Damn little. Not even as much as what Josh teaches. Certainly not modes, circles, or inversions. You don’t even need to know the note names.
If you want to play with others, you need enough to communicate.
If you want to play covers, you don’t need anything more than tab.
If you want to be a bar band you probably need to be able to transpose for a singer.
For me, what makes music theory difficult is context. It’s hard to commit to memorizing some seemingly superfluous theory without having the context of why that theory is important or how it might be useful. If your going to teach theory, do it in the context of why it’s important. It’s entirely possible the person needs to learn how to play ten songs all the way through before they will have the needed context.
This was one of the things Josh does well in B2B. He gives context to everything he teaches.
But we aren’t all Deadmau5. And it’s a lot easier to learn the fundamentals of the theory behind things like this from a teacher than from trying to figure it out on your own.
Eric nails an important point. Learning theory outside of context seems useless. It would be like trying to learn a language by grammar rules but without ever speaking or writing it. Trust me - this is a mugs game. It doesn’t work. I’ve tried it
This +1
I could have taught myself all of the stuff in the B2B course by trial and error. I didn’t though, I followed the breadcrumbs and now it makes sense on an elemental level.
So B2B theory plus 2-3 hours practice a day gets me to a point where I can comfortably play basic songs. That’s currently enough for me. Everyone’s mileage is different, so I feel it’s an almost impossible question to answer.
Not sure if you were joking or not but that is talked about along with tuning, selecting an instrument, cases/gig bags, string types and gauges, the importance of rhythm and a few other items. Other than the importance of tuning, everything else is just briefly touched upon in the first lesson and elaborated on as the weeks progress.
Each of the sessions run about 2 hrs but some times run over. Actually a lot of the time
In week 3 I ask if anybody is interested in learning to change their own string. If they are, in week 4 I go through the complete process of doing a string change, which includes checking the hardware, oiling the fretboard, cleaning the body, and discuss neck relief, action height, and humidity (not necessarily in that order).
Although I do not charge for any of this instruction, many times, I have had people come up to me and drop $20 in my case and had over $200 donated to me, in one session, in appreciation. It’s not the money but I tell you the feeling you get when you realize how much appreciation people have for what you are doing is almost overwhelming to the point of tears.
A lot of this may sound crazy to a lot of people but I have to say that in the 6 years I have been doing this I have easily made thousands of friends and have no problem finding someone to jam with.
I warn you, if decide to try and do this it will get time consuming very fast. Before Covid I was spending, on average, 20 hours a week structuring for future lessons.
Remember these are people that have NEVER played before and are inspired by the advertisement of free music instruction with instruments supplied.
Most students are women with children and want to play the ukulele as a first instrument.
A lot of women take their children to singalongs at libraries, and the like, and would like to join in with the children.
Happy Birthday was chosen because:
1 - Most women give birthday parties for their children.
2 - Most people sing Happy Birthday at birthday parties.
3 - Happy Birthday is only 4 lines long and three of them are the same.
4 - Happy Birthday only has three simple chords.
5 - On a standard ukulele the I chord is a simple single finger chord, and is most of the song.
The V chord is a simple 3 finger chord and the IV chord is a simple 2 finger chord.
So from walking in knowing nothing and being able to play a complete song 2 hours later, that’s quite an accomplishment for them.
Now granted it does not sound that great on day one but after several days of practice they have all been able to play Happy Birthday from memory and are thrilled about what they have been able to do when they thought it would be so hard and probably thought they would not be able to do it.
The libraries I teach in have musical instrument that you can check out like books so the students initial outlay to try this is just their time and is also a great incentive but it is amazing how many show up with their own instruments within the next few weeks.
It makes me happy because more people have been introduced to playing a musical instrument and shown that really anybody can play one. To me it all comes down to wanting to play and allocating some practice time.
It’s not that you picked the song Happy Birthday for beginners to learn - that bit I can understand. It’s that you made a point of stating “because, as I said, most of my students are women and this is a song they can play at their children’s, or friends, birthday parties.”
It sounded sexist to me, the “because they are women” bit. Maybe we move in different worlds and, if so, so be it!
But also, this comment is not to detract from your community work - as I said previously, good on you for giving your time to others for free so they can learn music.
I guess it’s my age, but I do not understand why everyone has to be so careful about everything they say these days because it may be taken out of context, as this was, by you.
The whole reason for me doing these lessons is to show anyone, male or female, young or old, that they can play a musical instrument if they want to. My only criterion is that children have to be at least 9 or 10 years old. I guess this could be called age discrimination but how else can I put it.
In closing, let me say that I meant absolutely nothing derogatory to women, in any way shape or form, in my statement, and I apologize if it offended anyone.
I was only making a point about the gender makeup of the sessions and my reasoning behind why I selected the first song I did, no more no less.
@Celticstar you could avoid any problems with perceived sexism by choosing another song.
I’d recommend something by the b&w minstrels. That should be fine.
On behalf of women without children everywhere, I’d like to express the offense they feel for you teaching this song when they have no one to sing it to and therefore it’s harder for them to learn it. This is clearly unfair.
