Rock U School of U Rock and Kids' Jams

Twice a year I host a Kids' Jam for my non-adult students (www.youtube.com/tlschafer). I always get someone who calls it a recital and that really makes my hair stand up, what little is left. When I was a kid, I used to hate recitals; going to them and being in them was always dreaded. They were stuffy, cramped affairs that only the parents and your siblings attended. Never much fun, never did anything to inspire me. Just had to do it.

I started doing Kids' Jams a while ago to have fun helping the kids learn a song they could perform in front of their peers. I also wanted to give them a taste of what performing was like, either alone or with others. I didn't dissapoint myself, I have loads of fun doing it!

So. what is the difference between my Kids' Jams and recitals? Hey, it's obvious. So much so that I won't even discuss it. A better question is how are my Kids' Jams different from what the latest local music store's School U of Rock You etc, does? They have popped up all over the place. They gave me a night's worth of concern for my business. And then I witnessed one for myself.

The idea is the same as my Jams, get kids together, work on songs, then perform. That's what they want to do and it's a lot of fun. They spend 8 to 12 weeks working on a song. The school sets a night, rounds them up and they all go over to a local restaurant or sports bar. The kids get up on stage and start to wail. When they are done sombody applauds. The same thing happens with my Jams, but not at a sports restaurant.

At the school performances I've seen, mostly at restaurants, they usually have a small audience. The performers parents and the other performers. Unless you have a lot of them, the audience is usually small about 20 or 30 people. And you might have the clang of people eating dinner or drinking or just not paying attention.

I hold my Jams at larger venues, usually a local church. There is a full sized theater, a good PA system and plenty of seating. In fact, the last four Jams had a total attendace of over 150 people each! One of the Jams was SRO at around 200 people. While these are mostly students and their families, there are enough of them to give the kids a feel of a real concert; no dodging waiters trying to rush to your parents table for a big tip. And when the audience applauds, it is never just the polite clapping of the other kids' parents!

I try to  make sure everyone gets to perform on stage if they want to do so. I usually put the more advanced kids up first; this gives the younger kids a chance to be inspired and see what can happen with practice and hard work. From the last Jam alone, I've had to teach Blackbird to more than 10 of my students because they saw Kyle play it!

Dude, you can always play for your parents and friends in your garage. But get up and play for every one else at one of my Jams!  Check out Kyle Tiltges playing Blackbird/Day Tripper medley. http://youtu.be/y-o0HBGzrLs

Consistent Persistance

Keeping at it is the only way to really learn to play guitar. You have to play consistently, even if it's just 1/2 hour per day or four times a week. Playing with others can help you learn new things and sharpen your timing, strumming. It can put things in perspective. Sometimes, when we practice alone and don't play with others we don't really see/hear our progress.  Here's a great story.

One of my adult students, I'll call him Bub, in fact he's my second oldest student, wanted to learn to play the guitar. One of the big reasons was his two grandsons. They are 12 and 14, live in another state, and have been taking guitar lessons for six months. He wanted to play guitar with them when they visited. So Bub has been learning for about four months now and, in my opinion, doing very well. He has learned about eight chords and can use them in songs. He can strum and keep time rather well. One of the songs I thought he should learn to play with his grandsons was Green Day's Good Riddance. He worked on it from the first month he was taking lessons, it sounded pretty good.

His grandsons visited and he told me they played some guitar together, including Good Riddance. I asked him how it went and he said " You know what, I'm BETTER than they are!" He hadn't realized how good he was until he played with someone else. He just kept his head down and kept working on it. His cool factor with his grandsons just bumped up a notch or two!

That's one or two of the reasons I hold Adult Jams. It's a lot of fun. It gives adults a chance to play with others and share what they've learned. My next Adult Jam is Saturday, September 3rd . The 2nd Annual John C. North Memorial Outdoor Jam. Bring your own food, drink and guitar. Or just come and listen. It was great fun last year!

Guitar Lessons as Presents

Over the years I have been someone's birthday present, christmas present, valentine's day present, anniversary present , graduation present,  just-because present, mother's day present and now, once again, a father's day present. While I've never jumped out of a guitar-shaped cake, I've had the opportunity to join in on the fun of the surprise, usually the birthdays. It's great fun. Sometimes it can go a little off-plan.

I was paid in advance for a month of lessons for a woman's husband. She said they were driving down the road when Wanted Dead or Alive started playing. He said, "Man, I wish I could play guitar like that!"! Well, fishing for a birthday present after 30+ years of marriage, she thought guitar lessons would be a great idea! She wanted me to come to the house and help surprise him. I was there at the agreed upon time , she opened the door and yelled surprise as I stood there with my guitar in hand. He said "Wow, that's great, honey. Thanks! Where's my guitar?"

Note: I had a spare in the car that I rented to him. That was years ago, I now know to ask!

