Rick DiBiasio is the author of The Affluent Artist. His latest project is MiddleAgedCrazy.com.

I help students pursue their own 'musical horizon.' As a goal is met, the student creates a new one, and we keep moving forward. Painting: Horizon by Lori Surdut Weinberg.

Teaching for me has proved to be an endlessly fascinating process. Though on the surface, the topics I teach are fixed, the way in which they are taught shifts constantly according to the individual student.

As we all know, everyone learns in their own unique way. It’s my obligation to find the best way for each individual. The goals are the goals of the student. They are not my goals for myself nor are they my goals for the student. Teachers who fail to recognize this are making a serious error.

I first need to understand where a student is in all the requisite areas such as technique, theory, reading, chords, scales, improvisational tools and skills, creativity, ear training and a host of other areas. Next comes the direction and goals if they are known.

Teaching is a holistic art and requires consideration of the whole person. It does not just provide surface knowledge for the individual.

When I teach, I play surprisingly little. Those teachers who feel the need to play constantly during a lesson are not teaching. They are showing. The problem with this approach is that the style of the teacher comes through way too much and robs the student of time that’s needed to develop.

The jazz guitar is a deep style but it doesn’t start that way. It starts with the first steps and then accumulates into an entire program.

Some of the elements of the jazz guitar study are: notes on the neck; finger control and coordination; strength and endurance; improvisational tools such as scales, arpeggios, intervals and sequences; chord organization and voicings; chord progressions; fingering principles; theory; harmonic, melodic, and scale analysis; repertoire, improvisation, and so on…[Ed. Note. For rock, folk, blues, and general playing, see Guitar Basics: Top 10 Things to Learn.]

When I get a grip on where the student is and where he or she wants to go, I develop a customized plan to reach their objectives. The goals can be as varied as virtuosity, full time musician or casual player. The only thing that matters is that we begin to move in the right direction. The rate of progress is typically connected to the amount of time spent on efficient and creative practice.

If you have a time problem, as virtually everyone does, don’t worry about it. We have so many things to work on, that the old model of “Practice Or Else” doesn’t even exist in my teaching methodology. [Ed. Note: Read 'Music Lessons as Life Lessons.']

As my “Private Music Teacher’s Guide” says: It’s the student’s job to show up and it’s the teacher’s job to make it worthwhile.

Many years ago, I wrote a book called “Music Pursuing the Horizon.” The title summarizes the fact that as we progress and achieve one goal, we reset our goal and keep moving forward!

Visit Chuck Anderson’s website to join his mailing list and learn about upcoming concerts. Buy his CDs and educational materials. And of course, become a Facebook fan.

Anyone who has ever taken a music lesson knows the feeling of dread that comes from showing up at the lesson - unprepared. But what if it was ok to be unprepared? Painting: Guitarist by David Allen.

I recently heard an adult guitar student say something that many of us have likely said at one time: “I need to cancel my lesson, because I haven’t practiced.”

The thought of showing up at a music lesson unprepared causes a myriad of emotions in people – shame, embarrassment, anxiety….and outright fear.

Music teachers are so used to students cancelling lessons that many of them charge for the lesson whether the student shows up or not.

Where did we get this idea that a music lesson was an audition of sorts that we had to meticulously prepare for each week? That we were somehow ‘wasting’ the time of the teacher if we didn’t practice the material well – or at all – in a given week?

The fear of not having enough time to practice – and showing up at lessons totally unprepared – likely keeps enormous numbers of adults from formal study of a musical instrument. Between jobs, family, children, friends, civic commitments, house chores, hobbies, Facebook, surfing the internet! –  who has time to practice an instrument?

What if you were told you could sign up for music lessons, but didn’t have to practice?

I played the guitar as a pre-teen, teenager and young adult, and then put it down. Over the years, I took a few lessons here and there. Usually, I just stopped practicing, and ended the lessons.

