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