Hi TL, I know there are quite a few guitarists on here so I thought I'd ask you guys
I've had a guitar for awhile now and I've never really bothered to put a lot of effort into learning it, but I'd like to start now this summer. My two questions are:
1) Is it worth it to get a guitar teacher? It seems like a ton of people are self-taught, but then again piano also seems like an instrument that should be easily self-taught but pretty much everybody that I know of gets a teacher.
2) Is there a big difference between learning fingerpicking and .. uh.. using a pick.. picking? I have both a classical and an electric guitar and I'd like to learn both but I wonder how much of a hassle it would be to learn both concurrently or whether teachers even do that sort of thing.
My main problem is that I am terribad at motivating myself, or else I wouldn't even consider putting money into getting a teacher in the first place D:. Comments/help appreciated
1. A teacher depends really on what you want to develop. Having somebody who knows proper technique better then you can help your technique by alot, but you wont really be "far behind" if you don't get a teacher. It's really just preferences. And : LEARN MUSIC THEORY.
2. Yes, huge difference in tone and what you can do with it. Like anything, learning both will slow down the progress of the other, but I don't think it would be too limiting. Might as well go for it!
How long have you had a guitar without trying to teach yourself? Chances are an instructor won't help unless you genuinely want to learn the instrument...
On May 17 2010 11:42 Drowsy wrote: How long have you had a guitar without trying to teach yourself? Chances are an instructor won't help unless you genuinely want to learn the instrument...
I know like basic shit. I've had a guitar for almost a year now? But I haven't really wanted to get into it until recently, so it's not like I've wanted to learn it the entire time and have just been sitting on my lazy ass .
1) Yes, but be picky and find a good one. I found a really good teacher and was better than the average do-it-yourself player in a year. Teachers have small minor adjustments that make a huge difference in your playing
2) Yes, theres a difference. Fingerpicking is a more classical art, while the newer "shredder" age style is more aggressive and effects-dependent.
I first learned fingerpicking and hybrid picking (Fingers and Pick, a lot of Tommy Emmanuel songs are played this way). Strumming is... not worth getting a teacher for. If you want to learn how to strum chords to songs, don't bother. However, a lot of finger picking and hybrid picking can be learned via YouTube. More complicated forms of music, like learning improv, jazz, etc. I'd suggest a teacher.
If you want to learn how to play cool songs (Ashes in the Sea is really nice), then you can probably do pretty well just by yourself. Some theory you can teach yourself, but if you are serious about learning guitar and getting good (not just learning how to play songs), then I'd suggest guitar lessons.
Above all though, musicianship. A guitar player is not a musician if he doesn't enjoy playing/messing around and create music on his own. Please take that into account. Try to gear forward a musician rather than just a "guitar player". There's too many "guitar players" around. Just look at those asians at bible study. They're no musicians since all they do is play 10 chords over and over.
On May 17 2010 11:31 Kyuukyuu wrote:2) Is there a big difference between learning fingerpicking and .. uh.. using a pick.. picking? I have both a classical and an electric guitar and I'd like to learn both but I wonder how much of a hassle it would be to learn both concurrently or whether teachers even do that sort of thing.
Learning both at the same time will speed up your progress for any style. I'm not joking.
It really depends how far you want to go with guitar. If you just want to learn play punk rock powerchords and strum some easy songs, then yes, learning other styles will slow down your progress.
If you actually want to get good, then you'll quickly realize that there are huge overlaps between every playing style, and that learning the same songs and techniques in different styles will improve your overall playing. Learning different styles is really the only way you'll learn fundamentals properly. If you look at every great guitarist in history, they are ALL competent in many styles (i.e. a lot of hard rock, metal, etc. guitarists are amazing classical guitarists).
To make a starcraft analogy, learning different styles is like learning multiple races. You can't be great at terran if you know absolutely nothing about protoss/zerg, etc.
I am self taught at guitar, but I feel like I was only able to do it because I had a lot of prior musical experience and I had the opportunity to be around a lot of more accomplished guitarists while I was learning. I would definitely suggest a teacher if you haven't played a lot of music before. Or even if you have for that matter.
As for fingerpicking, both it and playing with a pick still leave such broad options stylistically (fingerpicking can be everything from blues to classical) that it's hard to narrow them down. I would say try some of both and figure out what you like the most, but definitely don't shirk either (especially fingerpicking, which a lot of guitarists never bother to learn).
1) I tried learning on my own, and at first I thought it was going well, but I eventually realized that a teacher could have saved me extraordinary amounts of time and frustration. It's just too easy to form bad habits and not get the technique right when you don't have someone to show you the basics.