It's also important to make sure that the spouse really wants to learn to play and not just excited about a song. Or maybe they do well at Guitar Hero/Rock Band and think they can play guitar by default. A good indication is when they buy a guitar and try really hard to learn on their own but can't seem to get it. If they put the guitar down and never touch it again, they probably shouldn't take lessons. Lessons won't perform miracles, they'll just show the path, you have to take the steps. If they don't have 20-30 minutes a day to practice, they aren't ready to take lessons.

Roger McGuinn still has it, at least for us boomers.

So one of my adult students invited me to go see Roger McGuinn last night, Saturday, thanks Dave. I thought it would be interesting and it turned out to be a lot of fun. I used to hate seeing guys at the coffee houses play acoustic covers of full band songs. Still do. But it's different when it's the actual guy that wrote them or made them famous. He does a great version of 8 Miles High.


He takes you through his whole history, starting from his first guitar and lessons at the Old Town School of Folk music. It was fascinating hearing about how he played with Chad Mitchell and then met Crosby. Right up through how the Byrds started and after. Refernces to Dyan , Mitchell and Baez popped up frequently and casually. It was very laid back. Rog (we're old friends now!) still has his chops and his voice.

He really looked like he was having fun and like he was playing to old friends. He was.
The house was filled with mostly 60's plus boomers singing along.

Here's a link to a couple of videos I uploaded that night.You might need to turn up the volume. http://www.youtube.com/user/tlschafer?ob=5
Roger McGuinn


On one of the videos he talks about his 7 string signature Martin, HD-7. The 7th string is in the middle, doubles the G string an octave higher and makes it possible to get some 12 string-like sounds , yet still play 6 string licks and runs. I've always thought that 12 strings were too limited in sound, you always had that "jingle jangle morning" sound even if you didn't want it. This guitar solves that problem. And Roger knows how to get the best from it, one minute playing an incredible 8 Miles High then dropping down to play blazingly fast fiddle tunes. It seems to run about $2400 or so on the street. I got to try one out.  

Roger's signature HD-7 Martin

I really liked the sound. Roger miced vocals and guitar with what looked like and sounded like condensers. He sat down for acoustic , had the guitar mic pointed to the lower bout that brought out the best in his Martins. He was surounded by what looked like some mini palms and his instruments. He stood when he played his Rick through a wireless system. He looked and sounded great.

How to learn guitar quickly!

Are you a recent HS grad with a burning desire to learn to play guitar?

Do you dread facing college without being able to play guitar?

Do you think you can meet new friends by playing guitar?

Did you recently get a new guitar , wasted most of your time trying to learn from YT?

Are you able to spend at least one hour or more per day practicing?

If your answer to any of the above was yes (it should be yes to ALL of the above!) then you've come to the right place. I can help you learn to play guitar!

With TWO one hour lessons one week apart , and daily practice, I'll give you the foundation to continue to learn and play guitar. As long as you practice daily and apply the techniques I show you, you will be playing songs on the guitar before the end of the summer.

Here are some of the things you'll learn:

1. How to play chords.

2. What are the most important chords.

3. How to strum.

4. The "Secret Strum"

5. How to read chord / lyric charts.

6. How to read TAB

7. Basic rock and roll / blues style

8. Oh yeah,  and learn to play some songs!

I have a couple of Saturday slots open at my house in Naperville and a few daytime slots open for possible in-home lessons.

Call Terry at 630-696-0783 and visit my website at www.NapervilleGuitarLessons.com    also    www.facebook.com/napervilleguitarlessons.com

Another High School project!

HI, Terry. 

Thank you so much for answering my questions. They were exactly what I needed to get a better understanding of the guitar and the life of a professional guitarist. You have helped me with my project and inspired me to keep playing , and therefore I thank you. Thank you for your generosity and I will be sure to tell you my grade.

    Thanks, Si M.

HI, Si. Below are my answers to your questions .

 1. What inspired you to play the guitar?

 I just wanted to be part of the music I liked to listen to, like Led Zepplin,  Niel Young, CSN, etc. I had been playing drums since I was 11.  Actually my motivation to start guitar at the age of 19  was to impress a girl. I was going to Purdue and dating a girl at Ball State. She was a music major, played guitar and piano. I would hitchhike to see her on weekends. We would sit around talk and listen to music. She would play her guitar and I really liked it. I'd go back to school , borrow a guitar and start bugging everyone to show me chords. I'd go back to see her, play a song I'd been practicing all week long. She was never impressed. We later broke up but I got more out of the relationship; I learned to play the guitar!

2. Do you think your age, when you started playing the guitar, was prominent in your success?

 Yes, I do believe it was good to start early. I was 19 at the time and now, 40 years later, I'm glad I invested the time to learn to play. I had more time to spend learning , less distractions.  Time to play and practice is very important. But you can start at ANY age ( I have a lot of adult students) as long as you commit to learning.

3. Why did you decide to pursue music into a career? I've always given guitar lessons, most of the time it has been part time. About 2 years after  I started playing/learning , a friend of mine told me if I really wanted to learn guitar, I should teach it. So I did. He was right. About six years ago, I kept telling my wife "I should have given guitar lessons full time 30 years ago". She said that I should go ahead and try it because she didn't want to be hearing that same old thing 30 years from now! It's fun, I get to control my schedule and I love it!

