I remember when I was a teenager, I wanted to learn how to play the guitar. My parents bought me an inexpensive acoustic guitar for a Christmas present, along with music lessons at a neaby music academy. I was thrilled to no end! My enthusiasm for learning how to play the guitar waned quickly though, when the first six lessons were all about learning how to Read Music. They said that you had to learn how to read music before you could do anything else. I think perhaps the worst part is that I already knew how to read music because I had played the piano for years, yet they held me back and made me take classes to learn things that I already knew.
I was impatient and dropped out of those classes after only about eight weeks. When they finally let me actually put my hands on my guitar they were making me play songs that I had no interest in learning. What fun is that? I wanted to learn how to play fun songs, not be a serious concert artist! I think that is one of the problems with a lot of educational programs. They don’t pique any interest in pursuing the goal. Very dry and boring and tedious.