02/01/2021
The age old question… should I be learning songs or music theory?
Here is my 2 cents. The purpose of learning to play the guitar is to ultimately play a song. The ability to play a song is based on the ability to play the guitar. If I could use an analogy... songs are desert. While music theory is the basic building blocks of life; musically speaking. Too much focus in the beginning on just learning songs will serve to undermine a students ability to actually develop into a guitarist.
For a student to be able to play a song "well", they will need to develop their hands; coordination; muscle memory; musical ear; knowledge of the fretboard. I have been playing guitar for a long time, and I am pretty good at what I do. I personally have experienced various pathways to learning the guitar. There are many paths. All paths lead somewhere, but the question is where do you want to go.
Music is an amazing thing that I believe is ultimately and intimately based on love. It is a gift, a gift that should keep giving. As a student grows older, songs like Michael Row the Boat Ashore and Ode to Joy and Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap, will become childish songs from the past; best or mostly forgotten. But my lessons and methods based in music theory and the learning of how music and the guitar actually works, will give you or your child a foundation that can and likely will continue to be built upon for a lifetime if a person so chooses. Then, a student may be able to experience the joy knowing that they have actually accomplished something, more than knowing a few songs that only a mother could love, or bits and pieces of mostly forgotten classic rock songs.
Just my 2 cents. Thanks. ;-)
