Yearly Archives: 2022

Many teachers live their lives in constant anxiety over what parents, owners and other teachers think about them and their abilities. They’re understandably sensitive to the charge they aren't doing…

I've asked several music school owners, "What makes your school different from the others?" The answer is almost always the same. “Our competitive advantage is our excellent teaching staff. Our…

There is a long-standing disconnect between Default Programs offered by music schools and the real wants of consumers with regards to reading music. Most music schools don't offer programs for…

Almost every unaccredited music school has a Default Program. They probably don't call it that. They probably don't call it anything. It's just the tacitly agreed-upon lesson program students get…

A common reason that music students don't reach their goals is that many don't have any goals to begin with. Too many people sign up for music school on auto-pilot,…

In the next series of posts, I'm going to take an in-depth look at music schools, methods and teachers, in light of what we now know about the best ways…

Go to: Teaching Beginners By Ear - Part 1 Guitar is a different story. On guitar, placing color-coded dots on the fretboard to mark simple open chord shapes greatly speeds…

In chess, there are entire books about opening moves, and the strategic implications of each opening. It’s the same way with music. How you introduce music to someone with no…

When you play guitar, bass or keys long enough, you begin to develop a mental picture of your instrument. You can imagine it as if it's in front of you…

The role of memory is one of the most important, and one of the most neglected aspects of learning music. Memory is at the center of everything we do as…