Review: Kent's new book
Bob Ashley
incremental approach for the first 30 days of instruction_. Mobile: KGM
Guitar & Lute Editions.
Neither am I a guitar historian, nor pedagogue, nor concert performer,
thus whatever naive blunders explode within the confines of this review
shrapnel injuries should be properly attributed to me.
I'm quite excited about Kent's new book for lots of reasons. First, most
guitar pedagogues, for whatever reason, seem to agree that the project of
learning the classic guitar is a monumental undertaking, something that
expands beyond the scope of any single volume. Shearer has three books,
Noad has two, as does Parkening, and Mel Bay has several units as did
Richard Pick's early publications. And even these are mere points of
departure to more advanced study. There are many more examples, perhaps MO
or others might provide a portal to some of them. The agreement rests on
this concept of monunmentalism and the recognition of the heuristic
necessity to divide it up. But how to carve (butcher?) it up?
I had never thought about this question until I began to rehearse Kent's
title. As I see it, there is nothing but an arbitrary and unilateral
division between volumes in the standard examples of current methods; they
usually say, simply "Volume One/Two". That's one way to do it. We can
expect nothing more specific than this because the contents of any said
Volume One/Two will still necessarily be obliged to cover a lot of
territory. What Kent has done is to take a sort nuclear focus on a single
aspect of learning to play the guitar and to 'monumentalize' it, or put
more gently, to give a small matter credence, clarity, specificity, by
putting it under the heuristic microscope.
What this means, to my way of thinking, is that Kent, inadvertently or
otherwise has obliged his method to the standard 'success' literature, and
in a way, unaccomplished by any other pedagogue, to my knowledge. He's
done this by laying before the student and her teacher a SPECIFIC and
REALIZABLE goal. ONE specific and realizable goal. Just one. I don't care
who your guru is--Tony Robbins, Dale Carnegie, Steve Covey, Og
Mandino--this setting of a concrete, do-able goal is paramount, a
paradigm.
It's all too easy to trivialize this setting of goals as 'obvious', but it
seems to me that to actually do it is as difficult as writing a good line
of poetry. Here's another angle. Faced with the project of building the
Taj Mahal (learning the guitar) we face an intimidating project. The
current methods, say of the Vol. 1 & Vol 2 variety split the task, saying
'we need to split this goal'. But how? That's not specified, exactly, it's
just that the Taj Mahal needs at least two stages, maybe 1)Plan and
2)Build. Murdick moves the opposite direction, saying, "Here is a brick,
one brick; learn how to lay this one brick, that's all!" In our case, it's
learning a note/brick on the guitar, then another note/brick, then
another. That's all. And as Kent offers in his introduction, "Some
students may complete the entire book in a week and some may take two
months, but, whatever it takes, it will be time well spent".
We can't simply assume that teachers know how to set goals and evidence
for this is the seemingly underwhelming inability of teachers to
accurately set out what they think they can accomplish over the course of
an academic year, a term, and in many instances, even a single class. I've
had one teacher in all my years who could do this. IT's a skill, an art,
and it's hard to do. How many have you had that can do this?
So, the goal is specified and concrete and realizable. The goal is, in
fact, the title. The title is goal, the purpose, the thesis of the method
is unmistakable, lucid, and significantly all this is also potential
communicable currency between teacher and student. Another jewel in the
crown of American success literature is the 'time-frame' and this is
something I've not found in any other method, mainly, I think, because the
multiplicity of sub-goals and contingencies divide and subdivide to the
point where it is nigh impossible to predict any sort of time-frame at
all. How long did it take to build the Taj Mahal? Who could accurately
predict that? But Kent's little book suggests a duration of study, (a
week/a month), thus lending his goal even more etched specificity.
Success tenet number three demands that goals are actually attainable.
Given the project of building the Taj Mahal if the architect says to
me, "Your first step, Rib, will be to learn how to lay 8 bricks. I wil
give you about 30 days to learn how to lay 8 bricks, and what you will lay
is not 7 or 9 bricks, but 8. Am I clear?" Well, I can do that! It's
attainable and I don't feel as if I'm being patronized, but rather
recognized duly for job well dones, however, small the job.
Again, I can see some shaking their shaking their head, barely able to
tolerate the apparent trite nature of the points I'm raising. Please bear
with the nuisance.
