I have to get this off my chest...35 years late.

[valentsgrif]

Guitar Teachers take Note. For the rest: self indulgent thread alert.

 

When I was 12 I begged by parents for guitar lessons. The local high school was offereing lessons for like $5 or something so away we went. I was taught by an inspirational young instructor who was the son of the school band director. He was in a rock band and was very cool.

 

My instructor, after teaching the very basics, immediately dumped the Hal Leonard books and started me playing the pop hits: Beatles, Stones and other guitar classics of the 60's and 70's.. I devoured his tabs and for about a year played my fingers off, learning songs and jamming. I loved the instrument and the instructor, but alas, for me this was to be the first in a lifetime of highs that fell rapidly into failure and despair.

 

What befell me was my instructor moved away to college and my new teacher was a stern classical teacher who insisted I relearn everything. No more tabs or Ventures riffs: formal notation only. Scales, theory, complex chords and exercises formed the entirety of my lessons. I cried right in the lesson after some stern rebuke from this uptight lady. Foolishly, I quit lessons entirely rather than deal with another discussion between myself, my parents and this "teacher" about my practice habits.

 

I never was without a guitar though and for the next 35 years noodled sproradically for fun, with little progression in skills. I often thought about where I'd be now if I had a more sensitive or perceptive teacher. I have guilt also about how I should have stuck with the more formal teacher and not been such a baby.

 

But, nowadays things have come full circle. Last year, after my son started taking guitar lessons (his idea, not mine) I met a wonderful teacher who has me working to catch up- I do mostly classic rock songs of my choosing. We work in theory every now and then and for the first time experience real progress in playing competence.

 

I guess the moral is to change out what doesn't work rather than quit. Further, adults should listed to kids, and in areas such as sports or music, be sensitive to what THEY want to get out of their activity- not what you want out of it for them.

 

Thanks for letting me vent. As you were.

[maccaminnie]

Good Day to you fine Sir:thu:
yes I can relate to all that but with me it was piano, hated the theory so much and it was so boring, I was 8 years old. Loved the piano but hated the teacher but she was a friend of my mums and eventually I lost interest:cry: The really sad part was the piano that we had was my grandma's and it got sold and I never had the chance to get it:mad: Anyway all these years later, I can still play and read music and can play piano but also play guitar as wellmostly self taught with some lessons after a few years:love: and so my daughter started learning guitar a year ago and has a fantastic teacher who is one of my daughters school friends grandmother and she is ripping thru the books at a great rate of knots, I am so proud of her. I never pushed her to learn either, it was all her idea. I,m also having lessons with the same lady even tho I,ve been playing guitar for years, she does classical but its fun and challenging and my fingerpicking has improved no end. Now we play together and we have great fun and she is all that I have, I don,t have a partner or husband. Hope to get a piano soon, my loungeroom is the music room. TV might just have to go. We might even record something together one day that would be great:thu:

[LiveMusic]

To the OP... you have described exactly what befell millions of piano students for decades. David Sudnow (www.sudnow.com) came up with a way to teach people how to play piano by ear. I don't know how he has done with it but I figure he's made a good living. What he says makes total sense... about 99% of everybody who learned how to play piano by those stern sight-reading lessons cannot even sight read anymore AND they can't play by ear, which is the most fun part of music.

[Celik]

I played for about 10 years, i am self thought. About 2 months ago i decided to start taking lessons from a Jazz cat who is very well established in my area. I can tell you that i have made more progess in the last two months then in most of my time playig on my own.

 

I was allready affraid of notation and used tabs for everyting, but i have taken it up to learn and my teach has been there with me, and two months later i am playing music peaces of real notation and not tab.

 

I have also made break thorough in regrades on play lead guitar, technice. Its been a wounder full experience and Like i said only regret is i wish i started earlier.

[revive]

about 99% of everybody who learned how to play piano by those stern sight-reading lessons cannot even sight read anymore AND they can't play by ear, which is the most fun part of music.

Exactly what happened to me

I took a year of classical piano lessons and hated it. I even fell asleep on the piano bench during a lesson. Then I quit taking lessons and joined a church band, where I learned to play by ear and learned pretty much everything I know about music. I can still read musical notation, but not as effortless as I used to. But I can play music much better than I ever was.

[Jimmy Chaos]

It's a very interesting subject.

 

My fianc

[revive]

Ultimately though, if you really want to be 'very good', you need to have both the 'feel' and the 'theory'. Nearly all professional musicians have a good theoretical grounding. Even professional hip-hop musicians do (note: I said "musicians", not "rappers").

[LiveMusic]

Ultimately though, if you really want to be 'very good', you need to have both the 'feel' and the 'theory'. Nearly all professional musicians have a good theoretical grounding. Even professional hip-hop musicians do (note: I said "musicians", not "rappers").

 

 

I dunno... in Nashville, home of monster players, as long as they know the Nashville numbers system...

 

In blues/rock/country/folk... I would think that some of the "best" musicians of the past 100 years did not know much theory. I'm not saying theory is bad, I think it's good, but I don't think history has shown that it matters so much in those genres. Playing by ear DOES matter.

[valentsgrif]

Playing by ear DOES matter.

 

 

I'd add playing songs, fun songs, especially while young, also matters. There's always time later to go to Berklee.

[Pine Apple Slim]

Then there are those few who can play anything they hear and cant even tell you the names of the strings.
Those are the ones theory people theroize about most.

[KATMAN]

I've also seen those that are amainzingly fast playing scales and licks,but can't play rythym or a 12 bar bues lick to save their lives.My brother took guitar theory from a commited teacher and can play almost anything he hears.
Me,it takes a while,sometimes decades before I figure it out.

[Steadfastly]

You're not so much different than most of us. We too, have 20/20 hindsight.

[Hamhand]

My first teacher died after 3 weeks, of a heart attack. (I didn't think I was that bad). 30 years later I took three months worth, twice a week. I was so excited I started learning my lessons, and then improvising. I played it for my teacher and he told me to stop. So I did....the lessons. I want a teacher bad.

[Grant Harding]

It's always a shame when narrow-minded people take up teaching something as artistic as music. They take it so seriously and teach as if everyone is in it to become the best virotuoso in the world.

 

A good private teacher should teach music as it applies to the pupil. Your goal is to play 2 Elvis songs at your 50th birthday party? Awesome! Let's get to work! You want to learn music fundamentals and jazz guitar? Great! You want a career as a guitarist? Check out GIT or Berkley for a well-rounded guitar education.

[mjuenem]

OMG! I looked at the title and thought maybe you were on the grassy knoll! Then I did the math and realized I was about 10 years off.

[myTakamine]

I took piano lessons for many years from a classically-trained and -minded teacher. I stopped when I got to high school because I wasn't learning enough music that I wanted to play. But she taught me the right techinique, and more importantly how to practice, even if I didn't practice enough at the time. Even though I've forgotten a lot of what I learned, the things I do remember helped me from the moment I picked up the guitar a couple years ago.

Thanks, Miss Jones.

[Gypsy Freedom]

It's a very interesting subject. My fianc