Guitar Secrets – by Hiroaki Maekawa Open Session
On 12-April 2022, the guitar instructors of Cristofori gathered at the Bechstein Music World Event Hall for a glimpse at the new Guitar Secrets method book by our long-time colleague, educator, international artiste and session musician Hiroaki Maekawa, better known to Cristoforians as Hiro.
Hiro has written this book to share with everyone his tips and secrets to teaching guitar aimed towards more contemporary music styles and exams like Rockschool Acoustic and Electric Guitar. In his teaching career, there has always been an abundance of resources for Classical Guitar teaching, including Cristofori’s own classical guitar method which thoroughly and systematically covers all the skills required for playing classical styles.
At the session, Hiro gave a chapter-by-chapter look at his new book’s current draft, and also facilitated jamming and demo sessions by our teachers to give a better idea of the flow of lessons outlined.
Guitar Secrets features a series of topics covering guitar basics such as notes on each of the guitar’s strings, basic chords, fretting hand techniques like bends, hammer-ons and pull-offs, an approach to scales that breaks out of just playing them for exams (and forgetting them the next day), and introducing students to blues style jams and some introduction to chord extensions, all elements found in contemporary music!
These additions were written in by Hiro to ease students into skills like creativity, improvisation, and maybe even eventually writing their own music. Hiro also included some ear training examples and activities, as well as video lessons for students to refer to if they forget how to do a particular task or exercise that are accessible via QR Code. The book also features specially composed pieces specifically designed to incorporate each topic and skill.
Another unique element that he has included is the use of half-chords to ease students into, and encourage them to continue playing barre chords until they develop enough strength to play the full chord later on in their journey.
Closing out the session, Hiro approached each of the guitar instructors for their thoughts, feedback, and input on what could be added or modified to further improve the book for final publication.
As is customary, the session was closed out with a group photo with our guitar instructors looking especially happy to be able to gather together again after over 2 years, serving as a mini-reunion and catch up for everyone who attended.
Many thanks to our instructors who attended and shared their time, skills and input! It was certainly refreshing and wonderful to be able to gather with our colleagues again.
Hiro’s “Guitar Secrets” is currently under revisions and will hopefully be ready to release in the 3rd or 4th quarter of this year.
