Never Stop Taking Lessons

One of my favorite, all time guitarists is Randy Rhoads. His rise to fame from a nowhere band to Ozzy Osborne's sideman is legend itself. But, what amazed me about Randy was the seriousness he took to his craft, to his instrument.

Very quickly after being "discovered" by Ozzy, Randy Rhoads was labeled a guitar hero (this is long before the video game). His lightning fast arpeggios and finger tapping combined with a musicality of a classic composer made him an instant guitar god. Rhodes was not one to sit on his laurels.

Legend has it that Randy Rhoads never stopped taking lessons. When he was on tour with Ozzy he still took lessons. At every tour stop he would hunt down a local guitar teacher and take a lesson. He would find a jazz teacher in new orleans, a blues teacher in chicago, a flamenco teacher in guadalahara. He explored the different styles that a guitar has to offer. He listened, he learned he expanded his knowledge of an instrument at which he was a true master.

Most people would think "what else could Randy Rhoads learn about the guitar?" But that was not his attitude. He realized that there was more to learn and that you will never learn it all.

Unfortunately, he did not have much time to learn it all. He died in plane crash at the age of 25. But what a great legacy he left for us. He left us with a great lesson. Even when you are a guitar god, you still have a lot to learn. Never stop taking lessons.

Supergroups Always Break Up

This post marks a change in the blog. I'm going to lend this analogy to collaboration instead of just education and teaching. I'm finding myself thinking more and more about collaborating lately and how it is vital to survival.

The title of this blog is Supergroups always break up. What I mean by this is when collaborating it is important to remember that all collaborations have an expiration date. Collaborations come together for a common purpose. Various members with various talents and experiences join up to create, or make decisions. Often when the job is done the collaborative group stays around, to make more decisions. Sooner or later the decisions and actions get worse and worse. The group has passed it's expiration date.

If you follow a band, and if it has some success, and it breaks up millions of fans are disappointed. They don't understand, the collaboration has passed it's expiration date. Other times rock creates a supergroup. An outstanding guitarist will hook up with a bassist, drummer and singer from other successful groups. They create a great collaboration, then poof, they call it quits.

What a great example for the workplace. Managers, leaders will bring together their supergroup. Give them a fixed action or decision. They are successful, but soon falter. Again the expiration date is due.

If you look at the workings of the group, and dissect it you can see it's successes and failures. With a supergroup, each member brings its experience from their past bands. It gives new perspective to the new collaboration. They create, celebrate and move on. At the first sign this experienced group is out of there. They break up and move on to the next project. Often times you'll find certain members of the group hit it off and become part of the next collaborative group. New members add new blood to the new project.

Once it is recognized, the cycle repeats. Sometimes new relationships with old members are made when the time is right.

I've found this to be true even with the crappy cover bands I've played in. The members are ever changing. They collaborate for the gig and move on, play with other bands. They may come back with those experiences and make the next collaboration better.

Often we yearn for the original line up. We think the first genesis of the band was it. Time does not stand still. Learn to appreciate the changes in collaborative group, if you lucky it will change, you'll recognize the expiration dates, and move on.

Build a repertoire, practice it and build on it.

Learning is building a set of skills, and continuously adding to it.

A musician's goal is to be entertaining. He does this by playing songs. Whole songs. You have to start by learning one song. When you have that one down, learn another. Slowly you will build a repertoire. You will build a set. You will build what the old school big bands used to call a book. You'll have enough to be entertaining for an evening.

That is your goal. Everyone knows lots of people that can play first 25 seconds of the intro to stairway to heaven, or the opening riff to smoke on the water. That is not skill. You need more than that. That is a start. Many never get past that point.

Learning is the same. Build a worthy skill, then add to it. You will eventually have an orchestra of skills you can use.

A band must often revisit, and practice the old songs. They use the skill they learned from the old songs to conquer the new ones. This is a great example of spiral learning. Humans can't be expected to retain new knowledge if it's not reviewed.

Woodshed

Woodshed is an old school music term. It means to go off by yourself and practice. One musician will tell another you need to do some Woodshedding. That means go off, lock yourself in the woodshed, away from others and learn your craft. This is a time to make mistakes, push yourself, try something new away from the glare of others.

It is valuable time. It is time well spent. Yes, it can be painful. Woodshedding can be equivalent to solitary confinement. Just you and your instrument spending quality time with each other.