For the last five years, I’ve studied with Chuck Anderson (our own Music After 50 blogger!). I sometimes marvel at how I’ve not only stuck with guitar lessons for five years as an adult, but have made leaps and bounds musically I would have previously thought were impossible. How did I do it? What is the secret to my ‘success’?

Brace yourself…..Chuck told me to come to the lessons whether I’d practiced or not!

I have used countless lessons to work on the material that was given to me the week before. That’s one solid hour of ‘practice’ with a teacher assisting as needed. When I was first learning scales, I would sometimes simply practice the scales – in the lesson. I used to say to Chuck this must be pretty boring for him, and he’d say, ‘No. I’m used to it. I do this with students all the time.’

I searched the web for conversations about this very topic, and found exactly what I suspected I’d find. In a conversation thread on violinist.com, students talk about postponing lessons because they haven’t practiced. Here are some excerpts:

“I would much rather be prepared for my lessons, out of respect to my teacher and for my own self esteem.”

“I can’t help questioning my habit of wanting to avoid wasting my teacher’s time and disappointing her for lack preparedness on my part, at the same time, I also firmly believe that it is not the most efficient way of utilizing my teacher’s time or my tuition if I didn’t practice enough before a lesson.”

One lone commenter says the following, but gets little support for his views:

Why do we need to be prepared for a lesson? Sometimes [the teacher] will need to help the students through rough spots. Times when you have been sick; [times] when you have been busy. Times when you hit a plateau and [can’t] get past a problem. It seems like these are the times when you need a lesson (and [an] understanding teacher) most. This is when a good teacher shines and helps you get back on a good path in playing.

My experience with my teacher is exactly as described above. On a practical level, Chuck gets paid whether I’ve practiced or not. It’s my decision to use my time wisely or unwisely. It is only because of this lack of external pressure to practice – that I’ve made so much progress musically.

Of course I’ve practiced – some weeks more than others and some years more than others. But unless I’m sick or out of town – I attend a lesson each and every week. The discipline required in my course of study? Showing up. It is having the permission – not to practice – that motivates me to attend the lessons! And, of course, attending the lessons is ultimately what motivates me to practice! As any good teacher knows, a student’s motivation to excel comes from within. And learning how to motivate students is the hallmark of a great teacher.

If you’re talking to prospective teachers, ask them about their approach to lessons and practice, and listen closely.

Speaking of practice, I wrote a short ebook called Ten-Minute Music Practice: How to Do It and Why It Works. It’s got practical advice that is tailored for beginners, as well as people who haven’t picked up an instrument or sung in many years. It’s also great for people who have been stuck at the same musical level for years. If any of these describe you, take a look here.

A good teacher will not focus on his or her playing during a music lesson, and have you copy it. He or she will focus on your playing. Image: "Music Lesson" woodcut by Jenny Carrington.

A teacher who plays excessively during a lesson is not an aid to a student. In fact, the teacher often creates problems for learning. The goal of a lesson should not be to get a student to play like the teacher but to encourage the student to develop  his or her own voice.

Playing can be helpful as a demonstration of a point - but not as a methodology to teach. Generally, this type of “teaching” is “showing” more than teaching.

The teacher needs to focus on what the student is playing – not what the teacher is playing. Too often, teacher virtuosity can be discouraging to students. Where the student is, where he or she wants to go, and how he or she can get there - these are the only considerations in the teaching process.

Editor’s note: For more on this topic read “When ‘Tell, Don’t Show’ Makes Sense.”

Visit Chuck Anderson’s website to join his mailing list and learn about upcoming concerts. Buy his CDs and educational materials. And of course, become a Facebook fan!

The Gibson L5, which Wes Montgomery played, has since become the model of guitar most associated with jazz.

People sometimes ask me to describe what the jazz guitar style is. Jazz is usually (but not always) played on hollow-body electric guitars; it uses a large repertoire of chords and voicings; numerous scales and arpeggios; octaves; improvisation over complex chord progressions; the “swing” feel in rhythm; the Bossa, the Samba, the Jazz Waltz; rubato ballads. These are some signs of this style.

