What we teach

at Guitar Vacation Retreats:

We teach what we practice ourselves.

Music Theory:

Music theory is a moving target, because theory follows practice, and different musicians have different ideas. (This has been true for hundreds of years.) We have our own ideas and methods that are pretty much the same as those of most other modern working musicians, but there will be a few things that may be different from the ideas of other teachers you have had. For instance, we think that learning "modes" is an un-necessary sidetrack, although fine if you are just into theory for its own sake. Also, although we consider the "CAGED system" quite useful as a quick and dirty shortcut for beginners, we don't consider it complete enough to be very useful for our music.

Music theory is mostly about number. The letter names for the notes serve a numeric function: simply stated, the letters A to G represent the numbers one through seven. The most fundamental music theory skill is counting - applied both to rhythms and to the elements of harmony. Counting rhythms can be done "by feel", and that's a very valuable skill, but we often work with students who do not have this "feel" and have been frustrated by not being able to achieve it. When we explain that they can accomplish the same thing by learning to count to 8, they are enormously relieved. With regard to harmony, the grammar of chord theory appears daunting to some players, who remain stuck with a small handful of common chords and are flustered when confronted with a new chord. Mastering complex chords and their functions is a matter of being willing and able to count, and identify by number, the tones of the common major and minor scales.

We observe that although guitar students think that they learned how to count in grade school and that that was all there was to it, that when faced with the reality of counting in music, they become confused and don't know how to proceed. We have learned to lead our students through this process in small steps, just as 2nd graders learn arithmetic.

"Classical" Guitar We most definitely teach classical guitar technique in the form that we use it ourselves, and we frequently work with our students on beginning and intermediate pieces from the classical repertory, which we consider an essential part of every guitarist's education. (But please don't ask us to work on "Leyenda/Asturias" with you! If you are working on concert repertory, you can find a qualified teacher elsewhere. Our focus is on teaching you to do the creative work that we do ourselves.) The basic elements of classical technique that we use include the position of the guitar on the left knee, the use of a footstool, the classical hand positions, and the intelligent use of rest stroke and free stroke techniques. We also use additional techniques, particularly strumming styles, which are not commonly part of classical technique. "Jazz" Harmony Harmony is really the core of what we teach. A knowledge of chords, scales and chord-scale relationships is the most fundamental working skill for a guitarist, in our opinion. Since the advent of rock-n-roll in the fifties, many guitar players, and other musicians as well, have become used to learning only a few simple chords. Classical guitarists, like most working classical musicians, avoid studying practical harmony in favor of playing only from written notes, and so the only musicians who seem to know much about harmony are jazz musicians. It's for this reason that guitarists use the term "jazz harmony" when referring to any chords more complex than the basic hit parade of a dozen or so common guitar chords. However, harmony is much more than a style called "jazz"; it is a complex and profoundly interesting musical science which can be applied to any musical style.

"Classical" ? Many people who know us call us classical guitarists — based on the sound of our instruments — and certainly we teach classical guitar along with other styles. But only we and the classical guitarists know that we're not really classical guitarists! Why? Classical guitarists typically play classical repertory by rote. Yes, we play some classical music, but we play a whole lot of other music, too, that generally would be considered inappropriate for a classical concert stage. We don't fit in that classical environment. We are classically trained musicians who have added considerably to our skill sets and have crossed over into a "popular" niche which works very well for us. Most of the classical guitarists whom we know, know very little about functional harmony, and so they are missing a very important skill set that is for us an integral part of our daily practice.

An aside: some guitarists don't like the sound of complex chords on the guitar... one typical reason that these chords don't sound well is that the guitar has not been properly tuned or that it simply doesn't play in tune. We do cover guitar tuning and intonation with our students, and we encourage our students to continually refine their tolerances for accurate tuning. When you have developed your ear, you can tune your guitar better than with an electronic tuner.

Rhythm

We use a variety of interesting rhythms in our music, which we have learned or copied from various sources. Some of them involve specialized strumming or plucking patterns which we will be happy to show you. Among the rhythmic patterns we enjoy sharing with our students are: Huapango, Bolero, Bossa Nova, Rumba Flamenco, Tango — and others.

Counting is an essential skill for a musician, and it is something that can be taught. As mentioned above, we spend time with most of our students counting rhythms.

Reading Music

You probably learned to read words as a kid. Adults who don't read letters and words have understandable challenges. We learned to read music when we were kids... maybe you didn't. We have to accept that many people will never learn to read music. But it is a very valuable skill, and we consider it a valuable part of any musician's training. If you really want to do what we do, reading music is essential. It takes longer than a week to learn, certainly. A three-year learning curve is not unrealistic. We will give you a basic introduction.

For students who already read music, we may offer instruction in the art of reading musical rhythms, which is a little trickier than learning to read the pitches, and is a typical problem area.

For students who don't read music, we highly recommend a half-hour a day of music reading practice during your Guitar Vacation Retreat. This activity may be quite separate from the rest of our teaching, if you are already advanced on the guitar. But we believe that we can help you dispell any fear and mystery that you may feel around reading music, just by coaching you through the daily practice of it in a patient and systematic way. It is not as difficult as reading words, and you have already mastered that, right?

Improvisation

Improvisation is composition on the fly, and the ability to improvise comes from actual knowledge, combined with technical skill. Of course every guitarist should improvise, just as every guitarist should make up original licks. If you're ready, we'll teach you. It's based on the knowledge of harmony: how scales and chords work together. We absolutely don't teach any kind of "intuitive" method for improvisation; that is contrary to our actual experience of what works.

Jamming together and having fun!

Guess what's for dessert! We hope that we get to jam a lot with you during your week with us at Guitar Vacation Retreats! If you've never done this, we teach you simple blues progressions and other short, repetitive forms which can be used to make a lot of music with a minimum of material.

What we don't teach:

• We don't teach altered tunings, we only used "standard" tuning: E-A-D-G-B-E.
• We will not work with you to interpret TABs that you have downloaded from the internet. There is so much impossible trash out there that we have learned to avoid it entirely, and we don't allow our students to inflict this suffering on us, thank you! Instead, we will cheerfully offer to teach you to read music.
• We put a very low priority on the series of so-called "modes" with the funny greek names. We teach two modes only: Major and Minor. We will, however, answer your questions about modes.
• We don't teach Flamenco. Flamenco is a specific musical language which you must study on its own terms from a knowledgeable teacher. We have borrowed a few strumming techniques from Flamenco which we apply to our own music, with no claim to be authentic.
• We teach on acoustic, nylon-string guitars only.

PS:

Did you visit our Student Comments page?