My housemate is learning how to play guitar right now for the first time in her life. I can tell she has a really good ear, and she is picking things up really quick. Anyways, I walked downstairs last night and she was practicing the Nirvana song Polly. It brought me back because it was the first song I ever learned on guitar when I was a 13 year old growing up in Davis and starting to take guitar lessons myself.
John got me excited about playing the guitar because within the first few lessons, he was able to give me the tools to play the songs that I liked to listen to. That made it fun and exciting for me to get started, to be able to actually play songs. It took a couple weeks, but within that time practicing, I was able to learn how to play power chords and thus the potential to play just about every Nirvana song on guitar 🙂
I’m thankful that he taught me in that way, as opposed to trying to tackle all the technical aspects first. When I teach lessons now, I start by asking my students what they want to learn and what they hope to be able to play. It’s a great boost to start by learning how to play songs you like and keeps people motivated to learn more.