Originally Posted by: Matthew861[p]Just wondering if anyone is combining in person lessons with their guitar tricks journey and how that works for them?
If you're paying, can afford it and don't mind spending the money, try it. Nothing to lose except benefit from the experience,....one way or another. That way you'll know.
My take on it.
Thought about it initially when I first returned to guitar, but haven't actually optioned to take up one on one professional guitar lessons. Here's why. As with everything opinionative, the caveat YMMV.
Weighing up the cost vs benefit, it's an inefficient use of resources and IMV unnecessary today. Belongs to a former era, a time when it was the only way tuition could be delivered. Skip to my last paragraph for the 'speaking from experience' anecdote.
In my observation, guitar is one of those things in life where the majority of the learning process just comes down to pure slog and time hands on. [u]A solitary process[/u]. No tricks, no magic, it occurs through practising over and over, lots, and [u]importantly[/u], enjoying it. All of it. No one else can put in the work or be your proxy at practise other than you. More benefit in a structured theory class with a good teacher methinks, but that too can be done online these days.
Because of the restrictive rate of assimilation over time factor involved in the doing of learning guitar, there's plenty of time in between the actual hands on playing sessions to think about it, pre-lesson/session prep or post-consolidate, even to learn and assimilate the theory too at an easy self taught pace where the will to do so exists. All that's really needed to accelerate that process is guidance and structure, [u]just like the tuition here[/u].
Arguably useful early in the journey to hand hold for the personality who needs that kind of thing, correct mistakes and spot bad habits forming, but there's only so much one on one personalised tuition can accomplish in a single hour session when much of it and the learning to do part is necessarily a 'doing' activity, slowly, by the student. Then there's the travel time and expense of it too and from, an hour at least wasted. Being a self-starter, I'd benefit more from an hour on GT and an extra hours consolidatory practise than one on one face to face tuition [u]at this phase[/u] of my journey. Later, when I either hit a serious plateau or exhaust the material here, I think it could be worthwhile for pursuing advanced technique, finesse and style. Now, for me, no.
When I was a teenager ...a long, long, long time ago in what now seems like a galaxy now far, far, far away, I took one on one tuition on the Cornet (think baby Trumpet, smaller, sweeter) for a while. I was already an accomplished brass band side (snare) drummer, the lead side drum in both our school and competition concert bands, and military cadet bands at the time. In those days there was no online learning tuition, and even the VCR had yet to be invented. A time long before either. I found I benefited as much if not more during the one evening per week actual band practise session (about two hours long) with the band and conductor who was an accomplished musician himself and full time professional conductor in his day job with the Army military band, than the one on one relatively expensive regular scheduled tuition for the hour each week. There was nothing wrong with my tutor. It really comes down to this. How fast you learn is down to what you put into it. All the necessary tools to do so can be found online today. The rest is up to us.