Student Support: I learn about a student from the first conversation. The first step is to gather helpful information so I may do a better job and begin teaching effectively. I ask questions such as: Have you or has your child taken any music lessons in the past? Do you own a guitar now? What was your experience with the previous instruction? All the above questions and answers may assist me as their future teacher. The first meeting with the student and/or the parent and child is very important. In our first meeting our rapport and learning environment are assessed and experienced most effectively by everyone. I listen to what the student recounts about their previous experience with music lessons. If there is no music lesson experience, I listen carefully as to why the student is interested in learning to play the guitar. When a student begins to learn, I help the student to achieve smaller goals so the learning is fun.http://www.edutopia.org/blog/project-happiness-empathy-randy-taran One of the best tools in my teaching is the understanding that a student is always trying their best to learn. The student has the ability to teach me how to best teach them. My job is to listen to what the student is telling me through their word choices, mannerisms and what the student doesn’t say. All communication from a student is important as the student is the key to helping me, be a better teacher. Lawrence Paul (415)...
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Music On The Guitar: The way that I teach my students is to consider their learning and for each pupil to learn the ability to really think about the music as they learn it. A more precise explanation of the phrase “music on the guitar” is that the guitar is a vehicle for the student to learn their musical expression. How does all of the above approach work in a practical manner? The guitar lessons that I teach simply include the learning of a musical language regardless of whether the student is currently learning the formal aspects of reading at a given juncture. In a guitar lesson a student may learn a few chords to play a song that they are excited about. The chosen song is more of a learning tool than a final goal. As the student and I work on the song we learn musical principles that are related to the student’s desire to improve their guitar performance of the song, so that the student may recognize the song that they are performing in a way that sounds more like the original recording. Since the student and myself both have the same goal of improving the student’s technique in their interpretation of the song they’re learning and my teaching become increasingly efficient and effective. The outcome of the above mentioned experience with students is that the student achieves a greater degree of self confidence as they apply musical principles, the new principles function in a way that improves the sound of their chosen music. As the student’s confidence increases the student feels more comfortable with the musical tools that they’re learning to use, and the student becomes inspired to ask if they may begin learning to read music formally. The student who chooses to learn to read music on their own with little influence from the teacher is usually one of the best readers. The student who chooses to learn reading music has expressed a desire and knows that they have a freedom of choice in their learning which enhances their commitment to their learning. As the student learns to read the music, the student then becomes increasingly literate in the musical arena. My experience with my students is that they have become leaders...
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Student Pathways: As I have taught many school aged students during my years of experience in San Francisco, I have observed from a distance their apparent academic progress outside guitar study. The majority of my guitar students that have taken lessons from me for two or more years, have been accepted to the top high schools in San Francisco. In the last three years I have had eighth grade students accepted to Lick, Lowell, Saint Ignatius and School of the Arts. My guitar students have mentioned that they observed in themselves an enhanced ability to learn and understand math, science and other related disciplines of study because they have learned music on the guitar from me. This fact of expanded thinking has been prevalent regardless of the style of guitar that has been learned from me by the student. The best reason that I can predict for the new ability of my students to think more creatively in other modes of study outside of music, is that the cause of their enhanced thinking is that we do not confine the paradigm of learning the guitar to only learning the technique of the guitar. In our lessons we also include the entire musical experience. When I teach a student they also learn music on their guitar rather than only learning the mechanics of playing the guitar. Therefore, the student learns a new way of thinking. The process of learning music is an alternative form of thinking because when a student is asked to differentiate between only playing notes in a way to mimic another player and that student only learns that process then the student is limited as to the scope of their new knowledge. However, if the student is taught the technique of performing all the physical coordination required to play the guitar, but in addition learns the intellectual and creative discipline in order to duplicate the subtle attributes of the music being learned, then the student is empowered to not only play like their role model but to think in a similar manner as their hero. The result of the new way of thinking is very encouraging when I have observed students not only getting accepted to the top high schools but beyond high school as well. Last year...
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Rock, Classical, Folk, Flamenco. Lawrence taught many styles for many years and is experienced at teaching people of all ages. Lawrence taught students aged four to eighty four. Also various styles were familiar to Lawrence such as: Rock, classical, folk, flamenco. Lawrence took a guitar lesson from Andres Segovia in 1970 and learned how to play rock when he attended shows at the Golden Bear in Huntington Beach California and played lead guitar in teen age rock bands during the 1960s. One of the first rock bands that Lawrence formed was named the Night Riders. Lawrence then played in a band named the King Bees and later I the Pleasure Seekers. Later Lawrence played in a blues band and during his studies in college began to specialize in classical guitar. In 1973 Lawrence graduated with a Bachelor’s of Music in classical guitar performance from Long Beach State University. Lawrence moved to san Francisco in 1977 and began teaching students here shortly after his arrival. Lawrence started teaching at Sunset Music in November of 1980 and has been their guitar instructor since that...
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