Private Guitar Lessons

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monkie

monkie

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Hi everyone,

Well, I'm a beginner guitar player. I'm very excited; I'm taking my first guitar lesson tonight.

I want to ask all you guys who are experienced players about taking private guitar lessons.

How many in here actually took private guitar lessons? Did you enjoy it? Was it worth the amount of money you paid for for what you get out of it? The reason I ask is because I'm a little tight on budget right now but it's what I wanted to do a long time ago and don't want to wait any more. I want to be as good as I can as quickly as possible to save me some time and money.

Anyhow, how long did it take you to get where you wanted or get good at the guitar? Did you learn music theory/notations too, or not? What did you learn first, guitar techniques or guitar theory or both? Did you just learn one style of guitar playing or all styles? What would you do or recommend to a newbie like me to get the most out of private lessons? If you could go back in time, would you take private guitar lessons or would you not?

I apologized for asking so many unreasonable questions. I'm just very curious about something that I'm going to spend a lot of money on; and it's been so long that I haven't had any type of lessons. I took a short piano lesson a while back and I've been playing the piano for a little over a decade now and just wondering if it's any similar or different to piano lessons. And again I'm still very excite about my first guitar lesson tonight. Any advice or feedback would be much appreciate it.

Thanks for taking the time to read and anwer my questions. Have a great day.:D:):D:)
 
I started playing at 15 or 16, and that was in 87 or so, so hair metal was the thing of the day. I wanted to play in that style when I started. I first bought a book and worked through it a bit, and started taking lessons a few months later.

My teacher was good at showing me things I wanted to learn (popular songs), but I remember that he would also throw in other styles too. I remember him teaching me "Yesterday" by the Beatles, and a chord melody arrangement of the jazz standard "Misty."

To be honest, if I had it to do over again, I don't know that lessons are a necessity, unless you want to play classical guitar or something, where technique is of the essence. When it comes to blues and rock styles, I think there's a wealth of information in books or the internet that will do fine if you have the patience to be thorough and read it all and practice it.

Lessons are nice in the very beginning to get your feet wet, but after that, I don't think they're a necessity.

It's also kind of a crap shoot on whether or not you're going to get a good teacher. I've known several people over the years that taught private guitar lessons who had no business teaching guitar. The best you can do is try to find good references, but that's hard to do sometimes. How old are you? What styles are you interested in?

My guitar playing took a big leap forward when I went to UNT to study music, but more than that, my musicianship in general improved. I learned theory and things like that, but ear training was really essential in developing my ear.

Training your ear is a HUGE part of becoming a better musician/guitar player. And the #1 thing I would recommend in this regard is to start singing. Even if you think you don't have a voice, try it anyway. Sing what you play. This will help your ear immensely. There are those that have excellent ears and don't sing, but singing will force you to develop your ear. Plus, it's an awesome skill to have for singing lead or harmony in bands, etc.

Finally, with advice specifically toward the guitar, I'd say the thing that made me reach the level where I can call myself a "good" guitar player is to study players you like. Listen closely to what they do that sounds good to you, and try to figure out what it is and why it's appealing.

This can be something like technique (how they're picking the strings ... are they really digging in, using fingers, etc.?)

or it can be phrasing concepts in soloing (are they using passing tones, where are those falling within the beat, what notes are being played on the beat, what rhythyms are they playing, etc.?)

or it can be in songwriting (what chord progressions sound good to you, why do they sound good---it's likely because of one or two specific chords, what melodies catch your ear and what about them, etc.?)

I realize some of this probably isn't applicable to a beginner, but they're just things to keep in mind as you progress, and they're things I would have liked to have been told in my development.

Good luck!
 
here is the thing. i've studied under two different teachers. one had a masters in music, and one was a hack. if you want to know if the lessons will be worth ask if he trains the ear. and if he says no get the flock out of there. he's not worth the time. ear training is the most important aspect of music. and if he says yes, ask him how. if he sounds like he knows what he's talking about then you have pure gold in the form of a guitar teacher.

i didn't realize what i had with the masters teacher and i long for the days when i had him. i've been looking for another here in ontario but i haven't found anyone yet. i only took a years worth of lessons but it helped my ear a fair bit. (though my ear training is incomplete) and it helped my technique loads too.

if he's a hack save your money. if he can train your ear, pay him whatever he wants.
 