Now, I've heard tell that in distance education the efficacy of the
'modular unit of learning' is the sine qua non of delivery systems for
many courses. Let's learn the history of western art, for instance, in
twelve units. And then there are support groups, for whom the 12-step
program is the current remedial paradigm. The GIA (Gemmological Institute
of America) delivers its full course for diamond appraiser training in
little increments of 20 page booklets. Yes, there are about 50 of these,
but the principle follows that of sensible digestion, not senseless
engorgement.
Time to sum. A concrete, specific goal in 'Learning to read music", that
is do-able (learn 8 notes), with an offered time-frame (30 days), and that
is complete unto itself (a 28-page booklet), and is digestable (a 28-page
booklet), and incremental (not just lip-service either) and readily
communicable between teacher and student.
The implications are multivarious. From the student's point of view, a
perch rarely tried out by most teachers, it means a big sense of
accomplishment, even if the goal in relation to the whole Taj Mahal scheme
of things is minor (8-bricks/notes). If 10 or 12 or more such little books
with specified goals as titles can be encountered, mastered, then disposed
of, a method which radically aligns itself with the best success programs
of other fields has been attempted seriously. That these little books
might be discrete units is important from the view of psychological
theories of learning, especially as these subscribe to some sort
behavioral response/positive reinforcement thesis (I hope our resident
psychologist here will dip his oars into the water!). The reward, in this
instance, is 'disposal' of the little book itself. In thirty days or
thereabouts, 'Learning to read music on the classical guitar' is returned
to its archive, disposed of, done with. Hopefully the cognitive structures
are beginning to secure themselves, perhaps for review or elaboration in
later units. How many times have we read here something like, "Well, I'm
on page 77 of Noad's book" meaning you've only got another 125 leaden
pages to turn and it looks like a steep, uphill, learning drudgery. This
student does not really know where he/she stands in relation to what needs
to be known. It's ambiguous, and I daresay, disconcerting. How many
thousands of people 'give up' mid-Parkening, mid-Shearer, mid-Taj Mahal,
seeing the job as too monumental, too uncircumscribe, too vague.
Kent's actual method gets students launched into guitar activity right
away. NO dreary, protacted histories, or 17 pages on how to sit, or
treatises on music theory, none of that. That's the teacher's job. This
method is not a 'hand-holder' of the sort MO rails against. It merely
suggests this single specific goal of learning to read 8 notes and then it
provides a playground where teacher/student can accomplish that goal. The
goal is heralded with the closing teacher/student duet, "Grand Solo",
signalling a triumphant march toward 'Book 2', learning the free/rest
stroke or some such likely topic.
No one participating in this group will likely offer that anyone takes a
more atomic view of guitar-playing/learning than Kent does. His approach
is analytic, not synthetic, meaning that he thrives on taking things apart
in order to discover and theorized the working of constituent elements.
The approach is elemental, some might say, to a fault.
Perhaps I venture out onto this limb and perhaps I will saw off the branch
I sit upon by suggesting that Kent has devised (or stumbled upon)
something appraoching a 'breakthrough'. There is nothing revoluntionary in
his theory, that is, the content--all the methods do a good job of that, I
think. It's the 'delivery' mode, something of a concept which benumbs most
people. It's the reason, IMO, why so few people read poetry; poetry is
pure form, for if any substantive messages (content) were to be
communicated, most surely prose does a much better job of it. People care
about content, I think, in a monstrously, dispropriate measure to form.
But let us imagine Martin Luther King's famous "I have a dream" speech,
imagine it in th form of a letter instead of in the form of an hortative
public address. Form counts.
This is important because the goal-driven format Kents chooses puts
itself on friendly terms with the most successful section of every
bookstore in North America--the self-improvement section. Success
literature helps people to quit smoking, lose weight, start business,
strengthen relationships, learn crafts, improve fitness, add spirituality
to their lives. A lot of fluff, too, but lots of success as well. This is
not a 'self' help book per se, but it does make a comfortable alignment
with America's most important philosophical institution--pragmatism. I'm
not saying that in Kent's book you'll find nirvana, only that in its
modestly stated title one does find recognition of the inherent pragmatism
that the American psyche seems to have proclivity towards as its way to
get things done.
