How many teachers?

Personally I'd avoid trying to find one teacher to do both, as you'll be limiting your choices in teacher. If you did get lucky, it would be a huge benefit to do both with the same person, I just would rather get two and get stuck into it now than spend months tracking down the combination. :)

Learning both at the same time from different teachers shouldn't be a problem though, as long as you have the time to practice both between lessons...

That's a tough one... I would think you'd want to choose a guitar teacher since it would seem to be more difficult to play guitar than to sing. Once you have the guitar stuff down, then you can focus on singing.

Just an opinion.

Also, from my experience, most guitar teachers tends to sing as well (perhaps not well...) so they can probably provide insight on signing. Whereas voice instructors probably can't help you play guitar.

a vocal coach is vastly different than a guitar teacher.

my vote is for two separate teachers.

I thnkyou have a fundamental understanding of guitar.
so think about what a guitar teacher can offer more to what you already have.

I would look at having two teachers.

What you're looking for in both is someone who is going to make sure that you have the skills you need to reach your goals. You're right that learning a technique isn't hard by itself. But knowing which techniques and what knoweldge is most important for arming you to achieve your goal is really what you're paying for!

That, and someone who will look you square in the face and say "Umm, do you REALLY want to tell me that after a week of practice that was the best you can do with <insert technique here>?! Ok, let's figure out a few practice hints to really get this down for the next week."

A good teacher/mentor (vocal or guitar) is going to hold your feet to the fire.

Glad to hear that you're looking for someone.

And if you find a teacher in one subject that you're happy with, ask them if they can recommend a good teacher of the other.

I would expect that music teachers probably know the reputation of other music teachers in the same city.
At least they might know the reputation of the best and worst of them. :wink:

Yes, get a teacher for guitar and a teacher for singing as well.

I don't agree with you that skills are easy. Skills are difficult. Lots of people think they can sing, because everybody has the skill to sing.

That is until they actually start singing. :shock:

There is a lot more to singing than just opening your mouth.

And guitar is more than skill anyway. It is also knowledge. It will only benefit you to learn to read music and understand theory. A teacher is invaluable for that. How can you teach yourself something you do not know?

OWA:

I'm glad to hear your even considering finding a teacher and taking lessons.

I knew it would be a matter of time. Wes is right, its about knowledge and you can't learn what you don't know. Skills aren't that easy either, it takes a lot of practice and time to nail em right from every concievable direction.

I found both my teachers by first watching them play, admiring their playing, all aspects, not just their technical ability and asking if they're taking new students and finding a time slot.

Be patient at first. He or She needs to get a feel for where you are, your level, ability, skill, understanding and your goals. It won't happen in one 1/2 hour or even an hour session.. It'll take a good month probably, of weekly lessons.

Also be open to getting out of YOUR Box....musically for example, if Blues isn't your thing right now, be open to learning some it will only help build a better foundation for other things.... like a SOLID Rythem (sp) and learning how to milk as much SOUL from just one or two notes.... it amazing what some of those guys can do with so very little. :)

Thanks for your help all. I'll go with two teachers. Possibly in a schedule such as:

Week 1 - Vocal
Week 2 - Guitar
Week 3 - Vocal
Week 4 - Guitar
etc....

And I'm with KP on the skills thing. Learning skills isn't hard. Rarely do I try to learn a new skill, get stuck and think “I must be missing something.” It does happen once in a while, more so when I was first starting, but I normally can figure it out on my own. Usually learning a skill comes down to me: finding out about the skill, then practising the heck out of it until I get it. Hard skill? Well I just need more practice at it than I would an easy skill. It's finding out where to use the skill than can be tricky. People have different experiences learning and find different things challenging. But I've never found the motor skill component of playing guitar to be difficult. It's the theory part that gets me.

I've been exploring other styles for a while. I made a rock tune using an open power chord tuning with the standard 12 bar blues pattern. Also, flamenco with flanger and distortion sounds really cool!

Teachers are coming up short though. I can't find anything for vocals or guitar. So far all I've found in my area is a saxophone teacher and a ukelele teacher. The joys of living in the styx.....

There's learning a skill and there's learning a skill. Even something simple like hammer-ons and pull offs can get to be very difficult when you start to apply them in songs, at speed. Or muting. (See my thread in the Guitar Players Discussion board on muting.)

I don't know how long you've been playing guitar or singing in your house with your favorite CDs. I've been at this guitar thing for four years now and look back at when I first started. Oh I could have done so many thing differently. All I wanted to do was learn everything now and get good. Looking back, it just doesn't work that way. Wish I had gone slower and work on less things at one time to improve the skills. There is no rush to get good now. Take your time 'cause you'll likely be doing this thirty years from now.

As far as singing that's fabulous you're gonna jump into it. I don't sing but I think learning to sing would be harder than learning to play guitar. I agree with other to have two teachers.

My opinion is to either get a guitar teacher or a vocal teacher at a time. Concentrate on one of those for say three months then take a break from one of the teachers and concentrate on the other skill. Why? We all have lives and time is precious. Most people struggle to get even a half hour in a day on guitar. If you had a guitar and vocal teacher at the same time you'd be expected to practice for each say an hour a day. So that's two hours a day or 14 hours a week you'd be working on lessons. And that's besides the two half hour sessions with each teacher each week.

Nevertheless, if you can dedicate the time in for both I'm sure you'd be fine. I just know I couldn't. Let us know later what you end up doing and updates on how your teacher(s) is teaching you. :)

A bit of an update here, though not much of one. I have decided to get lessons. Both vocal and guitar. I am hoping to start not this weekend coming, but the following weekend. I still need to get the money together to get a case to get the guitar to the lesson. As well, get ahold of a place. I've been trying music schools as opposed to people that teach out of their home or whatever. Mostly because any music school that offers guitar lessons, offers vocal lessons as well. However, I can't get ahold of anyone. I work nights so when people are there I'm either sleeping or working. So far, I've managed to play a lot of telephone tag.

I am hoping on the guitar side of things that they will be able to help find out the root cause of that clicking sound I hear in my recordings. And don't mind me using my Explorer, standing up for the lesson. On both sides, I'm hoping to get help on the same song(s). So if I'm learning <insert song> on guitar, I want to learn <insert song>'s vocal component as well.

you may not have to spend the money on a case to get your guitar there. they may not need you to have the guitar there or they may have a guitar for youto use.

OWA i think you're pretty gutsy; it takes commitment what you're doing and sticking to doing things youre way. All too often when you join into something band/teacher people try to mold you to what their "idea" is of what they want or need.
Good luck

minus

OWA, have you searched the Memberlist for other GNers who might live near you? They might have some recommendations...