i have come to the conclusion that i will not progress any further without the help of a good guitar teacher. Currently i am looking in the area for a good teacher. What are some things you look for in a guitar teacher? i searched online and found some good questions but i want to make sure i make the right choice as the quality of the teacher will greatly affect the growth of my progress (as will of course the main thing which is i work my butt off). Any opinions or hints will be appreciated.

I am just starting out with a teacher myself.

I think foremost is compatability, if you don't like him, or he you, the 'uneasiness' will be an obstacle to learning.

Also, he should ask what your goals are (and of course you should know what they are) so he can guide you in that direction. It's important that he teach you what you want to learn as opposed to what he wants to teach, excluding fundamentals that is... everyone needs those.

Avoid any longterm committment until you're completely comfortable with his persona, style and methods, and don't be afraid to make a switch if you think you're not getting what you want from the pairing.

cheers!

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I'm a proponent of lessons. I've been with the same teacher for close to 2 years. I took two months off last summer and I could feel my abilities stagnate. It scared me a bit so I went back to the lessons. I can't tell you how to find a good teacher. I can tell you one thing that will let you know how good he is. Even after almost two years my teacher is always looking for weak spots in my playing and then he creates exercises and assignments to help correct the problem. Basically a good teacher needs to be pro active. If you get to the point where you are going in every week and they just teach you a new song then it's time to move on.

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Well personally I think the best way to learn is by playing...join a band and push yourself. I'm at my best when I'm working with people who are much better players than I am because it gives me a reason to play better! As the saying goes, "we learn by doing".

That said, if you must go the teacher route, I'll simply reiterate part of Lightnin's comment there in that "It's important that he teach you what you want to learn as opposed to what he wants to teach". Personally I disagree with comments about "fundamentals" because a lot of that really depends on what you want to play. If your goal is classical, then yea...a ton of theory is essential. Personally I play mostly classic rock and blues so even after 30 years of playing, there's no real need for me to know much more than minor & major pentatonic and basic chords and such....for what I do, there's no need for me to do a modal improvisation over a minor 13th dimished! LOL! However it is extremely important that you find someone who will teach you what YOU want to play. Sitting down with Mel Bay books is really a waste of time (IMO) because you can only play "Little Brown Jug" and "When the Saints Go Marching In" just so many times before you brain implodes. For myself, I don't practice "scales" and "modes" and "chords"...music is made up of those things, but that's NOT music in and of itself. And I certainly have no interest in playing Little Brown Jug! I sit down with tunes that I like and/or tunes the band is playing and practice my chops...I play music. That said, yes, I have had lessons in the past...most of the time it was painful, if not totally useless...with 1 exception...

The -best- teacher I ever had was a guy named Basil back around '84. My first lesson, he asked me what I wanted to play. NO ONE had ever asked me this before (or since). I thought about it and since I was just getting into Clapton at that time, I told him stuff like "Cocaine". The next week he came in with a 4 track recording of just the rhythm (now a days folks use "jam tracks") and showed me a minor pentatonic. No books, no tutorials, just a tape for me to jam along with. That one single thing is probably what has kept me playing to this day. When he had to take a straight day job, the next guy I had sat me down with...yes...Mel Bay...I quit after 3 weeks. I did go back again a few years later, but honestly I've found that for myself personally, again I just do better working in a band where I have to push myself. In any case, the moral of the story is that if your teacher isn't teaching you the stuff YOU want to play, even on a fundamental level regardless of how he/she (or others) may try to rationalize it, you're simply not going to be interested in playing.

Again, we learn by doing.

L8r,
Jim

i just want to know the "secret" to soloing. every time i get the nod its a hip shot. never the same and flying by the seat of my pants. i think i'm a 5 on a scale to 10. i really want to be a confident lead player. i'm working on phrasing and playing slower. that alone is a huge improvement. still, i'd like to take some lessons.
someday.

