Lessons
General Lesson Information
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For those of you who are looking for the free online text-based lessons – the links to a number of lesson materials can be found on the Blueprints tab on the top of the screen. (Just look under “Guitar Lessons – Practicing – Tips” section).
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Private Lessons
I currently offer online lessons via Skype. Please e-mail me at guitar.blueprint (at) gmail.com for rates and availability.
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Pedagogy
My approach to pedagogy has been a constant evolution, and hopefully it will continue to change a great deal over time, but I can summarize it into a few general areas below.
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- The primary goal of any instructor is to teach students to learn. In teaching students to self-instruct, my primary goal as an educator is to ultimately make my position obsolete so that the student can start finding the answers to (and ultimately answering) their own questions.
- In meeting that goal, instructors need to help students explore and clarify ideas that they already have and expose them to new ideas and sounds. Theory allows people to understand what they’re doing (so that they can replicate sounds they discover) but it also allows people access to sounds that they didn’t know were there. In my mind, this is the point of theory. Another aspect of this clarification is technique and making sure that students are not using any bad habits that are compromising either their health or their playing.
- In combining both of these, as a guitar instructor I try to help students clarify their unique artistic voice and to give them the tools, perspective and the experience to trust their voice. While every student is unique, I believe there are fundamental technical and theoretical approaches that can benefit any player. Having spent an excessive amount of time working on various musical exercises of one type or another, I have come to the conclusion that for most players, the strongest technical and theoretical gains come as a byproduct of challenging repertoire, aural immersion and using ideas and concepts in service to their own musical goals. The point of repertoire, and of any musical technique, is to develop a musical language to allow the musician to express him or herself. As an educator, my specialty lies in helping students identify and develop their own unique voice. Everything I present is in service to that goal.
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The GuitArchitecture books and site
This pedagogical process requires interaction, time and personal attention that goes beyond the scope of a web page. While this site is an attempt to expose people to ideas, concepts and approaches that have been helpful to me, the information here is really only a drop in a bucket. As a teacher, I have a lot more I can help people with than I can in the confines of the one-room schoolhouse approach taken here.
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Please feel free to contact me with any questions at guitar.blueprint (at) gmail.com.
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-Scott
