After playing and teaching guitar for more than three decades, it is logical to assume that Humble guitar maestro Brian Turner has seen his share of changes — genres, musical tastes, gear and technology, just to name a few.
Turner, who offers guitar lessons in person at Humble Music Center and online via Skype, takes advantage of technology to be on the cutting edges of teaching guitar.
“I am very excited about the new element I am adding to my way of teaching guitar,” Turner said. “One of the most challenging tasks for a guitar student is practicing on their own. Many times, students take a lesson and think they know what to do but when it’s time to practice at home, they forget what I showed them. Thinking of this common difficulty, I have come up with a way of being in front of my students wherever they go. I have been creating videos of the exercises in my book ‘How To Play Guitar: A Method Book For Beginners.’
“During private lessons, I will simply email my students a video of the exercise we are working on — in real time — using my iPad. They will have a video of the exercises before they even leave the studio so they will be able to practice with the video and book. There’s no extra charge for the videos. There are 116 exercises in the book and all the videos of the exercises are on my website.”
And access to Turner’s instructional resources is not limited to local students.
Turner explained, “I also teach internationally using Skype on the computer. Along with videos, I also have pages on my website I use for interacting and providing materials for these students. There are several hundred pages on my website I use for teaching. I call them guitar goodies.
“Anyone is welcome to explore the resources on my website at no charge. People should feel free to share them with out-of-towners that may be interested in guitar lessons using Skype or Apple’s FaceTime app.”
No matter the delivery method utilized, Turner still has to prepare lessons for students with diverse skill levels and musical tastes.
So what type of music do students want to learn these days? The answer may surprise some.
“Regardless of the many styles of music that have come up, I still observe my young students being inspired mostly by the older classic rock,” Turner said. “The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Led Zepplin, Jimi Hendrix — I think it is the classic music of the past that is most influential. There is not one contemporary guitarist I can think of that students come to me wanting to learn their style of playing guitar. Teenagers wanted to be The Beatles and Hendrix in the 70s, Van Halen in the 80s, Metallica in the 90s and then the Beatles and Hendrix again in this century. There is also a lot of great talent on YouTube that might influence young people. You even see videos of people playing in the street for tips that are awesome.”
One of the most frequent questions Turner is asked by guitar students is, “How long will it take me to learn to play the guitar?” Turner feels access to the best tools technology can provide will expedite students’ learning process.
“There’s no time to waste,” said Turner. “I want my students to have the right tools so that they get the most from every minute they practice. As we see technology moving faster, students should be able to learn faster, too. It is my goal to provide the fastest — yet thorough — learning experience possible. I also want my students to experience the feeling of playing songs very early in their learning experience. I think they need to have opportunities to perform on front of an audience.”
And that is something that Turner puts into practice. Turner’s annual student jam sessions at public venues have been a tradition since 1990 and provide his students an opportunity to perform in public.
“I will be hosting another student jam session on May 2,” Turner said. “And, I have a few home schoolers that are interested in starting a home school jam. If anyone is interested in participating in either, they can email me for more information at brian@guitarlessonsbybrian.com.”
For more information about Turner, his lessons, videos, guitar jams or his performance schedule, visitwww.guitarlessonsbybrian.com or call 281-354-4456.
Turner is also on Facebook at Guitar Lessons by Brian,on Twitter at https://twitter.com/bturnerguitar amd on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/user/guitarlessonsbybrian.
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