Guitar Lessons - I'm going to do it!

[thompsonian]

Been playing for the better part of 25 years. Spent my early to mid 20's in a regional touring band. I've played everything from Les Pauls to a Paul Reed Smith. Took lessons for 3 months before discovering that I had relative pitch and was simply listening to what the teacher was playing then repeating it without even looking at the music. I'm a 3rd generation guitar player in my family so I guess it's in my genes.

I used the Mel Bay book series and then used a TON of tab. Makes it simple to understand versus standard sheet music. I also made sure to learn the basic chords and from there it made learning and writing songs MUCH easier. I've fallen out of playing over the last few years but am starting to get the itch to play again. Best of luck to you and hope you find a love a playing and keep going with it!

 

[Bounce]

On more than one occasion, I've had the instructor say under his breath "playing by ear".

Our sessions are very deconstructive. I get the structure from Yousician (the challenges to break out the the plateau I'd found myself in after 2 years of playing to songs on the computer/stereo). In the sessions, I'm getting some sheet music and a lot of me stumbling through something I hear in my head during the week and him showing me how to get it right. When either working through tabs (Roudabout, etc.) he makes alternate fingering suggestions but there are also times when he's showing me something and I comment about how I thought about it and his eyes light up. In a lot of ways it's like sitting with a mentor and swapping licks.

30 minutes can be a struggle as I push through a wall or they can fly by so fast we don't know where it went.