Guitar Lessons

So I've been playing for over 2 years now, and since the end of my quarter here in college is nearly here, I'll be going home for the summer. I plan on taking lessons with an instructor, and I have a few questions. What's an average price for lessons? How often do you meet with the instructor? How would my first lesson work out? I'd imagine he'd want to establish how I much I know, and don't know, but I'm afraid he'd miss some of my gaps of guitar/musical knowledge. I guess that's all I have for right now, I'm sure I'll have more questions later.

[Edited by Leedogg on 05-31-2003 at 08:39 PM]

I paid 17 USD for a half hour once a week. Id schedule 4 to begin with to see if you like each other. If you find your self organizing the lessons, then its time to find some one else !

So a good guitar teacher should always have the day's itenerary mapped out huh? Lemme ask you all this, could you please list some more qualities to look for in a good teacher? I think that would be very helpful, because I really don't know what I'm looking for.

Thanks.

This is my personal take on it:

1) someone who you like, respect and can get along with.
i.e. doesn’t have a pole up their ass and a huge ego

2) Some one who you can talk to and who understands the sort of things you want to learn (technically)

i.e. don’t try to learn 8 finger tapping of some one who has never played with 8 fingers, don’t learn blues form a hair metaler (ever hear Van Halen doing "Ice cream man"....blurghhhhh !)

3) Some one who is sufficiently organized to say OK this is what we are going to cover in the next 6 weeks and it is going to lead to this in the long term, i.e. they have a short and a long term plan

4) some one who is knowledgeable and flexible enough to answer all your questions with out getting sidetracked

5) some one who doesn’t make stuff up (like none existent bits of theory / notation that the following week they profess to have never heard off) to sound interesting ! (Sad but true !)

6) Some one interested enough in your playing to understand what you want to know, identify your week spots and offer constructive criticism

This is why Id suggest signing up for 4 lessons initially to see if you like each other. Remember there is probably more than one teacher in your area !


[Edited by Dr_simon on 05-31-2003 at 04:33 PM]

yeah, if you can afford lessons go for it. When I went for lessons I knew I wanted to study classical guitar and go for practical exams and because I was of a certain standard when I went in I quickly progressed. All he did when I went in was he asked me to play a piece I knew, so I did, he gave me some tips on how to improve my wrist position, posture etc. and it worked from there.

The most important part is to like the person whos teaching you, you ahve to able to talk to them to improve. Also you need to know what you want to do while there, the teacher cant help you unless you tell them what you want to learn.

Would you guys recommend me take lessons from my local guitar shop, (a pretty big music store). Or try to find some dude in the newspaper or something.

Well mine is upstairs in a guitar shop, but its not actually part of the shop, its like a school of music. Ask around and find out the best place, usually the best places will be the most expensive, but lessons tend to be expensive anyway when theyre one on one.

I dont know that one will be better than the other, Id just give one a try !

One thing.
Make sure that your teacher leaves his baggage at the door.
I went for a few lessons with a guy at a music store(not only did he refuse to teach me techniques I enjoyed,But the eric clapton esque music he did was terrible!He "knew" his stuff but had little skill in his fingers)Anyway...
He started to cancel the lessons due to "personal problems" and never gave me my money back OR resceduled!!!

And that was a small "mom an pop" music store.
So crappy teachers can be found anywhere

I don 't know if you're thinking the way I think about getting lessons,but I feel that if(and when) I do get to get lessons,I'll tell the guy(or girl!) to assume I don't know jack(which is pretty much true:D),then we'll move fast when we get to stuff I know... like that.That way,we won't miss any gaps in my musical knowledge(and I know there's quite a few of them).
About finding a teacher,there's a thread that was just about that here a few weeks ago.It was started by one Tom Hess(don't ask me which one).It was pretty long too.Just go to the search thing on at the top of any forum page,and search for "Choosing a teacher".If you search by topic(or yes,starter)I think you'll find it.

I think you plainly need someone who you like, and doesn't teach from a book.

http://musiccareers.net/article.php?id=215