I've stopped taking guitar lessons about 3 or 4 years ago, and before that I took private lessons from a rock guy, a jazz guy, and a classical guitar guy in those styles. Each style of learning was totally different, but all were very worthwhile.

My first teacher, the rock guy, worked through songs I wanted to learn. We learned everything together by ear, and sometimes would just sit and listen to music together (he didn't charge me for that). Before that I played cello for nine years, so as far as finger technique and reading music, I got a bit of a head start.

After that, I started with the classical guitarist and worked with him for 2 years while I was in college. I'm not much into classical music, and didn't enjoy it so much, but was conscious that the training I was getting would be invaluable, even in a rock setting. All the speed, strange chord shapes, etc. came out of these lessons. Large parts of the lessons would be looking at a piece of music and then trying to transfer it to the neck of the guitar in the most logical, easy way possible. All those skills are things I use on a daily basis when writing music.

After that came the jazz guy. I don't really care about playing jazz, but it sort of turned into a fusion style thing. He taught me to take the stiff, exacting training I had as a classical guitar player and apply it to more irreverent chord voicings. We didn't look at one sheet of music for the two years I worked with him. Everything wass by ear. I agree with Nicole that ear training is really the most important aspect of learning an instrument, as the instrument is just a medium for you to speak through. All of your musicianship comes from what's in your head and your ears.

But where does this all fit in? I'm certainly not an amazing guitar player, but merely a competent one. Nothing seems too hard.

But this is where it really helps: I've played in a half a dozen rock bands off and on for the past two or three years. Some with trained guitar/bass players and some with self-taught. Both have their strong and weak points. The good part about having some kind of training, though, is that it enables you to talk about music in a way that is clear to everyone else. You share a language. Talking about music, I find, is the most difficult aspect of collaborating with other musicians.

And sometimes it can get in the way. We've been working on a song that started as a varying group of disparate parts, and we're sewing them together. One of the parts just vamps on an E/F back and forth sort of thing, and then the rest of the song is in G# minor. My bass player wanted to transpose the E/F part to make it fit in the key because "those are the rules." We had a nice, long conversation about how modern music doesn't follow those hard fast rules you learn in your first couple of years of school, and that all of the really interesting stuff is all 12 tone. We still haven't figured out what to do with the song, but it's just one example of a conversation that we wouldn't be able to have had we not put our time into some sort of lessons/training/reading etc.

But, another friend of mine is totally self-taught and invents his own tunings and chords. He follows no rules whatsoever and comes up with stuff that would simply never occur to anyone but him. And it sounds amazing. Picasso once said that it took him his whole life to learn how to paint like a child. It goes both ways I guess.

Short of private lessons though, the interweb is a great resource. there are hundreds of sites out there that will teach you everything from 12-bar improv to van halen fingertapping.

have fun
 
I've taken lessons from 3 different individuals and yes I agree with the sentiment above that each teacher can be very different from the others.

I do recommend that a beginner take lessons just to have someone there to consult for establishing good practice habits and good techniques right up front. That'll pay dividends for the rest of your life.

Just don't let it turn into a 30 minute chat session or jam session...you can do both of those things for free elsewhere. Make sure that your teacher has a lesson plan and that you stick to it. It's just so easy to chat away your half hour before you realize its been that long. But also don't be afraid to ask questions or ask to focus on certain things that you choose.

For these first six months or so, its going to feel like "all work, no play". It's tough to get your muscle memory, your flexibility, and your agility all off the ground, but once you do it'll just "click". there'll be that one day when you surprise yourself (and hopefully your teacher as well) with what you've learned, absorbed, and it'll be that day that you realize that there was a reason you put all those hours of practice on seemingly unmusical, boring, tedious exercises. Its totally "paint the fence, Daniel Son" I tell ya. :D

Good luck!
 
I have built guitars for some very well respected teachers, and been lucky enough to get loads of help from them in return. Perhaps the most memorable was a guy that told me, and I paraphrase because it was a long time ago.

You will not learn to play guitar by having an hours lesson a week you will learn how to play the guitar by applying it to your 10 - 20 hours practice between lessons.

He claimed that his best students would come back the following lesson with specific questions regarding the previous and future lesson.

EDIT: Just called the guy as I haven't spoken to him for a while and asked if he uses the quote he gave me often and what it is. So, he said....

