Students need to hear and determine pitches and note intervals. On the guitar, I always use an exercise to help the student learn which string to play.
I turn my guitar toward me, and, starting with the first open string, I play it as I say “1st string” and have the student play and repeat the same. I do this, in order, for all six strings.
Next I play the first string and the student has to determine what string I played and play the same string. I usually play the strings in this order: 1 2 1 3 1 4 1 5 1 6 before playing random strings. If the student plays the wrong string, I keep playing the string until they play the correct string. I then play adjacent strings, bouncing back to the string that was played incorrectly, before continuing the exercise.
This training has improved the students’ ear as well as helping me differentiate between students with a good ear and students with a poor ear.
This exercise can be done with any instrument, including the voice. You will be surprised how many students, no matter what their age is, get a perfect score.
About the Author
Ronnie Currey teaches guitar, bass guitar, piano and voice to over forty private students. He is also the the Music Teacher's Helper Director of Member Services as well as the editor for the blog and newsletter.
Ronnie was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee moving to the Denver area from Atlanta in 2000. Upon his arrival to Colorado Ronnie was hired by a Denver computer company as a sales executive, and within three months, promoted to manager. After nine months residing in Denver, Ronnie had signed up thirty private music students by leaving pamphlets at a local music store, and had to resign from his computer job. He currently teach between 40 and 45 students on guitar, piano, bass guitar and voice.
At age 8 Ronnie started piano lessons, and by 12 years old, he became a church organist and choir director for a 300 member church. When Beatlemania hit at age 14, he was motivated to learn guitar and bass guitar while continuing with piano lessons. Ronnie started teaching guitar and piano students at age 16 and attended the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, where he received a B.S. degree in Music Education and Psychology. In 2004 he received a teaching license and certification in music K-12 from the Colorado Department of Education. Ronnie has taught technolgy and music in the Douglas County School District in the Denver metro area since 2002.
