Awkward Skype lesson with a "name" player....

Lewy

As the title suggests really. This was someone who's playing I'd become aware of and had really been getting into, and then saw via their social media that they'd opened up some lesson slots. So I jumped at the chance. I had some questions about how they do what they do, and also just wanted to see what they had to say about their approach and what they felt it was important to think about.

Fuck me it was one of the longest hours of my life (in fact I made my excuses at around the 50 minute mark because I was exhausted from carrying the conversation...) The only comparison I can draw is that it was like one of those interviews with an actor at the end of a long promotional tour, who really doesn't want to be there but has to. The lesson started with him Skyping me, and when the Skype window opened....he just didn't say anything. Just looked into his webcam with a kind of wearily expectant look on his face. Didn't actually ask me what I was interested in covering, or what my playing background was....no attempt to break the ice and start thing rolling. 

We eventually did start getting into some content and to his credit, any questions I had he answered and I totally get that there's always an element of "an audience with" about lessons of this type with someone who is an artist rather than a dedicated educator so I'm not really criticising him for it. There's no automatic correlation between a player's musical brilliance and their ability to share what's behind it, and its for the student to think about what they want to get out of things and take the initiative in asking questions, but what it really brought home to me how amazing those people who are artists and still manage to be truly enthusiastic and skilled teachers are. People like Bryan Sutton, Martin Simpson and Martin Taylor spring to mind...no surprise that they've all got a couple of decades experience over and above this chap I guess, but truly to be treasured!

Fuengi

Obviously you're not going to name them....
...but who was it? 

Lewy

Fuengi said:

Obviously you're not going to name them....
...but who was it? 

Haha yeah, no

Fuengi

Lewy said:

Fuengi said:

Obviously you're not going to name them....
...but who was it? 

Haha yeah, no

Absolutely, completely understand.

Just DM me his name 

Grunfeld

Lewy said:

 ...what it really brought home to me how amazing those people who are artists and still manage to be... skilled teachers.... 

Definitely.  It's something which fascinates me as it happens.  Not just with guitar but communicating all sorts of expertise. 

Right now trying to study something obscure and academic and the leading lights in the research are... um... not good communicators.  Same phenomenon:  just cos you're clearly good at skill A (playing/ researching) doesn't mean you're good at skill B -- explaining.

mburekenge

hmmm does he play a lot of slide?

tone1

Does he wear a hat like Boy George’s in his latest video? 

EricTheWeary

I read this Discussion then went on Facebook and had an ad for Skype lessons with various people including Carlos Santana. Wow, that would be weird ( and incredibly expensive, I'm assuming). 

Grunfeld said:

Lewy said:

 ...what it really brought home to me how amazing those people who are artists and still manage to be... skilled teachers.... 

Definitely.  It's something which fascinates me as it happens.  Not just with guitar but communicating all sorts of expertise. 

Right now trying to study something obscure and academic and the leading lights in the research are... um... not good communicators.  Same phenomenon:  just cos you're clearly good at skill A (playing/ researching) doesn't mean you're good at skill B -- explaining.

My father did teacher training for a living. Can't say I thought much about it then ( he was semi retired when I was sixteen) but what makes a good teacher is something I've thought about from time to time and something I wished I'd discussed more with him. 
In practice there may not be a single right set of teaching skills, we learn in different ways so may need people who teach in different ways. A really, really good teacher could adapt his/ her style but unless someone has been trained to do that they probably have a limited range of styles. Possibly for the OP it's simply a clash of styles, it might be that this person works well for other people ( probably not but it's a possible explanation). 
Often bugs me when I go on training through work that people seem to equate good training with entertainment value. There is a chap who the council uses a lot who is quite a raconteur but the content of his training is so unstructured it makes my head hurt. I'm quite chaotic in a lot of my life but on training events I can hear my father in my head asking about the lesson plan...

danishbacon

I exchanged some emails and received a very testy phone call from a ‘name’ player as well. he wanted to push his £60/h Skype lessons and told me off when I said I’d decided to stay local “you’ll never progress with that attitude and you are making the wrong choice”
fuck right off....

RMJ

mburekenge said:

hmmm does he play a lot of slide?

That's who I was thinking of

Freebird

So, how much does an hour with Justin Bieber cost nowadays?

Fuengi

danishbacon said:

I exchanged some emails and received a very testy phone call from a ‘name’ player as well. he wanted to push his £60/h Skype lessons and told me off when I said I’d decided to stay local “you’ll never progress with that attitude and you are making the wrong choice”
fuck right off....

Obviously you're not going to name them....

...but who was it? 

Barney

We need names

Lestratcaster

Fuengi said:

danishbacon said:

I exchanged some emails and received a very testy phone call from a ‘name’ player as well. he wanted to push his £60/h Skype lessons and told me off when I said I’d decided to stay local “you’ll never progress with that attitude and you are making the wrong choice”
fuck right off....

Obviously you're not going to name them....

...but who was it? 

Damn makes me look cheap haha.

MentalSharps

Sounds like a "cusp of stardom" thing where he's had some success, but not yet enough to feel secure enough to be humble.

octatonic

Having been on both sides for Skype lessons I'm of the opinion that they aren't nearly as good as being in a room with someone, even when the tech is working well- and often it isn't.

It could just be down to having that barrier.

Also consider that you have a 'relationship' with this musician's output but not with the musician himself, whilst he doesn't know you at all either.

I can easily see how something like this can happen without anyone necessarily being at fault.
Or maybe he's a dick.

Lewy

On reflection, I think it was probably just a stylistic/communication mismatch - I really don’t think the guy’s a dick.

If anything, I think it’s down to how good he is meaning that he just doesn’t think about things that way an “intermediate” player like me does - example: I looks for shapes and patterns to work with. He left that behind so long ago, he just thinks about notes now and so in his mind, the answer to a lot of questions is “well just think of the note you want to play and play it”. He’d probably be ace for a beginner because I’m sure he’d teach fundamentals very well, and for a properly schooled advanced player too because then you could interact at that level. Not so much for the inbetweeners. 

richylee

If he is mainly a slide player, l had a similar experience

soma1975

Which fucking slide player oh my god!

RMJ

soma1975 said:

Which fucking slide player oh my god!

I dunno mate but I can't decide whether the Ariel or Daz is best for whites.

heavyrocker

RMJ said:

soma1975 said:

Which fucking slide player oh my god!

I dunno mate but I can't decide whether the Ariel or Daz is best for whites.

I find Ariel does the best whites for posing in.