Disillusioned With Teacher
Posted: Sun Jan 03, 2010 7:44 pm
Now before anyone gets upset this is not Neil I'm talking about. This is about actual teachers you've gone to in the flesh so to speak.
Personally I've not had a problem, my first and only teacher (excepting Neil) was particularly good, a current muso, who knew the best way to teach was via songs you actually liked and knew. Much the same way Neil approaches teaching.
Now I paid for lessons for my Daughter who was quite keen, I bought her an intro nylon string 3/4 guitar and found a teacher and paid for a course of lessons with this lady who advertised as a professional teacher (which she may well have been). I never met this lady as my daughter lives in the South Island of NZ and I in the North, therefore I found the teacher on the net and phoned her to organise things. The phone was not easy as this lady is Dutch (nothing wrong with that) but my command of the Dutch language is not flash and her command of the English language as I later found out even less so.
This lady started my daughter off with songs which were Dutch folk songs and then progressed to religious songs. Now my daughter was 13 at the time (5yrs ago) and this was not a clever move by the teacher, as such my Daughter quickly got disillusioned and gave up. I spoke to the lady about this suggesting she try more modern songs or at least ask my Daughtrer what she wanted to learn, then the language difficulty seemed to get exasperated at this point. The lady wouldn't budge saying I shouldn't tell her how to teach and that kids these days have no respect! At least I think thats what she said amidst several Dutch sentences! I'm not sure how long this lady intended to be in business...
But anyway my question is have any of you guys had similar experience with teachers not budging and trying to force you into learning something you don't want or like?
Unfortunately, my Daughter who was initially very keen is not so much now and may end up like Dad and coming back to the guitar years down the track!
Personally I've not had a problem, my first and only teacher (excepting Neil) was particularly good, a current muso, who knew the best way to teach was via songs you actually liked and knew. Much the same way Neil approaches teaching.
Now I paid for lessons for my Daughter who was quite keen, I bought her an intro nylon string 3/4 guitar and found a teacher and paid for a course of lessons with this lady who advertised as a professional teacher (which she may well have been). I never met this lady as my daughter lives in the South Island of NZ and I in the North, therefore I found the teacher on the net and phoned her to organise things. The phone was not easy as this lady is Dutch (nothing wrong with that) but my command of the Dutch language is not flash and her command of the English language as I later found out even less so.
This lady started my daughter off with songs which were Dutch folk songs and then progressed to religious songs. Now my daughter was 13 at the time (5yrs ago) and this was not a clever move by the teacher, as such my Daughter quickly got disillusioned and gave up. I spoke to the lady about this suggesting she try more modern songs or at least ask my Daughtrer what she wanted to learn, then the language difficulty seemed to get exasperated at this point. The lady wouldn't budge saying I shouldn't tell her how to teach and that kids these days have no respect! At least I think thats what she said amidst several Dutch sentences! I'm not sure how long this lady intended to be in business...
But anyway my question is have any of you guys had similar experience with teachers not budging and trying to force you into learning something you don't want or like?
Unfortunately, my Daughter who was initially very keen is not so much now and may end up like Dad and coming back to the guitar years down the track!