leeds guitar lessons

Learning to play guitar can feel like  a slow and daunting experience whilst you are doing it. However, when you reflect upon the progress you have made over longer periods (months and even years), the value of your practice time and guitar lessons becomes transparent. For this reason I like to coordinate series of lessons around players long term goals.

To help reflect in this manner, I often encourage students participate in making recordings with me in guitar lessons which they can keep for reference. This is also useful to pinpoint any problem areas or just to give yourself a pat on the back. Some people also find a simple practice journal a useful way of documenting their progress. 

I often like to make use of Guitar Pro or Sibelius to present written music. Some students find Guitar Pro particularly useful.

There are lots of books and web resources for all kinds of guitar players. If you are interested in further researching any subject, I can recommend the right kind of materials to look for so that your learning path is not cluttered and uncoordinated.

Following is an example of a big project that I might bases a long series of lessons around with an advanced student...

For the imrpoving and advanced jazz guitarists among you, you might for example be interested in learning how to improvise in a similar style to your favorite soloist. This is a big long term goal. We could break this down into various areas of activity. 

1. I can help you to transcribe your favorite solo.
2. Then learn to play and maybe sing the solo like the original.
3. Explore the theoretical aspects of the playing and look at ways of creating new material in the same style with this information. 
4. Ultimately practicing to refine the way you improvise.As you progress in your lessons and practice, you may find certain resources useful in assisting your learning and keeping record of your progress.

This is just one long term goal that jazz students often chose to focus on.

Here I demonstrate this process in action with Charlie Parker's solo on the tune, 'Embraceable You'.

Following is a link to my complete transcription of Charlie Parker's solo on 'Embraceable You'...

 ..After learning to transcribe, sing and train our ears to this music we can work on technique and authentic rhythm as we play in synch with the original recording as demonstrated here...

...through the conception of various creative practice methods devised in lessons, we can look at ways of breaking the material down and maipulating it. Eventually, improvisation will take place. Here is link to a clip of me in the initial stages of improvising in a similar style to Charlie Parker.
 

The next stage from here would be to allow this style to fuse with the approach to improvisation that you are developing. Good Luck!

If you're a beginner jazz guitarist and find some of this information a little daunting, I hope I can break down and demystify this approach in lessons.  

You can also find out more about this method by reading about Dave Leibman's, 'Complete Transcription Process' on his website which hosts many other great articles.