I'd recommend shelling out the dough for at least a few lessons.
If you're stingy like me and you have friends more experienced with the instrument, try to bum some pseudo-lessons off of them.
2) Fingerpicking vs. using a pick is very different. Focus on whichever style of music you like better if you want to keep your motivation up.
If you're not already motivated to play don't get a teacher it's a waste of time
the biggest benefit i gained from going to teachers was they improved my style/technique alot faster than it would have normally developed (most people that are self taught have alot of flaws in their techniques even if they can't recognize them and it doesnt really affect the basic sound they're aiming for) ,everybody learns from watching other people anyways , and obviously you can learn riffs you wouldnt just come by on your own, good thing was i got better than them real fast cause i played lots and enjoyed it now i teach :D
id heavily suggest learning regular picking before finger picking, it's just better for reasons that are hard to explain. Finger picking will be ez pz once you learn it the regular way
Definitely look for a teacher. Its expensive, but you progress 10 times faster than the "self-taught" people, and ultimately will be much better than them in the end. I was a self-taught person for 4 years before I took lessons, but I shot thru in progress with just afew months of lessons.
Its not that you cant learn the stuff off the internet, but it just really helps giving you a personal view of what you are doing to make sure that you are doing it right, and the weekly lessons gives you that discipline that you have to practice to not dissapoint your teacher, because if you just learn on your own you are more likely to just go "Oh ill start next week".. with guitar lessons, every week you put it off, your teacher is going to be dissapointed because he is expecting progress.. Some people need that kick in the ass, Im one of them.
Finding a good teacher is a pain though, one who will cater to YOUR needs and what you want to learn. Dont let someone tell you "you have to learn country before you can play metal" or any bullshit like that, tell him what you want to learn and he should help you get to that point without taking huge detours. After all, if you dont get to do what you want to do, its kind of pointless. Dont let him make you practice only scales all day, work on songs (unless you want to become an improviser/better musician)
As for fingerpicking vs pick, it really depends on the style of music, clearly playing metal with fingerpicking isnt too common.. Both are fine though, I would suggest doing some fingerpicking to start because now I find myself using a "hybrid picking" technique where I have the pick + my 3 other fingers all going at once, so its easier to incorprate stuff like that later, but either way is fine, I would suggest doing what you listen to more; if you like classical/folk then learn fingerpicking, if you like rock/metal, learn pick.
I'm a guitar teacher and if you have any sort of specific questions I'll try and help out as best I can.
id heavily suggest learning regular picking before finger picking, it's just better for reasons that are hard to explain. Finger picking will be ez pz once you learn it the regular way
This isn't a truth at all. Not trying to downplay anyones knowledge or whatever, but this just isn't true.
With all my students I ask "what is your goal / dream?" some people want to play every song from guitar hero note for note, some people want to play Dylan and S + G and Neil Young, and some people want to have total mastery over the instrument and the ideas behind it, or some people just want to be competent enough to make music with others in a variety of styles.
What do you dream of doing?
Also, I'd really really really really put your chips into a teacher. It's not expensive when you consider what you can get out of it. 30 bucks once a week? That's cheaper than pretty much.....any other weekly expense, and if it really is too much, then just do it once every two weeks and try and get him / her to give you more goals to aim for over the two weeks.
Hmm, I guess I dream of playing guitar to an appreciable level, enough to play songs and/or solos from my favourite artists (which are mostly 80's-90's rock. Always wanted to learn Don't Talk to Stranger's solo, RIP Dio ). I've never been big on or good at improvisation or musical creativity so it's more of a "I want to play songs that I enjoy" thing.
(Also it would be sick to play guitar hero note for note too, like FCing a song and then playing it again on an actual guitar, I always thought that would be fun as hell but obviously not a serious goal haha)
Thanks for the feedback so far by the way guys, I think I'm leaning toward getting a teacher at the moment .
id heavily suggest learning regular picking before finger picking, it's just better for reasons that are hard to explain. Finger picking will be ez pz once you learn it the regular way
This isn't a truth at all. Not trying to downplay anyones knowledge or whatever, but this just isn't true.
With all my students I ask "what is your goal / dream?" some people want to play every song from guitar hero note for note, some people want to play Dylan and S + G and Neil Young, and some people want to have total mastery over the instrument and the ideas behind it, or some people just want to be competent enough to make music with others in a variety of styles.
What do you dream of doing?
