Ian's Guitar Tuition

Students, particularly adult students, become motivated when they see value in what they are working toward and when the work they are putting forth is clearly in line with their ultimate values or ideals. Students can find satisfaction in learning when their curiosity about a topic or skill level is improved.

The first assumption of the adult learning theory andragogy is that adults need to be told how learning something will benefit them. If you are learning anything new this year take time to ask your instructor how learning something will benefit you if you are unsure. It can help you see your journey of learning in a new light.

If you did not see my previous post, andragogy refers to adult learning theory. Andragogy assumes these 6 assumptions will form the basis of your learning needs. I will share individual posts explaining each of these assumptions, save the posts if you are interested in understanding how you can improve your learning in 2023 🤘

This is a photograph of Malcolm Knowles, who is famous for pioneering the adult learning theory andragogy. Andragogy details the learning characteristics of adults which I will detail and explain over the next few days. Andragogy means adult lead, where as pedagogy, a more commonly known learning theory means child lead which applies to children. If you are an adult and have any new goals or learning aims lined up for next year then understanding andragogy will help you see how you learn best, improving your chances of success.

Some may know that I have been researching towards a PhD at Southampton University. My research looks at how adult learning needs are met by traditional learning methods such as one-to-one teaching. Adults learn the guitar for a whole bunch of reasons including higher levels of self esteem, social connection and to play their favourite songs. This article from fender details some of these reasons alongside more information regarding learning the guitar (google Fender Survey for details). I’ve not been using social media because I am hopeless at it. So, I thought I would start posting about my research here as a way for me to share ideas, which will hopefully be of interest and useful to some people. Who knows, it may even inspire you to learn to play 🎸🤘🎵

The kings box, not the worst thing to inherit.

It was great to meet Eamonn Holmes on last weeks gig. He was as lovely as you would imagine him to be.

Had a couple of breaks in my teaching today due to it being half term, so I took the opportunity to re-string and clean my guitars. Nice to feel organised 🤓🎸

We Had a great time Christmas Eve visiting the pub that filmed his Christmas song Wonderful Christmas time. Hoping you all had a nice Christmas 🎅

Which ones your favourite? 1, 2, 3 or 4?

Give my page a follow for guitar content 🎸

Got the new Christmas tree up. I haven’t had a week off work since last Christmas, so I’m really looking forward to taking a break between Christmas Eve and New Years Eve!

A few spaces left for students, if you want to learn guitar and are based in or around Chichester then drop me a message and let’s chat about how I can help you!

I am going to be doing a video on how to put a pedal board together in the next few days.

This is my power supply which I will explain more on in the video. The Fuel Tank is great at dishing out loads of power to your pedals without having any noise issues.

If your looking for a power supple check it out 🎸🙌

Unlike the 5 open major chords (CAGED), there are only 3 open minor chords. This a because the open strings stop us getting the notes we need for a Gm chord or a Cm chord.

Chords are automatically major if they have nothing after the first letter, eg C = C major. If there is an m after the letter it represents minor.

Slide between the major and minor chord boxes in this post and see if you can see which one note has changed for each minor chord. This well help you remember the minor chords, and later understand the theory behind them.

There are 5 open major triad chords that everyone must get down, as not only do they appear often in songs, they also form all other chords through what is known as the CAGED system.

✨Chords: have more than one note played at once - making them harmony
✨Triad chords: have 3 notes in them
✨Major chords: are happy sounding by nature
✨Open chords: use open strings within them - opposed to barre chords

If you have missed any of these shapes get them down and make sure you can change between them to a metronome.

Good fundamentals = better playing! 🎸🤘

Looking forward to another week of guitar lessons 😄

Here is an exercise to help you work on getting your string bends in tune! Also, make sure your guitar is set up, correct gauge strings, your using three fingers to bend the strings and if you need to, you can de tune your guitar to ease tension, which Slash did all the time.

Vocalising rhythms is a great way to help you hear them better, and hear where your making mistakes!

Wah-wah pedal, Jim Dunlop. I picked this up when I was in New Zealand after seeing Slash, I just love the sound of wah on a guitar solo. It really helps add texture and layers to make solos sound more rhythmically exciting. Sound clips to follow!

Some tips on left hand muting, which is vital if you want clean sounding chords!

I have been gifted this Martin, Ed Sheeran X edition acoustic guitar to do some Ed Sheeran video lessons with over the coming weeks. It is a little Martin which makes it 3/4 size, which Ed Sheeran uses a lot, but for its small size it packs a lot of volume! If your interested in learning some Ed Sheeran songs, or would just like some songs to get your chords together, please follow my page to see each lesson as I post them. Also any Ed Sheeran requests please DM me and I will add them to the list 🙂

Getting your practice area set up is important for helping your route to daily practise as easy as possible. Hanging guitars on the wall of having close to hand, phone charges, speakers, music books all set up ready to go can help you not put things off!

Being in tune is vital for your guitar practice. If your guitar is out of tune you will be learning to hear your guitar in the wrong way. If you watch guitarists such as play, they often tuned up as they were playing, as being completely in tune was so important to them. Try to remember to check your tuning quickly each time you practise.

Recording yourself is a great way to monitor your improvement, get feedback from others and build your confidence! The voice memo app in your phone is useful for this.

My main gigging amp, a blues cube. This is the largest one in the series and a based around fender sounds, it’s super reliable and light for the volume it kicks out at!

Really enjoying the new feel of home, which is where I teach. It’s much nicer having where I spend all my time how I want, especially at the moment when we are spending so much time indoors, working and living in the same space, which is not easy for anyone I expect! Hope everyone is making things work for them however they need to at the moment too 😀

Boss RV-6, possible one of the most important pedals on my board. This pedal is important because reverbs in most amps are quite un natural sounding, but this pedal has some great sounding reverbs than can help make any amp sound a lot better. Useful if you play through different amps at jams and open mic nights etc. It can also be used on top of the reverb in your amp to add more atmospheric and experimental reverb sounds. As always, solid build quality from

Recording yourself is a great way to get monitor your progress, improve timing and build confidence in your playing.

Teaching some melodic minor theory today 🎸🙂

Chichester Cathedral looking as beautiful as ever. Good to get out walking when you can to keep the spirits up during the current situation!

Learning guitar is one of the most exciting things that that many of us undertake. This year with more restrictions on our ability to go out and do what we like, it’s the perfect chance to have a go. Please follow my Instagram page for lessons, tips and posts all things guitar to help you in your journey 🎸🤘

This really makes practising much easier