So you take lessons?

[LukeGilmour]

ive been playing for a few short years now, maybe 4 , 5 who knows... i never kept count.

i had a few teachers, and ive read a few books (with planetalk upfront, that book gave me a kind of independence i never expected)

thing is, most teachers teach you to go up and down scales, or do some other technique excercises (which i can figure out on my own)
or maybe they fill you up with music theory (which may be useful to some, but to me it just kills my inspiration... music, chords, notes just "feel right")
so i stopped taking lessons a few months ago.

i know i have a lot to learn, but i really cant think of anything else than spending time with my instrument, playing, listening to music... maybe try and play the ocassional new song/solo/riff, and i guess eventually i will get better and better (i dont picture any of my fav guitarists doing anything else than that)

and anyway.. i feel like theres something missing, like i could evolve a little more, but im not sure how

have you ever felt like this? do you have any advice?

i really want to evolve but im not certain what should i do next


EDIT: i have one clear thing in mind that i want, and thats being able to play whatever i have in my mind (for example whatever i can hum with my voice, be able to play it, be it a new creation or something i might have heard somewhere)

being able to play a song with just hearing it a few times...

im not into shredding, complicated jazz harmony, or anything that requires an insane amount of skills.

think the lines of pink floyd, zeppelin, coldplay, radiohead

[Thunder7]

I'm at the point now that I'm thinking about starting to take lessons. I feel I've learned as much as I can by myself and I absolutely do not know how to practice. I'm really thinking about taking some lessons to get me jump started and get a good practice regimen going. I also need some more theory and some new ideas!

[Onslow]

I've never taken any formal lessons but people always tell me I should ease up on all the theory and learn about feel. It's like my being able to play is being inhibited by my mind anaylizing everything or if I'm playing that add9 chord correctly or if I should change it into a m7th or if I know enough as a whole. I just keep learning more chord shapes and practising scales but I can't actually play very well.

[karpathion]

benn playin for a decade and a half, and still learning. took some lessons. still learnig.
fell of the stage piss drunk,still learning. just play it by feel, inspiration comes and goes.
but that need to play never goes away.

[millsart]

No lessons, no tabs (anymore), no theory, no modes, no 4 years of Berkley

Nope, just play, my own style is my own style, my own phrasing is my own phrasing.

Maybe I'm totally brilliant and students will dissect my stuff, maybe theory guys would cringe, don't know, don't care.


You didnt see Jimi on stage on several hits of acid worrying about the correct mode for his solo, nope, he was just blowing minds and feeling the music.


Learning a golf swing ? Thats about technique and practice. Theres a right and wrong mechanics to make the ball fly right

Music though ? Theres no right or wrongs. Its just music


Anyone who tries to tell you that your chord progression is "wrong" has probably never actually "heard" music before in their life

[Johnny Nightslayer]

I've had a few mentors but for the most part I am self taught. I also don't think I'm any good yet...But thats mostly because I am recovering from an injury to my left arm, so I haven't been able to play regularly for a LONG time. Over a year actually...

So, during my 'time away' I've been learning theory (I'm a music major at college right now) and how to be a guitar tech.

To me theory is a double edged sword. It has helpful things, but if you let it, theory can put you in a cage. Half the time I don't know what chord I'm playing, I just know it sounds good. Most things you learn through theory, you can learn just through playing the guitar. Although scale maps are helpful.

Being a music major is almost a joke to me. I don't know how far I'll go, I'm just finishing my freshman year. I am in recording tech right now. I may drop out eventually - I don't need a piece of paper (a degree) to tell me I can play guitar. That said, I am learning cool things at the same time. I'm taking an Aural Comprehension class, which is quite challenging for me. It has also immensly helped my ear, and my ability to sing.

So, I guess I'm still experimenting and trying to find the right 'path'. At the end of the day though, I just wanna play my guitar.

[mediumpimpin]

I started taking lessons again for the first time in 5 yrs this Feb. My teacher is Ron Jarzombek and he's flat out amazing with a guitar. He definitely helps me find stuff I need to work on to become a better player, but isn't too pushy or strict at the same time. Granted, I could probly learn most of the stuff he teaches me on my own, but I know I wouldn't do it on my own. Knowing that I have to go to a lesson every wk keeps me motivated to keep working and be prepared next time I go in.

edit: I forgot to add something. IMO, the key to making lessons worth your while, is a good teacher. Yes, the best teacher isn't gonna help someone who doesn't care, but if you don't care, don't take lessons. Anyways, I've taken lessons from 3 people now and I was lucky enough that all were really good teachers and excellent fits for me personally. I guess I'm just lucky, but I don't think I would have stuck with the lessons at all if I didn't enjoy them or learn from them. You have to ask around and find a good teacher for you and your goals. You don't want some amateur that teachers beginners is your goal is to play like Petrucci or EVH, but on the same note, if all you wanna do is learn the blues, you don't want some super shredder who only wants to teach you to play fast. Just look around and find a teacher that works for you.

[Onslow]

Haha, I'm just laughing at the Mastodon e.p. quote. Carry on.

[Thunder7]

How do formal lessons work exactly? I'm going to start taking some and I've never done it before so I don't really know what to expect. :P

[karpathion]

How do formal lessons work exactly? I'm going to start taking some and I've never done it before so I don't really know what to expect. :P

whereare are you going to take lessons your only like an hour from me

[tkingen]

Taking formal lessons can be a hit or miss deal. Many "career" teachers aren't necessarily good players and many "career" players arent' necessarily good teachers. And of course you have to make sure to get a teacher who can accomodate what you're trying to accomplish.

