CLASS REVIEW: Johnson County Community College - Guitar Beginning
(Taking A Stand - Henry Jackman)
In an effort to further my guitar playing skills, I elected to pursue some actual professional-grade education in the form of a Continuing Education class at my local community college. Admittedly, calling JCCC a 'local community college' somewhat betrays the absolutely staggering educational opportunities on offer there, but that's a different article.
I digress.
Could I have gone and taken guitar lessons? Sure, but when you consider 'Bang For Your Buck', there's absolutely no contest in that JCCC was a much cheaper option. Most people are teaching lessons for around $30 a session, which gets you...well, 30 minutes. By contrast, I got eight lessons at 60 minutes a piece for $110. Yes, there were books involved, but both of them were easily found used online, which was more than sufficient. I think I ordered one of the two required books for two bucks.
In contrast to a normal lesson, this CE wasn't one on one. Rather, it was me and a handful of other aspiring axemeisters gathered in a music room, working with one of JCCC's professors of music. Of course, there are pros and cons to consider here. The biggest real difference is attention. In a one on one lesson, you're the only person the teacher is focusing on, so you get all of their attention. In contrast, my class started with five people of various ages, so the instructor had to divide his attention between us. In this kind of a setting, you also have to worry about the other attendees. Some of them could be there to really knuckle down and learn. Some could only be there taking it lightly. All of that plays into how much of that 60 minutes you're actually benefitting from.
Fortunately, I had a group of adults, and those who weren't serious rapidly faded from attendance, so the instructor could really start focusing more on those that remained.
Now that I've gotten all of that out of the way, I want to address the big question: "Was it worth it?"
For me? Yes. Would it be worth it to the average new player? I'm not so sure. I've tried to learn to play the guitar twice in my life. Both times, my education started by learning -The Guitar-. I learned about the instrument itself, I learned about its strings, and then I started learning chords. From there, I picked up finger-picking patterns and started to focus more on where notes were on the neck of the instrument. Then I got into reading guitar tabs so I could start covering songs I liked. That sounds like a lot, and it is. It's plenty to focus on, especially if you're a new player without any musical background.
In contrast the JCCC course had two books that were required. Contained within those books, and thus covered in the course, were many different things:
- All of the items I described above.
- Musical theory: Notes, steps, half-steps, scales, octaves, chord anatomy, majors, minors, etc.
- Reading Sheet Music: Learning how to read sheet music on the treble clef, and sight-reading pieces.
That is a -lot- to try and cram into any beginner course, to say nothing of an accelerated course covered in 8 sessions. Did I have a problem with it? No, but at the point where I enrolled in this course, I'd been playing for nearly a year. The instrument wasn't new to me. I love the guitar, so I've actively been learning about it. Plus, I have a background in musical theory because of my time spent playing the Tenor Sax in middle and high school. Finally, it's been suggested several times that I have at least a small amount of aptitude for music, so I had that going for me.
"You say it's a lot, but you did precisely that when you were in middle and high school. Is it possible that you're blowing this out of proportion a little?"
Perhaps, but there are a few differences between then and now:
- The guitar is one hell of a lot harder to play than a tenor sax. It's a more complex instrument on an order of magnitude, so the skill required to play it is significantly higher.
- I had entire semesters to focus on things.
- Let's not faff about here: I was younger.
"But Steve," you cry, "if you were already so far along, why did you bother taking a beginner course? You already sound like an intermediate player."
I'm not entirely sure that I could as an intermediate player yet, but the question is still quite valid. And the answer is this: My education has been entirely online. I've been learning through the Justin Guitar site, which is MAGNIFICENT...but it's no substitute for having someone right in front of you giving you live feedback on your playing. Plus, something I've picked up over the months since I started playing is that there are several different ways to start learning the instrument. I started with chords and only got into soloing much later. As a result, I don't have nearly as much practice at this discipline. In contrast, this guitar course at JCCC focused almost exclusively on playing single notes rather than chording. That was a magnificent education for me. That alone was worth the price of admission.
Then we got to stuff that I'd never started learning at all, like folk picking. With that education came homework and skill drills to work on. Could I have found them online? Perhaps, but there's something helpful for me about being driven to do something in an educational setting. My playing improved as a result. It will continue to improve.
Beyond all of that, there's the human element. Being in a room with a bunch of other aspiring musicians is...special. There's no substitute for a good old-fashioned jam session. There are things you learn there and ways you grow that aren't found in any text book or online coursework.
"You haven't really told us anything about the instructor, you know."
Also true, for good reason. Much of an instructor being 'good' or 'bad' can depend as much on the student as the teacher, so my praise or lack thereof would be entirely subjective. But since you asked...
This course was taught by one of JCCC's Professor Of Music named Harv Fitzer. Harv -- he told all of us to call him Harv, which didn't stop me from calling him Herr Fitzer on more than one occasion -- is a staggeringly talented guitarist who has probably forgotten more actual facts about music and the instrument than I will ever know. He's also very slightly quirky, generally good-humored, and knows how to play just about anything. All in all, I found him to be an excellent instructor, and someone I think I'd genuinely enjoy getting a beer with on a nice evening.
I think that there was probably too much being thrown at the average 'new student' in the class. I'm not sure how much of that was at Harv's choosing, and how much of it was down to college requirements for the course. Harv was always very patient with the students, and only ever introduced a few new items each class period. In retrospect, he did a remarkably good job finding ways to tie all of the new knowledge together each period. Some of the exercises he had us doing seemed overly plodding at times, but they also served to really bring together the instrumentation and musical theory aspects of the coursework, so he obviously knew what he was doing.
If you've got some musical background and you're looking to take it a bit farther with a guitar, this isn't a bad place to start. If you're looking for a slightly more personal touch, you may want to look elsewhere.