It's not what you do during the lesson but with the 20+ hours between lessons that will make you a guitar player...

 
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I have built guitars for some very well respected teachers, and been lucky enough to get loads of help from them in return. Perhaps the most memorable was a guy that told me, and I paraphrase because it was a long time ago.

You will not learn to play guitar by having an hours lesson a week you will learn how to play the guitar by applying it to your 10 - 20 hours practice between lessons.

He claimed that his best students would come back the following lesson with specific questions regarding the previous and future lesson.

EDIT: Just called the guy as I haven't spoken to him for a while and asked if he uses the quote he gave me often and what it is. So, he said....

It's not what you do during the lesson but with the 20+ hours between lessons that will make you a guitar player...



This is a good point, and it brings up another point that's kind of along the same line.

It's much more effective to practice for 30 minutes or an hour a day than to cram 4 hours of practicing in only one day a week. A lot of people make that mistake, and if you're serious about getting good quickly, I can't overstress consistent practice every day if possible.
 
This is a good point, and it brings up another point that's kind of along the same line.

It's much more effective to practice for 30 minutes or an hour a day than to cram 4 hours of practicing in only one day a week. A lot of people make that mistake, and if you're serious about getting good quickly, I can't overstress consistent practice every day if possible.
Thats a work ethic I apply to all my time in the workshop. When I'm doing precise work. I always make a point of periodically stepping away from the bench every 20 minutes or so to collect my thoughts and relax my eyes, brain and fingers. Practicing is much the same for me. I try to make sure I'm working on something challenging other wise I'm just noodling and take regular breaks. I find the same helps when working on a mix. Going away for a few minutes and coming back to it fresh can often reveal something that you just miss in the heat of the action. I guess that boils down to good organisation and methodology both I've had to teach myself over the years.
 
I've been playing electric guitar on and off for about 10 years over the past 16 years or so. I started playing piano when I was 8 until about 13/14, then took up electric guitar at about 15 or 16. I took about three lessons from a great teacher who showed me how to alternate pick and finger the fretboard. He showed me C major/minor and the pentatonics in the same key. Never learned the names of any of the frets just learned those shapes and moved them around the fretboard. Dropped out of the lessons when he started talking about theory, it just wasn't a good fit for me. So I trained myself to play from there by ear. I went back to the same guy about a year or two later and we used to jam together and I would sit back and watch him fly around the fretboard - no talk of theory just technique and improvisation - I learned a lot from that. I learned the most by just working out whats in my head, it was tough at first but I eventually got to the point where I can play whatever I want without really thinking about it. Some can do it this way, some can't - the whole theory vs by ear argument just down to the individual. Not bashing lessons here, I'm just saying that you can get a lot from just a few lessons with a great teacher if you have already trained your ear on the piano - especially if you don't have a lot of cash.
 
This is my experience: If you're only learning the songs you want to learn and the teacher isn't teaching you the boring stuff like scales and a little bit of theory (this is the stuff you'll actually use) then you should find a new teacher.

Most teachers fall into the only teaching you songs category. You can learn songs from one of your musician buddies. There's no reason to pay for that.
 
...

"The best students are self-taught, with the help of a teacher."

thats how i was always taught to look at it, and thats how i have tried to explain it to others.

you have to know exactly what you are trying to learn before you can pick a teacher who suits your needs. then you just wrangle the info out of the teacher.

the key is getting books, looking at articles/forums online and talking to as many people as you possibly can about music.. the answers are easy to find out there.. its the questions that vary from student to student.

no amount of study will replace what you learn from jamming with live humans, both above and below your skill level.. in private or public settings.

once your ear is trained well enough you can also woodshed to your favorite albums.. with or without the help of sheet music.

as for the ear training, you can easily burn the sound of an interval into your brain by associating it with a piece of a melody you already know.

for instance..

the interval between the first two notes of the star wars theme is a 5th.

the interval between the first two notes of the wedding march is a 4th.

you just have to find a set of melody hints that work for you.

once you get the feel for what certain movements sound like then you will be able to pick them out of songs as you hear them on the radio or tv.. and eventually you should be able to play along to them by ear.

you will also realize that a great deal of music heard around the world is based on a shockingly limited but time-tested format known as 3 chord theory, or some close variation. its like colors.. all the colors are made from red/yellow/blue.. except its I/IV/V instead.

after a point you pretty much know a million songs just by learning a couple of songs.

thats why they invented jazz i guess.

personally i have always preferred the mentor approach, or more like an apprentice, where the student and teacher see each other regularly, when time permits, more than a regular scheduled lesson.

find someone who will teach you, but in a casual setting like your home or theirs. somewhere you can relax and play music. not buckle down and study.

fun will motivate you and make your practices more productive than any study method or rules.

good luck!
 
