PlayJazzGuitar.com Forum

[alfonso]

I just started lessons last Thursday and I'm really glad I did. I've been wanting to get some structure to my musical madness for quite some time. Basically I'm self taught but I found out quickly that I would bounce around from book to book or DVD to DVD and I was trying to take on too much and it was actually holding me back from reaching a new plateau. Another reason I got a teacher is cause years ago I stopped reading music and I've been wanting to get back into it. In College I took guitar, a semester where I learned how to read music I did the same in high school, but I learned more from other students than from the book. Anyways my first lesson went well, this teacher is letting me work out of any book I want so I appreciate that. Around two years ago I started taking lessons from one of the best jazz guitarist here in Sacramento who I won't name but basically he wanted me to unlearn what I already knew and start from scratch. I know that as a self taught guitarist I've more than likely picked up a few bad habits but my thought was hell with you let's move on I don't need to start from scratch that's ridiculous. Anyways I lasted with that teacher only around 6 weeks, I found him to be a bit anal-retentive. So I'm really glad that I finally found someone who I can work with, his specialty is not jazz but that's fine with me cause he reads music well and that's what I was looking for. Excuse my long post, guess I just wanted to share. later

[Desmo]

[jokron]

- No teacher...

+ no time schedule
+ cheaper
+ you decide what to play, when and how

- laziness rules
- no one pushes you to learn new things

/Jokron
_________________
Play what you hear - not what you know.

Miles Davis

[hanni]

[jokron]

[Qrious]

I like you Alfonso am self taught and have done some bouncing around from method to method, book to book, & DVD to DVD. While I have made great strides (IMHO), especially over the past two years, and have gotten better at structuring my practice sessions, I have not necessarily ruled out a teacher. I guess I'm always wondering if my progress would be accelerated if I did get a teacher. Finding the right teacher is obviously the key for me but I have a feeling that that (finding a teacher), for several reasons, might be especially challenging as well.

With my schedule, I too need a level of freedom .

[alfonso]

It's cool if you don't need a teacher to push you all to read music but I've been trying to get back into it for a number of years and I just can't force myself to do it. I've always gone back to something that I can already play or a DVD that shows me how to play something I don't already know. It's gotten so bad for me that I'll open up a book and go straight for the Tab, if there is Tab. I didn't learn how to read music in the first place to read Tab. Sure there's alot of freedom without a teacher that pushes you but the teacher I have doesn't push me. I've had teachers before who were so much into themselves that they couldn't really help me. Anyways, it really isn't a big deal if I could read music out of a book like I used to be able to do then I wouldn't have gotten a teacher but that's not the way it works for me. later

[hanni]

i was pushed in reading music from a teacher when i learned to play flute and clarinet as a kid, it was private and not from school, i had have music in school but if i think back, it was rubbish and boring also i think 35 kid´s in a class to learn music are to much, i never had a guitar teacher and it´s not realy a need to me, but i wish i could learn guitar from the gipsys...... the worse thing is they change thier places and i can´t get in contact with them.............later
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hanni

[Hitdoggie]

I have a teacher who I adore...he is amazing; but even he told me I don't need a teacher. I know it too. I don't mind paying the guy to hang out.

The reality of it is I know what I need to work on and how to do it. It is just execution. I know enough theory to last me a life time now it is execution.

It doesn't mean I am lazy or don't work hard. In some cases I work harder.

[alfonso]

[alfonso]

Igiro,
I tried to get private lessons from a teacher at one of the local City Colleges here in Sac. He is also on faculty with the Sacramento Traditional Jazz Society, I'm not interested in traditional jazz or Dixieland. He didn't even respond to my email and I've heard of the guy he's extremely busy. I don't work well with teachers who push me too hard. For me it's work with me but don't bust my ass or you won't work for me. The teacher I have now pushes me only on what's in the book. I'm working out of a Frederick Noad book and he really enforces the pima fingerings used. I don't mind that, it's written in the book that way, but if he said something like do 10 pages of homework before next week. That would turn me completely off, I'm paying him to teach me and that's what he's doing and he's teaching me the way I want to be taught. Hell I'm not a kid and it took me a long time to walk back into a Music Store to take lessons. I learned to read notation at a Jr. College, I guess there's a school like you're talking about in Berkeley California, there could be a 4 yr. course at a one of the Colleges here in Sac. but I'm over 50 and I have a day job so my best option at my age and current situation was to go with the guy I have. thanks

[hanni]

alfonso you are brave, working fulltime and have a teacher, very good my learning is a bit a caos, i´m doing fulltime shiftworking and there is no space for a guitarcourse, and i don´t find a guitar teacher who can teach me at the weekend, i miss a teacher but i have to be alone, trust in my talent and find my own way..........later
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hanni

[alfonso]

Hanni,
Sometimes it's the best way to find your own way, back in the late 80's I used to read what I wanted to learn. For whatever reason I stopped reading music completely and just started focusing playing jazz standards, mostly just reading the chords off the charts. On the top, the easy way not the notation just like Ebmaj 7 etc. strictly the chords. After playing with the quintet I started for almost 2 years I left as they were going in a different direction. So I decided it's a good time for me to get back to the basics. Some players can read music on their own just like I used to, that's the way it should be, but I found that once I got off that horse (so to speak) it was hard as hell for me to get back on. Having a teacher is helping me to get back to where I was as far as reading music goes so it's well worth the $20 a lesson I pay him. later

[Fingerpicker]

My problem is that I haven't found a teacher that is close enough or has time (or interest) to teach or is at sufficiently advanced to teach me useful things. (It is very strange to sit with a potential teacher only to watch him suddenly become the student.)

My strategy has been to establish a goal, such as playing a particular style or perhaps a particular gig and then prepare for that. A couple of years ago I contracted to play a 4-hour solo engagement at a restaurant/bar then spent 3 months preparing material. My current goal is to pull together a band to play 4 hours of jazz standards at a local jazz club. I have a lot to learn but I find it highly motivating. The side benefit is I am starting to gain the attention of other working jazz musicians who offer the occasional helpful hint.

This rather follows the tradition that says when the student is ready, the teacher appears. Well, the teacher pops up here and there but we have yet to establish a formal long-term relationship. Maybe someday.

I find this to be much more effective than reading through books, or playing along with CDs.

[hanni]

reading music dont makes me to a better guitarplayer but it´s important to me, at the moment i´m sitting here with a mount of new musicsheets i have to sing in church, our piano player want´s to change it a bit and dictated the notation new, the songs are all unknown to me and i often play along the notation with the guitar to get the melody, maybe it´s a bit crasy but i´m also singing the name of the notation when i´m learning those things, like E D #F .............. the text is always the last thing i do
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hanni