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Teaching methods

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(@blutic1)
Reputable Member
Joined: 21 years ago
Posts: 280
Topic starter  

I've been rethinking the sightreading issue. I concentrated on sightreading when I started playing many years ago, because I thought I would be able to use it to learn songs faster, but I never got out of the beginner books. Now I can pretty much learn a song in a few minutes by ear, but sometimes I need to look at tablature to clean it up. I sightread tab pretty well, using either the musical notation or the music in my head to get the rythem. That works rather well for me. I want to know if someone proficient at sightreading can cold read music like Van Halen or ZZ Top. It seems like it would be much harder to rely only on the musical notation because you can't really tell which position to be in unless you already are familiar with the song. I really like the scores that have tab with the rythem incorporated into it. I think GuitarWorld does that.

Basically, I think it's a matter of what you want to do and how far you want to go with your education. I think that if a student's goal is to be able to play songs from their favorite MTV band then, sightreading is less important. I know I hated it when the 16 year old heavy metal rock star wanna be me walked into the local music store for a lesson and my teacher had me doing Au Clair De Lune.


   
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(@mp173)
Eminent Member
Joined: 20 years ago
Posts: 16
 

Real simple question...Tom, what do you mean by 1st position, 2nd, etc?

I have seen that term and never found a sufficient explanation.

thanks

ed


   
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(@noteboat)
Illustrious Member
Joined: 21 years ago
Posts: 4921
 

The position is where your index finger goes. There's not a lot of difference between open position and first position - either way your hand is in the same place.

Guitar teacher offering lessons in Plainfield IL


   
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(@mp173)
Eminent Member
Joined: 20 years ago
Posts: 16
 

so, do you mean the fret position...such as G chord would be 3rd position when barred on the E string. Then would it be 10th position when barred on the A string?

ed


   
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(@noteboat)
Illustrious Member
Joined: 21 years ago
Posts: 4921
 

Yes, exactly. For a tune like Over the Hills and Far Away, there aren't any first fret notes, so I just park my hand in position as if I were going to do an F# barre.

Guitar teacher offering lessons in Plainfield IL


   
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