Go out and hear players in your local venues. When you find someone whose style interests you ask him or her if you can schedule a lesson or two. Sometimes that's all it takes to get their trip. Sometimes it can take months or years. Then, find someone else.

It's a fun way to go!

[Thunder7]

whereare are you going to take lessons your only like an hour from me

I was thinking of taking them down at Gorilla Guitars, there's a guy down there that I enjoy talking to and enjoy listening to play...he also graduated from AIM so that's a plus. The guy that my good friend took lessons from, Kevin Dillard, I'm not sure if he's still doing lessons. He just released his book "Intellishred." I've been meaning to pick it up but I have a feeling most of it will be over my head...

[tone4days]

LukeGilmore,

"i know i have a lot to learn, but i really cant think of anything else than spending time with my instrument, playing, listening to music... maybe try and play the ocassional new song/solo/riff, and i guess eventually i will get better and better (i dont picture any of my fav guitarists doing anything else than that)"

the first thing you would need is an objective ('wanting to evolve' is not an objective, it is an empty platitude) .. i just reread your post again .. i didnt see an objective .. if you have no objective, you needn't study

i count two or three times in your post where you rely on rectal extraction to substantiate a belief of yours ... and a couple more that reveal a startling lack of imagination or understanding of cause and effect ... when you find them and remove them from your thinking, your path could become clearer ...

best of luck

t4d

[rckstr22]

I started off playing guitar from the books... and gave up pretty quickly on that - and ended up taking lessons with my teacher for about 5.5 years out of the 6 and a half i've been playing now. He was by far the best teacher i ever had ... i even went to a couple other teachers and guitar clinics, but theory wasn't my thing - and it still isn't because it kills my inspiration as well ....

my one teacher taught me a lot, and introduced me to a hell of a lot of different bands and genres of music.

i think the key is to play all different genres of music, learn different progressions and such. this is especially true if you're a lead guitarist - you should know how to play multiple genres of music -even if you don't liek it... it'll help in the long run , esp. if u write music

[TimmyPage]

University Music Major here. So I take private lessons, and all of my classes all week around are music related. I play by both theory and feel, I don't think they are mutually exclusive like alot of people make them sound. I generally have a mathematic mind and so I process alot of things at once, when I improvise I turn it into quickly calculating sudden changes in scale or mode less than a second before I do, and I do it because I know I want to hit a certain note to achieve a specific feel in that lick.

[Zhangliqun]

i count two or three times in your post where you rely on rectal extraction to substantiate a belief of yours ... and a couple more that reveal a startling lack of imagination or understanding of cause and effect ... when you find them and remove them from your thinking, your path could become clearer ...

YIKES!!! I don't think calling him stupid and unimaginative is going to help him make any headway or find a clearer path. He knows and openly admits he's missing something and that he doesn't know what it is. And if he has some misconceptions, well who didn't in their early years playing? Give him a break.

LukeGilmour and others, a few things:

There's no reason on God's green earth that music theory should be a hindrance to playing. It can only help. The same people who rightly tell others they should learn about guitar electronics so they can do their own pickup swaps and mods then turn around and crap on music theory. But music theory is nothing but a wiring diagram for music.

It's actually fairly simple -- I asked my mother once why she kept calling this chord a 7th chord, etc., and she said, because the 7th note of the scale is in the chord. A light bulb went off over my head and it all became clear -- a 6th chord has the 6th note in the scale in it, Add2 has the 2nd note, etc. Some of the finer points like 9ths, 11ths, 13ths, chord progressions, etc., came a bit later, but the foundation to figure all that out was suddenly in place.

Yes, it does tax the intellectual side of the brain a bit and creativity takes a back seat for a little while, but that was also true when you were first learning to play a guitar at all -- you had to concentrate on holding the pick right, proper fingering, string dampening, etc. All stuff that's second nature to you now was in the front of your mind then, "stifling creativity".

I think a lot of people who poo-poo music theory think that by learning it, you're being indoctrinated with a certain way to play that automatically squelches your creativity. No, you're learning only how the Lego blocks fit together; you are not being told what to build with them. Once you know how they fit together you can then build whatever you want. The bottom line -- even with the most extensive knowledge of music theory -- is "if it sounds good, DO IT!" You can still grab a riff or line totally by feel (as you ultimately should), but now you can go back and see how it was constructed and why it worked in the context it was in -- and then communicate this idea to other musicians much more quickly and easily. "Hey this line is killer over a plain ol' 2/5/1 progression but it stinks when we go to 1/6/2/flat-5. We gotta do something else there."

When you see people "robotized" by theory in school, they're getting obsessed with the numbers and seeing them as an end in themselves and not the mere means that they are. That's a sure sign of somebody whose creative vision just isn't that strong or great to begin with. Otherwise they would be saying, okay all well and good -- now how can I impose my will on these numbers to make them work FOR me to realize my musical vision?

[Thunder7]

No, you're learning only how the Lego blocks fit together; you are not being told what to build with them. Once you know how they fit together you can then build whatever you want.

Awesome analogy!!

[tone4days]

YIKES!!! I don't think calling him stupid and unimaginative is going to help him make any headway or find a clearer path. .... Give him a break.

pffft ... sometimes love is a kick in the pants

t4d

[LukeGilmour]

updated the first post. thanks everyone for your 2 cents.

[tone4days]

ah - now you can begin

see my pm

good luck
t4d