Hey, Folkie:

What a question... my answer may not be what you'd expect, and it says a lot about Dave and his teaching. My lessons (I only took lessons for about three months) consisted of three, roughly equal parts. I think that all three were equally important. The most obvious one was Dave teaching me some basic finger-picking patterns. I didn't come to him to learn to be a blues guitarist because I didn't feel that's who I was (or am.) What he showed me was how to do basic three finger picking patterns, and as the lessons progressed, how to carry bass runs with my thumb and pick out melodies with my two other fingers. He showed me some rudiments of blues guitar, where the thumb doesn't play alternate bass notes, and also sent me home to transcribe songs from one key into another. After two or three months, I had pretty much digested that, and he didn't feel that he had that much more to show me, for the kind of guitar I wanted to play. Ironically, the blues techniques of sliding notes and breaking out of the alternating bass turned out to be of great value many years later when I tried to play electric guitar on black gospel. "Travis" picking styles didn't fit the rhythms, and the syncopated rhythms and broke down picking patterns turned out to be just what I needed. Now, when I play guitar in black churches, the other guitarists play a much more electric blues and jazz style and are fascinated that I carry the rhythm, bass runs and melody all at once, with a lot of drive to the music. The seeds for my style were planted 40 years ago, in those three months with Dave.

But, that's only a part of the story. Every lesson included Dave playing records for me.. introducing me to everything from the Carter Family to Blind Lemon Jefferson. He was the one who introduced me to the Anthology Of American Folk music, which became my bible and primary source of songs for many years .. right up to the present.
Dave understood that music is much more than technique and he wanted to fill me with traditional music that he loved, the blues only being a small part of it.

The other third of the lesson would be me bringing in arrangements that I was fumblingly working out on my own. Dave understood that the only way anyone really learns to play an instrument is to leave
tablature and "lessons" behind and create your own music. Dave was very encouraging of my early attempts, occasionally showing me how I could find a different fingering for a chord or a slight modification of pattern. But mostly, he was just there as a resource when I had a question.

In later years, when I taught guitar and banjo, I subconsciously taught in much the same way. I tried to wean my students from playing tablature by rote. challenging them to learn songs from me that I would play in front of them, slowing everything down as much as they wanted, taping the song for them and then sending them home to listen to the tape and work it out on their own. Sad to say, every student I had resisted trying to learn anything on their own, and quit the lessons as soon as they didn't have a weekly tablature to work on. That really discouraged my efforts to teach. I had given them all the basic patterns, and everything they needed to proceed on their own, but they didn't want to step beyond the spoon-fed phase.

If I had been more serious about being a blues guitarist more in the style of Dave, I'm sure he would have led me further into chord progression and positions on the neck. As it was, he did give me a good understanding of basic chord structure that proved helpful. Dave didn't teach from written sheet music. Everything he taught me was from tablature, and example. He was the perfect instructor for me because he encouraged me to have my own style, right from the beginning. I never wanted to sound like anyone but myself, and Dave not only respected that, he did everything he could to give me what I needed to find my own voice. And then he set me free.

Jerry