Should you learn in an UNstructured way?

 

In the last months I have been reflecting a lot about learning and the problems that my students bring me on a daily basis.

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As you probably already read in my website: I do not believe in fixed or “proved” methods. Every individual is different and I teach different ages, nationalities and musical tastes. Having the same approach for everybody or recommending the same book for every student would be a mistake in my part as a teacher.

 

However, I am a big passionate fan of “structured” learning. The best. universally accepted, approach is:

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You start easy; progressively the materials get harder.

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In mathematics, you learn addition before multiplication. In chess, you learn the basic moves and rules of the game before you dive into complex strategies.  In sports you run 5km before you can run a marathon (it is literally impossible to do otherwise…). This is obvious and self-evident advice.

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There are many books and guitar methods that start exactly like that: Easy, fun, very well organized pieces, for sure the best approach for a beginner. However, I find it hard to motivate my students to “stay on the road”.

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They are playing guitar for one month and of course they want to learn complicated, “real” music and not “simplified” pieces. Maybe they are really into Paco de Lucia, one of the most virtuous guitar players of all time. What’s the problem? His music is very complex and not suited to beginners.

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I then try to be “pedagogic”, giving structured, clear, educative materials. And then… my students don’t follow my advice and lose motivation to practice. Well, not all of them of course. I exagerated a bit for rhethoric purposes. :)

They prefer to jump around, try stuff here and there in an unstructured way. Almost random.

 

What should I do as a teacher?

 

Punish them and make them afraid of exploration? Make them conform to the “plan”? Why are human beings so irrational?

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Robots are easy to work with, you just indicate the program, they do it and it works. Like a well functioning washing machine. However, human beings don’t like to follow programs or guidelines. They want to be original, creative and they like to explore.

Even if that exploration is not the optimal path.

 

If you are doing a road trip starting from Milan and want to go to Rome, the shortest path would be going in a straight line and following the road. During the way, you start to see trees, flowers and some wild animals, you decide to do a detour and rest a bit. Maybe you even start getting passionate about biology. Somehow, without noticing, you turned back, passed the Alps and are now in Switzerland, far away from your objective.

Not the optimal path for sure.

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