The following are not used in jazz guitar: power 5 chords; open chords; steady strums; static chord progressions;  bending and vibrato; and distortion.

The jazz guitar style today often blends elements of standard songs from the ’30s and ’40s, with the modal influences of Miles Davis, and the harmonic influences of classical music and the blues.

Obviously, jazz is a wide idiom ranging from the Bebop to the Atonal to the Urban to the Free to the Progressive styles. In today’s internet mentality, with its ultra niche marketing, it seems more important than ever to be able to categorize music.

I believe the jazz guitar style is an art form. Is it a commercial style? Well, that depends on how you define “commercial.” I believe it has a tremendous potential to develop a world-wide audience, so, in that sense, it could be seen as commercial as well.

Improvisation is at the heart and soul of this style of guitar. Improvisation is indeed a very complex art form in jazz. The goal, however, is to allow people to see beyond the complexity and into the beauty of the form. Yes, too often jazz guitarists substitute meaningless flash for substance. Our society is not short on this in many areas.

If you’re curious about jazz guitar, listen to several players to find who and what you like. [Note from LRG: Try Wes Montgomery; Kenny Burrell; Jim Hall; older George Benson; and of course, Chuck Anderson.]

The guitar is the most popular instrument in the world. Its sound appeals to the masses. The jazz guitar, with its unique sound and feel, is well positioned to influence the listening standards of the world!

Visit Chuck Anderson’s website to join his mailing list and learn about upcoming concerts. Buy his CDs and educational materials. And of course, become a Facebook fan!

Denise Graveline

This post first appeared on The Eloquent Woman blog. I earlier wrote about Denise’s decision to take up the guitar, for the first time, at 50. Denise is a public speaking coach.

“You can’t stop when you make a mistake,” he said. “You’re pausing to think what you did wrong and how to fix it. But you’ve got to keep going. The pros make mistakes all the time, but they keep going.” 

Call it my once-a-week professional development if you want to. It’s really my guitar lesson, and I’m finding each session rich in insights about the speaker and presenter trainings I do, and what my trainees experience when they’re new to public speaking or trying a new technique for the first time.

Take the stopping. I know full well that “ums” trip lots of speakers up. The speaker’s got a heightened awareness of any mistakes she makes, especially if she’s nervous or not as practiced at it. And ums serve as a verbal pause while you’re trying to remember what it was you wanted to say. 

They’re also a normally occurring part of everyone’s speech. Nonetheless, if an um throws you off and you stop, you’ll find your momentum and focus tough to recover. Easy for me to know about public speaking, but new as a concept to learn on the guitar. 

And I’ve learned that I’m just like anyone else: Anxious to do well, aware of how difficult the skill is to learn, not happy when I miss a note or lose the rhythm; all perfectly understandable feelings that do nothing to help me get through “Wildwood Flower” or “Will the Circle Be Unbroken?” In fact, they’re my biggest roadblocks.

When I was thinking through whether to take up guitar, my pal Leah Garnett of the website Music After 50 gave me great advice (she’s a lifelong guitarist and jazz guitar is her passion) — and she interviewed me right before I bought a guitar and started lessons. She asked about similarities between performing and public speaking, and I can now say from experience that I understand even better what’s going through the minds of trainees who get nervous just speaking in front of only me! 

Performing for my instructor is nerve-wracking enough for me for now, although he gently reminds me that my goal is to get good enough to play with other people. Music, like speaking, needs an audience to really thrive. Performers, whether guitarists or speakers, need to stop underestimating themselves and plunge in.

Case in point: I predicted for Leah that I wouldn’t be able to handle a dreadnought, the largest acoustic guitar, but it’s what I own now. It’s truly a stretch, but the sound is incredible. And in the last month, when I let go and anchor my playing with rest, practice and a willingness to risk, it sounds great–even when I miss a note.  (I also know from speaker coaching that it’s the performer who notices their nervousness and mistakes, not the audience, most of the time.) 