Like others are saying, no matter what or how you learn, it's practice that makes it worthwhile. Lessons, whether private or a class are beneficial to help you understand what you are doing and it helps to have someone to show you propper technique for fingering, picking etc... It takes a while to develope strength and dexterity, don't rush it, patience and practice are the ways to build all your playing skills. Learning to listen (ear training) isn't given the place of value that it deserves by many teachers. If you know what you are supposed to hear you will learn from your mistakes as well as from your successes. Set aside some time every day for practice, and stick to the schedule, this will help you to improve faster. Theory is good to know, but in the beginning you may be more comfortable learning the basics of how to play more than learning why you do things a certain way. When you practice until you are tired of a piece you are beginning to learn it, by the time you are sick of it you are starting to grasp the fundamentals of it, when you are sick and tired of it you have almost got it.

A good teacher will always give you something to challenge your abilities but not so far beyond your capibilities that you become frustrated.
 
The practice is probably the most important part, and I agree with the concept of finding a teacher who teaches scales and other things, not just how to play specific songs.

I never took lessons on guitar, and the thing I've suffered from that the most is that I never learned music theory. I've been playing guitar for about 10 years now, and had played bass for a few years before that, and drums for many years even before that. So, I had some finger dexterity and a mediocre ear for notes to start out. Then I started playing around with music I enjoyed at the time, and went from there. Only in the last few years have I really started to analyze why certain things work and some don't when it comes to chord progressions, etc., and I wish I had learned that many years ago, as I am now getting into songwriting.
 
how'd the lesson go?

Well, I certainly did not learn anything. I understand that it's only the first day, but the stuff he have me do are the things that I already know how to do, like the pentatonic scales.

The things he taught me gave me a second thought about taking guitar lessons from him or any other teachers. I feel that if I work hard enough I can still get good at the guitar without having to take private lessons and save me some money for other gears. I know it might take longer but honestly, I think I learn more from watching Youtube and other music forums. To me, I didn't feel like we have a connection as teacher and student; maybe because it's still new....? Maybe I'll give it another try next week, but from reading from other people's post I feel like it's just going to be a waste of time and money.

When I asked him what he think of ear training he didn't seem to stress much about it. I tried to get interested but he didn't give me any motivations at all. He did most of the playing and we just chat and chat and 30 minutes went by like it was only 10 minutes. That's when I started to feel like I'm getting ripped off.

I have a question to anyone here who has taking private guitar lessons before. What does a good teacher do, how do they teach you or how do they treat their students? I need to know so I can decide whether or not I want to continue with the lesson or go without it. Any questions or comments are welcome and appreciated. I'll come back and tell you guys how it went after next week if I decided to continue with the lesson or not.

Later.:D
 
Hi everyone,
I want to be as good as I can as quickly as possible to save me some time and money.


Money is simple. You have it in your pocket, you either use it or you don't. As for the other part: "I want to be as good as I can as quickly as possible to save me some time..."

I don't know what "saving me some time" means in this context. To me it's not a question of "saving time," or "spending time." It's time, itself. Time when you're sitting there with a guitar and playing it. It's guitar. The time I spend in music is time in and of itself, not time to be banked against some abstract standard of perfection. Noodling is not practicing scales. It's eating noodles. Nay, loving noodles.

To your real question, though, I wonder if maybe your teacher might have been trying to figure out how good YOU were. I didn't know from your first post whether you played at all--but you know some pentatonics and have some idea where you're going with it. If you meet with him again I might say "I want to work on phrasing soloes," or "I want to be able to play any chord in three inversions up and down the neck on any string." Or maybe: "I want to work on minimizing position changes on my left hand." This gives you something concrete to work on. He'll suggest something along the way as a spinoff, if he's a good teacher, to keep you moving once he better knows what you're playing.

