guitars

I don't play anymore, but did for about 10 years.

I started with 1-1 lesson, but I think I only kept that up for a year or so.

I think the biggest things you'll benefit from through 1-1 lessons are:

1 - getting some solid musical theory behind you (a bit of a bore, but useful when you're trying to self-teach later on, and ultimately foundational to pretty much everything else).

2 - Having someone there who can see, hear, and correct your actual playing technique. Poor technique absolutely ruins you as a musician when it comes to progression and trying to play anything a bit more advanced, because it becomes part of your muscle memory. That's why it's so important to slow things right down and play them correctly, with the right technique, and then gradually speed up, rather than jump into playing things at the correct speed, but doing it sloppily. Having an instructor who can observe and correct you in real time will do wonders.

I started learning guitar when I was 30. That was seven years ago. I've had private lessons from the start, and approaching it that way was probably the best decision I made.

The teacher sees my strengths and weaknesses. He gives me tips and important impulses. In addition, the lessons put me under pressure to stay on the ball all the time. Even if I wasn't that motivated or didn't have time to practice. Through the lessons, this hobby always has its place.

I'm self taught since COVID so 3 years now. I can defo see the benefits to in person lessons, because I've sat with mates and picked things up off them in a drinking scenario, so sitting sober with a pro would be exponentially better.

But I'm self taught at most things and see it as one of my superpowers or something, so I'm quite happy with my progression.

What I've found that's helped improve me though, is listening to other genres of music. I specifically taught myself acoustic fingerstyle because I'm a metal head. Learning a completely different genre to what I listen to usually has opened up music for me. That, and learning some theory.

One of the things i like to do for practice is trying to play along to music videos. My wife controls the TV remote and I just try and work out the song while it's being played, then forget it and try and play the next song.

I'm a beginner and currently self-learning through justinguitar and really enjoying it. I did think about taking lessons, but decided to wait until I'm more advanced after watching this video by Kevin Nickens which I think brings up some good points

Recording. An audio interface can be found for dirt cheap, and you can learn the basics of a DAW in a day or so.

Then find a drum base online, and play on top of it. You make mistakes, you delete your take and do it again. Forces you to practice, to put on the table all the techniques you know, and also to think about the overall structure of a whole song.

I just had my first lesson with a guitar teacher and I can already tell it’s going to be a massive help to me. Within the first five minutes he helped me understand that my picking technique was not quite right and helped me see that I was placing my thumb wrong on the back of my neck. I’ve spent the last seven days trying to focus on just fixing those things and I’ve already noticed an improvement.

My biggest struggle now is slowing down the songs I’m trying to learn into small chunks and learning to play those perfectly. Like, I know in my head what the song is supposed to sound like and I am having a hard time stopping my brain from telling my fingers and my hand to pick/strum it at the speed my ears hear it at…it feels so slow to learn it with a metronome and it is really discouraging me.

Randy Rhoads took lessons in every town he toured in. He was always looking to learn something new. Never, ever be embarrassed to take lessons, no matter how good or bad you think you are. It's not a competition, it's a journey.