{"id":379,"date":"2018-10-02T10:33:53","date_gmt":"2018-10-02T14:33:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mfna.org\/rfo\/?p=379"},"modified":"2018-10-02T10:33:53","modified_gmt":"2018-10-02T14:33:53","slug":"teaching-an-old-dog-new-tricks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mfna.org\/rfo\/2018\/10\/02\/teaching-an-old-dog-new-tricks\/","title":{"rendered":"Teaching An Old Dog New Tricks"},"content":{"rendered":"

They said it can’t be done.\u00a0 I beg to differ.<\/p>\n

In fact, I think I knew intuitively that I could change and grow by getting professional help, but I resisted.\u00a0 For years.<\/p>\n

That has all changed.\u00a0 I have now had four guitar lessons from a professional guitar player and teacher. (for more see this autobiography of Steve Tjernagel<\/a>). This past month has been an eye-opening experience, and almost makes me regret not having done it sooner (I don’t believe in regrets; as they say, “It is what it is”).<\/p>\n

Going back to square one.\u00a0 I approached my first lesson with trepidation, thinking to myself that if he wanted me to do scales and finger exercises I might have second thoughts.\u00a0 Walking out of my first lesson, my homework was scales and finger exercises!\u00a0 And he was absolutely right!<\/p>\n

The finger exercises are getting more complex, and the music theory that goes along with some of them is increasing my knowledge.\u00a0 I took several music theory courses in college, but that was over 40 years ago!<\/p>\n

Memorizing the Cycle of Fourths was one task I put my mind to.\u00a0 Having examined it and played it using the four-note chords he’s taught me has begun to make things “fit.”<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

(The above image is located at deftdigits.com<\/a>, a page that nicely explains how the Cycle of Fourths and its counterpart, the Circle of Fifths works).<\/p>\n

Other concepts that Steve is hammering into my brain:\u00a0 Knowing where the root, third, fifth (and currently 7th) notes are on any give chord form.\u00a0 This coincides with the basic premise that one should memorize the entire fretboard<\/a> (sorry to keep using the deftdigits site, but it has a nice visual layout and the descriptions are easy to read).<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

After playing guitar (on and off) for 50 years, I am not embarrassed to admit to friends that I’m taking lessons.\u00a0 Heck, even Tiger Woods has a golf coach!<\/p>\n

The 7th chords I’m learning.\u00a0 And playing in the Cycle of Fourths.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Four notes, four fingers. These are “core” chords<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

They said it can’t be done.\u00a0 I beg to differ. In fact, I think I knew intuitively that I could change and grow by getting professional help, but I resisted.\u00a0 For years. That has all changed.\u00a0 I have now had … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-guitar","category-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mfna.org\/rfo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mfna.org\/rfo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mfna.org\/rfo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mfna.org\/rfo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mfna.org\/rfo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=379"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/mfna.org\/rfo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":385,"href":"https:\/\/mfna.org\/rfo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379\/revisions\/385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mfna.org\/rfo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mfna.org\/rfo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mfna.org\/rfo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}