Shedding My Music Snobbery
This morning, I read this fun challenge from Graham Wright (of Tokyo Police Club) to “try to love the music you hate.”
One of my favorite quotes from Wright is, “Do you have a friend that loves the band?…[G]et them to talk about the band – enthusiasm is contagious.”
This is the curse and blessing of teaching guitar lessons.
I like to teach my guitar students songs they like, to hopefully get them hooked and encouraged to practice. I don’t care what a student likes, and I don’t get critical. And after hearing the song ten times, I usually enjoy the song, too.
Here are some songs that have been fun to teach that I now find myself singing-a-long to on the radio:
* * * Taylor Swift * * *
Last night, I was hanging with Kalamazoo songstress Carrie McFerrin at my gig, and she was joking about the current curse of being a woman holding an acoustic guitar a bar or club: dodging requests to play a Taylor Swift song.
I started strumming the chords to “You Belong with Me” and making up lyrics to the song, and we laughed. Carrie then asked, “Why do you know that song? Been covering it for gigs, Mike?”
“Awe shucks, guitar lessons! I just taught it to a student,” I said.
I failed to share how much I enjoy that song now after teaching it.
* * * One Republic * * *
A few years ago, my sister-in-law Brianna asked me if I liked One Republic. I gave her a total hipster/musician “too cool to like radio songs” answer.
Last month, one of my students wanted to learn the chord progression and strum to “Stop and Stare.” It took me 30 seconds to hear the interesting chord change in the intro to be hooked. (That E to Emaj7 change is fun to play.)
I owe Bri a huge apology; this lead songwriter is awesome.
* * * One Direction* * *
Last weekend, during a 12 hour road trip to North Carolina, One Direction’s “Story of My Life” came on the radio. My wife said, “Oh, keep that on the radio. I’m embarrassed to admit I like it.”
I responded, “Oh, I taught this guitar riff to a student last month. I already like it!”
[I’ll add that both my wife and I saw their performance at the Grammy’s and exclaimed how “terrible” this song is.]
* * * Conclusions * * *
My students’ excitement for music has rekindled my own excitement.
Last week, I went on a William Fitzsimmons’s music binge and listened to all of his releases on my iPod for hours, and then picked up my guitar and started learning the songs for the sheer enjoyment of learning them! (Learn a song to simply learn it? I haven’t done that in years!)
OK, I admit, these experiences share a hint of this comic, but so be it.
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