What to expect or ask for in a first guitar lesson

ryanverbena

I've been playing for 25 years now - never had a lesson and I'm fine at certain things but I know basically no theory, almost certainly carrying a whole abattoir of terrible technique, and my timing is bad. 

I've finally, at the ripe age of 41, arranged my first guitar session with a local guy. Couldn't find many reviews about him but he supposedly has 25 years teaching experience and "achieved Grade 8 (Rock School) and Grade 8 Classical (Guildhall Trinity)". 

I have no idea what that amount to but it sounds impressive. 

Just wondering if any one could give me advice on how to make the most out of our lessons and to start off on the best foot possible. 

I guess what I'm wanting from this is to start to "know" what I'm playing, remove the guesswork. I think I have a pretty good feel for playing guitar (you'd hope so after so long) but a lot of the time the good parts will then be diluted by nonsense or repetition. 

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

UnclePsychosis

The first thing you need to do is to be able to articulate to your teacher why you're getting lessons. 

What is your end goal? After a year of lessons, what's different about you/your playing? What can you do in two years that you can't do now? 

Having a clearly defined end goal always makes the first step clearer. 

Nebulous

I was grade 8 in Clarinet - at 10 years old. Royal College.

You can help things along by having good strings and a well setup guitar.
Studiously learn every note on the neck, until you can locate them to order in under a second.
Know your intervals.
Set a personal goal for progress.
Maximise value vs expense by practicing everything you are shown fastidiously.
Come away from lessons with printed TAB for your next week’s practice.
A couple of lessons should indicate whether he’s up to it.

Time spent listening to him play, and talk, is time wasted at your level. You can’t control his dynamic. But think back after each lesson, and work out what percentage of time was with you playing and him guiding. Once again, is the value there?

Arrive early, and if he’s teaching another victim, sorry, Student - then tune up and warm up in another room whilst waiting.  If alone, then a quick cuppa and a friendly chat - helps to settle your interaction-dynamic pre-lesson. Maybe invite him out to lunch another day? If he keeps you strictly and firmly at arm’s length, you might well wonder just whom this experience is serving.
Strike whilst the iron’s hot. Whenever you leave a lesson, see a great guitar band, or view something inspiring online - grab your guitar straightaway, and use that vibe and energy to propel your advancement.

Retain control. There’s a million ‘teachers’ out there. They usually need us more than we need them.
Maybe you just need to iron out a few kinks, and be pointed in the right direction?
A great teacher will welcome you to his world, and steadily unfold with a succession of rewarding musical delights - if you are prepared to put the effort in.
Always remember that you don’t want to be him. You want to be you.
Age is not a barrier.

[NSFW comment removed]

Blueingreen

I used to read Jeff Berlin’s column in Bass Player magazine. Jeff was a highly opinionated guy and ruffled feathers but I found his arguments about teachers persuasive. His view was that if a teacher asks you your goals that should be your signal to look for a new one. What you’re paying for, and should be getting, is someone who knows what you need to know and the skills you need to develop to be a guitarist and a musician. They should be setting your goals, not you. If they’re not much better qualified to do that than you are, they’re not worth your time and money.

digitalkettle

ryanverbena said:

...
I've finally, at the ripe age of 41, arranged my first guitar session with a local guy. Couldn't find many reviews about him but he supposedly has 25 years teaching experience and "achieved Grade 8 (Rock School) and Grade 8 Classical (Guildhall Trinity)".
...

You'd think there'd be some 'playing evidence' out there!

relic245

Blueingreen said:

I used to read Jeff Berlin’s column in Bass Player magazine. Jeff was a highly opinionated guy and ruffled feathers but I found his arguments about teachers persuasive. His view was that if a teacher asks you your goals that should be your signal to look for a new one. What you’re paying for, and should be getting, is someone who knows what you need to know and the skills you need to develop to be a guitarist and a musician. They should be setting your goals, not you. If they’re not much better qualified to do that than you are, they’re not worth your time and money.

What a crock of shit (what Jeff said not what you said)

Here are 3 scenarios of why I may go for lessons:

1 - to become a professional session musician

2  - to extend my understanding of theory so that I can better enjoy playing in my bedroom, which is all i ever want to do. 

3 - to get good enough to be able to play covers down at the dog and duck on a saturday night. 

If I'm player 3 and the teacher assumes I'm player 1 then they are going to be pushing me to be technically amazing and learning stuff that I really don't need. 

If I was taking lessons (which I started doing a while ago) if the teacher DIDN'T ask me my goals at the first conversation I'd be giving them a wide birth. 

BahHumbug

To answer the OP:
The grade 8 qualifications are an indication that he can play quite well, but as others have said, children can achieve grade 8.  Also, these are not teaching qualifications and the best teachers will have degrees and possibly teaching qualifications, such as PGCE.  On the other hand I know of one well-qualified guitar teacher who teaches in local schools who has a reputation for treating his pupils like objects on a production line, rather than developing human beings.  So qualifications aren't everything.  At the end of the day you can learn and and gain useful insight from anyone, particularly if their experience and ability is greater than yours.
I'd suggest that you should feel free to express your view of your goals, but also be open to your teacher making their own assessment of what would benefit you.  Don't expect miracles - teacher or no teacher, development usually takes time and effort.  Most of all you should expect to be able to build trust and rapport with them - and get a sense that they care about your development and what they are doing to guide it.

