10 (or more?) red hot benefits why learning with a tutor is better than learning alone

03/08/2020

We’ve all at some point asked  : “Should I learn music alone & save money (or at least that’s what who decide to learn alone think) OR should I contact someone more experienced to show me the shortcuts? Certainly, it’s a dilemma between the stairway to heaven or the highway to hell? Or was it a highway to heaven & a stairway to hell (as explained in the video)?

#1 – Saves you time

We all know the story of the tortoise and the hare! So let’s say you want to build a room in your backgarden? Unless you know how to build it yourself, would you get an expert or spend time to learn building it?

#2 – Saves you money

Paying someone else saves you money! As much as an oxymoron that may sound, in the long-term it saves you dosh from your piggy bank!
Let’s say you know how to build a room in your back garden already, but it’s not your main job. So to build it, it will eat the time from you making money for your own living.
Similarly if you are going to learn music, if you choose to do everything by trial and error vs guided by the shortcuts an expert in the field shares with you, in the long run either it eats into other factors of your life/ you do not accomplish enough.

#3 & #4 – Live interaction – you can probe the tutor & the tutor can correct you on the spot

While there are many good videos online, you cannot just ask the presenter on the spot, but you have to email/ leave a comment and wait for their reply. You surely do not want to be kept hanging, when that quick answer can trigger your imagination to ask further about the subject. Make hay while the sun shines!

Similarly, if the tutor notices that you misunderstood something or needs to correct a posture in your playing,  nothing beats the here and now, supported by the why and its benefits. More about posture in the video.

#5 – You learn within the reach of your ability

Lo & behold! The main benefit of taking lessons with a pro is that lesson material is presented to you within the reach of your ability, your progress is constantly being monitored within that ability, and challenges presented to you are the next level up.

What happens when we seek to learn anything is that we seek to learn what interests us, which as natural as that seems, we do not know how easy/hard something may be. Yes we want to be as good as our idols sooner without knowing the work they put into it, but take it easy tiger, Rome wasn’t built in one day.

I compare this with a video game. One starts with level 1 progressing gradually level by level. However if one goes on random YouTube videos, one does not know if that video is level 1 or 5, and if e.g. one lands on level 5 they might find the guitar daunting. Whereas it’s just that one would not have gone through the 4 previous levels that build the skills progressively up.

So yes you choose what to learn, and lessons are catered around your objective (no one is asking you to play a different video game than the one you want to), however the tutor is there to break it down to you in the simplest way possible keeping in mind your interests (eg a metal guitarist is more likely to want to learn tapping than fingerstyle, yet it would be advisable for him to first learn different shapes of the same vertical scale & to view the horizontal lines connecting them, as if one goes steadfast into tapping, time would have to be spent backtracking to learn those scales shapes & building that technique).

#6 – Better focus = more value for money

You pay x amount of money to get x amount of tuition time. Surely you do not want to be distracted – eg an appealing thumbnail on YouTube’s sidebar/ a friend calling you, which is generally what happens when one does it alone.
Naturally, a lesson will always drift towards both parties (student & tutor) pushing towards achieving the most value for money out of the lesson time.
For lessons with me, I put my mobile on silent and out of my reach, and suggest the same from you!

#7 – You build a rapport with a friend whose interest is your progress

Learning with someone else earns you a new music buddy. Besides being in a tutor’s interest to show their students the simplest way to play their instrument, over time we become friends and it’s not the 1st time that I have got discounted gig tickets for my students, etc etc.

#8 – Organic dynamic nature of lessons + live advice re sound

As much as technology advances, it never replaces that on-the-spot feel about sound. How e.g. a certain sound can be developed close to a sound of another guitarist you like. From time to time, I help students to determine what’s necessary to achieve their dream sound by adding a bit of delay or removing some noise gate on their current set up, or suggesting better gear if it calls for it.

#9 – Doing it right in the first place to not have to fix it later.

Learning how to play things right from the get-go, the probability of building bad habits that hinder your technique is less, which in turn opens up your fingers to quickly respond to the music in your head.
This brings back the story of the tortoise and the hare. More in the video!

#10 – Nothing worth paying for is free!

This is what it says on the tin.
Am sure some relative/friend of yours has at some point taught you this life lesson! There is modesty to be learnt with each step of any wonderful learning journey (including yours), as the only one way to eat an elephant is a bite at a time. I welcome you to your 1st bite at this link!

Two BONUS benefits

#11 – You quickly find tunes in your head/understand theory under your fingers

Let’s now talk about being efficient musicians.
The way our head functions to produce music is that we get an idea, our eyes ensure that idea is being played by the fingers, that in turn produce a sound that’s confirmed by the ear before the mind accepts it back as the idea it originally was. Seems complex doesn’t it? But isn’t that what you do when you talk (in which case your mouth replaces your eyes), or even simpler, isn’t that what you do when you write? Music is a language, hence it uses senses, and is hence easy when you learn it right!

