#037: What Happens When a Computer Scientist Becomes a Guitar Teacher with Keith Martin of Fret Science

In today’s podcast episode, our guest Keith Martin of Fret Science shared his journey with us from being a computer scientist to becoming a guitar teacher. He goes into detail about how he applied some concepts from his computer science background to learning guitar and teaching, as well as some of the ways that he applies this knowledge on his lessons. He also tells the story of how he quickly grew his YouTube channel from 0 subscribers to 14,000+ within just 2 months through using data-driven lessons and helpful content creation tools.

• Keith shared an overview of his journey and how he started as a guitar teacher.
• His perspective as a computer scientist and applying it to the fretboard and learning guitar.
• Keith shared his success on YouTube, from having 0 followers to 14,000 subscribers in two months.
• How to get great results with less practice and repetition from a computer science perspective.
• His interest in cognitive science or learning psychology and applying that into his teaching.
• Bridging the gap between cognitive science and the actual lesson itself.
• Keith’s one piece of advice: Practice the things that are hard for you.
• Why guitar hasn’t really evolved that much in the grand scheme of things.
• Some of the things that people are missing out on by sticking to older ways of doing things.
• The 3 notes per string system for learning guitar.
• Keith shared how he creates his YouTube videos using Keynote.
• Exploring improvisation and teaching creativity to his students.
• One piece of wisdom for the listeners.

Guest Links

• Fret Science Website
• Fret Science YouTube Channel
• Keith Martin Facebook Page

Guitar Teaching Resources Mentioned

• Free Guitar E-book Resources

Today’s Guest

Keith Martin earned a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. By day, he’s an engineering manager at a leading science/engineering software company. His website and YouTube channel, Fret Science, is dedicated to reducing the amount of memorization and repetitive practice needed to fluently navigate the guitar fretboard. He uses insights from cognitive and computer science to teach the building blocks of music – triads, arpeggios, and scales – in ways that can be understood in minutes and easily recalled from memory, so that you’ll never need to look at a scale or chord diagram again.

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