People want clear goals, clear paths to their attainment, and practical
means of attaining these goals and within a reasonable period of time. Not
a single method I've encountered so far heeds the pragmatic carrier signal
found in other improvement literatures. The goals are fuzzier, the
paths
long, long, arduous and exhortative, and certainly contain no sense of the
project management's concern for 'completion date'. This sounds surgical,
I know, sterile, something art isn't, we hope. I guess we could say that
Kent's book is more about the 'craft' than the 'art'. Save the latter for
a later date, I suspect is his plan.
What I'd like to see is a 'series', a sequential array of 10, 12, 20,
books like 'Learning to read music on the classical guitar', something
whose promise is to provide a smooth entrance into any one of the
currently popular methods. All these methods move too fast, gloss too
readily, and turn the learning of the guitar into the construction of the
Taj Mahal. Chapters tend to blur into each other and the whole project
looks intimidating. This may hint at why such series as the 'X for
Dummies' books are so wildly successful. The pathology hinted at is, "Hey
teach, you're going to fast for me. Slow down! I'm not Einstein, ya know".
My contribution would be to suggest that the 'Dummy' books say less about
the consumers that buy them than they do about the narcoleptic, catatonic
state of educational pedagogy in North America. In short, the real dummies
are our failing teachers, not the students at all.
Now we all agree that surely guitar learning must be that difficult, or
maybe even more difficult than the Taj Mahal project (or, in my case, the
'Outhouse project'). But what most of us forget, that Kent hasn't, is that
we learned how to build that shrine (mine's a shrine too!) one brick/note
at time (not that kind of brick!). We (some of us) are so quick to
trivialize what we ourselves have mastered. And then when do set goals
these are often arrived at in the most ad hoc way, without much thought
really. Kent deserves credit for expending huge amounts of reflective
effort into his little book, especially in this particular precinct of
guitar pedagogy that barely gets any serious notice from the know-it-alls.
It's quite obvious from the high quality of the work invested in this book
that Kent's purpose is contribute to the overall improvement of guitar
pedagogy. It's abundantly apparent that he cares about his students,
something which, unfortunately, evaporates in the volitility of some of
Kent's posts. But we are all more complicated, more multidimensional than
our posts, aren't we? Sheesh I sure hope so.
I guess that means I'm an enthusiastic supporter of Kent's new task-driven
book. I really hope he goes on to do a complete series. I think it has
potential, but let me remind everyone on my opening sentence: I'm no
expert. Just an enthusiast, someone new to the prospect of teaching
beginners.
Sorry for how protracted this post ended up. Enthusiasms give you energy
over a greater discursive distance than do disinterests.
Regards
Rib
Sandy
WHEW! Thank goodness for your last paragraph! I'm sure your post is much
longer than the book! :-) But I do understand your enthusiasm and I can
certainly get carried away with something that I'm excited about and believe
in. I have to say that Parkening's Vol. 1 & 2 (and others) have served me
well. And they were taken one page at a time as in lifting and laying the
bricks. But as I am looking forward to one day teaching guitar, I am very
curious about this "little" book. Where might I find it?
Thanks.............Sandy
Bob Ashley <ax...@chebucto.ns.ca> wrote in message
news:Pine.GSO.3.95.iB1.0.100...@halifax.chebucto.ns.ca.
..
Lutemann
<artsan...@prodigy.net> writes:
> But as I am looking forward to one day teaching guitar, I am very
>curious about this "little" book. Where might I find it?
>Thanks.............Sandy
Here's my catalog.
**ATTENTION***GUITARISTS AND GUITAR TEACHERS***
http://members.aol.com/lutemann/guitar.html
GUITAR CATALOG
MONEY-BACK GUARANTEE!!!!!!!!!! If you are not completely satisfied with any
of my music, return it in its original condition, and I will refund your
money. Buy two items, and I will pay the postage!
SEND ORDERS AND FULL PAYMENT TO:
Kent Murdick
302 Chatham St.
Mobile, AL 36604
Foreign orders (Outside U.S. and Canada), add $2.00.
Payment must be made by check in U.S. currency.
"Learning To Read Music On The Classic Guitar: An Incremental Approach For The
First 30 Days Of Instruction". Price $4.95 + $.75 postage.
