I GUESS most people can read, write and do basic arithmetic, but have you ever wondered why most people cannot play a guitar, even though there are books available that purport to show how it is done ? When a competent school teacher first teaches a young child how to read and write they use benevolent communication methods designed to simplify the learning process as much as necessary. Once a child understands the first principles of a lesson and has had some successful practise the teacher will offer more challenging things, but only slowly and gradually. A benevolent and patient teacher cares for the welfare and proper education of the child. There is a maxim : Knowledge Is Useless Except Good Sense Directs It.
GUITAR BOOKS are not perspicuous. I can play many tunes on guitar and I have also written simplified lessons. The illustrations in guitar books are cryptic and coy to the extent that most people cannot understand them. When you look at a guitar you see a grid. Therefore to play a tune on it you need to know where the notes of that tune are located on the grid and in what order they are played. But the books do not address those facts in a no-nonsense way. Is guitar tutoring a benevolent thing if the tutor's illustrations do not correspond well to reality ? When you look at written music you do not see an instrument and when you look at an instrument you do not see written music. There is not a clear connection. Guitar tutors write tablatures which are supposed to be simplified substitutes for written music. I have seen these tablatures in publications but to me they are useless. I can play many tunes on guitar and I have written my own tablatures but they look very different to the ones I have seen in publications. My tablatures are similar to the grid references of a map, but they are numbers only and they are written in vertical columns.
AFTER a guitarist has discovered the notes of a tune practise will enable him to develop dexterity and speed. I guess that many amateur guitarists like myself are self-taught players who cannot read written music. I have read a book written by an expert. He admitted it is possible to play a bass guitar well without ability to read music. And he admitted that some of his favourite bass players cannot read music but they can play incredible stuff. But he also said that some professional bands insist that all of their musicians have to be able to read music.
I AGREE with the notion that a good teacher does not tell his pupils everything but leaves them to work out something by themselves. But if you carry that rule to the extreme pupils won't learn anything valuable. From The Sublime To The Ridiculous Is Only A Step. Confucius said, Superior people are easy to serve but hard to please : Hard to please because they have high standards, but in using the service of others they only expect from them what they have the capacity to do. Inferior people are hard to serve but easy to please : Easy to please because they have low standards (as long as you give them what they want they don't care how you do it), but in using the service of others they expect them irrespective of their capacity to do any and every thing they ask.
George Warner