But, if woodshedding is done correctly the hours will pass like seconds. You will appreciate it. Time will fly and you will have to be pulled out of the woodshed by your loved ones. They will bang on the door and flick the lights to get you to knock it off. You are in the zone.

When it's bad, hours pass like year. It is like torture.

A learner must be ready for both. Woodshedding is a practiced skill like any. It gets better with time. It gets better with a challenge. When it comes right down to it is the perfect way to learn.

After a good time woodshedding you are prepared to share your learned skill with the world. And have it evaluated.

This could send you, once again, happily or unhappily to the woodshed.

Always play with people better than you or you’ll never get better.

This is somewhat contrary to other posts, you know about everyone being equal. Well, sometimes rules oppose each other. If you play in a band with other people who are of equal talent of you, you will never grow. You will never be pushed. You will fall into a groove and never get out.

You may find yourself in a band that is a little better than your current talents. If this is true you need to work hard to stay in the band. Work on your chops outside of practice. Find your niche in the band.

The trick is to find that zone, just enough of a challenge so you hang in there. Not enough above your head so that you are frustrated.

Sometimes you have to modify this rule. Sometimes you'll have to play with people that are different than you or you'll never improve. If you're a punk, try a reggea or a jam band. Bring your skills, blend, them with your bandmates. Try something new. You'll be better because of it.

The whole is better than the sum of its parts.

One man band. This is the greatest oxymoron in Rock and Roll. You are not a band if you have only one player. (This is known a singer/songwriter). The real power is in numbers. The real power is in the combination of talents in the band.

This is a realization that usually come too late. Usually after a bad call from a member that decides to go solo. They finally realize that their talent or their popularity came from the combination of talents in the band.

In the classroom, students and teachers must realize that collaboration is key to being successful. There is too much that an individual doesn't know that leads to failure.

For way too long teaching has been performed as a solo act. Almost like the singer/songwriter mentioned in the last post. It's unfortunate. Life is not structured that way. Life is a group project and those that can master that will be successful.

For too long teaching has been a solo act. The teacher delivers instruction solo, writes lessons solo, assesses the kids solo and rarely receives feedback on their efforts. It is a recipe for disaster.

When you look at the best teachers they collaborate, share and evaluate with others. Like music, lessons need an audience beyond the students in the seats. The kids will take what you give but real improvement will arise from collaboration.

Your band is only as good as the weakest member.

The hardest part of getting a band together and keeping it together is when members have different skill levels. To put the band together, you have to find at least 3 people and each must have a different skill (instrument). Each must have an interest in a similar style of music. Then they all have to have similar skill level. The latter nearly never happens. You usually end up picking up a player because they simply own an instrument. Other times someone you like switches instruments just to stay in the band. Because of all of these caveats, you usually end up with a weak member.

Bands usually deal with this situation two ways. One, they get rid of the weak member to hire someone else. Two, they keep the member and work on them.

Usually if they go down route 1 they end up picking some hotshot player with great skill but can't get along with everyone else. The chemistry of the band dies.

Route 2 has it's headaches as well but at least you keep the chemistry have someone that I like to call the project player.

Route 2 means you'll send the guy for some lessons, or you'll teach him the parts. You'll stick with easy songs so he can keep up.

Sometimes people rise to the challenge, other times they come to their own realization that this situation is not quite right and will bow out on their own (leaving your band back to Route 1).

It's like this in a lot of schools. Good teachers are hard to find and administrators have to accept good enough. School systems and the teacher that work alongside these teachers must recognize the project player. They must help them out. Give out their best lessons and survival tips. Help them in and out of the class. Hook them up with a decent apartment, a good deal on a used car. Make them get their budget in order. With the proper support the project player could turn out to be a hotshot rockstar teacher. They probably want to be a good teacher but just need to know the how.

We've got to admit it that teaching is brain surgery with out the blood and stitches. It takes proper training, an internship, to make a good one.

For the good classroom teachers, this rule is important too. Your class is only as good as the weakest member. In these days of NCLB, we are accountable for the subgroups that are failing. These are the project players in the classroom too. The same goes for these kids. They need extra attention, differentiated instruction, scaffold learning and a damn good teacher. Someday they may be hotshot players as well.

If the administrators and the teachers in schools heed this rule maybe they will have some luck with the weakest members of the band.