Piece of advice

I have been learning guitar & playing guitar for 2 years ,I am around my 50’s and had this dream since I was a kid to play electric guitar ,the years have been passing by and finally when the kids grow up I have found some time to make my dream reality .

I have started my way with a classic guitar and had a guitar teacher for about 8 month we focused on basic techniques and songs .

It wasn’t to long but I have decided to move on towards my real passion : which is electric guitar .

My teacher told me that I have good basis and that I can keep on going ,I didn’t have any previous experience with playing guitar but I am a music fan since I remember my self .

Eventually I bought my first electric guitar (Mexican strat ) after a year and the I realized how different is this tool and that I am not in the right level for playing solos or any advanced things.

I thought it would be easier for me , I am an educated person and have the ability to learn a lot of things by my self .

I have started with an electric guitar teacher and soon enough I had to replace 2 teachers when I found that I am not getting the right attention from them after all I am not a teenager and I know what I want and what I should get for paid private lesson .

I met my current guitar teacher upon recommendations I got ,immediately I felt that he was more professional and he taught me basic things and helped me fix some mistakes but he also kept on saying that my level of playing is very low and that the overall status of my playing needs a lot of “fixing” .

I kept on learning with him and from time to time I felt that his remarks are causing me to be less motivated but I was impressed from his professionality of playing and some of the things that he managed to help me .

I have noticed that he was “jumping” from one issue to another during classes and I tried to inquire why are we moving from one topic to another ,I also asked him to give me a plan in order to understand where are we going ,I mainly wanted to focus on playing solos and improvisation making covers for songs .

I understand that I have to go through various techniques and develop accuracy ,dexterity ,rhythm and more … I know that we went through important issues such as bar-chords ,minor pentatonic scales and also elements like hammer-on and pulloffs ,bending sliding but these are only the techniques we have been learning for the past 8 month .

At this point I would like to know how to use everything we did together and make a “cake” from all these ingredients .

When I try to push towards this direction I feel that he is holding me back ,and I am not talking about sophisticated solos or something that I cannot do but I feel that I am unable use the creativity rolling inside my head , I want to develop and take advantage of the potential

I had a conversation with my teacher and his response was “you should leave it and concentrate with the material I am teaching you” .

These type of responds are causing me frustration.

At the moment I feel that I need to decide and it is not an easy decision should I stop taking lessons from him and look for a new teacher or should I continue .

I do feel that topics are being dragged to much ,this is my opinion and maybe I should let time do the work

I admit that I have made some progress during this time with him but not as I expected it to be we hardly learned licks that I can use as I mentioned mostly techniques and from his point of you maybe in few months we will be able to get into what I want but I hear this answer for the past few month .

I appriciate your comments

[br]thanks

Good morning and welcome

There are many of us here in the same age bracket with similar stories. A few things jump out at me and I hope you take this as constructive feedback.

Classical and electric guitar deal with the same 12 notes per octave. So I am not sure why you are treating them as separate animals. They do sound different, but a lick is a lick and its going to be made up of the same notes no matter the type of guitar.

You do say you know what you want, which is a good thing, but can you clearly define it for yourself? For instance your goal may be to learn some of your favorite songs so you can enjoy playing them – and that’s it. Totally cool. There are all kinds here and many more on the web. Your goal may be to be able to write your own music, or your goal may be to have the fretboard knowledge so you can jam with others or play along to jam tracks effortlessly. Whatever the goal(s), they are yours and it is very important to know what they are so that you are focusing your energy on learning the skills you need. And of course finding the resources you need.

From my own 18 months of practice I have found it very important and beneficial to know what I am going after and commit to finding those resources. Here you will find some structure with Lisa’s beginner lessons, but then you are kind of like a bird out of the nest and need to take on for yourself what your path will be.

