Newsletter Vol. 2 # 105 – December 26, 2004
Welcome to the latest issue of Guitar Noise News.
In This Issue
- News and Announcements
- New Articles and Lessons
- Email of the Week
- Sunday Songwriter’s Group
- Thoughts and Feedback
News And Announcements
Greetings!
Welcome to Guitar Noise News!
Happy day after Christmas! I sincerely hope that you’re at home and not out at the stores!
As I mentioned in our last newsletter, we’re going to take a week off for the holidays, so your next newsletter will come on Sunday, January 9, 2005.
Writing out “2005” makes me automatically think, “Wow! Where has the time gone?” Last year at this time I was frantically trying to get my life together in order to move it out here to Massachusetts. I spent the last two days of 2003 driving a rental truck across Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and on across the George Washington Bridge on New Year’s Day where, of course, they pulled me over and searched the truck! Then we cut up north to Massachusetts, crossed the border and here we are.
But instead of going into a big thing about the end of the year, let me instead take the time to wish everyone a very Happy New Year and extend my wish that 2005 is wonderful for each of you.
And now we’ve got one more thing to add:
New Articles And Lessons
We Three Kings Of Orient Are
by David Hodge
Let’s wrap up (no pun intended) this season’s selection of Christmas carol arrangements with a lesson that uses a little of everything that we’ve been working on. Also it will give us a chance to start exploring putting the melody further up the neck while still coming up with an easily playable chord accompaniment.
Email Of The Week
I often get requests for interviews. It would go to my head except for the fact that it’s not any newspaper or magazine asking. Rather, the “interview” is a part of someone’s school project. And that’s perfectly okay with me as long as it’s really an interview as opposed to someone trying to get me to write a paper for him or her. You can usually tell those by the types of questions that you’re asked. If someone asks me, “What is the history of the guitar and how does the history of the electric guitar in particular reflect the rise of consumerism in working-class America?” I generally suspect that I’m being asked to write a paper! At my age you can spot this sort of thing a mile away!
But sometimes it’s legit. And it usually goes like this:
What is your job title?
Since I don’t work for a company, I don’t truly have a “title.” But “Guitar Teacher” or “Guitar Instructor” usually works. I also have a “title” in my volunteer capacity at Guitar Noise and that is “Managing Editor.” I’ve also been known to use the title of “Lead Editor” as kind of an in-joke. And then I guess I could also use the title “Staff Writer” as I still do crank out a lesson or column or review or interview more often than not. At last count I think I’d written something like a hundred-and-thirty various pieces for our website.
What are your responsibilities?
As a “Guitar Teacher,” I am responsible for preparing and participating in private lessons with my students. I also do group classes, workshops and seminars and my responsibilities concerning these involve much the same things. Preparation usually consists of choosing appropriate materials for the student or students, writing out the music when necessary, often arranging it for the skill level of the student in question, occasionally purchasing materials for the lesson.
As a teacher, I am also responsible for the more seemingly mundane, but very vital aspects of the business such as bookkeeping, billing and collecting my fees, handling promotions and advertising.
As Guitar Noise editor, I am responsible for all the lessons and general content of the site. This means reading each piece, making corrections when necessary, occasionally rewriting or writing out musical notation and TAB transcriptions.
As a writer for Guitar Noise, I have to come up with the ideas for lessons and articles and then write them, text and music. For many of the lessons I now also record music and then process the recordings into MP3 files that can be used on the website. And I also write the content for our weekly newsletter, such as the one you’re reading right now!
What’s a typical day like for you?
Each day usually has its own pace according to (a) my private teaching schedule and (b) what projects are being worked on for the Guitar Noise site. Since the private teaching is my livelihood (that is, this is how I make money to do things like pay rent, buy food, etc.,), that is where my priorities have to lie. That means that any work for the website must be done in “spare time.”
Accordingly, I make spare time by getting up around six in the morning. I start by doing a bit of writing on either an article or the upcoming newsletter. Any pieces that have been sent to me by other writers for editing I sort out by the amount of “work required.” By this I mean do they need a lot of revision, a little touch up of grammar and spelling here and there, a total review of musical notation, charts, and graphs. Do I have to reformat a piece into a text or notation that is compatible with what we use on the site? Do I need to get the author to do more work and revisions? As you can see, sometimes this can get quite involved!
