About once a year or so I get a student who's a gigging professional looking to tune up his or her chops.
Most of the time these students are all business - they're coming for something very specific... typically to get independent advice or to work through something specific, usually related to music theory. They're almost never long-term students, usually taking just a lesson or two and then going off to work on whatever I showed them.
I've got one now, Sal C. He's a gigging jazz guitarist (I'm going to go see his band play tonight at a wine bar in Lockport). He's quite competent, and has a large chord vocabulary, but he's looking to work with smaller ensembles, so we're focusing on creating chord melodies and analyzing ways to reharmonize tunes.
But the really cool thing about teaching Sal is that he wants to reserve the last 5 minutes or so of each lesson to just jam. So I'm trying to build that into the lesson plans. At the end of this morning's lesson I told him we had five left, and he flipped his fake book open to "All of Me". He comped me, then I comped him - one run through of the changes each, about 4 minutes total.
It's right before the half hour, when the next lessons start. So our waiting room is packed - full of students, parents, grandparents, etc. On Saturday mornings I usually teach in the studio closest to the waiting room. We get done, and everyone waiting bursts into applause!
I have the coolest job in the world. How many other professions get customer feedback like that? :)
Guitar teacher offering lessons in Plainfield IL
Must have REALY thought that they had picked a good teacher also, to teach that guy!!!
Paul B
That sounded like a blast. Way to go! 8) 8)
That's when you calm everyone down and announce, "I can't promise every beginner success like that, but we try." :mrgreen:
Roy
"I wonder if a composer ever intentionally composed a piece that was physically impossible to play and stuck it away to be found years later after his death, knowing it would forever drive perfectionist musicians crazy." - George Carlin
Lol, Roy! What a great idea.
Congrats, Noteboat. :)
Don
LOL! I'll have to remember that, Roy :)
I saw Sal's band "After Hours" last night, a 5 piece that did jazz standards. The band was decent, although the keyboard player struck me as basically phoning it in - ok, but never special. At several points Sal was doing call and response stuff with him, but the keyboard lines seemed canned... like he played the same thing every time out. My wife commented that the drummer had probably been playing longer than anyone else in the bar had been alive; he kept good time with tasteful dynamics. Sal had a lot of energy on stage, and did a couple of really nice solos (on Ain't Misbehavin' and on a blues while the singer took a break - she was recovering from laryngitis). The bass player didn't strike me as anything special to start with, but in the second set he cut loose on a couple, and was REALLY good. Sal later told me he'd been one of the many bassists with Tommy Tutone. The singer looked like she was having fun. She didn't have a really impressive range, but when a tune was in her sweet spot she did a nice job.
I was really impressed by the crowd they drew - the wine bar seated maybe 50, and it was standing room only - probably 65 folks out to hear jazz. Even more impressive, this is the weekend of Chicago's jazz fest (which is where I'm headed tonight), so all those folks had plenty of other entertainment options.
Between sets Sal told me the band is splitting up, but he and the bassist are starting up another jazz project. I'm looking forward to hearing them again.
Guitar teacher offering lessons in Plainfield IL
