What, how and why

In my years of teaching guitar, I realize that there are 3 group of students.

"What" -
This group want to know what to do. What chords to play and what strumming to use. etc...

"How" -
This group want to know how to do things. How do press that chord? How to practice that strumming? How to pluck? etc...

"Why" -
This group are interested to know why it is done that way. Why use this strumming? Why use a different chord voicing? etc...

Of course, it will be a natural progression to go from 'what' to 'how' to 'why'. But most students will just be stuck in the 'what' phase. Some move on to the 'how', but very few want to go to the 'why'. It is this group of people who move to the 'why' phase that will excel.

Although some may argue that students start out in the 'how' phase, such as how to play G chord, how to strum. But I believe it is actually more of a 'what' phase -

Eg.
What do I do to play G chord, rather than how to effectively play a G chord without buzzzing, eventually graduating to why is the G chord being play this way.

Eg.
What do I do to strum, rather than how do I maintain the tempo and the rhythm in the strumming, to eventually asking why should I use this strumming pattern for this song.


How many times have you heard the question:-
-"What are the chords for this song?"
-Rather than, "How can I find out the chords to this song myself?"
-Very seldom do you hear "Why are these set of chords being use in this song?"

In order to ask 'why', the students need to go through both the 'what' and the 'how'.

This is where the frustration appears. Most guitar teachers like to teach 'how', but the students only want to learn 'what'.
When some of the students want to learn 'how', it is very pleasing for the teachers. The teacher is able to teach more effectively.

But when we go on further. Many wannabe 'why' students not being able to reach that stage of 'why', because not many guitar teacher have reach the stage of 'why' either. Therefore also unable to contribute to the students.

In conclusion, could all teachers(guitar or something else) go to the 'why' stage.

posted by Wui-Ping @ 4:20 PM Comments: 0

Magicians?? You bet!

posted by Wui-Ping @ 1:52 PM Comments: 0

Color changing card trick

posted by Wui-Ping @ 3:42 AM Comments: 0

Ez-link card - The contactless smartcard

Have you ever notice on buses or MRT station, that some old people will not let their card touch the reader. They will quickly back off the card as soon as it is near the reader and the beep sound is heard. It seem even that some of them are fearful of the card actually touching the reader. I guess Ez-link company should stop advertising the wonder of the contactless system huh...

posted by Wui-Ping @ 4:05 PM Comments: 0