My Thoughts on Learning the Guitar

    Guitar is a beautiful instrument in part because there are so many unique ways of playing and understanding the instrument. However, the variety of approaches to the instrument and a lack of clear pedagogy outside of the classical guitar world and modern jazz conservatories, can both be roadblocks for students trying to learn independently. After playing professionally for more than a decade I reached a point where I was playing with musicians who all had more training than I did; they played instruments where there seemed to be a clearer path to mastery–violin and piano players had been taught classical technique and then moved on to jazz, musicians who excelled at jazz on brass or reeds came up through school programs and then went on to conservatories. I love classical guitar but I was playing with a pick and more inspired by old jazz recordings and folk music. I picked up songs well by ear and learned a lot from other guitar players, but I was frustrated when it came to reading and felt that there where limitations to my technique. Technique of course affects your sound, which made it trickier to figure out which road to go down. Django-style players and modern jazz guitarists had great technique but didn’t have the sound I wanted. When I asked other musicians about reading I was never satisfied with the advice. I picked up trumpet for a few months and realized I could read on trumpet with little effort despite my limited abilities and yet reading on guitar was still a challenge.  
    The problem was that I couldn’t find good reading material specifically tailored to pick-style guitar. Plectrum-style guitar, like the steel-stringed guitar itself, arrived in the early 1900s. Until the 1920s, guitar literature was written for classical technique. Once rock n’ roll hit in the fifties no one wanted to read ink!  And sometime in the 80s I guess they came up with guitar tab and that’s how people were taught to read guitar music. Obviously I am painting in broad strokes here–this isn’t a formal essay. But if you’re a guitar player who has looked into this stuff, you catch my drift.  
    I didn’t have a background in classical guitar and I was never interested in tab.  When I looked at books that focused on jazz guitar I wasn't interested in the material.  That’s when I started to discover method books published in the 20s and 30s that were written specifically for the newfangled steel-stringed guitar of the day.  These method books approached technique almost in a classical manner but for playing with a pick.  And though they were clearly written for pick-style players in the jazz era, they didn’t bog things down with too much theory at once, or with esoteric ideas about how you ought to improvise.   I think theory is important and very helpful.  I enjoy teaching it.  I also think there are practical ways to approach improvising and developing vocabulary.   However, before finding method books from an earlier era, I had found those topics to be overwhelming or distracting in books coming from a more modern perspective.
    Everyone has a different approach to jazz and I’ve never been interested in debating anyone on how they should think about the music.  The variety of approaches is what makes it such rich music. Personally, however, I am not inspired to approach the guitar by memorizing jazz scales or modes and applying them to prescribed chord progressions. Guitar literature that focused on those ideas never held my attention. I practice arpeggios and scales daily, I understand and can teach you modes and the concepts behind bebop and diminished scales–but I don’t find it engaging to improvise purely based on theory. Transcription is hugely important.  Learning the phrases of all the great players before us is fundamental.  But how do you create a foundation to understand those solos and put them in context?
    What I found in the content of this relatively short-lived era of method books, were great technical exercises that improved my technique and unlocked my ability to read music on guitar, all while gaining a deeper understanding of fundamental musical principals. I found a world of classical etudes and melodies designed for plectrum-style guitar and pieces written for student, up to professional levels, that had folk harmonies and the building blocks of the jazz harmonies that were engaging to my ears.  In short, by digging into those books, I reinvented my technique on the instrument that was already at the center of my life.  The fundamentals that I relearned there are what I now use as the basis of my teaching.                                                   
    So that’s just an introduction and a discussion of what’s at the foundation of my approach. Over the years I think I’ve developed a good way to help guitar players unlock the more challenging aspects of playing–reading, fretboard mastery, chord construction, improvising and playing chord melodies. These subjects are a lot like guitar playing itself–mastery is an endless road, but there are some very simple ways to understand the basics and get you started.  
    That’s plenty for now, and likely more long-winded than I will be in the lessons themselves. I’ve learned over time to keep lessons as focused and as simple as possible. I have been lucky to make my living mainly by performing, however in recent years I've taught lessons to students of all levels ranging from beginners to fellow professional guitar players.  I enjoy teaching and helping people better understand the instrument, as well all as the nuance of specific styles.  If you have any questions at all, feel free to get in touch.

Keep pickin’!