mindset when it comes to music education.  Musicians were better then, musicians appreciated “good” music then, etc., etc., etc.  What we have done is move backwards, embracing old systems and wanting a return to old results, results that exalted good music (read here classical) and turned our noses at bad music (read here pop-music).

In the early part of the twentieth century art music was appreciated, so they say, primarily expressed in seats being filled in concert halls.  The music educating that was going on then worked, they would say.  In today’s world where classical music is a blip on the radar screen of the iTunes recently downloaded list and high school students could not tell you who Aaron Copland is, is the way we are educating students in music working?  Is this old way of doing music education producing results that we are proud of?

I don’t have the answers to questions that arise as to how to we educate students in music today, just thoughts that will hopefully open a dialogue that will be a catalyst for change.  A few of my many questions:

1) Why do we teach as if classical music is the only kind of good music we have?

If classical music is the only “good” music out there then why do we not see that portion of the Grammy’s on primetime TV, for example?  By thinking that we, as those trained in universities and conservatories of the world, hold some special knowledge that is only revealed to the chosen of music we are embracing musical snobbery. This attitude is demeaning and does not help people appreciate music in all facets and genres more deeply.  Music has many functions; most of them social, and when it is degraded so are those that enjoy it.  All musics’ are valuable and needed for us to be better citizens, human, and become part of our social groups.  It is integral in the process of enculturation.

2) Why do we not view people as musical experts?

Music is a universal phenomenon, not a universal language by the way (this thought is another post), and is and has been at the center of every culture in the world, no exception.  Students come to music education then as musical experts.  They have had a lifetime of music listening, participation, composing, improvising, before they have entered our classrooms or studios.  For some reason, we have ripped this from them and either told them, not always explicitly, that they are ignorant or, sometimes worse, non-musical.  In our society there are those that are considered musicians and those that are not.  In non-Western cultures this is not so.  Everyone is a musician.  My youngest daughter creates music daily, with no prompting by her overly trained, sometimes musically-snob, father.  I never want to steal this from her; she is musical and a musician.  But yet, we do not acknowledge and value the expertise that students bring to music education.  We must trust their musical instincts as much as we do ours.  They might be able to teach us something.  We as educators need to, at times, become the student.  The banking concept of education that Paulo Freire spoke of must cease.

3) Why educate the way we were educated?

I know this comment is not going to be popular.  When I was learning the guitar, 80s’ hair bands were all the rage.  My goal was to become one of them.  I studied every major guitarist and learned every major lick and solo.  Something happened in the 90s’ though, Nirvana.  With the release of one album the music industry changed and I had to cut my hair and sell my full-stack amplifier and crazy 80s’-esk guitar.  I cannot teach a contemporary guitar student solely with the music I learned, with the techniques I learned.  Most techniques are universal and some of the music is important to pass on.  Does every student need to know how to play the guitar part from Autograph’s “Turn Up the Radio”?

Students today are different from me.  If I do not embrace this difference and find ways that are relevant and meaningful to deliver my educational content, the impartation of knowledge will cease.  In my music history class, I am giving students the opportunity to explore the content on their own, placing them in the drivers seat of the learning process.  I am there to point out the scenic views along the way.  Students no longer have to have the database I did (I did not have Google… I sure wish I did).  Answers to questions are only a click away.  Why do I insist that they have the same database as me when they find the information faster than I can recall it?  I’m not saying we don’t expand their database.  But does a student really need to know the finer points of neumatic notation?

Another element of this question I have, and continue, to wrestle with is the banning of laptops, texting, and twitter updates in class.  Why not ask students to send a question out in the twittosphere about something pertaining to the discussion?  If we allow texting in classes we give students the chance to get thoughts of “who wants to meet for Starbucks” off of their minds and back on to the subject matter (see David Allen’s GTD for more thoughts on this).  This is how our students engage so we should not strip this from them, but embrace it.

My mind is full of many questions and concerns; I will spare you from more.  My point in this post is to question our advocacy efforts and the way we educate.  If we truly want music education to be a fundamental right of all students then we must embrace newer fluid paradigms and newer adaptable means of educating students.  We must operate from a philosophical stance and not the old adage and not from I teach this way because this is how I was taught.  I’m for music education and I believe that music makes us human, and more human, and more human (much like Shakespeare teaches us to be human – Harold Bloom thought…. Deep thought there) and it should be an integral component in how we educate.  I’m not for a “they just don’t educate like they used to” mindset.  There are many things we do well as music educators, there are also many “sacred cows” that need to be buried…. Much like my dryer.