My instructor, who informed me I just got myself a hobby for life, says with confidence what I say to would-be speakers: If you practice, you will get better.

So these days, I think of my guitar instructor when I get a comment like this one from a woman who participated in one of my workshops focused on creating and delivering a message: “Thanks for making me step out of my comfort zone and for the warning that I would be expected to step out of my comfort zone. Without that discomfort, I don’t think the message would have been as meaningful.” 

Denise Graveline is a writer and communicator whose Washington, DC-based consulting firm, Don’t Get Caught, provides strategic communications plans; training; and editorial and creative services. A former journalist and communications director for several major nonprofits and a federal agency, she is the 2002 Washington Women in Public Relations “PR Woman of the Year” and a former member of the White House Council on Women.

Most seasoned songwriters compose on both guitar and piano. If you're new to songwriting and have to choose one, try the guitar first.

I recently received this question from a reader: I play a little bit of piano and a little bit of guitar, but I’m a beginner on both. I want to write my own songs that others can sing, and I want to get the songs down on paper. Do you suggest I take piano lessons or guitar lessons if I can only do one right now? Which instrument will help me more with creating the songs and then singing them for others who might want to cover the songs?

Don’t get too far ahead of yourself. Writing songs and notating them accurately takes a good amount of study and effort. Of course, if you’re going to sing the songs as a demo, the notation part is less critical. Most people “discover” songs on guitar more quickly and more easily than on piano.

Guitar would probably be a better starting point if writing is your main interest. The ideal teacher (not always easy to find) is one who teaches the instrument,  music, songwriting and notation.

Many writers work well with collaborators. At one time, one person created the music and another person created the lyric. Since the 1960s, we have seen a huge rise in the writer who creates both the music and the lyrics. But collaboration in writing is a time-tested formula. The Nashville song-writing teams have been proof of this for years and continue to prove it every day.

Ultimately, most writers work with guitar and piano. It is generally felt that each instrument influences writing direction and output in a different and unique way.

Note from LRG: For more on songwriting, take a look at these posts as well:

• First the Words, Then the Music
• The Way You Write Your Song
• Tips to Help With Your Songwriting
• The Art and Science of Songwriting
• First the Melody, Then the Words

Visit Chuck Anderson’s website to join his mailing list and learn about upcoming concerts. Buy his CDs and educational materials. And of course, become a Facebook fan!

This barre F chord can be moved around the neck of the guitar; it becomes a G two frets up. Barre chords are common in rock music.

Chords and how they’re named are sources of constant confusion. It’s not as difficult as you may think. Chords are organized into categories. One organization of chord categories is based on the number of notes that are in a chord.

Without question, if you want to understand chords and really learn chords, you need to know how chords are built. Memorizing chord diagrams will only get you so far. There are far too many chords to try to absorb them by remembering shapes on a chord diagram.

Just as chords are categorized by numbers of notes, they also tend to be organized and associated with specific types of music. Folk, country and blues use the simplest of chords. They are usually three- and four-part chords. Rock uses barre chords, open chords, and power chords. Jazz is the one field  that is virtually unlimited in the number of chords used and needed.

Triads are chords that have three unique notes. Major, minor, diminished and augmented are also three-note chords. When a fourth note is added, the chord becomes some kind of a 6th or 7th chord. As you add another note, it becomes a 9th. Add another, the chord becomes an 11th chord and finally, a 13th chord contains seven unique notes. From there, notes can be raised or lowered by one half step producing alterations. 

People are sometimes confused about the difference between a C major chord, a C7 chord, and a Cmaj7 chord. These are very different chords that all have different notes. A C major chord is made up of CEG. A C7 chord has CEGBb.  A Cmaj7 chord has CEGB. More advanced chords such as C9, C11 and C13 also have differences in their note composition. C9 = CEGBbD, C11 =CEGBbDF, C13 = CEGBbDFA. These advanced chords show up most often in jazz. They are relatively rare in blues, country, rock, and pop.
 
