Hello!
I have been playing the guitar for about 2 months now. My teacher has me on the Mel Bay Grade 1 book. I dont mean to bash this book at all, since it has taught me how to read music to an OK level. HOWEVER,
Right now I am about 75% done with this book but I dont think I can bear to learn another one of these mind numbingly, earth shatteringly boring songs. The songs were fine in the beginning since they taught you a lot of the basics you needed to read music and they got you comfortable playing, but now just the thought of devoting half an hour to learn something that sounds like chicken scratch is really becoming a turn off to these lessons.
Is anyone else who has a teacher using the Mel Bay book having these same problems?
I feel im learning more just by practicing easy songs I find online than with this book.
Any advice on what to tell my teacher?
Thanks! :)
I never liked guitar until I got rid of the teacher and started teaching myself playing what I wanted to play when I wanted to play.
Maybe try bringing some of your other stuff (such as what you've printed out from GN, or go shopping and buy a book you like that's within your reach to learn at this point) along to your lesson. Just say, "Hey, I found this and I'd really like to work it up. Can you listen and give me some pointers?"
If the teacher can't be flexible and let you, as an adult, help guide the direction of your learning, dump him/her (JMHO). Maybe supplementing the basic techniques in a "lesson" book with some fun stuff where you can apply those techniques would be just the ticket.
But I say you should give the teacher a chance first. Just be upfront and say you're burned out on the book. Unless your teacher IS Mel Bay, they shouldn't take it personally. :lol:
Margaret
When my mind is free, you know a melody can move me
And when I'm feelin' blue, the guitar's comin' through to soothe me ~
I use the Mel Bay series with more than half my students. It's well presented, logically sequenced, and gives you enough material to practice each new thing.
But it's not the only thing I use in lessons! And there's little point in doing every song in it, at least not in order...
In a typical lesson with a beginner, we'll cover one topic from Mel Bay. I'll give them 2-4 pieces to choose from, and they'll have to learn any one of those for the next week. So the lesson starts with last week's piece, then we go over the new technique for the week, then I go back 10-20 pages in the book and have them play an exercise at sight that they didn't learn (because review is really where the progress comes from, in reviewing familiar techniques with unfamiliar music). Depending on the student, that process takes 10-20 minutes.
The rest of the lesson is working with music the student wants to learn. Many common (and easy) techniques like slides, hammer-ons, etc. aren't presented until much later in the Bay books. And since Bay is geared towards reading music, it starts with the key of C - one of the harder keys to finger, because of the F chord. Things don't get much better in the next book - you'll learn the key of F first in book 2, with the Bb chord in it, before going to the key of D; the key of A opens book 3.
Chords in D, A, and E are easy, and common in music. So I don't see any reason to hold a student back for a year or two until they're up to reading those chords - we jump right in. Other things, like the pentatonic scale, fingerpicking, strumming patterns, moveable major scale fingerings, etc.... all that can be done side-by-side with Bay.
If it's just the cheezy music that's getting to you, realize that all the stuff in method books (ANY method books!) will be either old stuff in the public domain, or written specifically for that book. A method book that goes for $10 would easily cost $30 if they had to license all the examples. But there are lots of music books you might find more interesting - so ask your teacher if you can use Bay for the techniques, and something else for the application. You might find other public domain music - Christmas carols, for example - more familiar, and easier to get along with.
Guitar teacher offering lessons in Plainfield IL
Thanks a lot guys!
I just came back from the lessons. Heres how it went:
We started as usual, from where we left off in the book, but right away he could tell that something was wrong because I had no urge to play the songs, and I sounded really bad (I usually play what he assigns until its near perfect)
After the 1st song he asked me what was up because he said I dont look interested at all, so, I just honestly told him that I'm getting really bored playing these songs and I feel that im learning more when I just practice songs that i'm interested in and by learning chords on my own. It was a little funny because I think he thought that I was gonna drop him.
Anyway, he asked me which songs I was practicing. So I played 'What its like' by Everlast and then 'Ants Marching' by Dave Matthews and then i showed him all the chords that i knew.
After that he was really suprised and said we didnt have to do anymore Mel Bay songs and we can just pick and choose the things in the book that I need work on.
We finished the lesson by him showing me how to form the Major, Minor and 7th barre chords on the E string. Which was a heck of a lot more interesting than the Mel Bay stuff.
Thanks for the advice guys!
