Had my very first lesson on Saturday!

Just thought I'd announce that I am no longer one of those annoying "I've never had a lesson in my life and I am sooo great" guitarists that everyone just wants to throttle. But my teacher is.

Actually, I guess he did take lessons (he says about 8), and apparently he's watched a lot of instructional videos.

He's got me working on sweep picking/arpeggios (after the first lesson!), but I'm not fast enough to make it sound good (if I'm reading my metronome correctly, I'm at around 200 bpm with quarter notes, but somehow that doesn't sound right).

Basically, I want to improve my lead skills and rhythm. I want to be able to "break out of the box" (that is, the pentatonic box) with my lead, and develop more interesting and solid rhythms. If he can teach me some theory, that's a bonus.


Funny story he told me... When he was 15, he had the chance to jam onstage with Paul Gilbert. It's a 12-bar blues deal, so Gilbert's soloing for 12 bars, then the kid, and back and forth. What's funny is that my teacher had watched every single Paul Gilbert instructional video already, and so he was playing all of Gilbert's licks during his solos! That really threw Gilbert for a loop, but, as anyone could have guessed, he recovered and was able to play some cool stuff, still. Anyways, when I heard that story, I fell apart laughing. Doesn't really seem so funny in cold type.

You know I was thinking about taking a few lessons again myself with my old teacher, because I hit a plateau and seem to be stuck there. I emailed him, and unfortunately his touring and recording schedule won't allow him any extra time. That sucks, so now I have to go through the tedious task of interviewing another instructor....
Oh is your interested his website is http://www.angeloj.com
He has some cool guitar tips on there.