Q&A with Ted Sablay about Music Lessons - November 2019
**Q&A is split into three categories: General, Equipment, and Songwriting**
GENERAL
What do guitar lessons teach you (like from a mental point of view)? — @denisseariass
Ted: From a mental perspective, there are several benefits to taking guitar, piano or songwriting lessons, mainly because studying music requires a person to cultivate a growth mindset, where a love of continuous learning and cognitive development is crucial.
Here some specific benefits that come with studying music:
1. Better focus/better listening skills: Music training demands that you distinguish specific tones from a bunch of sounds and noises happening simultaneously. Making this distinction between the signal and the noise allows you to play in time and in tune. You also have to listen closely to the guitar tone you’re producing to determine whether it’s the right tone for the song. You also have to listen to the other musicians you’re playing with to make sure you’re in harmony with them and not playing over them.
2. Stronger/faster short-term memory: Your reasoning abilities and processing speed are constantly put to the test as a musician, whether you’re learning a new song or writing one of your own.
3. Enhanced mathematical/spatial-temporal reasoning and language acquisition: When studying and playing, you are constantly working within a mathematical framework, one that is concerned with intervals in scales, subdivisions in rhythms, and arrangement of keys relative to one another. Your spatial-temporal reasoning gets a workout, too; if you are writing songs, you frequently move in your mind objects in space and time to solve complex music problems. Studying music also helps a person learn languages more quickly, mainly because music itself is a language. When you read music, you read the code of music notation at a very fast rate and translate it instantaneously to your instrument, so it’s not a stretch to shift that ability over into learning the alphabet, words and meaning of the foreign language.
Summing things up, music lessons can help a person develop several cognitive skills simultaneously to achieve a goal that’s worthwhile and fun.
Is it too late to learn guitar in your 40s? — @coloradoken
Ted: It’s not too late so long as your desire to learn is there. Sure, maybe a teenager has more brain plasticity and can absorb information quickly, but I think that an older person is less distracted and better at reaching their goals. (Keep in mind, I’m 43, so have every reason to believe that what I’m saying is true.) However, in the 10 years that I’ve been teaching, I’ve observed that the determined senior will beat the talented-but-inconsistent youngster any day of the week!
How hard is it to learn all the chords on an electric guitar because I want to start learning. —@tom.dawson01
Ted: It’s not too difficult to learn all of the chords so long as you learn them in a logical order from simple to complex. I would also recommend to avoid trying to learn chords using all of the strings when you first start.
When you’re starting, learn three-note chords first. I would recommend learning C, F, G and G7 first using only the 2nd, 3rd and 4th strings. From there, learn Dm, Em and Am. That way you can play nearly all of the chords in the key of C major. Once you get those chords down, move on to playing the same 3-note chords using high and lower pitches. When you get that down, combine the 3-note versions of the chords into one 6-note versions of the chords. This example of learning chords is representative of how you would learn the rest of them.
I’m a lefty, I see that as a disadvantage, but taking classes with another lefty would help? — @ger_beja
Ted: Taking lessons from a fellow left-hander would help, but not for the obvious reasons. Since it’s a right-hander’s world, being left-handed forces you to adopt a less rigid and more fluid approach to accomplishing tasks, making it second-nature for me to customize lessons for the individual student to help them reach their goals. In general I focus more on concepts, listening, sight-reading and other practical examples, so much so that a person’s handedness becomes a non-issue.
Do you name your guitars? Which one is your favorite? — @maricelagdev
Ted: Unfortunately I don’t name my guitars, nor do I give people nicknames. (It’s a personal problem that I’m working on!) As for a favorite guitar, it’s impossible to pick one but I really like my Gibson Les Pauls and Fender Jazzmaster.
How do the lessons work? — @msjmarcus
Ted: Ted: If a person is interested in taking lessons, we would first discuss via email or phone what the student’s short-term goals are and determine the student’s current level of musicianship. We would also agree on a day and time to meet for online lessons and exchange Skype usernames to establish a video connection before our scheduled call. To secure the meeting time, I would ask the student to visit the shop on my website to purchase a lesson or a block of lessons.
If the student has signed up for lessons in guitar, keyboard or bass, I would ask them to send me a list of 5 songs that they would be interested in learning. I would then recommend what song to learn first and write an arrangement that would best suit the student’s current skill level. During lessons, I would demonstrate how to play that arrangement and give assignments designed to strengthen the student’s understanding of music fundamentals.
