Summer is almost here. Can you believe it? School is about to let out. I’m already starting to get calls from parents looking to plan Summer activities for their kids.
This Summer, like every Summer, lots of kids will take their first guitar lesson. It is my job as a music teacher to ensure as best I can that everyone enjoys the experience. Simple as that. Music education can and should play an important role in everyone’s life. Not just for those determined few who decide to take up the long hard road that leads to a life as professional musician.
In the first and most important case, amateur musicians are every bit as likely to become true artists as any professional. If you play even one song beautifully, that’s it. You’ve done it. You’re an artist. And you don’t need to devote all of your life to learning to do that. You can learn to play a handful of songs beautifully and have tons of time left to become a world class Doctor, Lawyer, Tattoo Artist, Pizza Chef, Mother, Father or whatever profession/vocation truly means something to you.
Secondly, music education helps deepen a person’s ability to listen to and appreciate music. So even if a student ultimately decides that they aren’t cut out to be a performer, they will still remember what they learned about how music is made. They will be able to listen beyond the bells and whistles of pop-production to hear things like harmonic structures and chord colors. They will be able to make sense of syncopated rhythms. We think that music appreciation is somehow hardwired in our DNA, but it’s not. The ability to feel what the music is trying to express is entirely cultural. The more sophisticated the musical statement, the more understanding is needed on the part of the listener in order to understand and appreciate it.
Particularly if they are exposed to this kind of learning at a young age, they will grow up with the ability to appreciate a wider variety of the music, both new and old, being made all over the world. So this to is a big part of our job as music teachers. We have to make learning music enjoyable, even for non-musicans.
What’s great about one-on-one lessons is that we can kind of go in any direction the student wants to go. You want to learn about the music of the Jonas Brothers? Ok. We can start there. 1-Direction? You got it. All that matters is that the student is engaged and interested in the music. I wasn’t interested in Bach or Sor or Paco de Lucia when I first started either.
So yes, if you are thinking about sending your son or daughter to take guitar lessons this Summer, you should expect to find just this kind of welcoming, student-centered approach at Gables Guitar. I truly believe that enjoyment and validation is the best (and possibly only) way for people to reach their full musical potential, whatever that ultimately is.
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