My 13 year old guitar player son came to me with a cash request for two miracle courses to make him a better musician. One of them promises perfect pitch for $139:
The other is a specific guitar course taught by Dan Denley who will make you a great guitar player for $49
My guess is that both of these courses have some good information, probably all of it available in other places, at a lower price, but I’m open minded. Does anyone have any experience with either of these?
Thanks.
Before investing in such ventures, check out sites like Ricci Adams’ Musictheory.net which don’t cost anything. If your 13 year old responds favorably to such tutors and demonstrates the need for something more monitored or coached, then would be the time to spend the money.
If your 13 year old doesn’t respond favorably to the free ones, there’s less likelihood the money would be well spent.
I don’t think they are scams per say. As a long time musician I can tell you that no course does squat unless the person is determined to practice, practice practice. There is no magic course that makes you a great musician with little effort.
I work at a music store and talk to lots of parents who are trying to encourage their child in music. I think a decent beginner guitar and Amp is enough of an investment. There are lots of instructional books that cost a whole lot less. There is lots of great educational material on line for free.
Concerning guitar. The student should learn to read tabluture. There are lots of songs on the net for free in tab.
You might commit to a few lessons but tell the student practice is required. Try to find a teacher that offers the style of music that the student finds interesting.
Good luck.
You cannot buy perfect pitch. You must be born with it. You can develop tonal memory, but the ability to identify any note by name by just hearing it, and tell whether it’s sharp or flat is inborn.
Anybody who claims to be able to make you a great guitar player for $49 is lying through their teeth. It takes weekly lessons from a qualified, certified teacher, and decades of daily practice.
Thanks for input.
FWIW, my son started playing a year ago. I wouldn’t pay for lessons at first so he found lots of info on the net and taught himself. By September he’d improved so much that we started paying for a teacher who has been great and my son has improved tremendously. Takes it all very seriously.
The specific thing we’re wondering about is if anyone has any experience with either of the web sites I linked to.
Perfect pitch isn’t something you can learn - you either have it or you don’t. At least, that’s what everyone says. I keep hoping they’re wrong.
But what’s much more important and useful is relative pitch, which is what you can learn from things like musictheory.net, linked above. The easiest way to remember different intervals is to have a song that you think of for each one. For example, the first interval in “Here comes the bride” is a P4, and for a m7, think of the line “There’s a place for us” (West Side Story)
If someone is born with an ability for “perfect pitch”, it can be trained and improved. But, you have to have something to start with. It isn’t necessary though, because most people can learn to hear the intervals. It’s one of the benefits of being "forced to practice the scales. You’re better served paying for a good instructor as you already are doing, and also (hint hint) by buying CDs or records. Classical, jazz, a sampling of each, featuring whatever instrument your son is learning. That way he will develop a feeling/ear for what is good and will gain some exposure to some incredible musicians. The SDMB is a great great place to get recommendations on who to start listening to.
Is it always A440 tuning which is inborn? 
I never can accept that absolute identification of notes in this way can be an inherent ability. I can accept that some people have a far greater natural ability to identify pitches, which means that the daily collage of musics which we all experience is enough for them to acquire the ability to do what you describe.
But for the OP - what cosmosdan says. Not having perfect pitch has never been a hindrance for me as a musician, but less-than-consistent practice often has been.
Tab is great, but it’s more of an aid if you’re already intimately familiar with a song, and net ascii tabs are generally useless as far as rhythm is concerned. If a student is going to bother to put the effort into it (as opposed to learning by ear), he or she should learn standard notation first and foremost. Learning to read a lead sheet should be up there as well. If the student is going to use tab, I’d recommend buying a book where tab is displayed beneath standard notation or at the very least tab with accurate rhythmic notation.
I learned at least 50% of what I routinely play from tab, but I wouldn’t have been able to do it without a solid foundation in standard notation. That should come first .
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