Sometimes guitar students wonder if they are "hopeless". Sometimes guitar teachers wonder if their student is "hopeless"! This teacher asked about a particular student he is having trouble with....I give him "the truth"...if he can handle it!
Hi Jamie,
I am an experienced guitar teacher and I find your books to be truly revolutionary in teaching the things that beginners find most difficult. However, I have a student who has me beaten. He is an adult and has been learning steel string acoustic with me for 14 months. We are still working on the first piece I gave him - He is wracked with tension and nothing I can do or say makes it go away........
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In the 40 years that I have been teaching all styles of guitar to every type of student, there have been a few questions that come up over and over, and seem to be the cause of great concern and anxiety for guitar students. High on the list is “Am I Too Old To Learn Guitar”.
Guitar students are people first, students second. If you want to teach them as students, you have to reach them as people.
Guitar teachers are constantly giving students material to practice and play that is way beyond their power to learn. Worse, they give them almost no instruction on how to train the fingers to play it, they just say "practice". This is "student abuse", and you want to make sure it is not happening to you!