I should also summarize the recipe for you as in your post you mention the “recipe”. [br] Notes make up chords. There are chords that sound good together and there are notes that sound good when played over chords. That’s kind of the recipe in a nut shell from what I see. So maybe if you don’t know what chords sound good together, that would be a place to start. Just make up some strum patterns. Then try to solo over them using notes that sound good together. All this material is available here an on the web.

Good luck.

Hi,

I've had this same experience through the years. I let guitar go in college to focus on drums (my first instrument) and made it to very high proficiency on that instrument. I then left music to pursue business. 20 years later I'm currently working to get my guitar playing to the same level that I achieved with drumming. While I've only had maybe 5 guitar instructors I've had at least 30 drum teachers/instructors/coaches.

What I've learned is that everyone is different and that what they're individually working on influences their approach. Our musical journeys start from within us. Until we build the proficiency required to express that internal music we rely on others to teach us the building blocks. Those building blocks usually contain musical influences of the teacher based on their own internal music.

I've had drum teachers question the validity of my style. Usually they are flexible but if not that signalled a potential issue. I've had a few who wanted me to simply hear their musical message. There's a big difference between "watch me play" and "let's learn this lick, now let's improvise back and forth on it". One leaves you sitting there waiting for instruction, the other encourages your inner voice to come out. Anders does this 'let's improvise' a lot in his Rock courses here.

Be careful though to not confuse this with a valid critique of technique or issues you may be having. Honest critique is critical to your progression. I personally cringe that someone would tell you your ability is very low. A better message would be "here are some basics you need to drill before our next session". At least once a week I declare that I'm done with this and want to throw my guitars out the window. As students we have our own self-defeating battles to wage. Our teachers are supposed to be fighting next to us in those battles. Some people are good players, some are good teachers and only a few are good at both.

You should always have a roadmap that leads you to your goals. If you ever get the sense you're noodling you don't have a map. I've found the lesson structure here on GT can be used to make a roadmap if your current personal instructor isn't providing one.

Best of luck and stick with it. Every instrument is hard but in my experience everyone who sticks with it is rewarded.

Chris

Hey & welcome!

Originally Posted by: TrueSoulI thought it would be easier for me , I am an educated person and have the ability to learn a lot of things by my self .[/quote]

Acquiring the manual dexterity to play electric guitar requires a lot of repetitious practice in order to make the process second nature.

I think it might be beneficial if had some specific information about your skill level. What skills you possess already, what you are working on, what you can't do but want to learn.

That info along with some specific goals (techniques or songs you want to learn) will help me give you very specific advice, point you in the right direction.

Originally Posted by: TrueSoulI mainly wanted to focus on playing solos and improvisation making covers for songs .

Please have a look at my article on improvisation.

https://www.guitartricks.com/blog/how-to-play-a-guitar-solo

[quote=TrueSoul]At this point I would like to know how to use everything we did together and make a “cake” from all these ingredients .

Depending on your current skill level I have 3 general paths for you. And they will probably overlap or all be good for you depending on how much time you have to devote to practicing.

1. Pick a style course to work through. Blues or rock is probably best for you. It will give you a structured curriculum to follow.

https://www.guitartricks.com/experienced.php

2. Study specific collections. I have 2 collections that will help you build a basic vocabulary of licks & use them to improvise. These are very specific, highly targeted tutorials. Some of the material might be below or above your skill level. Start at the beginning to find out where you are. The blues or rock courses will help fill in general basics & fundamentals that these collections assume you already know.

https://www.guitartricks.com/collection/learning-to-improvise

https://www.guitartricks.com/collection/Bread-and-Butter-Butter-Blues-Licks

3. Learn songs & solos.

We learn by imitation. We learn the licks of artists we like, then we make them our own. Pick a solo you love. Learn it inside & out. Take it apart to see what makes it tick. You might have to step back & make time to learn a new specific technique or approaches in order to play a solo. That's all part of the process by which we all learn to play lead electric guitar! Make them tools you can use to build your own solos.

https://www.guitartricks.com/songs

Please ask more if necessary! Best of success!

Many thanks to all I appreciate your comments