guitar lessons advice

stoic · Post by **stoic** » Sun Apr 03, 2005 5:15 pm

I've played guitar for about 10 years now, but I'm thinking of starting lessons. How do you know where's the best place to take em? I've always picked things up by ear. But now I want to start learning scales, chords, progressions and all that shit so I can solo better. My main goal is to be able to improvise with blues and shit in a band. So if someone tells me what key they're playing in, I'd be able to just pick it up and solo becaues i'd know where to go on the board.

The reason I'm thinking of starting, is that it seems that everone I know who took lessons for a while is sweet. And everyone who never took them is like me...can play a ton of songs, most not from start to end, can do some parts of solos but not the hard shit, etc etc. I have a friend named Mark who shreds. He said he took lessons for about 6 months when he first started guitar, then once he found out what to practice..he didn't need the dude anymore and he got awesome.

All the solo's i know are from memory. All the songs I know are from memory. I don't know the name of one note on the fretboard. So basically, my question is:

-If you're going to take guitar lessons, how'd you go about finding a place?
-How do you konw if the guy who's teaching you knows what the fuck is up
-What are average prices for lessons
-How many times a week did you go?
-When you go, do most guitar teachers have the capability to teach you the specific style you're interested in learning? (I guess it depends on how good he is...but that's part of my question).

So anyway. If you've been playing for a while, can figure out mostly every riff in a couple a minutes, but want to learn theory a bit so you can improvise in bands, figure out song chords better, and figure out solos quicker cuz you know the scale they're in.....what kind of lessons would you get? Where would you go to get them? How many times per week would you go? How do you know what kind of teacher to ask for?

Also, tell me your story (if you took lessons) and how much it helped you learn how to move around on the fretboard and figure out where songs were going?

ps. and if you're Mr. Guitar Website/'Just fuckin start practicing", I don't want to hear any of your shit. I'm very proud of you that you never took lessons, but suck my dick and shut the hell up outta my thread.

cottonmouth · Post by **cottonmouth** » Sun Apr 03, 2005 6:19 pm

i cant give you much advice about what kind of lessons to take cause i never took any, but i understand what kind of stuff you want to learn. i too can play lots of songs, but not beginning to end etc.

but , i know blues, the progression, scales, that kind of stuff. if someone tells me what key a song is, i could solo along in a blues progression. i figured this out basically by reading stuff on the internet and looking up scales just in basic books or scale generators.

what im saying is, if thats the most important reason for you to want to take lessons, you should look into that if you havent already, it could teach you quite a bit

stoic · Post by **stoic** » Sun Apr 03, 2005 6:30 pm

thanks, I figure if I do it on my own, the first step is memorizing every note on the fretbard. I took piano for 15 years and it's probably not that different. learn the notes. learn the scales. do some arpegio's, hanon exercises...then spend the last part on the song I'm trying to learn.

Someone who's taken guitar lessons please tell me how your lessons were structured?

ImaginaryEntity · Post by **ImaginaryEntity** » Sun Apr 03, 2005 8:16 pm

I used to go to this guy that is friends with Iced Earth. I don't know how much they were because my parents paid for my lessons at the time since I was in middle school.

SuicideNote · Post by **SuicideNote** » Sun Apr 03, 2005 8:50 pm

Hmm. It's been about 9 years since I took lessons.

I guess if you have been playing for as long as you say you have, you probably be able to tell if a teacher is good or not. Have him rip off a few leads and then if they are good, say "yep, you can teach me".

I paid $10 per lesson 9 years ago and I went once per week.

Good luck.

DBS · Post by **DBS** » Sun Apr 03, 2005 9:05 pm

Right now i pay Â£13 an hour for my lessons which is about $25 at the exchange rate. But with me its more of the case that i need someone to tell me what to do. I cant woork anything out, but i can learn by tab now thans to my tutor and am taking my grades also. In my opinion id be terrible if i hadnt had a tutor. I played for 3-4 years without one and the best song i could play was paranoid. Now i know all the scales and modes etc. plus all the chords. My tiutor was in a band called baby jane if any of you know them and they toured with Def leopard.

. he was a coke head but now hes pretty clen though he smokes weed and gets drunk with me occasionally. I found him through school and hes pretty awesome. If you dont like the tutoryoull get nowhere. My guy is awesome.

texasborn · Post by **texasborn** » Sun Apr 03, 2005 11:29 pm

ImaginaryEntity · Post by **ImaginaryEntity** » Sun Apr 03, 2005 11:59 pm

warhead dime · Post by **warhead dime** » Mon Apr 04, 2005 2:28 am

ive never taken lessons and progressed very well i think. i learned all the solos of all my favorite bands but since then have just written all of my own material. lessons are great, but i decided to not take them and i think that im doing very well.

Sam · Post by **Sam** » Mon Apr 04, 2005 5:34 pm

Aren't you almost 30? Just put it down.

Aeon · Post by **Aeon** » Mon Apr 04, 2005 6:23 pm

SAM wrote:Aren't you almost 30? Just put it down.

hippy · Post by **hippy** » Mon Apr 04, 2005 10:32 pm

go to a place and learn from a person with serious chops. anyone can teach if they know the basics but someone with skills is who you want to learn from. this is what i did. i went to a local music shop, i tried to stay away from the biggest places