TEACHING GUITAR and STUDIO IMPROVEMENTS

It's been quite a long time between posts here, so thought I would bring it up to date. In the past year I have finally fully retired from "school teaching"- but I teach guitar now. More about that later. I have found more time to concentrate on using my little music studio. Lately I researched budget sound absorbtion methods, found the materials (Owens-Corning 703 specialty fiberglass, etc.,) wrapped six multifrequency absorbtion panels with speaker grill cloth and hung them in strategic places- namely over the vocal recording microphone, over the drums, and placed one panel in the corner to absorb bass buildup there. They function just as well as their expensive brethern with wood frames, but at a LOT less cost. I'm proud of them.

I've also added a good vocal recording microphone after fighting for over a year with my AKG C-3000 vocal mic and it's tendency to capture too much sibilence- or "ssss" sounds- in my recordings. My choice (for now) is the Kel Audio HM-2D pictured above. It has a strong midrange and is recommended for male singers, with a lot less tendency to capture the "breathiness" and sibilent "ssss" sounds of more sensitive vocal mics. The Kel only cost $200 direct from their Canadian factory, and it's not the quality of a Neumann U87 ($5000) but it will do until I can afford better.

I am now up to 12 songs recorded, edited, mixed, and posted on my band's web site- http://www.mikeandthewavemakers.com/. Feel free to listen and offer citiques of what you hear. I'm always interested in improving what I'm doing and know I am a real rookie when it comes to DAW recording techniques and mixing. I have a friend who has a professional music studio and who will probably remix all my material before he also "masters" it for reproduction into CDs for sale at a later date. So what you hear now will hopefully be greatly improved later!

About four months ago I decided to teach guitar. Best decision I've made this year! I spent many, many hours online researching teaching guitar, methods, problems, materials needed, etc. I bought two second hand bar stools (without arms to scratch guitars!), another music stand, and a guitar teaching "program" from a fella in England that seemed to do a good job in writing an all-inclusive program for learning guitar. I put a page on the band web site describing myself as just an average guitarist (I don't even read sheet music!), but with 35 years of public and private school teaching experience and 45 years guitar playing experience. I have no problem "connecting" with average students, ones that don't have serious attitude problems. I make over twice the money per hour than the "private" educational system I last worked for ever paid me, and I really enjoy teaching guitar! I have not advertised my guitar teaching except for a simple sign hung outside the studio, placed in my yard, but only visable from one direction on the road. I could remove some vegitation and increase the sign's visability, but really don't want that many more students anyway. I'm happy with 6 or 7 students and do not want to teach "full time!" I teach a few on Friday afternoon and a few more on Saturday and I'm done. Sweet!

If and when my students work their way up to "Intermediate" status, I'll steer them towards another teacher, one that might teach them more music theory than I teach, more advanced methods of play, etc. Right now I seem to have a bunch of "happy campers"- students that are engaged with practicing and playing guitar, and having fun while doing so. I've only found two drawbacks to teaching guitar: my fingers sometimes feel like sausages after a hard rehearsal with my band on Friday night, so teaching my first students on Saturday morning is, umm, interesting. And I can't make progress with a student that won't practice! I am a very goal-oriented teacher, always have been, and hate being forced into reteaching the previous lesson to a student that simply will not practice much at home. I had to threaten to quit teaching one little girl, a 10 year old with a sweet singing voice. I explained that she was wasting her mom's money and my time, in addition to slightly hurting my reputation as a guitar teacher (since she wasn't improving much.) She responded to my threat by practicing more, not enough to improve at the pace I think she could, but an improvemant over not practicing at all.

Another student is making just average progress, but enjoying it greatly. His father brings him and sits in my studio control room where he waits for the lesson to end. While sitting there he listens to almost everything that happens in the music playing room that adjoins it. He can even view much of the lesson, as there is an 8 foot window between the two rooms. After four or five months of doing this, he signed up for lessons too! I say this simply because here was an intelligent, observient fella that experienced his son enjoying music, knew exactly what he was getting himself into because he had witnessed every lesson, and he chose to start lessons too. Cool!