FOOD FOR THOUGHT
The founder of justinguitar.com lends GT his insight as one of the world’s most successful guitar teachers. This Month: The Journey Together.
We had the very first JustinGuitar team meeting back in September, and one of the coolest ideas that was born during our sessions was making some live interactive classes where I could teach the way I do at in-person workshops; get feedback, take questions and interact on a personal level.
We all got excited about it and decided to launch as soon as we could, and so JustinGuitar Clubs was born. The logistics were tricky but the response has been amazing. They were so popular in fact, that we had to cap class sizes and also invite my approved teachers to host some clubs too.
I really love teaching in person, gauging my ‘teaching performance’ by the looks on students' faces, their body language and being able to add more or less information as needed. And while it’s obviously impossible to read 1000 faces on a Zoom call, I can get some vibes from the 20 or so that are on my screen, and react to questions and chat in the class.
I’d forgotten how important that feeling of connection is for us all. After each class we ask those that attend for feedback so we can improve them, and we’re constantly hearing about that feeling of connection - that shared experience that’s almost like attending a concert.
If you’re one of the many people that learn mostly on your own using online resources and don’t interact with other guitarists that often, I would encourage you to find a way to connect with other players. It might be that you look locally for a guitar group, or a local class. Or that you join one of our clubs, or perhaps just share your journey with an online forum community.
Last weekend was the end-of-year party for my Brazilian Jiu Jitsu club, and it was great to spend time chatting socially with each other, rather than trying to choke one another! But most interesting (and a relief) was that almost everyone experiences extreme highs and lows, so one day it feels like everything is going great and you’re learning and improving, and other days everything feels wrong and clunky.
Sound familiar? Most guitarists have days where everything goes great and other days where it all feels wrong. I sure do. And being able to share that experience and chat with others that feel the same can really help you stay on track. To realise that those feelings are totally normal will help you get through them and back to feeling great again. You can read about it here, and it might help, but discussing things in a group setting with one's peers is far more powerful. A trouble shared, is
