James Gr.

I have taught both English and music (guitar). My music degree is from California State University Los Angeles. It's fine with me if you let the students select their own music. I'd like to teach them to read music. I can also teach them theory, so they know how to build chords.
If I may, I'd like to start each student reading notes and playing them individually. This prevents a problem that I once encountered while teaching in a music store. A powerful man came in for lessons, saying he wanted just to play chords, to hum and strum. I taught him to play C and G7. I had him hold a C chord and strum, then hold G7 and strum--C then G7, C then G7, quickly changing from one to the other. He put the guitar down and, shaking his left hand and grimacing, said, "That hurts worse than anything I ever did!" He left didn't come back. His problem was that, while he could grip the chords, he couldn't quickly release them.

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