G4 Guitar Studio Newcastle

The G4 Method explained: G4 is a unique method developed by David Hart in Sydney, he has been teaching for over 25 years and through these years he has recognized that a lot of teachers improvise when they are teaching. At G4 we follow a clearly structured plan and focus on teaching students to become musicians with a solid foundation by isolating 7 essential skills. these 7 are Picking Chords Arpeggios Scales Rhythm Reading Aural&Theory To achieve almost anything in life requires some clearly defined goals and a plan to get there. Most guitar students when asked what is the goal say "to be able to play guitar". At G4 we believe that is not a clearly defined goal. To play "Smoke on the Water" is an example of a clearly defined goal. G4 works with four defined tools that help me as a teacher and you as a student to be able to track your progress, see your goals, have a defined plan and be clear on your time investment. to be more specific these are the four in detail: 1. The Levels(The Goals) These are specific skills and songs you need to learn for each stage of your learning. Based on Songs and the Seven Essential Skills. We have 3 Senior Levels (aged 12+) and 7 Junior Levels (from 4-11yrs). Each level has targets defined for the seven skills and songs that need to be reached to progress one level up. This means you will be able to clearly see where we are going at any time, it will also allow me to focus on specific areas and isolate problems. Think of it like a Sports team who does skills work out on the training pitch before the game day. They isolate and refine skills in order to have them at their disposal when needed. 2. The Daily Practice Sheet (The Plan) This serves as a daily reminder of what and how you should practice. 3. The Check-lists (Progress Tracking System) These check-lists are used by me to check your progress and I will tick the individual skills as we go. This helps to identify issues that need to be addressed so you are not just playing songs without having good picking skills or know how to pick well, but cant change chords at a certain speed etc. This will also keep you motivated as you know what is expected and you see a goal/target in front of you. And then last but certainly not least 4. The Practice Log (Time Investment) This is to be filled in so I can monitor your investment of time. The point being, if you don't practice you wont progress, simple! It is also an indication to me about your commitment. It has been proven many times that Students who do not complete this form are usually the ones who will drop out. They end up loosing faith in themselves or in me as a teacher. This is a typical behavior with students who don't recognize that they need to practice. Then when they are stuck in a rut and do not progress they see it as a failure on the teachers behalf or say "well i am not meant to be a guitar player" etc... , when in actual fact the reason is "no practice=no progress"! At the end of the day they are wasting both money and time (theirs and mine).