These meetings are a great chance for members and non-members alike to find out more about our society and also to hear or play guitar music in an informal setting. Following performances we encourage discussion of pertinent historical or musical issues and we end with a free form discussion of our short and long range goals. Practice and lots of it was the advice from the advanced degree guitar students of the UT studio. Understanding music and how it fits on the guitar, is conceptually removed from most people's experience in daily life. Therefor special care must be taken in preparation for performance.
Most people rely on only two types of memory, muscular and aural.
There are two others, however, which are being widely taught in guitar pedagogy. A performer should understand the harmonic structure of the piece being played. This kind of knowledge allows the brain to organize and understand the music in a much more coherent manner. Memorizing a piece without understanding its larger framework is akin to memorizing a speech letter by letter with no understanding of the words they spell. Visual memory, when practiced away from the guitar is in many ways the most difficult but also the most rewarding.