"Mel Bay's Easiest Classic Guitar Solos" (with CD). Although entertaining
and easy to play, the following pieces contain all the exciting elements
that are normally found in more advanced music. Devices used include
modulations, counterpoint, secondary dominants, chromatic harmony, mixed
meter, blue notes and modern dissonance. They are written to sound like
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easy to read as a single line of music. Most students can begin to work on
Prelude In A Minor within the first month of study! Price $14.95 + $.75
postage.
"Jazz Comping For Classical Guitar" (formerly "Jazz Comping For Fingerstyle
Guitar", Mel Bay Pub.) is now available from KGM Guitar and Lute Editions.
If you have ever wanted to be able create moving bass line and chord
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This method will open up an unlimited repertoire of vocal or melody
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postage.
"Playing Straight Rhythm Guitar: A Swing Band Approach". Based on over
twenty years of training guitarists to play straight rhythm guitar, this
unique method uses what I call the triangular teaching approach. In other
words, the method is set up so you can stop at almost any point in the book
And use the rest of the book as a reference. Within the first three pages,
you will be modulating ii, V, I all over the neck like a pro. A thoughtful
synthesis of many other rhythm guitar books, this method is absolutely the
best of it's kind. Price $6.50 + $.75 postage.
Complete Rags by Scot Joplin. Price: $3.00 + $.75 ea. or $15.00 for all six!
1) "Maple Leaf Rag", level: intermediate.
2)"The Entertainer", level: intermediate.
3) "Ragtime Dance", level: intermediate.
4) "Swipsey", level: easy-intermediate.
5) "Bethena", level: easy-intermediate
6) "Easy Winners", level: easy-intermediate
"Four Latin American Pieces" (level: intermediate) $6.50 + $.75. These
exciting pieces use the Samba and Beguine rhythms to great effect. Great
show-off pieces for the 2nd or 3rd year player. Buy two items and there is
no charge for postage.
"Four MORE Latin American Pieces" (level: intermediate) $6.50 + $.75. This
book includes the famous tango "La Paloma". Also included are the Mexican
folk song "El Vito", "Cancion Popular" (better than Romanza) and "Guitarron"
"Green Samba" (with tremolo variation) is a jazzy, Latin version of
Greensleeves suitable for concert performance. The first statement of the
tune uses Samba rhythms and jazz harmonies, the second statement alternates
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Level: intermediate. Price: $3.00 + $.75 postage.
"Five Rhythmic Preludes" : $4.00+ $.75 mailing. These simple, jazzy, easy
to play, Latin style pieces are appropriate for the first year student.
Teachers! give your beginning students something interesting to play! All
in the first position.
Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata" (1st Movt.), $3.00 + $.75 mailing cost.
This easy to play, carefully fingered, idiomatic arrangement is the best
one ever done. It's level of difficulty is about the same as the Sor E
minor etude (#17 of the Segovia edition). A real show stopper!! It flows
just like the piano version.
FREE LESSON!!!
Want to arrange in the genuine BOSSA NOVA STYLE? Send a self-addressed,
stamped envelope to address listed above, and I'll send you a comprehensive
lesson, with musical examples, on how to arrange in this exciting style. Or
you may view this article at: http://www.sequel.net/~lbcuisia/guitr01a.htm
Also available:
"Three Tangos For Solo Guitar" (level: easy-intermediate), $6.50 + $.75
postage.
These beautifully syncopated, original Latin pieces are sight-readable, but
sound good enough to play at a gig.
"Three Easy Rags For The Classical Guitar" (level: easy to intermediate),
$6.50 + $.75 mailing. The level of difficulty of these original rags is
about the same as the first Sor study (Segovia edition).
Attention Flute/Recorder/Violin Players, Whistle Players, etc. and Guitarists
"The World's Greatest Flute/Recorder/Violin Book". This book contains 15
beautiful Folk, Renaissance and Baroque melodies; most with new variations.
Chord symbols are included. In addition, you may purchase a CLASSICAL
GUITAR part for
these elegant pieces (see description below). Length: 36 pages.
Price: $6.98 + $.75 postage.
The World's Greatest Tin Whistle Book". This exciting book of 15 pieces
brings the Flageolet (Tin Whistle) into the mainstream of serious music.
