We wouldn’t learn Jazz improvisation or chord melody from a generic guitar teacher. First, I will search for a jazz expert whose playing I want to emulate. Second, I will make sure they have proven, direct, optimized teaching methods.
Ted Greene’s chord melodies? I wouldn’t learn from any other material.
Indian music on Guitar – to play like Prasanna, learn from him. To play like Baiju, we will need to decipher his specific moves. If you like the way I (Shyam) play, you learn the competencies, subskills, strategies that I use to get the final result.
A generic guitar teacher just doesn’t have the info or thinking to teach Indian music on guitar authentically. Let alone learning or teaching specific styles within the genre. Transcribe and somehow repeat ignores the bridge building and specific musical thinking required.
For example: Notes are not swaras, Scales are not ragas. Simple basics.
Yet, there are even print books being sold, misleading students. The usual teaching of substituting notes with swaras is not raga playing.
S R G is not C D E.
If you play g g p p, d p S S of Mohanam varnam using E E G G, it will sound like music from Kungfu Panda, with its major pentatonic origins.
Without raga rules, carnatic crosses the borders, through Himalayas.
Want to learn Carnatic or raga based playing? Learn the rules. Learn how to play the rules.
Example: Major scale to Raga Shankarabharanam
I have been practising and playing Indian raga and film songs on the guitar, fluently like sung, since I was 11. I have used my learning and teaching expertise (IIT etc) to create outcome oriented curriculum and practice methods. And I am happy to share the underlying methods and thinking process, for others to benefit. It’s unlikely that all my years can be replicated by generic methods.
When someone is interested in learning style of Prasanna or Baiju, I encourage them to learn from those players directly. The insider information is too specific.
Will we learn authentic western classical from someone who can listen and repeat a few chord melodies somehow, or from someone who knows the steps, intricacies and bottlenecks of that specific genre? No. Choose your source very well.