Teacher Page

These are the Questions Sreenath answers as part of teacher training. Click on the down arrow to see all questions in the playlist. To be continued.
Useful for students, since the Q&A is relevant to our process. 

Questions and Answers

(answers as given by Sreenath without additions from Shyam)

1 .What is the use of up and down strokes ? Show with an example

Ans : To maintain the consistency and continuity of hits given to the notes, especially while playing faster.

2 .What should be the neck doing while playing guitar ? How should we position the neck and how should we be looking at the fretboard ?

Ans : The neck of the guitar should be a little forward away from the body rather than pulling it inwards closer to the body. A slightly slanted position up from neck down towards the body of the guitar. Make use of bottom strings or inlays as reference.

3. What is the position of the shoulder and position of fretboard angle . How are they related ?

Ans : The shoulder should be straight and must be avoiding any unnatural position. Fretboard can be kept in a slightly slanting position upwards the neck.

4. Which major scale have the same notes as c dorian scale ? Show both c dorian and associate major scale.

Ans : Bb Major.

5. What are the limited number of scale patterns used to play any scale ?

Ans : Patterns starting with Index finger and middle finger.

6. what is the wide scale pattern starting from 5th string. Play two octaves from 5th string.

Ans : The pattern starts with Index finger with a semitone shift while reaching 2nd string.

7. How do we connect major scale to get relevant raga? Which raga is it ?

Ans : By applying slide rules for for the relevant raga. It forms raga Shankarabharanam while proper slides are applied to the Major scale notes.

8. Hamsadwani and Mohanam both of them can be played using major or minor notes ? Show arohana of Mohanam and Hamsadwani .

Ans : Major pentatonic notes with the appropriate slides for each one.

9. Find possible chords in CEDE melody notes  .

Ans : C,Am,Cadd9

10. CED which chord have all these notes ?

Ans : Cadd9

11. What is the formula of A minor7 chord ? What are the notes of A minor7 chord and How to play it on open position ?

Ans : 1 b3 b7, A C E G

12. How do you play the E minor7 chord ?

Ans : E G B D

13. Show basic pattern for chord melody fingerstyle . Mention the best practices for right hand while chord melody.

Ans : TIMI RIMI , Thumb for bottom 3 strings, Index for 3rd string , Middle for 2nd string and Ring for 1st string.

14. How to divide longer slide using  hammer on and pull off ? Show it using four note slide going from down to up .

Ans : Hammer on pull of technique used in between instead of a single stretched slide. Refer the video from playlist.

15. Explain connectedness . Show connectedness and disconnectedness using oh shanti song phrase as an example.

Ans : Avoiding delay between the sequence of notes and maintaining sustain between switching.

16. What are the problems with generic and abstract exercises ?

Ans : Will be getting better on exercises rather than applying or relating them to the final expecting results. Start playing phrases or notes as exercise to get desired result.

17.Difficulty while playing real life songs

Ans : Start playing phrases or notes from a song . Try to develop and build the connection and melody rather than trying to learn the whole song with connection and sustain of notes missed.

Testimonials

I was introduced to Sreenath by Shyam the guitar maestro who runs Ragacourses, but as a beginner guitarist and senior citizen , I was naturally apprehensive but from the very first lesson Sreenath put me at ease and had me playing my first Sai Bhajan by the end of the lesson. What I love about him is that he truly takes the individual student’s desire into account when creating lessons. He assessed my playing, listened to what I thought I wanted to learn, then helped me develop goals for my practice and playing. He even learns new songs I want to play and tabs them just for me. Sreenath has been great at teaching in a way that works for me. He knows his stuff and it’s fun to watch him play so effortlessly. His lessons are very casual and his calm demeanor really help limit the frustration involved with learning a musical instrument.
He is a motivator — exactly what you want in a teacher.

Krishna Mohan
Maryland, USA
 

I have tried udemy and other online guitar tutoring classes but no one gave me the exact or organized path for learning Guitar. But here I realized that guitar is pattern based instrument and should learn in an organized way along with theory. The tutor teaches the class in an organized way from basics then polish the basics by taking a song of your choice and teaches all types of basics needed to learn guitar. I can vouch that my performance is improving day by day.
My best advice: Tell your requirement to the tutor and he will tailor the path according to your requirement. The best thing is that he gives the time for asking your doubts and makes you to practice in the class itself.

Hemanth
Andhra Pradesh, India