| The Importance of Lessons |
| The guitar is one of the easiest instruments to start out playing. And it's one of the most difficult to master. (In my opinion). Many people start off and achieve remarkable success in the first few months. But eventually, they reach a point where they can no longer achieve leaps and bounds with minimal effort. The next great plateaus in their playing comes with ever increasing work and effort. I feel that a good teacher can really be an invaluble asset to a guitar student. Why? Well, they can act as a guide. They can point out things which you might not have been able to figure out on your own. They'll be able to show you proper right and left hand positioning, warm up exercises, teach a little music theory (hopefully), teach you how to read music (hopefully), and help you learn songs off of CD's. All in all, I think it's a pretty good idea to take lessons (at least for a while). You've got to decide what your goals are with the guitar. The bigger the goal, generally speaking, the more lessons you might need. Even the "master" level players themselves take lessons (from even greater masters). The great classical guitar virtuoso Andres Segovia used to conduct master classes. His pupils were a "who's who" in classical guitar. These were all world class musicians (many of whom had doctorates in music, and taught in prestigious music conservatories). And still, they all wanted to get better. And they knew the value of taking lessons from sombody who knew more than they. Question: "Can I just pick up a guitar, grab a good book about it, and be playing at a decent level in 6-12 months"? Answer: A decent level by my standards? Probably not. I don't kow anybody who can play at a decent level after 6-12 months. Learning how to play a musical instrument takes a lot of time and work. There's the physical aspects of building up speed, precision, and endurance. There's the aspect of learning what chords are, how they work, and the various ways to play them. (Not to mention when you advance and start to explore REAL harmonic possibilities). Single line improvisation and rhythm playing is a life's work. How can you squeeze a lifetime into 6-12 months? You're probably not going to be a guitar god in 6-12 months. I don't believe in those kinds of time frames in the first place. We all develop at our own pace. Some people may take a bit more time - and that's okay! The main point is that it's about the journey - not the destination. Question: "What about the so-called natural guitar players? Robben Ford already smoked on guitar after about a year or two of playing it, and to this day he claims to not have spent a day practicing. Same with Clapton, he could "manage" on guitar, then he moved in with John Mayall and got exposed to all of Mayall's record collection, and after a few months he cut the Beano album". Answer: There are those lucky people who are extraordinarily musically gifted. Nobody comes out of the womb knowing how to play. But for some of us, the task of learning is just so much easier. More important than being extraordinarily musically gifted is to make the best out of what talent you have. You have a job to cultivate your talent as far as you possibly can. And by the way, Robben Ford may have smoked after a year or two of playing. But I don't believe for a second that he has never spent a day practicing. Nobody gets that good without LOTS of hard work. |