Skip to content
Teaching an experie...
 
Notifications
Clear all

Teaching an experiences piano player guitar. Any help?

6 Posts
5 Users
0 Likes
6,508 Views
(@richmlion)
New Member
Joined: 9 years ago
Posts: 1
Topic starter  

I am going to teach a fellow musician who wants to learn to play guitar. She is an experience piano player, and she plays solely by reading sheet music. I am a play by ear person, and I can only read sheet music to sing, not at all for any instruments. I play different stringed instruments (primarily guitar) and since she can't really play by ear, I am somewhat lost as how to teach her besides learning chords and such.

I am wondering if anyone knows a good curriculum, video series or guitar book I can get her. She want's to play guitar by reading sheet music, like she does on the piano. I've never taken any lessons before, I just learned by having a good musical ear, and practicing chords until I was proficient with those, and from there I learned fingerpicking, solo and flatpicking techniques. I am really lost as how to help her. Any ideas? I would really appreciate the help!

Thanks a lot guys,

Rich


   
Quote
(@notes_norton)
Noble Member
Joined: 16 years ago
Posts: 1497
 

Mel Bay is a classic, Hal Leonard has one, and Alfred Publishing is good too. They are method books, and they will start with first position, reading music notation with simple songs. Guitar is my 7th instrument, I read music on sax, keyboards, flute, etc., and I picked up an old Mel Bay book at a used book store.

Reading music is more difficult on the guitar than the piano or sax, but it can be done. Your piano friend should have no trouble with it.

Insights and incites by Notes

Bob "Notes" Norton

Owner, Norton Music http://www.nortonmusic.com Add-on Styles for Band-in-a-Box and Microsoft SongSmith

The Sophisticats http://www.s-cats.com >^. .^< >^. .^<


   
ReplyQuote
(@alangreen)
Member
Joined: 22 years ago
Posts: 5342
 

Yes, I teach a pianist and it's a real delight; 13 when she started with me, she already knew how to read music and understood all sorts of stuff about harmony.

I'd start by learning to read music yourself - otherwise your student is going to be ahead of you from day one and you're not going to be able to answer even her most basic questions.

Tutor books for her to study from? Get the seriously excellent "Trinity Rock and Pop" series published by Trinity College in London. This is a progressive series of books and exams from Initial Grade (Glen Campbell, Jack Johnson) to Grade 8 (Dream Theatre, Rush), uses songs you'll hear on the radio in their original keys (and more to download from the Trinity College website), presents the music in the nice dual format of standard notation with Tablature, and comes with an accompanying CD so you can listen to the track and then play along with the music-minus-one backing track. It's the best thing to land in the guitar tuition world since the Speedshifter software.

Similar stuff (and exams) from the Registry of Guitar Tutors in the UK - one of my students took his RGT Grade 1 yesterday playing "Smoke on the Water" and "Sunshine of your love" as his performance pieces.

And make sure you can play something yourself to a good standard before you put in in front of your student. She will fly; you will need to keep up.

"Be good at what you can do" - Fingerbanger"
I have always felt that it is better to do what is beautiful than what is 'right'" - Eliot Fisk
Wedding music and guitar lessons in Essex. Listen at: http://www.rollmopmusic.co.uk


   
ReplyQuote
(@jonahpeacock)
Active Member
Joined: 8 years ago
Posts: 7
 

I am a guitar and piano teacher, and I have had students switch over. My favorite way to explain this initially is that a guitar is simply like a keyboard that has been chopped into six sections and stacked. Each fret is a semitone interval and rather than playing your chords horizontally like on a piano, you play them vertically.

This is always my first approach for students crossing over and I would apply it opposite to a guitarist going to piano.

Hope this has helped in some way :)


   
ReplyQuote
(@alangreen)
Member
Joined: 22 years ago
Posts: 5342
 

Follow up from me: I did a first guitar lesson for a student's mum last summer. As an adult learner who'd already got Grade 8 piano she'd worked out most of the stuff you're talking about and had started with classical guitar music at about the Grade 4 level just because she liked it. It's really satisfying being able to talk to a student at that level. I teach her son too; he's 8 and doing his first guitar exam (LCM Step 1) later this month.

"Be good at what you can do" - Fingerbanger"
I have always felt that it is better to do what is beautiful than what is 'right'" - Eliot Fisk
Wedding music and guitar lessons in Essex. Listen at: http://www.rollmopmusic.co.uk


   
ReplyQuote
(@snuvet75)
Active Member
Joined: 7 years ago
Posts: 12
 

I'm relatively beginner since I've been playing only for a year. Anyway, my guitar teacher plays multiple instrument and when I was learning from him, he would switch over between guitar and piano because piano would be flat out easier to explain things with on certain subjects than with guitar. He had me read music sheet w/o tabs and play it too. It was very helpful for me to understand how things work that way.
For somebody like me who wants to understand why what happens how, if my teacher doesn't know the music theory, he/she will not be my teacher anymore. But for somebody like you that has talent to pick up music by ear, I think you might be the right fit.
I guess it's up to her in time. Good luck!!


   
ReplyQuote