If the student can demonstrate that they can correctly play the song or assignment for the week, we would mark it as completed and move onto the next exercise or song segment. If there is an issue in the student’s playing, I’ll ask them to replay it. If the error persists, I will explain and demonstrate how to correct the issue and ask the student to play it back. If the student needs more time with the assignment, I’ll make a short video demonstrating how to play the part in question and share a video link and password once the video is uploaded and available for viewing. The student can watch and practice along with the video as many times as they need to get things right.
For songwriting students, lessons can work any number of ways. The task for the first lesson could be straightforward (e.g. showing me the melody for their chorus or the chord progression they came up with for their intro so we can talk about what might come next) or more complex (e.g. writing a vocal melody and showing me a countermelody on guitar for verse 2 that would add variety to the song without undermining the vocal melody they have in place).
In both cases, we work on songs piece-by-piece until they’re completed in a satisfying way. If someone feels inspired and is able to write a quality song in a single week, that obviously works, too, but that seems to be the exception instead of the rule. In general, a student should plan on spending at least two weeks on a song.
Finally, I wanted to add that while it’s important for a student stick to a plan so they can reach their musical goals, I’m also open to discussing musical questions and topics that aren’t directly related to the original goal, since a digression can often help a student articulate what aspect of music interests them the most. Often these musical questions that come up can be explained in terms of the student’s original goal, but sometimes they can be used to adjust the long-term course of lessons to ensure that the student is getting the most out our time together.
EQUIPMENT
What brand of guitar is the best for a beginner? I want to buy one but I don’t know… — @francesca.cfl
Ted: I think that Yahama and Fender are good guitars to start with, but I think it’s more helpful to think in terms of price point than brand. For a beginner guitar, you should shoot for the $200-$500 price range for an acoustic guitar. I recommend learning on an acoustic guitar first so you can build your finger strength and develop solid fundamentals in your fretting hand.
What’s the best keyboard for a beginner? Something that’s not too expensive. — @aleezaabbasi
Ted: There are two ways you could go with this. If you have a Mac, you could buy a midi controller for about $100 that plugs into your computer and use it to drive the sounds in Garageband. If you wanted a standalone keyboard, Yahama has a reputation for good piano sounds at a fair price. I would recommend getting a Yahama keyboard from $300-$500. Whatever you buy, make sure that the keys are normal size and that it has at least 61 keys on it. A keyboard with 54 keys is compact and easy to store but can be frustrating to play if you’re a song with a full arrangement.
SONGWRITING
What do I need to do/know before I start writing lyrics for a song? —@osian.i.andrew
Ted: I think that establishing an organizing principle from the outset (e.g. a good title or a good premise) can really help when writing lyrics for a song. Once you have that anchor, it’s a lot easier because you have a reference point and you can evaluate whatever line you’re just wrote in terms of that reference point.
What advice would you give to a beginner in songwriting? — @89_timo and @kaprarreola
Ted: I would advise doing what a lot of well-known songwriters have done when they started, which is: first learn how to play and perform several songs from the music artists you admire, mainly so you can you build a musical library – one comprised of lyrics, chord changes, melodies, instrumental parts, guitar tones, drum sounds, etc. – and analyze the melodies, chords, and song structures using basic music theory. That way, you can be precise in understanding the relationships between the different song variables and how they work together to create a song that you enjoy.
When learning how to play these cover songs, I would also advise that you learn to play them well enough to recreate that feeling of magic you get when you listen to the original. Once you’ve done that, try to write a song that gives you a similar feeling but use different lyrics, chords, melodies, etc. to get there.
What else…when you start, keep in mind that your songs will likely fall short at first and sound like second-rate imitations of the songs that you admire. That said, if just keep at it, slowly over time, you’ll get better at writing songs. You’ll learn what combination of musical elements best suits you, what vocal range you sound the best in, how to build and relieve musical tension, etc. You’ll also learn to mix up your sources of inspiration; that way you won’t sound too much like any one of them. Also remember to work hard and take songwriting seriously but also have fun and not take yourself seriously!
Over time, you’ll learn to borrow less from your heroes and reinterpret what you borrow in a way that still sounds like you. Eventually you won’t need to rely on inspiration from other sources, though you now know how to do that in a creative way if you hit a block and need a prompt. Eventually you’ll have your own vehicle of expression where you can readily draw from your own life, your imagination, or other people’s lives. If all goes well, the music you make will turn you (and others) on in the same way that you favorite music turns you on.
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Have a question for Ted or an inquiry for music lessons? Please email them to info@tedsablay.com.