4. What is challenging/difficult about your profession?

Finding new students can be difficult. It takes time and money to find new customers. Once you have them, you must keep them happy. But I would say finding them is the most challenging and most expensive.

5. Did your family/friends support your musical career?

Yes, my wife was my biggest supporter. She encouraged me to do what I loved. She helped me and continues to help me. She took it seriously even when other family members wanted to know if I could even make a living doing it.

6. What type of guitar do you prefer and why?

I love to play acoustic guitar , that's probably my favorite. But I do have a lot of fun playing and teaching electric guitar. 

7. What is you favorite style/genre of music to play and why?

On acoustic ,  I like to play Howie Day, Doc Watson, Neil Young. On electric I like to play Red Hot Chilis , rock, classic and newer stuff.  I play a lot of styles, country, folk , rock , some jazz, some classical. Why, I guess because it makes me feel good.

8. Who are you idols?

My true idols are probably any person that I ever heard play guitar. But I really like Doc Watson on acoustic and Eric Clapton on electric.

9. Do you prefer performing or teaching and why?

I prefer teaching, I guess because I love to help people. But I do like to perform, not as much as I used to when I was younger. I hold Adult Jams almost every month and I perform at those.

10. If you could give advice to starting musicians what would it be? My advice to starting musicians is listen to as much music as you possibly can , practice/play as much as you can and try to learn as many different styles as you possibly can; variety is important.

I hope that helps. I'm a little tired so if there's anything you don't understand please let me know.

Hey, let me know what grade you get! Good luck with the guitar playing.

Thanks,Terry  

High School and Guitar

Mr. Schafer, 

 Hi, I am a freshman at Naperville North High School teaching myself to play the guitar for an English project. Part of this project requires me to interview a professional guitarist and as I was searching for someone, I came across your website. If it's not too much of a hassle, I was hoping you could answer a few questions for me through this email. Also, I'd like to let you know that I will be quoting some of this interview in my paper, so if there's anything you'd like to remain off the record, please indicate that portion as such. Any length of reply would be greatly appreciated!

1. How long have you been playing guitar? How did you get started?

2. What is the most important technique/skill that you have learned on the guitar?

3. How do you usually start lessons for a beginner?

4. Are there certain aspects of the guitar that are particularly difficult? Which technique/aspect took the longest for you to achieve?

Any additional comments:

    Thank you so much!

            SP,  EPOC class 

Hi, S. I would be happy to answer the questions.

1. I've been playing for over 40 years. I got started because I was trying to impress a girl. She was a music major at Ball State and I was going to Purdue. I would hitchhike to Muncie to see her on weekends. During the week I borrowed a guitar and started learning some songs. I would play the guitar for her but she was never impressed. Every week I'd learn a new song and play it for her.  We later broke up; I got more from the relationship, I learned to play guitar.

2.It's hard to say what is the most important technique or skill since it takes several skills on several levels. But, I would have to say that probably coordinating the fretting (LH) hand and picking (RH) was very important. I wasn't able to do much, especially sing and play, until I got that down.

3. First lesson for a student usually starts by learning the string names, names of some of the guitar parts, how to hold the guitar, how to hold the pick, how hard to press down, where to press with the left (fretting ) hand, hand position, intro to reading tab, some simple song, a simple finger exercise and I give them a questionnaire to fill out that gives me an idea of what they want to learn on the guitar and what type of music they want to play on the guitar. (How's that for a run-on sentence?) People want to learn to play an instrument because they want to be part of the music they like.

4. The most difficult thing to learn about playing guitar is the picking, both flatpick and finger-picking. Most people worry about the fretting hand, how to play chords or what notes to play for that hot lick or cool solo. That's easy, just look up the tab or music and memorize it. But , if the pick or finger doesn't make a string vibrate you don't have sound , let-a-lone music. The real finesse is the rhythm , what the RH ( in my case I'm right handed) does.  That's why Collide , Hey Soul Sister, and other songs that share similar chord progressions sound so different; the picking/strumming hand is what creates most of the rhythm. I have had people that have been playing for many years come to me to learn how to finger pick, flat pick or learn new strumming techniques. Learning to use a pick most effectively took the longest time. I continue to refine my pick technique even now, 40+ years later.

Additional :  The resources available today are incredible. 40 yrs ago we didn't have the Web ( however in the early 70's I got a glimpse of the ARPANET), videos,  Skype / iChat, or even a good reliable source of tab/music. I really love and embrace the technology. But , with all the ways to learn how to play an instrument some people still need that face-to-face contact with a teacher. I am grateful of that and that I am able to make my full time living helping others learn to play guitar. And I love every minute of it.

I hope that helps. Let me know if there's anything else I can do for you. Good luck playing the guitar.

Terry

   

Terry Schafer

www.napervilleguitarlessons.com 

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