The pieces are the same as in "The World's Greatest Flute/Recorder/Violin
Book", but written with the D whistle in mind (key signatures contain one
or two sharps); chord symbols are included. In addition, you may purchase a
CLASSICAL GUITAR part for these elegant pieces (see description
below).Length: 36 pages. Price: $6.98 + $.75 postage.
"Classical Guitar Parts For The World's Greatest Books". The guitar
parts are written almost exclusively within the first five frets, and can
be played by a second year player. These duets are fun for the
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When played with the tin whistle parts, the guitar must occasionally
capo at the 2nd fret or the whistler must use a C whistle. No
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instruments. Length: 33 pages. Price: $6.98 +$.75 postage.
Table Of Contents
1) Road To Dingle; by Kent Murdick
2) Green Grow The Rushes O; Trad. Irish
3) Pull The Knife Out And Stick It In Again; Trad. Irish
4) Carolan's Draught; by O'Carolan
5) Gentle Maiden; Trad. English
6) If Love's A Sweet Passion; H. Purcell
7) The Watchet Sailor; Trad. English
8) Mrs. Savage's Whim; Trad English
9) Untitled; The Rowalan Lute Book
10) Paddy Wack; Trad Irish
11) Alman; by Robert Johnson
12 Rondo; by E. Dall' Abaco
13) Arioso; by J. S. Bach
14) Spiritoso; by G. B. Pergolesi
15) Minuet; by Phillipe Telemann
For a FREE Bossa Nova lesson, Beguine lesson, Flute/Gtr. piece or tremolo
piece, send a self-addressed, stamped envelope to:
Kent Murdick
302 Chatham St.
Mobile, AL 36604
ATTENTION*****LUTENISTS******NEW MUSIC FOR THE SOLO LUTE
"English, Scottish and Irish Folk Tunes For The Renaissance Lute, Vol. 1,
2, 3 & 4 is now available in French tablature for the seven or eight course
lute at the special low price of $6.50 ea. + $.75 postage, or $22.00 for
all four. Buy two or more volumes and I'll pay the postage (in the US)!
This collection of modal melodies and variations has been carefully arranged
for the SOLO LUTE in the sixteenth century style. EVERY PIECE IS A GEM AND
IS ACCESSIBLE TO THE BEGINNING AND INTERMEDIATE PLAYER!
Volume 1
1. The Arran Boat
2. The Bonniest Lass I A' The World
3. Castle Kelly
4. Dawn Through The Wattles
5. The Sun From The East
6. In A Garden So Green
7. Hills Of Glen Orchy
8. What Harvest Half So Sweet Is
9. Lady Maisry
10. Farewell Nancy
11. My Nanny-O
12. The Peacock
VOLUME II
13. Three Ravens
14. Robin Hood Meets The Tanner
15. Sally Gardens
16. Spanish Ladies
17. A Trip To The Little Theatre
18. Quick Step the Troopers
19 Watkin's Ale
20. Lord Willoughby
21. Windsor Terrace
22. Untitled Air
23. La Grondeuse
24. Paddy Whack
VOLUME III
25. Addison's Sarabande
26. Carolan's Ode To Whiskey
27. Devil's Dream
28. Highland Mary
29. The Female Rake
30. Eileen Curran
31. Dunmore Lasses
32. Casey's Hornpipe
33. Carolan's Draught
34. Child Grove
35. Jenny Nettles
36. Astley's Hornpipe
37. The Musical Priest
38. Hatfield House
VOLUME IV
39. Amhra/n Leabhair
40. Cill Chais
41. The Desperate Lover
42. The Road To Dingle
43. Don Oiche Ud I mBeithil
44. Jenny Pluck Pears
45. Green Grow The Rushes O
46. Kits Allemande
47. Mrs. Savage's Whim
48. The Female Saylor
49. Good For The Tongue
50. Pull The Knife Out And Stick It In Again
______________________________________
To order, send $6.50 + $.75 for postage (specify Vol. 1, 2, 3 or 4) or
$22.00 for all four volumes to:
Kent Murdick
302 Chatham Street
Mobile, AL 36604
If you are not completely satisfied, return the music in its original
condition, and I will refund your money.
To obtain a FREE! sample from "English, Scottish and Irish Folk
Tunes For The Renaissance Lute" , send a self-addressed, stamped envelope to
the above address.
E-mail me if you have any questions.