My experience with music schools and group lessons

Posted on April 22, 2011April 22, 2011 by aaron@TMC

When I first started guitar at the age of about 8 I had a personal tutor who was fantastic. Unfortunately after a couple of years of lessons we moved towns and I couldn’t go to the same tutor. My parents decided to take me to a local music school. They expected top service as many people expect from music schools.

The first problem was obvious to me in the very first lesson. It was a group lesson of three students and there was an obvious skill difference between the other two students and myself. I was a full year worth of lessons ahead of the other two. This meant that whatever we would be learning would either be too hard for the other two or too easy for me. So most of the time I would learn something quickly then sit there waiting for the other two students to catch up. I estimate that I would have spent about 7-10 minutes every lesson (30 minutes long) sitting listening to the other players. That’s a huge waste of time.

The next problem was that we tuned the guitars up at the start of every lesson. The tutor explained that it’s a very important skill to be able to tune a guitar properly (which I agree with) so we would ‘practice’ tuning the guitar every lesson. Now I absolutely agree that every guitarist should be able to properly tune a guitar. What I don’t agree with is spending up to 10 minutes every lesson tuning all three guitars. That’s a massive waste of time and money. In a one-on-one lesson tuning up a guitar is quick and important. But tuning up three guitars (four considering sometimes the tutor would have to do his too) takes too much time out of a very short lesson.

The third problem I eventually noticed after a few months was that the tutor wasn’t an expert guitarist. It’s pretty bad when a 10 year old student can recognize the limitations of a tutor’s skill level. Now when I look back I can clearly see that he was not an accomplished player at all despite the certificates on his wall. I still remember to this day when we were learning ‘Beat it’ by Michael Jackson and the tutor making mistakes when demonstrating it. Not exactly the type of tutor you would expect in a music school.

After a couple months of lessons I became frustrated and wanted to quit. We had to wait until the end of the term because we were locked into a contract so I had to go to three more lessons and never went back. I was too scared to tell the tutor in person that I was leaving (explained why below) so my mother cancelled the lessons by phone.

The reason I was too scared to quit in person was because of what a friend had told me. I mentioned I was learning guitar from the school and he said he used to learn from the same person a year ago. My friend was also frustrated with the lessons so one day he told the tutor he was quitting. The tutor apparently tried to pressure my friend to stay with lines like ‘the chicks won’t be interested in a quitter’ and ‘if you quit these guys (the other group students) will become great guitarists and you will miss out’. Not exactly a professional response.

Why I share this story

I have put this story here not to lash out at music schools or discourage anyone from using them, but to give warning on potential problems you could face. Over the years I have had many students come to me after experiencing similar issues so unfortunately this is fairly common. I put my experience here because my parents sent me to a music school expecting quality lessons and ended up receiving garbage. The amount of time wasted in the lessons means that my parents wasted a lot of money for nothing. Hopefully by posting my story other people can avoid the same thing from happening from them.

What to learn from this story

To avoid the same situation I faced as a beginner, watch out for the following:

Don’t assume because it says ‘music school’ that it’s high quality
Group lessons can be extremely ineffective and waste time
Music schools can lock you into contracts
You may not get any refund for missed lessons or if you quit half way through
Group lessons often don’t work because everybody learns at different rates
Not all tutors are equal
Wasting as little as 5 minutes every lesson adds up to 6 full lessons wasted a year

Disclaimer:

This is based on my personal experience. Please note that everybody will have different experiences so I am not saying that all music schools and group lessons are worthless.

If you have had similar experiences, please post them in the comments so other beginners can take note.

How to work out the chords in a key

Posted on April 13, 2011April 13, 2011 by aaron@TMC

This new lesson available here will explain in very basic terms how you can figure out what chords fit in any key. This is a really important skill every guitarist should be able to apply. Learning to work out chords in a key will allow you to do things like:

Write your own song or chord progressions
Jam with other guitarists and other musicians
Work out chords and scales used in songs

The lesson explains a simple formula you can follow and gives a few exercises to help you get used to it.

Check out the lesson here.

Quick guitar quiz – April 2011

Posted on April 7, 2011April 9, 2011 by aaron@TMC

It’s always a good idea to test yourself to get an idea of how well you know a topic. Guitarists can sometimes get a little close minded (been to a guitar forum lately?) and will assume they know everything they need to know. An expert guitarist on the other hand knows that they will never know everything and they constantly look to learn more. This little quiz will give you a quick snapshot on how well you know a couple topics on guitar. The topics this month are music theory and playing with a capo. Two very important areas that everybody should understand.

Write out your answers as you go through the questions then compare them to the answers below. There’s no point cheating – you will only set yourself back.

Music Theory

What is the formula for the Major Scale?
What is the formula for a Major chord?
What is the formula for a minor chord?
What notes are in the chord G Major?
What notes are in the chord F Minor?
What notes are in the scale A Major?
What notes are in the scale D Major?

Playing with a capo

What chord will you be playing if you play:

Em chord shape with the capo on the third fret?
C chord shape with the capo on the fifth fret?
Am chord shape with the capo on the second fret?
Dm chord shape with the capo on the fourth fret?

What chord shape will you need to use to play a:

Em chord with the capo on the seventh fret?
G chord with the capo on the fifth fret?
Fm chord with the capo on the third fret?

Take your time and write down your answers before you even think about checking them below. It’s okay if you need to pick up your guitar and work the answers out by placing a capo on the guitar – it’s all about getting the answer in the end. Over time these answers will come to you in an instant.

Answers

Music Theory

W W H W W W H
1 3 5
1 b3 5
G B D
F Ab C
A B C# D E F# G#
D E F# G A B C#

Playing with a capo

What chord will you be playing if you play:

What chord shape will you need to use to play a:

Am shape
D shape
Dm shape

How did you go?

“That was easy!” Great! Many guitarists struggle to answer questions like these so if you got through them easy you should be happy with your understanding.

“I got most of the answers, it just took a while to work them out” Good work. You don’t need to be able to answer the questions instantly. If you understand the theory behind the questions then that’s great. Over time you will get faster at figuring out the answers until it becomes a piece of cake.

“I sort of knew what to do, but didn’t get many right” Don’t stress about it. With practice you will get the hang of it. Being able to answer questions like these is a skill like any other. It may be worth reading up on the theory again to make sure you understand what you need to do (see resources below).

“The questions may as well be written in Greek, I didn’t understand anything!” If you are only starting out guitar, questions like these may seem confusing and hard. But like anything else, you can learn the theory and learn to apply it. If you struggled with these questions, check out the two lessons below as they contain all the explanations and exercises to help you out.

Resources (to help you get the right answers)

Check out these lessons to learn the theory behind these questions. After reading them, save this post in your bookmarks/favorites and come back to it in a weeks time to try out the quiz again.

Monthly Archives: April 2011