Hi Folks,
Interesting discussion here. Let me try to shed some light on the confusion relating to my teaching of rock guitar, even though it is not my main gig.
First, a bit of background.
For several decades, even though my specialty has always been classical, I have had electric guitar students coming to me for lessons.
Often they have been playing for years, often they have had tons of lessons and used tons of books. Here are a few other common characteristics....
They cannot bend a string properly (as in good sound, pitch control, etc)
They cannot do vibrato
They cannot play fast licks
They know one or two scales which they play badly, and a few badly played licks
they cannot play anything through from beginning to end without falling apart
they are full of tension because they understand nothing about technique or how to practice.
They have been stuck here for anywhere from 5 to 40 years
Now, in my job as teacher, I have studied all the reasons for these conditions. I have analyzed what a bend is musically, and what the production of a bend is technically (movement of the forearm rotators while force is transferred by a rigid finger, not as is commonly done by students, which is mere "finger pushing"). I have seen that students cannot learn because, in addition to not knowing how to practice, they have no effective structure for learning the five pentatonics, understanding what they are, and the licks that come from them.
In learning electric myself, years ago, I went from teacher to teacher, book after book, to try to understand the actual mechanics of bends and vibrato, two of the most difficult techniques to learn, yet most fundamental. No teacher could do more than demonstrate, no book said more than "bend the string".
So clearly, a course in how to master the fundamentals of rock techniques was needed. Over many years of teaching, I created that course.
I created structures, exercises, etc, to address this, so that students could gain these understandings, and these abilities. My methods worked, and students who struggled with electric guitar for years finally began to "get it", and make progress. Many worked hard and became professionals. They are all over the world now, many of them teaching and using the same methods to help their students.
I never felt that just because I don't actually practice or pursue electric guitar myself that this resource should be witheld from the students who need it. So eventually, I formalized that course and offered it through my company.
My course puts and end to a hopeless situation for students. My site is full of electic players who owe their advanced abilities to the foundation they got from my work, including my rock course, which is all about fundamentals. If you were to visit my forum, where I guide students (for free) who are using my methods, you will see a couple of adults who have been trying to play electric for years with no progress, who are now developing nicely for the first time in their lives. They are overjoyed, and it is because of my rock course and my instruction.
http://www.guitarprinciples.com/forum/v ... 19ec9cb399It is so important for students to realize that taking lessons from a great player means nothing at all. You do not go to a teacher to listen to them play. You go so that they can create a change in you, in the direction of improvement. The only value a teacher has is the change they create in YOU. I have seen hundreds of students, of all styles, who brag about the "great player" they studied with. They don't seem to notice that they play like crap! The only claim I ever make is that I can improve the playing of anyone who seeks improvement, period. Where did anyone get the idea that I claimed to be an "expert" at playing rock guitar! I certainly never said that. I claim to be an "expert teacher". I claim to be an expert at knowing why someone has trouble playing, and how to get them past that trouble. And I am that expert. That is what I do.
I would never claim to be an "expert" electric guitar player, that would be absurd. All developed players know that no one can be an expert, top of the line player in all styles! There just isn't enough time in a day, especially given the complexity of some styles. However, I will claim to be an expert, in fact I will claim to be THE expert at being able to take someone who has never gotten anywhere with any book, or any teacher ( and they usually have had many) and showing them what they are doing wrong, why it is wrong, and what to do about it. I will also claim to have created a course, that I call my "Rock & Blues Foundation Course" that explains completely what no other teaching resource even deals with. That I will claim.
There are plenty of students who, after understanding why they had all their playing obstacles, as a result of my instruction, went on to become extremely advanced electric players. All of this, even though I am not an expert electric player. I don't need to be in order to fix the electric players I teach. Mick did not have to be able to knock out Mr.T in order to teach Rocky how to do it!
Now, that being said, I have my limits. I would never get involved in teaching very advanced electric techniques, as in Vai, Satriani, etc. I leave that to the full time electric players. I cannot guide someone there because I simply don't know much about it, and have not traveled the path. I will of course, take any fingerstyle, classical, or acoustic player as far as they wish to go, because that is my main focus, and I have traveled the full road.
As far as timing, any solo classical player has a very different relationship to timing than a rock player. We do not play to drummers and rigid beats. We bend time, and shape phrases with it. So, that is going to grate on rock players, just like hearing fingerstyle players does with us classical folks. To us, most acoustic people have horrible tone. It is a different aesthetic. The tone for acoustic playing is actually great for that style, but not acceptable for classical style.
So yes, I am not a polished electric player because that is not what I do all day, it is not my love, although everytime I hear a great electric player a part of me wants to put away my classical and just wail for a couple of years! But if it hasn't happened by now, it probably won't. But I don't need to be a virtuoso electric player to repair the faulty foundation that so many students and aspiring players have. I just need to understand the fundamentals, and be able to convey them effectively, while providing a system for those fundamentals to become a real part of a students playing equipment. I have done that.
So I hope I have shed some light on this. I want to say I do appreciate the very respectful and mature tone of your discourse here, as concerns me and my teaching. I sometimes inspire some rather histrionic declamations on other guitar websites! You folks here are definitely in the upper echelon of guitar players when it comes to maturity and sincerity of desire for learning.
Of course, you have a great headmaster, David is a real peach of a guy! I noticed his work early on as of superior quality in terms of a teacher really dedicated to providing quality lessons to guitar players.
So the "take away" is this...............if you want to hear a great rock guitarist, don't buy a concert ticket for the Jamie Andreas Rock Extravaganza. But, if you are one of the millions of peopel struggling to get anywhere with playing rock guitar, and suffering from the fact that you can't seem to get anywhere, you just might want to check out "The Principles Of Correct Practice For Guitar", and the "GuitarPrinciples Rock & Blues Foundation Course"!
P.S. My first DVD..the companion to "The Principles" is not a rock method, it is a method that transcends and includes all styles. If you want to get a feel for the value of it to rock players, check out these comments on Troy Stetinas forum
http://www.stetina.com/cgi-bin/ikonboar ... ;topic=410