In an effort to further my guitar playing skills, I elected to pursue some actual professional-grade education in the form of a Continuing Education class at my local community college. Admittedly, calling JCCC a 'local community college' somewhat betrays the absolutely staggering educational opportunities on offer there, but that's a different article.
I digress.
Could I have gone and taken guitar lessons? Sure, but when you consider 'Bang For Your Buck', there's absolutely no contest in that JCCC was a much cheaper option. Most people are teaching lessons for around $30 a session, which gets you...well, 30 minutes. By contrast, I got eight lessons at 60 minutes a piece for $110. Yes, there were books involved, but both of them were easily found used online, which was more than sufficient. I think I ordered one of the two required books for two bucks.
In contrast to a normal lesson, this CE wasn't one on one. Rather, it was me and a handful of other aspiring axemeisters gathered in a music room, working with one of JCCC's professors of music. Of course, there are pros and cons to consider here. The biggest real difference is attention. In a one on one lesson, you're the only person the teacher is focusing on, so you get all of their attention. In contrast, my class started with five people of various ages, so the instructor had to divide his attention between us. In this kind of a setting, you also have to worry about the other attendees. Some of them could be there to really knuckle down and learn. Some could only be there taking it lightly. All of that plays into how much of that 60 minutes you're actually benefitting from.
Fortunately, I had a group of adults, and those who weren't serious rapidly faded from attendance, so the instructor could really start focusing more on those that remained.
Now that I've gotten all of that out of the way, I want to address the big question: "Was it worth it?"
For me? Yes. Would it be worth it to the average new player? I'm not so sure. I've tried to learn to play the guitar twice in my life. Both times, my education started by learning -The Guitar-. I learned about the instrument itself, I learned about its strings, and then I started learning chords. From there, I picked up finger-picking patterns and started to focus more on where notes were on the neck of the instrument. Then I got into reading guitar tabs so I could start covering songs I liked. That sounds like a lot, and it is. It's plenty to focus on, especially if you're a new player without any musical background.
In contrast the JCCC course had two books that were required. Contained within those books, and thus covered in the course, were many different things:
- All of the items I described above.
- Musical theory: Notes, steps, half-steps, scales, octaves, chord anatomy, majors, minors, etc.
- Reading Sheet Music: Learning how to read sheet music on the treble clef, and sight-reading pieces.
That is a -lot- to try and cram into any beginner course, to say nothing of an accelerated course covered in 8 sessions. Did I have a problem with it? No, but at the point where I enrolled in this course, I'd been playing for nearly a year. The instrument wasn't new to me. I love the guitar, so I've actively been learning about it. Plus, I have a background in musical theory because of my time spent playing the Tenor Sax in middle and high school. Finally, it's been suggested several times that I have at least a small amount of aptitude for music, so I had that going for me.
"You say it's a lot, but you did precisely that when you were in middle and high school. Is it possible that you're blowing this out of proportion a little?"
Perhaps, but there are a few differences between then and now:
- The guitar is one hell of a lot harder to play than a tenor sax. It's a more complex instrument on an order of magnitude, so the skill required to play it is significantly higher.
- I had entire semesters to focus on things.
- Let's not faff about here: I was younger.
"But Steve," you cry, "if you were already so far along, why did you bother taking a beginner course? You already sound like an intermediate player."
I'm not entirely sure that I could as an intermediate player yet, but the question is still quite valid. And the answer is this: My education has been entirely online. I've been learning through the Justin Guitar site, which is MAGNIFICENT...but it's no substitute for having someone right in front of you giving you live feedback on your playing. Plus, something I've picked up over the months since I started playing is that there are several different ways to start learning the instrument. I started with chords and only got into soloing much later. As a result, I don't have nearly as much practice at this discipline. In contrast, this guitar course at JCCC focused almost exclusively on playing single notes rather than chording. That was a magnificent education for me. That alone was worth the price of admission.
Then we got to stuff that I'd never started learning at all, like folk picking. With that education came homework and skill drills to work on. Could I have found them online? Perhaps, but there's something helpful for me about being driven to do something in an educational setting. My playing improved as a result. It will continue to improve.
Beyond all of that, there's the human element. Being in a room with a bunch of other aspiring musicians is...special. There's no substitute for a good old-fashioned jam session. There are things you learn there and ways you grow that aren't found in any text book or online coursework.
"You haven't really told us anything about the instructor, you know."
Also true, for good reason. Much of an instructor being 'good' or 'bad' can depend as much on the student as the teacher, so my praise or lack thereof would be entirely subjective. But since you asked...
This course was taught by one of JCCC's Professor Of Music named Harv Fitzer. Harv -- he told all of us to call him Harv, which didn't stop me from calling him Herr Fitzer on more than one occasion -- is a staggeringly talented guitarist who has probably forgotten more actual facts about music and the instrument than I will ever know. He's also very slightly quirky, generally good-humored, and knows how to play just about anything. All in all, I found him to be an excellent instructor, and someone I think I'd genuinely enjoy getting a beer with on a nice evening.
I think that there was probably too much being thrown at the average 'new student' in the class. I'm not sure how much of that was at Harv's choosing, and how much of it was down to college requirements for the course. Harv was always very patient with the students, and only ever introduced a few new items each class period. In retrospect, he did a remarkably good job finding ways to tie all of the new knowledge together each period. Some of the exercises he had us doing seemed overly plodding at times, but they also served to really bring together the instrumentation and musical theory aspects of the coursework, so he obviously knew what he was doing.
If you've got some musical background and you're looking to take it a bit farther with a guitar, this isn't a bad place to start. If you're looking for a slightly more personal touch, you may want to look elsewhere.
Comments
Post a Comment