thanks for the responses. I will elaborate a little, basically i have some really nice gear and have played for a few years. I work on guitars and buy, fix and sell guitars quite often. i love to play new and different stuff all the time and by doing that i have gotten some really nice rigs. I will say WAY too nice for my level but whatever. When i practice i run each note up and down each string triple picking 5 times then I play pentatonics and chords which leads to noodling a lot but have never played with others. Now, i am not great but i am would not consider myself a beginner either. I have aspirations of playing out and jamming but i suffer from stage freight because i know i am a complete noob when it comes to jamming. my hope is that through some of the lessons and connections i make can help me gain confidence and a starting point so i can bring something to the table when i do hang out with some friends to jam. I am not a shy person but i don't want to look like an $@! either.
it has come down to 2 local "schools". There is a place called "universal rock school" in clearwater that i am doing a trial lesson with tomorrow and a local sam ash has a players school as part of their offerings that i will try to play at later this week and go from there. Either place will help me progress and hopefully get me into the swing of jamming.
also i lack direction and often feel lost when i start learning about music. i will grasp a concept but then seem to get lost as the concept expands out.

I'm 62. I've found that learning at my age is more difficult but not impossible. I just have to stick it out when the concepts are kind of foreign to me. I have to repeat things more than I used to. But eventually I get it. I believe that knowing why I'm playing something is as important as how to play it. When I started lessons, I could barely get through a 12 bar lead. Here's a soundclick file of a solo I did last week at rehearsal for Stormy Monday. It combines the minor pentatonic and mixolydian mode. I'm not proficient at combining the two scales yet, but I have a start. If it wasn't for my lessons, this recording wouldn't exist.
http://www.soundclick.com/player/single ... 69344&q=hi

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'12 Carvin CS424S
'66 Guild Starfire IV w/Bigsby
'14 Warmouth Partscaster Daphne Blue

Lightin MN gave the perfect summation of what to look for, but ask yourself 'why 'first. Is it lack of motivation, discipline to learning, boredom, or all of it?

A teacher can't address these, only provide you with some impetus to 'do the work' because you've a lesson to pay for.

Reading your second post, it seems you've let yourself get stuck in a comfort zone of recycling the same stuff, and same ol' same ol' approach to practice. I do a comprehensive online course, that is structured and set out, with practice schedules and suggested achievement milestones for each stage, so I don't have to think about what I'm supposed to be practicing, and I keep progressing.

just curious, drubbing - what online course is it and how much is it? i've been kind of playing with the idea of getting on some online guitar workshops....

_________________
~Dan

Just a few extra comments here...

Stage freight...isn't that the roadies job? Sorry...couldn't pass that one up

If you get stage fright, ya go stick your head in the toilet, puke, then get back up on stage and play. Seriously, the ONLY way to get over that is to simply get out there and do it.

Let me give you a tip; we all make a_sses of ourselves at one point or another. The trick is learning not to mind it. In all my years of playing, I have yet to play a "perfect gig"...in fact at our last show, I started one tune off in the wrong key...then I tried to correct hoping the guys would follow...and they didn't...so it ended up staying in the wrong key...which practically killed the bass player since he was singing it! LOL!!! And the bass player who's been playing even longer than I have, has done that once or twice too. That said, the other guys in the band make just as many mistakes as I do...particularly after a few beers. Ya look at each other, smile and shrug it off. H_ll...9/10's of the time, no one in the audience even notices! A few gigs back, I actually forgot the second verse of Louie Louie, even though I've been singing that tune for -YEARS-! I just mumbled parts of the first verse over again into the mic and the crowd went wild

There's even famous folk who've screwed up stage. Listen to a few Grateful Dead concerts. When they were "on" they were great but there were times when it sounded as though they were playing three different tunes...in three different keys! Elvis Presley...he used to get the giggles on stage! I remember a recording of him doing "Are You Lonesome Tonight" where he blew the dialog and another still where he pretty much just laughed his whole way thru the tune! Every time he'd try to start singing again, the drummer would do a rim shot and Elvis would loose it all over again. "Sing it baby, sing it!"

Guess what my friend...we're all only human. We all make mistakes. Big ones, little ones and yes, the occasional whopper! As long as you learn from your mistakes and try to do better next time, you'll get by. Confidence has to come from within...it's not something you can "learn" from a teacher. Just my own personal opinion but again we learn by doing...ya get out there, ya make mistakes and you pick yourself up afterward because it's just NOT the end of the world.