My private lessons, depending on the day of the week, start around noon and end (again, depending on the schedule) anywhere between six and nine in the evening. Some days I have a few breaks scheduled in the day and some days it’s one lesson after another nonstop.
After the last lesson, I make notes on each student and plan what I want to do with the student’s next lesson. I might get some of the material together right then. Finally I make certain that I have everything I need for tomorrow’s lessons.
If there’s any free time left, I will do some more writing or editing and., if I’m really lucky, answer a few of the emails I get concerning the website.
What do you like most about your job?
At the risk of sounding very corny, I like being able to give someone something that could help make his or her life more enjoyable. I don’t worry about my students becoming rock stars or professional musicians. What I want is for them to develop the skills and abilities that will help them enjoy playing music as much as possible. And this is different for each student.
Why did you select this type of work?
It actually selected me. I had a “real” job, working in an advertising agency. One of my friends asked if I would give her husband lessons and before too long I found myself with eight students, which was about all I could handle while working full time.
Last year, I made the decision to try to teach full time and that’s what I’ve been doing since January of this year.
How much education do you need for this job?
My education was not in music. If I had planned to be a music teacher, then courses in general education as well as general music education would have been very helpful. If you’re going to teach in a school or a college, then you need to get at least a BA and quite often a Masters Degree as well.
If you’re going to be a working musician, then getting an education in business is something to seriously consider. There are a growing number of schools that are trying to cater to the needs, both musically and in terms of business.
Do you need more job training after you’ve completed your education?
As a musician or a teacher, it’s vital to continue with your education. As a guitarist, there are always new things to learn. I plan to spend the rest of my life studying as well as teaching.
Is math important to your job?
Incredibly important, although not always in obvious ways. You have to be able to calculate your rates, do your bookkeeping and keep track of all sorts of things. That’s just the general stuff.
Music itself is very mathematical. Basic music theory used to be taught by the Ancient Greeks as a branch of mathematics. Being able to mess with numbers can help a person a lot when it comes to learning theory, so naturally it also helps you if you’re trying to teach and explain it.
When do you need to use good listening skills for your job?
When do you need to use good speaking skills for the job?
I paired these two questions because you constantly need to use both listening and speaking skills in teaching. Listening is more than half of teaching. You hear what a student plays – you hear mistakes and try to figure out if the mistakes are “accidental,” meaning that the student doesn’t usually make them, or “habitual,” meaning that the mistake is the result of poor technique or execution. You can also hear students that can play music perfectly note-for-note but who have no emotion in their playing. Most importantly, you can hear what questions the student asks and also read between the lines – sometimes a question about a particular piece of music is actually a question about practicing habits or transposing or another general topic with which the student needs an explanation.
And it’s in the explanations where the speaking skills come into play. Some teachers have a tendency to simply show someone a piece. “Here, play this!” It’s important that a student know why you’re teaching a piece or a technique, how it fits into the overall lesson plan.
Communication, good two-way communication is at the heart of any successful student/teacher relationship.
What did you learn in school that helped you most on the job?
Again, my education was not in music, but the skills I developed in writing and speaking and dealing with people, one-on-one or in groups, has probably helped me just as much as anything.
Do you wish you had studied more in school?
Constantly!
Sunday Songwriters Group
Year Three, Week 8
Rhyme Scheme( part 2)
Following on from last week’s AABB rhyme scheme we’re going to take last week’s song and rearrange it for a completely different rhyme scheme. In this case you get to choose the rhyme scheme but it must be different. And just to add a little extra spice you have to choose someone else’s song to rearrange.
Good writing
Bob
Thoughts & Feedback
The place here at home is a bit of a mess. Presents to be wrapped, notes of lessons being edited or written. Little bits of paper explaining to myself “what exactly is on this MP3 that I recorded?” A cat insisting that his rightful place to sit is, of course, directly in front of the computer monitor. A pile of email and regular mail, which seems to grow higher each moment, patiently await answers.
And here I sit quietly typing away at the end of the newsletter for this weekend. And if you were to be here watching me, you’d also see me smiling because, in spite of all the seeming chaos, life is pretty cool.
In addition to the usual holiday wishes, may I add that I hope everyone finds a quiet time to appreciate what we have and, if at all possible, to be happy.
I hope you all have a grand two weeks. Stay safe and we’ll be chatting again soon.
And, as always,
Peace
David