Howard Parker wrote:I love classic country as much as the next guy, however most of my pay days come from playing roots/alt/indi rock (whatever that is)
I believe that irrelevant instruction is high on the list for discouraging younger players. I think it is a mistake to use classic country music in the curriculum when many of the younger players are culturally in a different place.
Understand current music trends and teach the guitar in that context. That means teachers must at least accept the present/future music scene and have a vision of the pedal steel within.
I love "Way To Survive" as much as the next guy here. Many younger aspiring players, not so much. Try to force them to accept the classic country style as a prerequisite for learning pedal steel and meet resistance.
The above being said, I do not predict the demise of pedal steel. I meet new, younger players fairly frequently. They/we have somehow managed to find each other at gigs and on other online forums. Music and ideas are shared. The attitudes are optimistic, encouraging and respectful of the generations of players that paved the way.
Time marches on.
Just the way I experience my little piece of the world.
ymmv
h
The question that a lot of us in our seventh decade of life is: my time is running out, so how do I want to spend it?
Perhaps I lack your altruism, Howard. As a teacher but also as a longtime player, I'm adverse to learning a bunch of music, songs, styles, whatever, that I don't care to listen to, much less spend time analyzing simply for the purpose of "reaching" a younger player.
If a player wants to know what I know, I'll help them out if possible. If he wants to learn "red dirt" or alternative/indie rock playing styles, I'm sure he can find an instructor who's as enamored of that music as he is. It's not that I think that music isn't valid and good, it's just not what interests me.
Purely a personal, non-judgemental decision. At 67 years of age and relatively comfortable, there are other things I want to do in life besides music that require my time and involvement. I certainly enjoy listening to, and performing, the music that I love, but it's not usually stuff that someone untutored in the music of the 30's through 60's would automatically gravitate to, unless they were of the ultra-hip (IMHO) variety. Basically, I play with kids my own age and in our own sandboxes.
Not just teaching, mind you: I got a call from an "up and coming" singer/songwriter, in his late 20's, who asked me to do a showcase with him. Twenty original songs, and could we have a couple rehearsals? He admitted that I'm worth a lot more, but all he could pay was $80.
I had to explain to him, nicely, that a one-off gig that involved learning and rehearsing 20 songs I will only play once for 80 bucks simply isn't what I do anymore. Nor am I up for getting in a van with musicians young enough to be my grandchildren driving all over the country while sacrificing "for the band."
Like I said, I simply don't have the time or the interest. Those gigs might be on the bucket list for others of my generation, so more power to ya. It won't be me standing in your way, and some of their women are spectacular... and really cute the way they say "grandpa" with a lot of tongue and lip/eyelid piercings.
My rig: Infinity and Telonics.
Son, we live in a world with walls, and those walls have to be guarded by men with steel guitars. Who's gonna do it? You? You, Lt. Weinberg?