So with that said, I would amend my early comments and suggest checking out a local jam night or two. Go in by yourself if you're afraid of jamming with friends (yea...friends can be brutal!). Pick a couple of tunes you know fairly well...preferably some fairly popular tunes as most jam nights seem to have some "standards" (like Can't Ya See, Stormy Monday, Mustang Sally, etc). Don't worry about screwing up...if you don't, SOMEONE will! I tried doing Floyd's "Comfortably Numb" a while back at a jam night with a keyboard bud of mine...we both knew the tune well, but the bass player...ummm...yea, about half way thru the tune, it took a radical turn in a very weird direction. Ya just go with it. Seriously...jam nights are a GREAT way to get your feet wet. Don't worry about embarrassing yourself, everyone does...that's part of the fun! I've seen some awesome folks play at jam nights and I've seen a few that -really- suck...also part of the fun! No matter how good or how badly you play at a jam night, there's always someone who's going to be better and there's always someone who's gonna be worse. Have a few beers, have some fun and if nothing else, ya really learn to fly by the seat of your pants .

(Just make sure your guitar is in tune!)


Peace,
Jim

justinguitar.com

All free, runs on donations and product sales. I think he's an excellent teacher.

Challenge yourself.... Don't commit to a guitar teacher that will teach you where you are at.
Get out of the box, find a Jazz teacher or a Classical Guitar teacher or someone who is in the Open tunings fingerpicking Celtic styles or in the Bensusan, D'agostino, Petteway realms.

Classical is very good for (1) learning how to read those funny scribbles on the page.
Tablature is good, has been in existence for many centuries. but one need to know what the symbols mean. I don't read music well, sight reading is extremely beneficial, it's all about knowing what to play and then you can improvise and visualize.
For instance, wouldn't it be fun to be on this Forum if you could barely identify the letters in a word, let alone a sentence.
I really loathe this attitude that ...." I play rock and roll, blues or whatever, so I therefore don't need to understand music theory or notation. It's irrelevant, I play by ear and feel ".....
Nothing could be further from reality....
If one wants to earn a living as a musician, attend sessions, or be in demand then musical knowledge is a prerequisite to being gainfully employed.... Or just to be the one in a band setting that can transpose a piece of music written for a different instrument or to just put it down on paper so everyone is looking at the same statement, instead of self interpreting IMHO but YMMV ....

(2) Having a teacher in a completely different musical spectrum will give you food for thought.
Listening to say Rostropovich on a Cello and the Bach cello Suite's and that may give you an idea. Hearing the sound of a Cello and thinking if you can replicate that tone on your guitar

(3) Lessons from a good teacher should include Pedagogy, which is about efficient body and hand postures and facilitating reach of the entire fingerboard and just as importantly keeping your body posture where long term damage doesn't appear from being twisted or hunched over when playing...

Not everyone will agree with my post but that is fine .... My response is just to watch someone like Al D'imeola or Christopher Parkening or John 5. when they are working on music they are definitely in a comfortable and efficient posture / stance ....

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"C'est parti mon Kiki "

I would agree with the 1st part of your reply once one entered the advanced beginner or intermediate stage.

Al DiMeola is amazing ! Have followed him ever since he hooked up with Chick Corea and Return to Forever in the mid '70s. In his day, he was likely The Fastest guitar player out there. Also loved his teamings with John McLaughlin.

Frankly, I'm a bit surprised his name doesn't come up here more often, is there really so little awareness of him and what he's accomplished?

Saw him last Fall in concert here at the Dakota Jazz Club, but unfortunately, he has all but forsaken the Electric Guitar for Accoustics due to his tinnitus - a hearing condition which he claims was brought on by too many years playing at high volumes. Still, it was a wonderful show.

cheers!

_________________


'11 FSR Am. Vtg. Ltd. Ed. CAR '57 Stratocaster (SN# LE02639)
'14 American Deluxe Ash Stratocaster
'12 Telebration Empress Telecaster
'99 Deluxe Nashville Telecaster
'12 FSR Telecaster HH
'10 Heritage H-535
'99 Martin DC-1E
'13 Lanikai Tenor Ukulele

I would simply go with a teacher that at one time was taught by another teacher and has a background in music, specifically guitar. I would choose taught by another teacher over self-taught but that's just me.

Save your cash by using youtube for guitar lessons. You won't get an evaluation that way, but maybe you have some friends that could help with that.