Blueingreen

relic245 said:

Blueingreen said:

I used to read Jeff Berlin’s column in Bass Player magazine. Jeff was a highly opinionated guy and ruffled feathers but I found his arguments about teachers persuasive. His view was that if a teacher asks you your goals that should be your signal to look for a new one. What you’re paying for, and should be getting, is someone who knows what you need to know and the skills you need to develop to be a guitarist and a musician. They should be setting your goals, not you. If they’re not much better qualified to do that than you are, they’re not worth your time and money.

What a crock of shit (what Jeff said not what you said)

Here are 3 scenarios of why I may go for lessons:

1 - to become a professional session musician

2  - to extend my understanding of theory so that I can better enjoy playing in my bedroom, which is all i ever want to do. 

3 - to get good enough to be able to play covers down at the dog and duck on a saturday night. 

If I'm player 3 and the teacher assumes I'm player 1 then they are going to be pushing me to be technically amazing and learning stuff that I really don't need. 

If I was taking lessons (which I started doing a while ago) if the teacher DIDN'T ask me my goals at the first conversation I'd be giving them a wide birth. 

Like I said, I found his argument persuasive.  Obviously some people didn't and of course the points they made were similar to the points you make here.  I think Jeff's retorts would have been along the lines of, the core tools you need to play music are the same irrespective of style;  that a system of teaching these tools efficiently has evolved over centuries;  and that trying to tailor that to what a beginner imagines they need to know is doing them a disservice.

He did have a low tolerance, or at least a lack of interest, in people who just wanted to know enough to get by playing simple rock covers, His view was that you don't need a teacher for that.  

Jeff was clearly an extreme judgemental personality type, and generally I'm out of sympathy with that. As the saying goes, I wish I could be as certain of anything as Jeff is about everything. But in this particular case, I broadly agree with him.  If I went to a teacher, I would want them to tell me what I need to be a better player and musician, rather than ask me.

digitalkettle

I've given maybe six informal lessons in forty years of playing...and I've taken even less than that...so this could be complete bullshit...

It strikes me that, ideally, your teacher ought to be a known quantity...someone who possesses guitar playing attributes which you'd like to absorb. Your paid hour is a chance to get unique insights, see stuff happening right in front of you, breathe the same air, etc.

^ Am I romanticising this too much...maybe that sounds more like a one-off clinic/masterclass? Or should you be grateful for grinding through a prescribed syllabus, a show & tell of the 'Stairway' intro, and a list of chord shapes or mode formulae?

ryanverbena

Nice one - cheers and Wiz to all. Looking forward to it

CaseOfAce

Nebulous said:

Studiously learn every note on the neck, until you can locate them to order in under a second.

I'm going to go right ahead and gatekeep so sue me - but...really- if are in any way serious about playing guitar, actually knowing the notes on the fretboard inside out is about as fundamental as being able to play standing up or knowing how to restring the instrument.

Lestratcaster

I always ask any new learners why they want lessons and what they want out of them. Then I ask for their music tastes so I can match the material to something they like though most of the time they can't actually give me any artists or songs they might aspire to play one day. Weird for a so-called "music fan".

The first lesson involves me asking what they know if they've (very often) played before and if they don't, show them a couple of chords so they can play a bit of a song.

Then I always ask every newcomer how much they think guitar playing comprises of rhythm, from 0 to 100%. Most get it near to the 90-95% figure. But don't actually realise how important it is.

Whether or not we get along and the dynamic is good depends on them as I can't guarantee I can connect with everyone though most learners that come in we do, every now and then there's ones who I just can't relate to and that 1 lesson is the only one they do!

Evo

Teacher here.

20ish years of it.

The idea of a fixed path from A to B to C in learning the guitar was an idea which got thrown out the window pretty quickly once I started building experience. Everybody learns in a different way and in a different order, it’s all very fluid but for the most part everybody gets there in the end. 

My thoughts on having a guitar teacher are very similar to my thoughts on joining a gym, you pay the money for access to the tools but that isn’t enough to get anything out of it. Much like the gym, if you want to get the most out of lessons then you need to turn up (both literally and figuratively). Listen to what your teacher says, digest it, ask questions, and above all, practice. If you go in with the attitude that your teacher has the answers but the questions are your end of the deal then you’ll be off to a good start. 

relic245

Evo said:

Teacher here.
. Listen to what your teacher says, digest it, ask questions, and above all, practice. If you go in with the attitude that your teacher has the answers but the questions are your end of the deal then you’ll be off to a good start. 

That's pretty much how my lessons with my classical teacher Pam out. 

The first half is usually talking through all the questions I've come up with since then last lesson. Many of which are more of a philosophical nature than a practical one. ie how to think like a classical guitarist.

After that in play what I've been working on. He's extremely good at noticing and praising progress I've made and then critiquing it in a way that makes me feel good about wanting to do it better. 

He's a great player and a great teacher. Not all great players achieve the latter.

allen

I am not convinced that a great teacher needs to be a great player. I remember taking a few lessons off a guy in a guitar shop about 40 years ago. I worked really hard on some scale exercises that he gave me and really mastered them quickly, but then he told me to 'make it sound like music' without giving any clue whatsoever what that might entail.

That doesn't really help the OP, but I'm glad I got that off my chest.

kelpbeds

Your teacher needs to be great teacher as well as a great guitarist. Might sound obvious, but many guitar teachers possess one of those attributes and not the other.

guitarjack66

I'd rather have a competent guitarist who is an excellent teacher. Most PGA (Golf) teaching professionals have never,nor will,play on tour but the best have coached the best players to reach their potential. I think the same should apply to guitar.