Re: Some advice for Learnwell

On Jan 2, 5:00 am, Lutemann <lutem...@xxxxxxx> wrote:
On Jan 2, 1:29 am, Learnwell <learnwel...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:





On Jan 1, 1:57 pm, Lutemann <lutem...@xxxxxxx> wrote:

You mentioned that you make you students learn scales in all twelve
keys, both major and (harmonic?) minor.  This is advice Shearer gave
me in pedagogy class and I didn't see the wisdom of it until much
later.

Scales are important and should be practiced with specific goals in
mind.  However, If they learn five major scales and E, A and D minor
scale, that's all they really need. The amount of time takedn up by
learning 24 scales can be put to better use.  In their senior year, if
they get serious, they should probably expand their knowledge of
scales.  I think that if you do as I suggest, moral will soar.

Thanks for taking the time to write this. I’ve had the advantage of
reading several responses before my reply, so I’ll try to address it
all. I think we have a fundamental pedagogical misunderstanding
between us on this, but it would not be the first time that I thought
I could not use something and then ended up using it in my classroom.

That misunderstanding is that I think you are talking about first
position.  We are getting out of first position by halfway through the
third quarter of the beginning class. By the end of the first year we
are reading (and sight reading) through the ninth position.

In the first semester we are, of course, doing first position scales.

In the second year we need to know the 24 scales (major and melodic
minor) by the second semester).

As far as the morale of students is concerned, it seems to be far more
complex than that to me. To simplify for the sake of brevity; high
achievement begets high motivation. I’ve seen this work time and time
again. We do have high morale by the end of each year. The goal is
exciting; the road there can be trying. Again, I call this the heavy
lifting of teaching (and parenting)

I will certainly consider your suggestions, thanks.

What scale system do you use or have you devised your own? Also, I'd
give a lot to see how you teach them to read in th upper positions, a
skill that is many times more difficult than that facing the typical
high shool band director.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Sorry, missed this one.

What scale system do you use or have you devised your own?

I don't use a scale 'system', I use the Segovia fingerings. That is a
quick ticket to get on the proprioception train and get going in all
positions.

Also, I'd
give a lot to see how you teach them to read in th upper positions

Through ninth position there are several sources. Students are
assigned to sight read for a few minutes during EVERY practice (we do
it as a class in the beginning class). There is a book called, "Sight
Reading for Guitarists" by Steve Marsh published by Mel Bay. It was
not intended to be used this way, but the first 50 exercises or so can
be played in three different positions. This takes care of reading
through the ninth position on the bottom four strings (bottom five in
fifth). Then there is a book called, "Guitar Position Studies," by
Roger Filiberto (also Mel Bay) that presents a lot of good material
(through ninth position). There is also a lot of progressively
difficult rhythms in these books which is good. Then we go to the
first few books in the RCS to get better at multi-part music, but that
has nothing to do with your question.

This is all second and third year stuff. In the first year I use
exercises I wrote with the classes to get through ninth position on al
strings.

As far as reading in 12th and above their exposure comes through scale
practice. They will encounter this infrequently enough that being able
to comprehend that stuff is enough, though I do intend on developing
some exercises to help develop sight reading in those areas.
.

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