I'm Still Taking Guitar Lessons, My 14th Month, but Why is It That Things Are Taking Longer to Master?
Posted in guitar lessons on 14. Sep, 2011
What’s this week’s guitar lessons question? Let’s dive straight in…
Question: When I was a beginner, my teacher would give me assignments to do for 1 week.
Then, I would practice 40-60 mins daily and by the next week I would have it pretty good. After becoming "intermediate" exercises are taking much longer to master… what to do? it seems there’s no end to it.
Then, I would practice 40-60 mins daily and by the next week I would have it pretty good. After becoming "intermediate" exercises are taking much longer to master… what to do? it seems there’s no end to it.
My teacher said in 2 more years I will have a very strong foundation in guitar playing. Is he exagerating?
Answer: As a beginner, your instructor would give you fairly simple exercises to work on that you could master fairly quickly. Now as an intermediate player, the lessons become more difficult and require more time and effort to complete.
2 years is a conservative estimate. It could actually take much longer to develop a "very strong foundation" in playing. This is not a race and you should not be concerned about how long it takes you to get to a certain level, or how "hard" your lessons have become. Immerse yourself in the experience. Join or form a band with other people your age that are on a similar level as you are. Practice as much as possible and try learning other things than just what your teacher shows you. I tell all of my students to spend a couple of hours each week learning some songs or any other things that are interesting to them. As an instructor I can only help them develop a strong foundation in playing. It is up to the student to "fill in the blanks" and make the effort to really learn what I show them. When a student comes to me and says, "I figured this out" or "I was messing around with this" I get very excited because it shows that this is a student who is really into playing the guitar. I will often take a whole lesson to expand on what the student has "discovered". This makes the process much more enjoyable for the both of us. It allows me to use their interest to help them better understand a technique, or a bit of theory, or some aspect of playing that we may or may not have already covered.
2 years is a conservative estimate. It could actually take much longer to develop a "very strong foundation" in playing. This is not a race and you should not be concerned about how long it takes you to get to a certain level, or how "hard" your lessons have become. Immerse yourself in the experience. Join or form a band with other people your age that are on a similar level as you are. Practice as much as possible and try learning other things than just what your teacher shows you. I tell all of my students to spend a couple of hours each week learning some songs or any other things that are interesting to them. As an instructor I can only help them develop a strong foundation in playing. It is up to the student to "fill in the blanks" and make the effort to really learn what I show them. When a student comes to me and says, "I figured this out" or "I was messing around with this" I get very excited because it shows that this is a student who is really into playing the guitar. I will often take a whole lesson to expand on what the student has "discovered". This makes the process much more enjoyable for the both of us. It allows me to use their interest to help them better understand a technique, or a bit of theory, or some aspect of playing that we may or may not have already covered.