So, the type of chords you need to learn will be dependent on the type of music you want to play. Make sure that you look for books or teachers that focus on the specific type of music you want to learn. A generic chord book or chord bible is relatively useless except for the occasional emergency situation where you need a specific chord – quick. As a tool for actually learning chords, this type of book just doesn’t work.

Find a good teacher (or book or video) that shows you how to build chords that you can use. I am currently finishing a new book on the topic that will answer these questions and more. I’ll keep you posted!

Visit Chuck Anderson’s website to join his mailing list and learn about upcoming concerts. Buy his CDs and educational materials. And of course, become a Facebook fan!

Regardless of the style of guitar you want to play, there are fundamentals that every guitar player needs to know.

Regardless of the style of guitar you want to play, it’s important to know the fundamentals that need to be covered. Whether you want to play in a band, sing and play, or be a singer-songwriter, you’ll need to work on specific areas and skills. Here’s an overview of the ten fundamental things to learn to become a proficient guitar player:

1. Chords

The first thing that almost all guitar players learn is chords. A chord is played by holding down multiple notes simultaneously on the fingering hand. The opposite hand makes a chord sound by strumming it or finger picking it. There is nothing more fundamental than playing basic chords.

The first 14 chords are E, A, D, G ,C, Em, Am, Dm, E7, A7, D7, G7, B7, C7. Typically, barre chords are learned next. Barres have an advantage because they can be moved to different keys. Their disadvantage is that they’re harder to play, at least initially.

The ability to play chords and switch them smoothly is the first requirement for playing alone or with a group. It immediately qualifies you for a band in the role of rhythm guitar. This job is an accompaniment job and does not have the attention given to the Lead guitar player but it is your quickest route to playing in a band!

2. Technique

Technique is the ability to control your hands individually and in combination. It is primarily a physical skill and not a musical skill. The training and development of your hands is a prerequisite and necessary to develop musical skills.

Sports offers a good parallel. Football has physical skills and football skills. Passing, receiving, blocking, running and tackling are football skills. Running through tires, road work, weight lifting, wind sprints and stretching are physical skills. You need both to be successful.

There are many exercises designed to get your hands in shape. Finger independence drills, barres and stretches are just three good ways to develop your hands.

3. Notes on the Neck

It’s unbelievable how weak guitar players are on knowing the notes on their own instrument! No other instrument suffers from this same fate. Imagine a piano player not knowing the note names of the keys…or a trumpet player not knowing what notes come out if they push specific valve combinations. Yet, an amazingly high percentage of guitar players don’t know the notes on the neck.

This problem has certainly been created by the guitar world’s penchant for tablature and chord picture diagrams. Despite this, there is no excuse for the failure on the part of guitar players to learn what is absolutely rudimentary on any other instrument. The notes on the neck must be not only learned but mastered.

4. Strums

This skill is part of the rhythm guitar role. All songs, besides having chords, have a strum that is responsible for the “feel” of the song. If you play the wrong strum with a song, something will sound off. The strum helps keep the tempo steady and propels the music forward.

Strumming captures the most primitive element of music – rhythm. That tendency to tap our feet when we hear music can often be traced to the strumming pattern of the guitar.

5. Finger Picking

Finger picking is an alternative to strumming. Like strumming, finger picking uses the non-fingering hand and produces sound from chords. Fingerpicking was most common in Folk music but it has certainly made its way into mainstream contemporary music through singer-songwriters and country artists. James Taylor is an outstanding finger pick artist who has fused Folk, Country, Rock and Pop music into a seamless original form. His influence has been significant ever since the beginning of the Folk-Rock movement.

6. Scales

Scales are organized streams of notes that can be used to generate melody or improvisation. There are many kinds of scales to learn depending on the musical style you choose. The two most common contemporary scales are the Blues Scale and the Pentatonic Scale. The Blues Scale is used in the darker forms of Blues and in heavier Rock Music. The Pentatonic Scale is used in all things Southern: Southern Rock, brighter Blues, Country music and even Motown.

