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Need A Teacher?

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(@anonymous)
Illustrious Member
Joined: 17 years ago
Posts: 8184
 

Here is an article that points out the pros and cons of having, and not having a teacher. They also call it "Self-Guided Study" which is probably more accurate than self-taught.

http://www.mamimusic.com/studying_guitar.htm


   
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(@rparker)
Illustrious Member
Joined: 20 years ago
Posts: 5480
Topic starter  

As you can tell by my multiple posts in this, I am interested in the topic.

I see everyone's point. I appreciate everyone's point.

Some background now that everything's been said. I tried the lesson thing twice, each time for a month. Hated it. One instructor could not get past my hand position, and I could not get past my age & joints bothering me when doing what he "asked" me to do. The other guy was just somewhere different than I wanted to be. I spoke up to both of them. It just didn't click.

Roy
"I wonder if a composer ever intentionally composed a piece that was physically impossible to play and stuck it away to be found years later after his death, knowing it would forever drive perfectionist musicians crazy." - George Carlin


   
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(@davidhodge)
Member
Joined: 16 years ago
Posts: 4472
 

I tried the lesson thing twice, each time for a month. Hated it. One instructor could not get past my hand position, and I could not get past my age & joints bothering me when doing what he "asked" me to do. The other guy was just somewhere different than I wanted to be. I spoke up to both of them. It just didn't click.

Suspected as much and very much empathize with your situation. Teaching adults is a very tricky thing for guitar teachers, especially (and I don't know if this is the case or not) if the student is older than the teacher. I teach people in their sixties and a couple in their seventies (as does Alan Green) who have never played the guitar before and the first thing I have to worry about is giving them positions that they can handle. Unlike very small children whose hands will (hopefully) grow and develop, you have to take care to not make things difficult. Sometimes this means totally rethinking how to go about teaching the very basics of guitar.

Teachers are like students (and like people! :wink: ) in that each one tends to have preferred ways of doing things. Being flexible enough to approach each student individually is not easy for some teachers who like to work in a "week one we do this; week two we cover that" approach.

By the bye, and totally off topic, this is one of the reasons why I'm not sure numbering the song lessons at here at Guitar Noise is an appropriate thing to do. The "early" lessons (the Easy Songs For Beginners written up through I Shot The Sheriff ) can be done sequentially, but after that it's really a matter of what an individual student finds that he or she can handle. I need to write more "early" lessons...

Peace


   
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(@kingpatzer)
Noble Member
Joined: 19 years ago
Posts: 2171
 

The best "music teachers" for adults server the role of mentor more than teacher, in my experience.

They make sure you have the knowledge you need, and are there to answer questions about how to apply that knowledge successfully, and of course offer encouragement and advice, but they have to let the adult student set the tone of the relationship, and to define it's direction.

For kids it's different, there the teacher can and should have a more formative influence.

I think for both teachers are necessary if the student has a desire to maximize their potential. Self-taught students can and do succeed, but frankly, many do it in spite of themselves.

"The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side." -- HST


   
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(@anonymous)
Illustrious Member
Joined: 17 years ago
Posts: 8184
 

I agree with kingpatzer on the mentor thing. I know I'm more after a mentor than a teacher. I mean, learning techniques isn't too hard. Well it depends on the technique. But most techniques are easy enough that you can learn them on your own but not hard enough that I would pay $600 a year just for someone else to show me these techniques.

Now if the teacher were to show me how to integrate all these skills into each other so I can develop my own sense of style with the instrument, then I'd say the $600 is worth it.


   
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(@rparker)
Illustrious Member
Joined: 20 years ago
Posts: 5480
Topic starter  

The second teacher agreed to take on more of the mentor role, but he did not enjoy it. Furthermore, he never could get past the right hand position thing. I agree that my right hand position is not optimal, but it's my hand and I know when something is not kosher. Arthritis sucks. :)

Roy
"I wonder if a composer ever intentionally composed a piece that was physically impossible to play and stuck it away to be found years later after his death, knowing it would forever drive perfectionist musicians crazy." - George Carlin


   
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(@alangreen)
Member
Joined: 22 years ago
Posts: 5342
 

... most techniques are easy enough that you can learn them on your own but not hard enough that I would pay $600 a year just for someone else to show me these techniques.

Interesting viewpoint. From my perspective, if I was doing ok in self-study but there was one element of my technique that was dodgy, I would go to a teacher and take instruction. It might not cost me $600 (in fact, at £22 for a half hour lesson from some of the teachers round my way the cost could very easily mount up) and it would develop that part of my technique which I couldn't develop properly on my own. A case of "do you want ketchup on that" as it were. Everything's optional, and you need to work out what bits of it you need a teacher to do for you.

Best,

A :-)

"Be good at what you can do" - Fingerbanger"
I have always felt that it is better to do what is beautiful than what is 'right'" - Eliot Fisk
Wedding music and guitar lessons in Essex. Listen at: http://www.rollmopmusic.co.uk


   
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(@steve-0)
Noble Member
Joined: 20 years ago
Posts: 1162
 

Personally I've done both: I had a teacher for a few years who taught me proper electric/acoustic guitar technique as well as classical guitar, but even while i was taking lessons there was alot of self-teaching i did, and i think having both is the best way to go about it.

HOWEVER, if someone doesn't want to have a teacher then that doesn't mean they can't be just as good as someone who does, although one thing i don't like is when people say things like "I don't want a teacher because knowing theory/technique is going to take away from me playing the way i want to", because i've always found that to be far from the truth.

I'll probably end up getting a teacher again somewhere down the road, mainly just because right now I don't practice much (I play ALOT, but that's not really practicing) because I don't know what to practice.

Steve-0


   
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