Comments on: Define and Conquer http://www.davidhodge.com/2010/06/19/define-and-conquer/ The official website of David Hodge Sun, 11 Sep 2011 21:42:08 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: guitarfest http://www.davidhodge.com/2010/06/19/define-and-conquer/comment-page-1/#comment-16048 guitarfest Thu, 19 Aug 2010 13:16:41 +0000 http://www.davidhodge.com/?p=224#comment-16048 It’s not hard to teach one on one but students tend to get away from the “feel” on their own and bog down. Direct imitation with immediate feedback from me seems to work really well but all the abstract instruction on the web seems to make students over analyze it and forget that sympathetic motion is ultimately a feeling. Teaching it is much like teaching someone to roll their Rs – the technical information can actually get in the way of “getting it”. It’s not hard to teach one on one but students tend to get away from the “feel” on their own and bog down. Direct imitation with immediate feedback from me seems to work really well but all the abstract instruction on the web seems to make students over analyze it and forget that sympathetic motion is ultimately a feeling. Teaching it is much like teaching someone to roll their Rs – the technical information can actually get in the way of “getting it”.

]]> By: Jim Lawrie http://www.davidhodge.com/2010/06/19/define-and-conquer/comment-page-1/#comment-16038 Jim Lawrie Sat, 10 Jul 2010 18:03:30 +0000 http://www.davidhodge.com/?p=224#comment-16038 Without delving to deeply in weighty philosophic issues, as a guitar teacher, I’ve noticed how language can obfuscate certain issues. For example, a common catchphrase is “He / she is taking guitar lessons to be able to play the guitar.” So we have “lessons” on one side of the equation, and “playing” on the other side. But that sentence is so misleading. It’s as if we do one thing in order to do another. Overlooked is the notion of “process,” a continuum of sorts. We’re all both students and players. I suspect that the most “advanced” player is still a learner, and the most “novice” of students performs, if only perhaps to his cat or uncle. (P.S., my cat, Mr. Easy, hates my singing and my steel-string guitar playing. He can, however, tolerate my classical guitar practice.) I’ve always has had this quasi-mystical notion: the more keys we remove from our key chain, the closer we become enlightened. I also believe the same can be said of definitions. Without delving to deeply in weighty philosophic issues, as a guitar teacher, I’ve noticed how language can obfuscate certain issues.
For example, a common catchphrase is “He / she is taking guitar lessons to be able to play the guitar.”
So we have “lessons” on one side of the equation, and “playing” on the other side.
But that sentence is so misleading. It’s as if we do one thing in order to do another. Overlooked is the notion of “process,” a continuum of sorts. We’re all both students and players. I suspect that the most “advanced” player is still a learner, and the most “novice” of students performs, if only perhaps to his cat or uncle.
(P.S., my cat, Mr. Easy, hates my singing and my steel-string guitar playing. He can, however, tolerate my classical guitar practice.)

I’ve always has had this quasi-mystical notion: the more keys we remove from our key chain, the closer we become enlightened. I also believe the same can be said of definitions.

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