Humble Pie

I was a beginning guitarist. Like any other beginning guitarist, I wanted to set the world on fire and take that center spotlight. I had no money, so all I could manage to purchase was a used Epiphone acoustic guitar. I quickly signed up for local lessons. I had my mind made up that I was going to be on an advanced pace to learn. I took the first lesson book that he had given me and, not only finished my assignment, but also I finished the entire book in one week. At my next weekly lesson, I was asked to play my lesson for him. I told him that I had finished the entire book. He was impressed, tested me a little by asking me to play some of the more difficult passages in the book and was quickly satisfied that I needed to move on.

Things continued to move forward for me and I quickly outgrew my instructor. I had reached the point where I felt my skill level was equal to his and that he couldn’t teach me anything else. This is where I made my first mistake!

Rather than search for a more advanced instructor, I took matters into my own hands and decided to self-educate myself. Let me say to all of you reading this, that this is the long way to go about things. I should have looked for a higher quality instructor that could have made things a lot easier and quicker for me in the long run. I will explain why.

At first, the self-education process seemed to be going well. After all, I was playing the music that I wanted to play and I thought I was starting to sound pretty decent. I upgraded my equipment to an electric guitar and a nice amp with a few effects. Unfortunately, things unknowingly hit a peak for me. I was as far as I was going, but didn’t know it. My practice times grew shorter and shorter and my progress had all but stalled. I had nobody to challenge me and drive me forward.

Eventually, things got boring for me and I finally sold off my equipment and quit playing for a few years. My love for music eventually won me back over and I purchased a new guitar and a new amp and decided to dive back in. Before long, I was rocking like I had never taken any time off. I learned new songs and had a fire built under me that was burning hot.

I had the good fortune of meeting a very good lead guitarist who played in a huge local band in Indiana. His band sold out the house every night they played. We talked for a while and he agreed to come over to my house and play with me. I was so pumped up about this. I wanted to show off some of my stuff and try to learn whatever he could show me. What I got was nothing short of humiliating.

He got to my house, drug in his equipment, and set up. Once he fired up his amp and starting playing and, well, it blew me away!! He was WAY above my skill level and I knew it. After listening to him play for a few minutes, the songs I had planned to play for him suddenly became embarrassing. I was so embarrassed that I couldn’t even play. I just clammed up.

He started off with this little blues lead up and down the neck that just totally stunned me by his speed and accuracy. I mean, he was all over the place. Fast, and clean and never missed a note! He eventually talked me into playing some rhythm track for him. I got to pick the song. He didn’t know it. He watched me play the chords for about 2 minutes; then he determined the key that it was in. Without ever hearing the song I was playing, he told me to just repeat the chord progression that I was using, and he took the lead. Made it up on the fly! I’m telling you, his lead almost peeled the paint off of my walls. How could I play after listening to him?

Fortunately, this wonderful guitarist was also a wonderful educator. He sensed my discomfort and responded to it with praise. He got me to feel comfortable with my current abilities, but also focused on what I needed to work on. He gave me lessons in music theory, some cool stuff to play and some simple and fun stuff that I could learn on the spot and we could rock to.

He showed me the pentatonic scale. I had learned this scale a long time ago, but mostly forgotten it because I didn’t have much of a use for it. After running through this scale a few times, he showed me how I could use it to take a lead on almost any song I want to as long as you know what key you’re in. We discussed a little music theory on determining the proper key and then a challenge was issued. He laid down the rhythm track and told me to make up a lead. WHAT???!!!! I can’t do that! As it turns out, I COULD do that using what he had just showed me.

Of course the lead work I did was not going to make any hit CD anytime soon, but this was just a starting point for me. It took me over that hump and started me learning and advancing again. After he left, I found myself playing along with Clapton, and being able to make up a solo over top of the CD that I was playing along with and have it sound good!

The bottom line here is simple. He taught me more in 4 hours than I had learned on my own in probably 4 years! He realized what my current skill level was. He challenged me. He showed me how, and told me why I should do things. Perhaps a few people out there could have what it takes to self educate themselves, but I now know that I wasn’t one of them (even though I thought I was). We might not all be fortunate enough to meet a lead guitarist of a band that is willing to teach us, but one thing I took away from all of this is simple. Find a better instructor. They are out there, but don’t go it alone.

Guitar Noise is an excellent place to get great instruction. If you can’t make it to one of their workshops, then definitely find yourself a better local instructor to take you to the next level. If you can’t find a tutor, then play with every guitarist that you can that is better than you and try to learn as much as you can from them. I went from being embarrassed to play in front of good guitarists to “Bring it on!” I know you can too, but we all need instructors.

I hope this is helpful to most of us that are struggling out there. This is just the first tip of many that I have on how we can all….”Take it to the next Level.”

Enjoy.

About the Author

Steve has been playing guitar for almost twenty-five years, strictly for his enjoyment. His career sometimes puts unrealistic demands on his time and music is his release from an overly hectic lifestyle. He enjoys helping people and GuitarNoise seems to be all about helping people, so if any of his words helps even a few people….well, then he’s happy.