That does it!… I took a deep breath… I was on a mission. I mean, It’s always kind of sad when a student goes off into the big wide world; But I tell myself that what must be must be, and I only hope I have given them enough that they can pass some on. However, when Elli told me she was stopping guitar because she wanted to go to health and fitness bootcamp that did it.
Call me a nerd, but for years, I had been dreaming of starting a guitar technique group, fantasizing about us uniting daily at 7AM, and playing scales and exercises together… (smile)…
Let's side step to talk about how we learn. I have observed how in the process of learning an art, that we really do meld together the right and left-brain. We must let intuition take over with complete abandon but we also must be excruciatingly conscientious and thoughtful and analytical and careful every step of the way. I want to explore how we can achieve that in a community setting where we are all comfortable and there is no judgement, good or bad, either towards ourselves or the others… Sound idealistic? Actually, it’s very simple and it works for anything you want to do, whether it’s for exercise, or playing guitar, or drawing classes or anything that we can all do together, the same thing at the same time.
The same thing at the same time… that’s when the magic happens. I have seen this over and over. I told my students that it would be like they were on a raft and the group would be like their river and they, in turn, would form part of the others’ river and carry them along.
In my daughter’s violin lessons, they have group class, as well as a private lesson. In the lessons they are given instruction, and they pay attention to detail, but in “group”, it just looks like everyone is zoned out. Week after week, I’d implore her to focus, and week after week she did not. But after observing for close to ten years, I now see it differently: With everyone doing the same thing, mistakes don’t matter (no one notices them), and great playing doesn’t matter either… you are just in the Zone and you just do it. It is the one time in life that we are finally able to silence that little voice inside us, giving us a blow by blow about how well or badly we are measuring up to our impossible ideal. In group, there is no such thing as something being easy or hard, good or bad. We just go with the flow. There is a collective unconscious at work, which enables us to access that primal relaxed focused state and just do our work.
So. Guitar-bootcamp it was: I told my students it was compulsory, I promised it would be fun and I guaranteed better chops. (It's not at 7AM though.)
Heather DeRome teaches guitar and performs in the greater Victoria area.
heatherderome.com
Call me a nerd, but for years, I had been dreaming of starting a guitar technique group, fantasizing about us uniting daily at 7AM, and playing scales and exercises together… (smile)…
Let's side step to talk about how we learn. I have observed how in the process of learning an art, that we really do meld together the right and left-brain. We must let intuition take over with complete abandon but we also must be excruciatingly conscientious and thoughtful and analytical and careful every step of the way. I want to explore how we can achieve that in a community setting where we are all comfortable and there is no judgement, good or bad, either towards ourselves or the others… Sound idealistic? Actually, it’s very simple and it works for anything you want to do, whether it’s for exercise, or playing guitar, or drawing classes or anything that we can all do together, the same thing at the same time.
The same thing at the same time… that’s when the magic happens. I have seen this over and over. I told my students that it would be like they were on a raft and the group would be like their river and they, in turn, would form part of the others’ river and carry them along.
In my daughter’s violin lessons, they have group class, as well as a private lesson. In the lessons they are given instruction, and they pay attention to detail, but in “group”, it just looks like everyone is zoned out. Week after week, I’d implore her to focus, and week after week she did not. But after observing for close to ten years, I now see it differently: With everyone doing the same thing, mistakes don’t matter (no one notices them), and great playing doesn’t matter either… you are just in the Zone and you just do it. It is the one time in life that we are finally able to silence that little voice inside us, giving us a blow by blow about how well or badly we are measuring up to our impossible ideal. In group, there is no such thing as something being easy or hard, good or bad. We just go with the flow. There is a collective unconscious at work, which enables us to access that primal relaxed focused state and just do our work.
So. Guitar-bootcamp it was: I told my students it was compulsory, I promised it would be fun and I guaranteed better chops. (It's not at 7AM though.)
Heather DeRome teaches guitar and performs in the greater Victoria area.
heatherderome.com
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