Category: Jam Session
I've noticed something, I do want to pick up a musical instrument but most teachers of music will not teach you country, folk, jazz, or whatever. they insist on classical piano. It's irritating. and I myself hate classical music with a passion. I don't want to learn these songs. they insist on it though. why is that? and how do I seek the other type of teacher out who would teach other genres?
When I took guitar lessons, the guy I took them from was so cool. He would ask me what kind of music I wanted to play, and every week I would bring in a song that I wanted to learn how to play. We would work on it, and he would show me the technique. He did this with all of his students, too. Plus, he was just an incredibly cool guy, and cute, too, lol. Anyway, cool teachers are out there. I don't know about piano teachers. They seem to be of a different breed sometimes. I took piano lessons myself for quite a few years, and my teacher was steadfast in teaching me the classical approach. However, even though I may have moaned and groaned about it as a kid, I do see the benefit in that it gave me a more disciplined approach to my music. Not only my playing style, because I probably would have been a perfectionist regardless of how proper or informal my training was, but also my appreciation of all different genres of music in general.
Yeah, when I learned guitar and drums, my teachers didn't cram the jazz/classical stuff down my throat. They asked me what my goals were and what I wanted to focus on, and they just helped me get there whether it was learning basic chords to play songs I liked on the radio, or when I was proficient with that, teaching me things I could do to improve my lead playing, or even learning the ocasional lead solo. I just got hired to teach guitar in Nashville through this site called takelessons.com, and I'm going to teach my students in the same way. I figure if you like what you're learning to play, then chances are pretty darn good that you're going to stick with it. Most of the teachers who do the country/rock/folk are at the local music stores as opposed to colleges and universities where the instructors are only going to specialize in jazz and classical for the most part.
I've had a great experience with my teacher. Most of his students are younger kids, so he told me he rarely gets to teach the more advanced stuff and he's excited to get a chance to teach it when he can. When I first started with him, we started with a combination of boogie woogie piano and some classical stuff. The classical material was mostly just there to teach me theory and to teach me how to read music. After that, we focused on more classical stuff because I had to know that to audition for the music program at my university. Now that that's done with, we're focused completely on jazz. I do write some folk/country, and he's always happy to explain the theory behind that or help me learn the piano part for any song I like. Feel free to message me with any questions you have about a specific song or about theory. I might be able to explain some of it that way. I don't log on here as much anymore, so private messages would be best. Good luck!