Sprucing up a Lesson Studio

If you ever take on the task of sprucing up a lesson studio, make sure to be patient. Studios tend to always be a work in progress. Teaching studios are incredibly fun to put together. But even when you think you have the perfect idea, trying it out can be a whole different thing.  There are three simple steps that can help turn a plain room into an inspiring studio, and remember, Amazon can be your best friend!

Ambience

The first thing is to create ambience. One of the additions that was most commented on in my studio were the acoustic panels. The red and black square foot wall panels help to make the room feel much more inviting.

Depending where you are installing them, they could be difficult to put up. I quickly realized that the acoustic panels would not stick to cement using tape, so I bought a hot glue gun to put them onto black cardboard. Then Velcroed the cardboard to the cement. That did not last either, so had to hang the panels from the floor joists with thin black sewing thread. Finally, they stayed and look great! They will be much easier to install if you have a finished room.

One thing to consider is to purchase 2-inch thick acoustic panels. I currently have the 1-inch thick version which does help, but the thicker the panel the more dampening effect it will produce. There are also corner shaped acoustic panels that look really nice. Putting a few of those up will add to the professional look.

The Lesson Studio Floor

This may sound crazy, but black yoga mats work incredibly well, especially on cement floors. I bought the Innhom gym flooring mats off Amazon. I did not know how they would turn out, but they ended up being amazing for several reasons. First, they looked great and were very comfortable to stand on during the jam sessions. They also did wonders to hide all the guitar and speaker cables. Now I don’t have to worry about people tripping over cables. Plus, keeping the cables hidden makes the place look much cleaner. As an added bonus, they made the room look bigger.

Lighting

This is probably one of the most important additions. I purchased WIFI light bulbs that can be controlled by a cell phone in order to change colors and intensity. Those are incredible! The only downfall is that the studio only had 2 light fixtures. This made the room darker when they were changed to blue or red. A student commented that the studio seemed a little dark, so it was Amazon to the rescue.

I picked up some 40 watt Hekee colored LED lights which put out an equivalent to 400 watts of lighting from an incandescent light. Those were strategically placed around the studio to splash light up on the walls. Eventually, I ended up with 5 of those and added some PAR 56 LED lights. What a huge improvement.  I think having the lighting dispersed all around the studio really gave the room a nice rock and roll feel.

Final Thought

Overall, those few additions turned an ugly cement room into an amazing teaching studio. Adding a snack table and small refrigerator made a huge difference as well, especially to the younger students. Sometimes students come straight from school and are hungry. Keeping chips and snacks around have really helped.

If you are interested in taking lessons, I would be happy to get you started on your musical journey!

The Amazing Jam Sessions

Growing up, playing with other musicians was extremely inspiring. The guitar took on a whole new dimension and eventually led to a rewarding teaching career. I hope to pass along that same inspiration to my students by having some amazing jam sessions.  A person never knows where it can lead. Even if they don’t pursue music, my hope is that each student can look back and have a great memory and be able to scratch “playing in a band” off their bucket list.

How the Jam Sessions Work

June was our first open jam session which started right after the student band finished. Everyone is invited, and their parents and friends are welcome too.

There will be two full bands each month. Each group will consist of 3 guitarists, a bassist, a drummer, one or two vocalists, a ukulele player, and possibly a keyboardist. Each band learns a song in the one-on-one lessons and then plays their assigned part at the show.

During the performance, the song is played 3 times. The first time is to get comfortable with the levels and playing in the group. This time through is with the pre-recorded song. After that, it will be played twice more to tighten up the song and allow the parents to record it. The older students are invited to solo over a 12-bar blues if they would like to.

No one is required to solo, but everyone is welcome to. Each of the soloists will take 2 rounds of solos. We will go over the solos in the one-on-one sessions for the students who want to play during this section.

There are two 27-inch monitors which display the chords and diagrams on the screen just in case anyone gets lost.

Anticipation

Despite a little twinge of nerves, the rush afterwards is incredible and addicting.  What stops most people from participating is the fear that they will not do well and become embarrassed. But with one simple 5 note scale called the minor pentatonic, it is easy to hit every note in the blues jam perfectly. The pentatonic scale is simple to learn and play. It can make a brand-new soloist sound like they have been playing for a while.

One thing that is very nice is that there are no egos.  Some of the students have never played an instrument and are only a couple of months into guitar lessons. And the people who have been taking lessons for a long time are very supportive of the other players. The new students are learning alongside other students who may be soloing for the first time.

Having such a positive environment is a great way to get started before trying a club or open mic where sometimes the musicians might be a bit less accepting of new players.

The Reward

Trying a jam session really helps because it drives a person to want to learn more and get better. There is nothing like having full set of musicians, including a bassist and drummer, to jam with. The feel of the music is so important, something a lot of people miss out on.

On top of gaining inspiration, playing with other musicians is a great way to meet people and have an opportunity to start a band.

Encouraging Students

If you are not sure about trying it, feel free to stop by to watch and see what it is all about. That is a great approach. Then if you decide you would like to try it, I will get you slotted into the next available band. Before you know it, you will be hooked!

As with everything, just taking that first step can open a door to something incredible. Putting yourself out there can build a lot of confidence.

Let me know if you are interested in signing up, it could be a life changer- it was for me!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Should a 7 Year Old Start with Online Guitar Lessons?

 I got lucky the first time I started teaching online. It was at the beginning of the pandemic and my students had already been with me for a while, so we transitioned over to Zoom. It was easy since everyone had the fundamentals down. Even for my students transitioning to online lessons at 7 years old were doing great.

