learning on own vs. guitar teacher

[smallest cox]

I have been playing guitar for 6 months now and i told myself that i would wait a while to see if i was going to pull through. 6 months later i practice 4 to 5 hours a day. but i feel like i am learning pretty slow so i am thinking about getting a teacher to try and speed up my progress. so my question is, is it better to have someone teach you or learn your own way of playing?

[hunter1801]

Well for the question your asking I would say a teacher is better always. If you were asking if a teacher is NEEDED, then no, not necessarily. You can learn perfectly fine on your own, but with a teacher you can learn your mistakes faster, which is what I feel the benefit is. He will be there to correct your mistakes right away (hopefully), so you don't develop bad habits. Plus he can show you things you may not learn till a lot later if you were to teach yourself

[BrokenJera]

as some one who was self taught for about 10 years before i got a teacher heres what i say.

the problem with being self taught is there are way too many pits to fall in. you will run into way too things are are too hard or you dont understand and youll skip over them. and by the time you get to a place where you feel your pretty good you may have hole is what you know and what you can play.

a good teacher on the other hand will take you into things slow enough and give you enough info so you feel challanged but not over burdened. the problem is you need to find the right teacher for you.

if you are the type of person that learns quick and wont stop trying id say try to go it alone.

[smallest cox]

thanks guys for your opinions. i have gotten 6 months learning on my own( in guitar standards thats not that long) and i have totally fell into some "holes" by skipping over stuff ( my personal skip is pull offs and tapping) and i am not a really fast learner probably normal pace so i have decided to get a teacher.

again thanks for the help

[Quicksliver]

I did the same thing with tapping. It was hard for me to look at someone do it and scratch my head all :confused: :confused: :confused: . Then I finally had someone break it down for me. Easiest thing I've learned. Galloping is where I'm kaputt.

[earthman buck]

I taught myself for a year when I started, and I did fine. In fact, when I got a teacher the following year, she said I was a couple years ahead of where most people would be having played as long as I had. So that was pretty cool.

The only thing I remember really improving on through lessons was fingering. When I was teaching myself, I would tend to always play certain chords with certain fingers on certain strings. Then when I started doing jazz and classical stuff in my later lessons, she taught me the fine art of choosing the most efficient finger for the note. It helped a LOT.

I would say take the lessons. You may be doing fine, but it never hurts to have someone examine your playing style and give you tips on stuff you might be totally overlooking.

[Hjorvard]

I learned that if your going to teach yourself, there's a method to practicing, moreso than just sitting down and learning things...here are some tips. Allow yourself creative practice before or after your practice sessions, making up riffs, practicing a lick you learned whatever. Of course as always the key to improving in anything is repetition. Pick something you want to learn, and practice it three times a day, about ten times each each time you do. If you get tired dont force yourself, just break and come back later, and if you have the means record yourself to gauge your progress every once in awhile. The mind and fingers need breaks, so never practice two to three hours in one sitting. Make sure you play in front of people as well as in private because believe it or not you always play different in front of people. Divide your practice into scales, chords, and technique. Listen to as much music as possible of all kinds, don't just limit yourself to listening to guitarists and try to develope your own style. Techniques are just techniques, knowing how to execute them does not make it music persay. Techniques are physical devices used to express the music heard from within. The instrument used and techniques are a means to an end, they do not make the music you do.

I guess in essence irregardless of teacher you only get out of it what you put into it. The internet and forums like these are a vast resource for knowledge, don't be to shy to ask questions, and dont get discouraged.

[Superhuman]

I've taught myself now for 15 years (with a break of 6 years in the middle with no guitars at all!) - however, I did get a few lessons when I started from an amazing virtuoso player (he writes movie scores now and orchestrates for national tv). He showed me everything I needed to know re the mechanics and technique end of things but most importantly, he showed me how to use my ear properly. I was already grade 5 on the piano (Mozart, Bach, Beethoven etc) so I knew about 'tones' and arpgeggios etc but knew nothing about modes or exotic scales etc. I learned all of that by ear using the techniques he showed me and that is still the way I do things. That was the most invaluable lesson of all.
I lost interest in lessons when he started to introduce theory which is a pity I suppose, then again I'm happy to have developed my own style which works well for me. My advice is to only get lessons from a truely brilliant guitarist who really knows what he is doing. You'll learn what you need to very quickly from someone who is genuinely talented, then when you have the basics down properly you can decide how far you want to go into the theoretical end of things (if at all!).
Hope that helps.