Also, I'd really really really really put your chips into a teacher. It's not expensive when you consider what you can get out of it. 30 bucks once a week? That's cheaper than pretty much.....any other weekly expense, and if it really is too much, then just do it once every two weeks and try and get him / her to give you more goals to aim for over the two weeks.
it was a truth for me after learning to pick properly it probably took me an hour to learn finger picking, it wouldnt have worked the other way based on my experience
but obviously everyone offering advice is going to be biased and learn different ways and stuffs
I'm a guitar teacher and if you have any sort of specific questions I'll try and help out as best I can.
id heavily suggest learning regular picking before finger picking, it's just better for reasons that are hard to explain. Finger picking will be ez pz once you learn it the regular way
This isn't a truth at all. Not trying to downplay anyones knowledge or whatever, but this just isn't true.
With all my students I ask "what is your goal / dream?" some people want to play every song from guitar hero note for note, some people want to play Dylan and S + G and Neil Young, and some people want to have total mastery over the instrument and the ideas behind it, or some people just want to be competent enough to make music with others in a variety of styles.
What do you dream of doing?
Also, I'd really really really really put your chips into a teacher. It's not expensive when you consider what you can get out of it. 30 bucks once a week? That's cheaper than pretty much.....any other weekly expense, and if it really is too much, then just do it once every two weeks and try and get him / her to give you more goals to aim for over the two weeks.
it was a truth for me after learning to pick properly it probably took me an hour to learn finger picking, it wouldnt have worked the other way based on my experience
but obviously everyone offering advice is going to be biased and learn different ways and stuffs
Yes I understand everyone is 'different'. But you said this
"id heavily suggest learning regular picking before finger picking, it's just better for reasons that are hard to explain."
What reasons?! I'm just trying to help this guys journey out as best I can, so I think he should know the information you gave him isn't accurate.
A pick has inherent strengths and weaknesses, the fingers have inherent strengths and weaknesses.
But a method is a method and to have a quality ability is going to take as much work, though sometimes different kinds of work, it will be equal..
And no, you can't "learn finger picking" in an hour.
Don't listen to the ppl who say to go the self-taught over getting a good teacher ... they are in the minority of those who learn that way. To teach yourself any instrument takes a lot of self-motivation and even some natural talent as well as a buttload of free time. It's a lot easier for I'd say 90% of ppl who want to learn the guitar to actually find a good teacher (really doesn't have to be an amazing teacher).
I took guitar lessons at first and my teacher was really awful, I didn't learn any theory and he just showed me where to put my hands and gave me tabs. It was quite brutal and made me want to quit playing. I decided to quit lessons and teach myself. I'm basically a self taught guitar player, but I would still recommend a teacher. You just need to find the right teacher, I started to take theory lessons again last year and there's no way I could learn that stuff on my own by reading (I guess watching youtube might help). Also my progress was slow, it took me years to play at the level I wanted because I wasn't practicing properly and regularly (I play mostly metal). I think it comes down to what you want to do with the guitar and how far you want to go.
On May 17 2010 13:03 Kyuukyuu wrote: Hmm, I guess I dream of playing guitar to an appreciable level, enough to play songs and/or solos from my favourite artists (which are mostly 80's-90's rock. Always wanted to learn Don't Talk to Stranger's solo, RIP Dio ).
In this case, definitely focus on electric guitar and using a pick to begin with.
I'm self taught 100%. Someone to set you straight and explain you the basics really helps when you're totally clueless and just starting. Learn some of your favorite songs, work on your technique and actually being able to play something at start. This should be fun and give you motivation to progress further. Starting with theory is so fucking boring. Learning theory once you can actually play something is actually interesting. Many "ooooh!" moments. : )
Guitar Teachers can be a totally great way to learn a lot of basics and things that would take a long time to learn by yourself. Unfortunately, it is completely dependent on the quality of your teacher - a great one can help you a lot, while a bad one can make you feel bored. All in all, it will come down to you practicing a ton to become good at guitar - if you don't practice, then a teacher really won't matter. A good teacher can inspire a player to play more, however, and practice things that are worthy of practicing. (begin with a pick, IMO, and then you can move to finger picking and hybrid picking later. Pick is a good beginner way of starting guitar and helps build up basic techniques rather then over-complicating things)
I didnt like it because all we ever did was learn songs and that's like going to a math class and only doing problems without going over the proofs/theory which is fine for some people but not how I personally learn best. But Ill be damned, I learned a LOT anyway.
As for the play what you like crowd, I suggest learning classical guitar from a teacher with a SOLID grasp on theory if you ever want to be good. Even though I dont play much anymore (my desire comes and goes) compositional skills I learned really do help.
EPT
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). I've never been big on or good at improvisation or musical creativity so it's more of a "I want to play songs that I enjoy" thing.
