Question: What can W.M.A. students hope to learn from your educational approaches?
For the most part the atypical student begins by learning how to understand the logic behind how the guitar fretboard works in the way that it does. I have had players with over ten years experience that are still completely unaware as to how the fretboard functions musically. Now, in alot of cases it isn’t completely their fault. There can be alot of confusion associated with how a guitarist understands the fretboard or doesn’t understand it. So, this the the first step that the W.M.A. student will take. Within a very short space of time (between 2-4 weeks) the student will be knowing every point on the fretboard. This knowledge grants them their start at developing a very effective musical vocabulary.
The current W.M.A. songs library contains will over 100,000 songs in it’s database. All W.M.A. students begin working on building their song repertoire as soon as they are understanding the guitar fretboard. I like to have the student reach the “One Song A Day” practice rule. What this means is that for each weekday the student works on a new song. That works out to five songs, one for each day of the week. The students are told to treat their day before their lesson as a general review day which would then include playing through all five songs prior to arriving at W.M.A. for their lesson. Each student must master each song while playing along with backing tracks. Each song is learnt in two playing styles, first melody/single note and then second style as rhythm. In a very short period of time the student is able to play from a huge selection of completed songs. Of course, each student works at his/her own pace so ultimately the student decides what’s comfortable for them.
Another huge advantage the W.M.A. student experiences is having the opportunity to learn all levels of theory, composition and technique. There are several dedicated courses which dive deep into these subjects. Of course, not all students desire a career in music. Most students want to be able to build confidence on the guitar and understand basic musical principals. If they desire to learn how to understand professional level knowledge in these areas it is completely open for them. Also, if the student desires to be well rounded without getting into all the professional level details that works too. W.M.A. is flexible and accommodates each individual student at the levels that they wish to achieve.
The students have the opportunity to record themselves in the W.M.A. recording studio. The students are making professional level demos of their own musical compositions. It is exciting to see the student learn how music works and begin creating their own songs. We have even had students prepare demos for entrance requirements to get into world class music schools. W.M.A. offers the student amazing opportunities which typically you would only find at higher level education facilities. The cost for a student to attend these types of schools is in the upwards of 30-50 thousand a year. At W.M.A. the student gets to do it all at a very affordable cost. I am proud to make that happen for them!
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