Lessons - Should I Take Them?
Saturday, July 4, 2009 at 10:15AM This past Wednesday, I started taking guitar lessons. I wanted to learn some different scales and chord progressions, chordal relationships and how to write tablature, as many people are always asking me if there is tablature for my guitar work. Sometime in the future, there will be tablature for all of my solo guitar orchestrations.
But the reason I bring it up is, I’ve been playing the guitar since 1960 and never had a formal lesson. Now having had just one, I am sincerely sorry that I didn’t pursue that direction with more fervor. 
Yes, I came up in a time when any guitar player would take the time to show you how to do it. And I do know that I always show anyone who asks me how I did something, but I haven’t been in that place where guitar players trade info like we did when I was coming up.
So while I learned all I could, I learned most of it from going to watch people play and getting close to the stage and watching their hands and buying recordings and slowing them down to figure out what notes they were playing, or just playing a song over and over again while I tried to play along.
But last Wednesday, I actually went into a music store, layed down my money and started taking lessons. And I have to tell you, it was thrilling. I’ve been playing all my life and within minutes, Chuck, the teacher, was showing me things I didn’t “not” know, but hadn’t put together quite like that.
When you take lessons from someone else, you are gathering another perspective of the instrument you are trying to master, and don’t be fooled or discouraged, you will never “master” your instrument. All that happens is that the more you play, the more you see where you want to be, as opposed to where you are. So it is a journey that never ends and somehow, it’s not frustrating, it’s beautiful and compelling and that’s why we keep doing it.
After we worked with a simple blues progession and some pentatonic scales over those chords, he wrote out some tablature for me and I forced myself to not use my ears and just play what he played, but look at the tablature, what it represented and then translate that into my fingers on the fretboard.
Then we played the progression a few more times and my half hour was up. It went by like lightning and when I left, I felt like a nine year old kid. I was excited about my instrument, excited about music and most amazingly, there was a tune, that simply erupted in my head as we played, and I had to get home and get it out of me and into the world. And I did.
I wrote a song called, “let’s get out of here” and I can’t stop playing it. It is so very much fun to be this excited about what I do after doing it for almost five decades. I can’t wait til next Wednesday’s lesson.
Reader Comments (8)
Thank you! Just the push I needed! Way back when I was a youngun--you know, when dinosaurs walked the earth <G>--I took piano lessons for a few years and loved it. But...we didn't have a piano and my mother wouldn't have one in the house (she had been forced into lessons and hated the very sight of the instrument).So there went that. But I always wanted to get back to it. So...now I'm shopping for a keyboard and I WILL play...even if I do so very badly <G> It's never too late!
Oh, that is great...enjoy the lessons! So from this it seems clear that..."He who is inspired by another can, himself, be an inspiration to others..." Now, I am anxious to hear the
new song "Let's Get Out Of Here" which I
imagine has an up-tempo beat?
Speaking as someone who's been playing and teaching guitar professionally for a lifetime, I'm always glad to hear of newbies or long-timers getting into lessons. It sounds self-serving, but I don't care: I want people to take lessons whether they're studying with me or the guy up the street, and I know that players at all levels, and this includes me, can profit from instruction. I'm not a big fan of tab though, mostly because it doesn't translate to other musicians outside of the fretted world. If you write a great song that needs a sax solo, you can't give the sax player a tab chart for the song. Nor are most trombone or keyboard players prepared to give a guitarist the tab for their new piece. Why not simply learn to read music? It's no more difficult than tab and it opens up the whole universe and tradition of written music. Trumpet (like the famous Arban book) and clarinet music, which are perfectly pitched for guitar, and the Louis Bellson drum books, the jazzer's essential tool for learning syncopated rhythm patterns and odd times, are only available in traditional music notation. And forget about playing duets, or in a jazz or classical trio or quartet, not to mention a big band. Of course, this is the view of someone who makes much of his living reading and writing music. If you're going to play in a rock or bluegrass band, and nothing else, and only with other guitarists, tab is probably fine. Tab is one tool that can help unlock the creative process, and it belongs in your toolkit as surely as a spare set of strings. But why limit yourself, especially at the beginning?
James,
As I was reading your post I thought of a few things...the first was about my calluses...I have this habit oftaking my thumb and passing it over my other four fingers and digging my thumb nail in to see how thick my calluses are...I wasnt disapointed...but I digress
There are two parts of theory: notation and all of the symbols notes tempo markings etc...and then there is ear training...you've been refining your ear for over forty years...And it has been marvelous to listen to the music you've made based on that...So now you're learning more of the other stuff...maybe you wouldnt be as good of a musician if you had started lessons earlier
I took five years of guitar from ages 7 to 12...my poor finger tips...it was rough it was frustrating...I took some lessons in college too...by then I had been playing long enough that I was able to get thru it abit easier...sight reading really freaked me out tho...funny thing is that when I took piano I struggled and struggled then all of a sudden-well it actually wasnt all of a sudden...I was kicked out of the Music Dept...ANd then I started practicing piano for about 10 minutes before my lesson and I COULD PLAY...My piano teacher took notice and I said'Well its cos I'm not in the music dept anymore)...No mind you I wasnt playing a concerto but I was keeping even time all of my restsx and notes were how they should be...
One more thing...I have always considered guitar a very abstract instrument and the piano much more structured...I feel more at home on the guitar
Thank you all for your posts. Rick and Bobby, I appreciate and agree with your advice and perspectives, but I suspect that you don't know that I majored in Orchestration and Arrangement in college and do know how to read and write music. I wanted to learn tab because I am not a guitar strummer, but a guitar orchestrator and as such, receive countless requests for tablature so that other guitar players can emulate my arrangements and fingering. Recognizing this as a possible new audience and a new revenue stream it seemed logical to me to learn it.
I knew...but I would argue with God Him/Herself
I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don't know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.
Barbara
http://keyboardpiano.net
Boy, can I relate to your take on lessons! I played guitar for thirty years before taking a lesson from a professional, and in that half hour and the many hours of building on what that hour gave me, I grew more than I had in the year before. I also took several lessons on the mandolin, and most of the technique I learned there translates easily to guitar as well. I see Frank Javorsek several times a month in our little Contra Band, so I am without excuse. He's the best string teacher I ever met. Gotta get some lessons in.