[ guitar lessons ] a day in the life

[flaviomatani]

Yesterday brought a couple of lessons and helping a mature student buy a guitar. This took only about 20% of the time I anticipated; we went to the London Guitar Studio, Steffi asked my pupil what sort of budget he had, he mentioned a figure, she produced three or four guitars in that range, he liked the second one he tried and that was that. I was expecting to spend half the afternoon pondering about the different tone, action and feel of the different guitars. Only had two lessons yesterday (itself not that good a thing, I should be much busier this time of year). One was a lad doing so-called 'acoustic' guitar. He's a Beatles' fan and we have been doing Blackbird, Walrus and a couple of RCHP things (yes, that one..). The other lesson is a young professional lady about to do a grade 3 and doing very well in spite of busy busy life. Very different and satisfying lessons in very different ways.

Also, I have dates for my pupils' ABRSM grade exams for this season. This is good: they gave me late dates so I have a little more time to make sure they're ready on the bits nobody ever wants to do. You know which ones: scales, sight-reading, aural comprehension. I have another Grade 8 this term, the aural test can be a bit of a nightmare and there are bits of it that, with my goldfish memory, I'm not sure I myself would pass without some training. All good, though.