Thanks for checking out my guitar primer!
Let's Play Guitar (one string at a time) is a primer for beginning guitarists. This method encompasses rote learning, composition, music theory, song form, annotating musical scores, separating left and right hand techniques, and explores musicality without dictating tempo, dynamics, or tone.
The rote learning in this method uses "Sound + Feel + Symbol + Name" to introduce every song and musical concept. By "echoing" or "imitating", just like a baby learning how to make new sounds, students can embody and replicate musical ideas.
Composition is a major portion of this method. I think that if music is a language, let’s break it down to its basic elements like we do with vowels and consonants.
In the case of music, we can say that it is made out of notes, and notes are made out of beats and pitches. Notes, or nodes in mathematics, are the expression of two values that occur simultaneously. This is one of the challenges in learning to read and write music because there are multiple layers of interpretation required for comprehension.
Also, to write notes is not enough, just like getting students to write their ABC’s does not make them fluent in a language. Language, and music, happens in a larger context. Music composition is not just about writing notes, but phrases that are part of a musical structure.
As an example, if notes are bricks, then phrases are the beams that create the musical “house”. A master of music is able to use simple musical elements to create larger musical structures. Examples of this would be Ludwig Van Beethoven’s 5th Symphony or John Coltrane’s Love Supreme where one can hear how simple musical ideas create a larger musical structure. For this reason, every song in the book includes form as a musical element.
The annotation component is helpful because the students are able to recognize the separate left and right hand movements, and to practice them accordingly before playing both hands together.
Included in the book are QR codes for audio recordings, lesson videos, sight reading, and additional comments on how to approach teaching each song.