Developed in Singapore over a period of 30 years, the Luse Method is a holistic and integrated children's guitar method. Robert Luse has drawn from his extensive experience as a teacher, performer and composer to write and constantly revise the method, as well as to ensure that it is equally effective for adults.
As the title suggests, the method focuses on overall musical development of the student as well as the skills and knowledge particular to the instrument itself.
The Musician-Guitarist has two chief aims: To promote classical guitar as an instrument suitable for beginners of various ages and aspirations, and to balance development between expression and the technical foundation upon which it depends. Click here to read the Author's Foreword.
The Method consists of Basic, Intermediate and Advanced Volumes. (Click any image to enlarge)
Parts I-III, formatted for youngsters, have minimal text. For teachers and older readers, supplemental text for these books is available in the Study Guide.
Grade levels corrspond approximately to the Associated Board of the Royal School of Music (A.B.R.S.M.) as follows:
Basic Method - Preparatory
Intermediate Method - Grades I-V
Advanced Method - Grades VI-VIII
Students wishing to persue music examinations will find Scales and Arpeggios At a glance as well as several other Method Supplements, helpful.
UPDATES:
March 2008: "Moods of a Mayfly" for bottleneck slide and prepared guitar with Asian characteristics now available! Click Here to view!
December 2007: Luse Method Sampler now Available! Click Here to view!
Find echoes of your own guitar story in...
Commentaries by student performers - GUITARS 'R LUSE!!!
Towards a lower starting age
For children much under the age of six, the small muscle co-ordination demanded for guitar does not seem justified compared to the ease of keyboard instruments. Also, as the clearest visual exemplar of musical organisation, the keyboard is fundamental to music study.
Thus said, I hasten to add that the problem with the guitar seldom involves taking it up too early!
The prevalent assumption - that guitar lessons should commence at a later age than those for piano or violin - is worth examining. While string and keyboard instruments are normally begun well before the age of ten, guitar is typically begun in the teens, an age when other priorities tend to put obstacles in the way of serious training.
One reason the guitar is not started earlier is of course the lack of traditional emphasis. Another is the evident lack of 'works' for the classical guitar as opposed to pop guitar or other 'sociable' instruments, for which the camraderie of high school band or orchestra is a ready part of the appeal. Although also a problem shared by the piano, beginners on that instrument are self-sufficient sooner than on guitar. And while technically as complex as the violin, the guitar does not possess that instrument's elevated status as 'queen of instruments.'
The widespread enrolment of youngsters in string and keyboard courses has also insured a competitive evolution on those instruments towards ever more effective training techniques. Sadly, the greater diversity of enrolment in guitar studios and the necessity to choose between diverse, even opposed guitar styles, tends towards the opposite effect.
The well-tempered guitar
Unlike the violin, the guitar is responsive to enlightened study by both young and adult beginners. Adults generally make encouraging progress early on in their studies. Their advantages include motivation and considerable musical exposure, if only through having listened a good deal. Learning is found to be interesting and ensemble playing in particular offers many rewards.
Special challenges for adults may include insufficient practice time, loss of elasticity in the fingers and unrealistically high expectations with regard to learning pace and accomplishment. While recognising the potential pitfalls, adults should be encouraged to develop as far as possible and to achieve the very real pleasures of matering materials within their reach. Above all, no-one should consider themselves too old to begin.
During the thirty years I have been writing and teaching The Musician-Guitarist, I have observed that, although great talent is rare, it is in some measure possessed by nearly everyone. My aim has therefore been to maximise this potential.
Coping with the diverse requirements and aspirations of beginners of varied age, motivation, talent and background is a formidable challenge for teachers. To do this within a framework directed towards their future needs makes the challenge even greater. If the present method helps to make this process more rewarding - and expressive playing more widespread - it will have achieved its purpose.
Robert Luse
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The Basic Method, played by the right hand thumb, consists of four books: Thumb 1, Thumb 2, Thumb 3 and Thumb 4, paced so as to accommodate a wide learning curve.
The Intermediate Method consists of Rest Stroke (RS1-4) and Free Stroke (FS1-4), the two series to be studied concurrently.
The Advanced Method consists of two books, Along the String (shifting) and Across Strings (upper positios) plus Complete Scales and Arpeggios (at a glance).
21st December 2001
Singapore