I wouldn't worry about him playing too much in the first few lessons. He's probably trying to show you he knows some shit. How did he learn the guitar?
 
Well, I certainly did not learn anything. I understand that it's only the first day, but the stuff he have me do are the things that I already know how to do, like the pentatonic scales.

The things he taught me gave me a second thought about taking guitar lessons from him or any other teachers. I feel that if I work hard enough I can still get good at the guitar without having to take private lessons and save me some money for other gears. I know it might take longer but honestly, I think I learn more from watching Youtube and other music forums. To me, I didn't feel like we have a connection as teacher and student; maybe because it's still new....? Maybe I'll give it another try next week, but from reading from other people's post I feel like it's just going to be a waste of time and money.

When I asked him what he think of ear training he didn't seem to stress much about it. I tried to get interested but he didn't give me any motivations at all. He did most of the playing and we just chat and chat and 30 minutes went by like it was only 10 minutes. That's when I started to feel like I'm getting ripped off.

I have a question to anyone here who has taking private guitar lessons before. What does a good teacher do, how do they teach you or how do they treat their students? I need to know so I can decide whether or not I want to continue with the lesson or go without it. Any questions or comments are welcome and appreciated. I'll come back and tell you guys how it went after next week if I decided to continue with the lesson or not.

Later.:D

I will save you my echoes of what other posters have said about consistent practice. That said:

There is no faster way to learn to play guitar (or any instrument) than through dedicated practice alongside the guidance of a qualified, knowledgeable, personable instructor, and the frequent practice of playing with other musicians. Period.

There are plenty of bad teachers. Lessons with them would be a waste of time and money. My first teacher (I was 14 years old at the time) taught solely out of Alfred Guitar Method books. That was a waste of money. If anyone even mentions that to you, run. My second teacher was a classically trained guitarist turned jazz virtuoso. That was not a waste of money. Given a convenient time and available funds, I'll take more lessons with him.

A good teacher will:
1. Help you develop your ear, so that you can teach yourself music within your style of interest.
2. Teach you to read music, so that you can communicate with other musicians of different instruments, and further your musicianship through written music.
3. Teach you theory and its applications.
4. Be well-versed in your style of interest, enough so that s/he can teach you music that can challenge you.
5. Be a personal fit for you, in the sense that you are comfortable asking questions.
6. Be able to answer your questions, or point you to resources that can.
7. Widen your musical horizons.

There is really no substitute from learning from well-educated musicians. You may be able to start with a friend that knows the instrument, that is certainly a convenient and financially beneficial option.
 
I teach guitar for a living, as well as bass and trumpet. And I think most of what's been said is dead on. And after your reply from your first lesson you should probably try to find another teacher. Sounds like you have a less than stellar one right now.

But also be careful to manage your expecations (your teacher should have told you this in your first lesson.) I understand you don't have cash to burn but anything we learn is not a fast process. It's simply not how humans learn.

The two most important factors for learning anything, in my opinion, are muscle memory and converting short term memory to long term memory. And both are achieved the exact same way. Repetition. And there's no shortcut for that.

If you don't think you can find a decent teacher nearby then definitely don't waste your money. But if you can find one and still don't want to take for a lenghty time just go in and let him/her know! Then they can tailor the lesson plans for getting you ready to do stuff on your own. Rather than teaching you as if you'll be there for a couple years.
 
I teach guitar part time (3-4 students, beginner to intermediate.) During each lesson I try to show a student something they want to learn, and something they need to know. It is a little different for each student. Everyone doesn't learn at the same speed or in the same way. What you expect to gain from lessons should determine what type of teacher you seek to learn from. You have to express your expectations clearly and early on so a teacher can custom design a program to suit your needs. If you are expecting more than a teacher can provide, they should be honest enough to admit to you that you need another teacher, and if they are really honest they will recommend someone who can meet your needs.
 
I got maybe eight lessons for guitar and none for the piano. People think im better at piano but im self conscious because im self taught. I think what made me a better piano player is spending two hours a day just playing and really teaching myself while playing so much. I also watched people play live and in videos and watched you-tube tutorials and lessons which are surprisingly really helpful.

Do I think a private music instructor is needed... my answer to that question is if your just starting out and haven't play any stringed instrument then yes. If you have played a bass or violin or cello and have the musical learning curve needed to pick up instruments just by watching other people play and mimicking there technique then no.
 
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