Should I Take Guitar Lessons..?
Posted in guitar lessons on 14. Jun, 2010
This week’s question is a good one. Let’s have a look:
Question: I’ve played for 2 1/2 years now, and lately I feel like I’m not getting as far as I want to at all. I really considered taking lessons, but I kind of fear that the tutor will drown me with super-easy things or just doesn’t understand my style (lots of acoustic-lovers up here). Some stats,
-I don’t know music theory, but I’m taking it my junior year
-I don’t know many scales (I know, I fail right? I just don’t know which I’m playing)
-I barely know chords
-Don’t know how to sweep, I suck at tapping
-In short, my preferred style is like http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2SucmKpcl4&feature=related
-For my band, I’m lead guitarist so I guess melodic things help more
-I don’t know music theory, but I’m taking it my junior year
-I don’t know many scales (I know, I fail right? I just don’t know which I’m playing)
-I barely know chords
-Don’t know how to sweep, I suck at tapping
-In short, my preferred style is like http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2SucmKpcl4&feature=related
-For my band, I’m lead guitarist so I guess melodic things help more
Kind of a minor thing but I wanted to learn that above video and play it before I graduate high school ;( My main issue for that is sweeping though.
Oh, in short I just wanted to ask how effective lessons are..
Answer: i was in a position similar to yours, except maybe a little further along (i knew all the basic chords and barre chords, and like 3 jazz chords). i started taking lessons a few months ago, and i’m already MUCH better. i actually stopped weekly lessons, because i figured out what i need to practice and wanted time in between lessons. no matter what style you want to play, lessons will almost always help (unless you find out you actually know more than your teacher…that happened to me when i got a sub 
)
)
so yeah. go take lessons.
If you find the right teacher, guitar lessons will make a world of difference! As long as your teacher is easy to talk to and willing to listen to your needs, you won’t have to worry about being drowned in too-easy material. Good Luck!!
You are a perfect candidate for lessons. Pick your teacher carefully and don’t make a long term contract with him/her.
Explain to the teacher your interest and let the teacher take it from there. If it is a great teacher, they will realize what you want and what you need may not match perfectly but will help you with both.
It would be handy to know scale. Try the Claude Johnson systems. Google it.
Nice to know a few techniques and how to do alternative tuning..