But after a few weeks, I picked up my first new online 7-year-old student and realized there were challenges I had not even thought about. I am grateful for the technology, especially for people who are 100’s of miles from the nearest teacher.  But it did require a certain degree of relearning how to teach. And soon I wasn’t sure if a 7-year-old should start with online lessons.

Not all children struggle online, but there is definitely an art to learning the guitar online at a young age. We realized very quickly that the key is to have a little extra patience and for the parents to be prepared for the lessons to move slower. This will make things much easier. Teaching online is a wonderful tool, but the progress is much different than in person.

Tuning Online with a 7-Year-Old

One of the first skills everyone learns at the studio is how to tune. If a younger student has never touched a guitar before, I demonstrate how to use a tuner and have them tune one string. After that, I tune the rest. Each week, we add a string or two, but by then they are usually a pro.

After a few lessons, tuning becomes a habit. The student comes into the studio, takes the guitar out of the case, tunes, and is ready for the lesson. But online, things are different.

For a new student, the guitar may be way out of tune. This can seem like a nightmare for a 7-year-old who has never played. The parents can help, but even then, it could be an entire lesson to get all the strings in tune. Occasionally, this can knock the wind out of their sails.

Other teachers and parents have told me stories where multiple lessons have gone by and the only thing they did was tune. I have not experienced that yet, but can completely understand. It is not unusual to spend an entire online lesson learning to tune.

This is not to say that all 7-year-old’s have trouble, but this is an area where it will take patience.

The Environment 

The best advice I can give is to make sure the parent is nearby and the room has absolutely no distractions if possible. This is something that, even with my longer-term students, we struggled with. This was generally due to a sibling wanting attention or a quirky internet connection.

If there is a young brother or sister around, they tend to like to get involved. Even the slightest distraction for a 7-year- old can derail the lesson and take a bit to get them calmed down and focused again.

Making sure that they are rested and not hungry can make a difference as well.

Final Thoughts

I believe that a 7-year-old can do online lessons. For the best results, make sure they are rested, fed, and free of distractions. If the parent can be there during the lesson, that is a huge bonus, especially if the computer glitches. In fact, I sometimes teach the parent along with their kid. This can help tremendously and is much more fun for both of them.

Remember to be patient. They may miss out on certain things, like jamming together, since there is a lag during online sessions-even with the fastest internet connection. And the in-person interaction will be missing. But hopefully in the future we will have instantaneous video.

Thank you for reading my blog.  If you are interested in lessons, feel free to contact me.

Paying a Little Extra for an Instructor

Paying a little extra for an experienced, dedicated instructor can make all the difference in whether a student will be successful.

I was inspired to write this after a new student told me she went to a guitar teacher who kept looking at his watch throughout the lesson. She felt like he did not really want her there. She tried two others but both were not at her level of playing and couldn’t play the songs she wanted to learn.

Identifying a Seasoned Committed Teacher

There are so many amazing teachers out there who can inspire their students. It is easy to tell the difference between a seasoned, committed teacher verses someone who just needs the money.

Tools

One of the first things you will notice from an experienced teacher are the tools they use. On top of being organized, they will know how to get the student started on the right track at the first session using those tools. After each lesson, they will track your progress and know what the next step is. After years of taking lessons, you will be able to go back and see how far you have come.

Another very important indication that you have a great teacher is that he/she will have a library of fun material that students enjoy. This can only come from years of trial and error. After a while, an instructor knows which songs and exercises students really like and will use those in their sessions.

Rates

Another factor that separates an instructor who has made teaching a career from a new or inexperienced teacher are usually the rates. Someone who is new and not sure of themselves will often set their prices lower than everyone else. When I first started in 1998, the music store set the rates but my wage was probably the lowest in the industry. I had not invested anything into my career yet and did not have any teaching experience, so it made sense. My strongest asset was having the passion and excitement to teach.

Teaching is such an amazing career. Being inexperienced absolutely does not mean the person is a bad teacher. However, as the case when I first started, my wage reflected the fact that I was new.

Does the Instructor Take Advantage of Technology?

Back before Windows and the internet, we would manually write out all the changes, chords, and lyrics to the songs. Unless you bought the book or sheet music, you may be waiting a while for the transcription. This could sometimes easily take a few lessons. Today there are still instructors who do this. Not that this is necessarily a bad approach, but it is very time consuming. This can limit the amount of actual learning that takes place in the lesson.

These days, having a laptop with a separate monitor for the student is a huge benefit. Using a computer makes it quick and easy to download almost any song. This is also a great benefit for people who struggle with the small font that books offer. By having a large screen, the music can be blown up making it easier to read.

Another advantage of technology is the use of backing tracks. These can be pulled up on YouTube and are so much fun to play along with. I believe this is the reason that students today are so far ahead of my generation. Having a full band without a guitar track allows the student to experiment with endless techniques and ideas.

Music Programs

There are so many programs that can help a student master a part that they are struggling with. Having software and computer programs which slow down and speed up a song section, such as Guitar Pro, is vitally important. Not only that, these programs have the ability to isolate certain lead or rhythm tracks and loop them. Subscribing to a variety of programs will help with so many areas and styles that the teacher can focus on instruction and technique.

When the lesson is done, comments can be written in the music using a digital pen right on the computer screen. The music itself can then be saved to a file and printed for the student. This way, the student will have a digital one to refer to whenever they would like.

Final Words on Paying a Little Extra

If possible, try a few instructors and see what the difference is between cost and quality. Chances are, if you spend a little more, you may have a much better experience in the end.

If you have any questions or comments, please contact me, I look forward to hearing from you!