Ryan Walker
Congratulations Ryan - looked and sounded solid at the Student Concert!! I like your Walker's Shuffle - well done!!
hey ultra its all good, you can believe what you want,it might be how your looking at things, theres not to much smoke and mirrors here, i watched ryans beginning lessons (because i was learning the same songs) what a great tool to have its like being a fly on the wall of a private lesson on exactly what your trying to learn, ryan didnt know this stuff when he started (you could tell by listening to him) we watched him learn it thats the beauty of it all. i didnt find it boring at all i found helpfull as hell and i think that was the idea!, if your not at his level, joe tartaglias stuff may apply. when i was 50 i bought a david barrett book and a harp, im 57 now my learning has been in high gear for the last year i been on this site,and im loving it, and hank your right ryan is sounding real good,ill be submitting garys blues and the strut next its hard to explain what it is about seeing this guys lessons and then watch him perform it i just find it helpfull in alot of ways, like i said i think that was the idea. sorry to ramble bill
I"m pretty much in the same groove as Bill.
I'll admit that at first the idea of videos of someone else getting private lessons from Prof. Barrett sounded like it would be repetitive and boring. But I have been pleasantly surprised.
As much good stuff as there is in all of the lesson material, I still learn new things when I watch Ryan's lessons, and seeing his progress inspires me to hang in there (although I'm a much slower learner than he seems to be....damn youth!). The combination of the general lesson videos plus the advantage of the "fly on the wall" experience of a private lesson covers a whole lot of territory for the cost of a couple of private lessons a year!
My only complaint is that David didn't pick ME for the private lessons!
Agree with Marcos and Bill - I follow the lessons (Joe's and Ryan's) to get a sense of how common or uncommon my struggles are. WHat I like about recognizing Ryan is that if he decides to, he has the ability to become another Aki Akumar. Any encouragement he can get from my comments will be worth it to me. I started like Bill with a Dave Barrett beginner book 5 years ago but at the age of 68. My ambitions are pretty simple - have fun, enjoy and contribute to the sound of a band at jams. Young people like Ryan have the potential to keep this brand of music and this instrument alive and progressive. I'll do all I can to encourage that!! Especially when they are nice people like Ryan seems to be. Like Marcos, wish I could be picked and I just keep thinking "too bad youth is wasted on the young" ;-)
Joe was in his late 50's when he started and never played harmonica before.
Ryan is a great example of typical intermediate student who comes with some playing background... some right... some wrong... it's part of the process for someone at his stage. Yes, being young CAN help, but I have students of ALL age ranges and gets down to how much the practice.
In my opinion... it's nice to see lesson material come from many angles... and these private lessons are just one of those ways. They take a tremendous amount of time to do, but for those it helps... cool... I'm happy to do it. If it doesn't, that's cool too, study something else on the site... we all only have so much time... study what excites you!
P.S., I just video recorded Acc Study 5, I'll start editing it next week.
They give sort of a "real life" perpective to the learning process.
Also they provide an opportunity for David to complement what he already teaches in the lessons per se or to explain it in a different way, being confronted with someone who does not necessarily understand it right the first time. I grab something more in pretty much all of them.
Lessons are there to explain the concepts in the most concise and efficient way, which they do pretty well I find.
Contributors lessons are there to offer more or different explanations on those same concepts.
A suggestion I have would be to indicate the span of time lapsed between them; it would probably make them even more realistic and would give a sense of the practice time put in to reach the level.
I do find it interesting how teachers (on this and others sites) will single out often a young person with promise to work with showing the world how great they all are. I find this utterly boring. Why? Well, you know the teacher is great and you know the student is great too. So whats so interesting about that? Nothing!
Now get some newbie of 50 or 60 year old and take him from the bottom up. What would be interesting in that? Everything! IMO