Beyond these scales, there are many more to learn if the music you play needs them. Santana used the Dorian Scale to great effect while Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits made a living from the Aeolian Scale.

7. Lead Guitar Techniques

The lead guitar embellishments are physical moves that impact the sound of the guitar in a very significant way. Bends, slides, glisses, vibrato and harmonics are just some of the techniques employed. These are “guitaristic” effects, not external effects such as reverb, chorus and distortion. As in all cases, the style of music dictates which embellishments are applicable. Traditional Jazz guitar uses few bends while Blues music lives on bends as well as the other embellishments.

8. Rhythm

Rhythm is one of the three primary components of music; it encompasses several aspects. On the one hand, rhythm is the duration of a note or a chord. It also includes tempo, ie, beats per second, as measured by a metronome and the stability of the beat.

Rhythm, as in tempo, can vary during a song. Some songs maintain a steady tempo from beginning to end. Other songs vary the tempo. Slowing down is called Ritardando and speeding up is called Acclerando. These are intentional musical effects and not the result of a guitar player not being able to keep steady time or rhythm. The ability to “keep time” is one of the most important skills a guitar player can develop.

9. Ear

The development of the ear brings your musical insides – out. Music is the only hearing art. As such, the ear acts as the intermediary between your musical ideas and the execution of these ideas. Solfeggio, the Italian art of sight singing, has been used for centuries to develop musicianship. Ear training contributes to the ability to play what you hear. There are virtually unlimited applications of ear training from working songs out by ear to improvising to writing. The European tradition of ear training has been far more stringent than that of the United States.

10. Songs

This area is your song list, your repertoire, what you can play from beginning to end. Without a repertoire, you have nothing to play. An audience is certainly not interested in listening to scales, arpeggios or exercises of any kind. They respond to songs no matter what style of music you play. It could be original or cover but one way or another, you need to learn songs.

What does it mean to learn a song? The singer-songwriter’s version of learning a song would be to memorize the chords, the strum or finger pick, the melody, the form, the chords and the lyrics. The jazz guitarist version is to learn the single note melody, the chord changes, the form, the melody and chord version (combining single note melody and chords) and the improvisational structure. Unless you use the lyrics as inspiration for the mood and feel of a song, lyrics are not part of the instrumental process.

Visit Chuck Anderson’s website to purchase his CDs and educational materials. Chuck’s guitar books include: Unlocking the Guitar – Open Tunings; Unlocking the Guitar – Strums; Unlocking the Guitar: Notes on the Neck; Modular Phonetic Rhythm; Master Picking; Mastering the Modes; the Six Secrets of Guitar Fingering. Some of Chuck’s products are carried in the Music After 50 eBook store, which also has basic guitar chord books by Curt Sheller.

You need at least one chord instrument and one melody instrument to create a duo. Guitar with piano is always a good choice, as both chords and melodies can be played on each instrument.

A reader recently asked me what instrument they should take up if they want to play with someone else as a duo, rather than in a larger group or band setting.

Duos come in many shapes and sizes. A keyboard is always a contender because it is perhaps the most versatile of the instruments. This is particularly true of an electric keyboard, which has keyboard sounds plus string sounds plus horn sounds, etc. So a keyboard with anything including a singer is a good choice.

If you think about the limits of an instrument, the choices become simpler. For example, only the guitar and the keyboard play chords, so they are ideal for an accompaniment role. Sax, flute, trumpet, and so on can only play one note at a time, so they have more limited applications.

You need at least one chord instrument and one melody instrument to create a duo. Guitar and piano can work together because they each have the capacity to play melody and/or play chords. If a bass is involved, it is a support instrument, but not a chord instrument or a melody instrument. The bass is at its best supporting a guitar or a keyboard.

I think Tuck and Patti is one of the best performing duos in the world. Tuck plays guitar – Patti sings!

Visit Chuck Anderson’s website to join his mailing list and learn about upcoming concerts. Take a look at his CDs and educational materials. And of course, become a Facebook fan!