When teaching students in the private studio, I feel one of my main jobs is to be a motivator, get the student “pumped” about putting in the amount of time necessary to build great technique, a varied repertoire, and playing skills in a variety of genres; 10,000 hours of practice is needed to achieve expertise, research shows.  I often get disappointed, and frustrated, when students to do not embrace this full-on approach to guitar studies.

Switch has given me a different perspective of this situation.  A study of movie goers revealed that often the problem with change is not a people problem but a situation problem.  Movie goers in this study were given a bucket of popcorn, half were given a bucket larger than the other half.  What the researchers found was that those with larger buckets consumed more popcorn that those with smaller buckets.  This is obviously a study testing the effects of larger portion sizes.  The larger the plate the more you eat.  It is not that these people were popcorn eating gluttons, they just had larger buckets and consumed more popcorn as a result.  The situation they were in was the root of the problem, not the people themselves.  They were placed in a situation where the larger popcorn bucket aided their over eating.

This made me think of how I teach.  Students are told to practice technique or new pieces of music.  What I do not provide often enough, as it is obvious to me, is how a student should practice technique each day throughout the week.  What am I implying by saying a student should practice technique?  Have I given my students anything they can grasp, follow in the practice room?  Do my students really know how to practice technique in such a way that it leads to greatness?  My students want to suceed, they truly want to play the guitar better.  So, this is not a people problem but a situation problem.  My students simply do not have enough information to guide their practice time, to elicit the change I desire to see and that they want as well.

A few thoughts about how to change the situation:

1) Make a detailed weekly practice chart

This idea is not new.  My spin on this is I am the one making the practice charts, without time limits per practice session.  For example, I have made a weekly chart, Monday through Saturday, that includes the areas of practice I feel are needed for guitar students to succeed: Technique (right hand and left hand), new pieces of music, pieces of music in progress, learned music (music prepping for performance and rep maintenance), ensemble music, and improvisation/composition.

Each day I put exactly what I want my students to practice in the way of technique; Monday, Wednesday, Friday practice major scale forms in all twelve keys, for example.  My students are clear on these days what to practice in the way of technique, I have clarified the situation.  Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday practice arpeggios.

2) Focus on what needs to be accomplished, not a set amount of time

Focusing on the “to-do list” of your daily practice is a more effective method than focusing on the amount of time.  If a student is told to complete an hour of right hand technique, they will feel overwhelmed by the daunting task of practicing.  What happens if I can only squeeze out 50 minutes?  Will my technique suffer?  A better approach is to give your student a list of right hand exercises, descriptions of how to practice them, and what days to practice these techniques.

3) Music needs to be learned, rehearsed, and polished congruently

When learning a number of new pieces students will generally neglect everything else in order to make headway on the new.  This does not provide the balance needed for rep maintenance and making sufficient progress on all of the pieces that need to be learned.  With the start of a year/semester, a student is given a repertoire list, a list of pieces they will be responsible for at the end of the year/semester.  Advise your students to work on two new pieces every other day, alternating every other day.  In this fashion, the new pieces are being practiced consistently and new repertoire is being learned.  With this have two other practice sessions that focus on pieces in progress, pieces that are learned but maybe the scale passages are not consistent with the rest of the piece, and pieces that are in the polishing phase, those that are ready for performance soon.  The student is able to keep track of new pieces to learn, pieces that are in progress, and pieces ready, or nearly ready, to perform.  Clarity, your student now has some clarity on the issue.

4) Build in improvisation, composition, and arranging time

Having your students set aside time everyday to improvise, compose, and arrange will aid in their development as musicians.  Being a musician is more than being an accomplished guitarist.  It is about creativity, not technique.  Technique is simply the vehicle used for musical expression, it is how you get to express your musical creativity.  Therefore, let your students know that learning to be creative is a priority to you and should also be to them.

I’m still wrestling with a great deal of the information contained in this book.  I am as an instructor trying to instill change in my students.  Change that will ultimately bring them to greater and deeper levels of musical expression.

Here is the practice document I made for some of my students.  Feel free to use and modify.

weekly practice schedule