At the video, you can watch how this happens when learning a new chord or scale comparing it to one you already know. Learning with a tutor facilitates how soon you make that mind-eyes-fingers-sound-ears-mind connection.

#12 – You learn how to get the most out of your practice to be creative

The best tutors always want the extract the best from you! A good tutor will always explain to you what you can achieve by doing any exercise, and is always there a step ahead of your journey, ready to challenge you to the next level. Remember your video game? But this time you have a guide so you do not unintentionally skip levels.

Besides helping you understand why you practise something, you’ll in turn learn when it’s time to stop/reduce an exercise to make way for something more challenging. Like a tortoise not a hare, you do less but achieve more! Quality over quantity of practice.

I hold a once-only training session about this called “Improve Faster – Become Amazing Sooner”. Read more about it at my group lesson page (Module 17), which can be learnt online/in-person, and is also open for non-current students.

For more vidz accompanying similar articles, please subscribe to Cool Gool’s Youtube
For lessons, please book at this link.)

www.malcolmcallus.com
Modern approaches to guitar, bass, ukulele & music theory tuition

chords, guitar, learning music, musicians, posture, scales, Uncategorized
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Let your mistakes be your light!

21/10/2019

One thing I notice both as a musician jamming with others, and as a music tutor, is the fear of mistakes.

While I understand the concern when playing in front of a crowd, there’s NO excuse when one is learning, as the only critic is your 4 walls.

Yet, sometimes when one is learning an instrument, they forget that the best learning of one’s mother tongue happened while still in the cot, with little to no consciousness. Similarly in music, best to think less – to walk the fire, to swim the water, to take risks.

What do I mean?

When we are writing songs, we should just try ideas and see how they sound. Sometimes (or many times) we think too much wanting to know about the theory of why something will sound right. But how about we instead experiment and if it sounds right then it means we are using some theory rule, even if we do not know which? After all, haven’t we all learnt to listen and speak before how to read and write?

Same when practising. We need to try stuff. Take e.g. a solo – some are scared to improvise, others just go for it. Or a strum pattern of a song – some spend ages trying to get all the down and up strokes exactly like a video by the original songwriter, while others do not look up a video at all (remember the pre-YouTube years?), just sing the song’s  rhythm, & start strumming it without understanding how it would be written. So who gets on with it first? The 2nd of course!

Which brings me to the next point – efficiency. When you practice, don’t overthink because if something comes out wrong, your ears will let you know, thus learning how not to do it. Great! So try again! Wrong again? Amazing! 2nd lesson learnt in how not to do it. And sooner than you realize, you run out of all the options of how not to do it, that you will do it right! Get the point here? I am from Malta (a Mediterranean island). Do you know how most of us learn how to swim? Our parents throw us into the sea, and that way through learning how not to swim, there is only maybe 10% of the technique of swimming they later have to explain! Efficiency at its best – of course they are in the water with us to ensure we don’t drown, and that’s where lessons with a pro tutor come in – he teaches you how to swim alone, but never lets you drown.

Quick question here!
You to stranger : What’s your name?
Stranger : Lucy

Verbally ask the above – takes 1 second to get an answer.
Now write the question on a paper & hand it to Lucy, and she’ll write her name on the paper, and you read it back. Surely that took longer didn’t it?
It’s the same with your instrument – go for it, and it gives you answers sooner!

This is also what makes the best musicians live, always confident they can turn any mistake into a clarification, like in a face-to-face conversation vs an endless Facebook argument (we’ve all facepalmed at those endless threads).

And now to writing our own songs. Sometimes we are in our element, and writing the best tunes. But other times we are in a different mood – drunk, or tired, or simply not our usual self. But we feel an urge to play, maybe stronger than when we are our normal self. So whatever your mood, don’t overthink, just film/record yourself. Do NOT think of the mistakes you could do, but go for it, and only later, do listen and watch.

For example, my video above! I just was out and about, and needed to express myself so much that once home I just filmed (as you can see I literally placed my mobile on the chair and started). Did I care about the camera angle/ filming quality? NO….. because music is audio not video! So that’s my suggestion to anyone – when your creativity calls do not clutter your head thinking about mistakes/ lack of perfection/ perfect filming/ bla bla bla, but just go for it! You’ll thus build a library of snippets, and only later when writing a song that you extract the best parts of whatever you got.

Till next time, keep making mistakes, as they will be your light!

For vidz accompanying similar articles, please subscribe to Cool Gool’s Youtube
For lessons, please book at this link.)

www.malcolmcallus.com
Modern approaches to guitar, bass, ukulele & music theory tuition

guitar, improvisation, lead, learning music, musical performance, musicians, soloing, Uncategorized
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