The way to build and ingrain skills is to introduce each new technique with a piece of music, and then to work through increasingly complex and difficult examples in each of the categories, it’s the most common and effective way. Preparing recordings is another fundamentally productive activity for students. Recording offers a unique critical perspective concerning performance skills and rhythm, and provides an indelible and concretely rewarding experience for new performers. Most students need to learn a large number of similar musical examples before each technique becomes natural and easy to perform. The learning curve for many of the techniques can typically last several months (especially with initial skills, and with techniques such as bars and bends that require lots of physical development). Because the learning curve for a variety of techniques is long, and because students are typically introduced to a variety of techniques at the initial stages (to provide an overall understanding of the instrument, and to maintain interest), the first 6-12 months typically show relatively little fluency, and this is the period during which students are most likely to be come frustrated and give up. It’s important to be aware that the core skills tend to plateau very quickly after the initial phases of learning, and once they are ingrained, the process of learning guitar becomes much more enjoyable. Along the way, a well selected curriculum of accessible and playable musical examples in each category provides motivation and musical satisfaction, showing interested students that the “light at the end of the tunnel” isn’t far off. By the end of this phase of learning, students will have played through several hundred musical examples, and most students will retain a small-medium sized repertoire of favorite songs and pieces that they can perform comfortably by memory. Many musical examples will be forgotten, but the cumulative effect of learning will remain as general technical ability to perform all common skills, and cognitive ability to recognize common musical elements in music, along with the ability to assimilate new music quickly and easily.
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