What Did You Get From Your Initial Lessons

[just strum]

For those of you that recently started lessons or have a vivid memory of your initial lessons - what did you take away from those lessons. By early lessons I am referring to the first four or five lessons. I'm also looking at the material covered, not "a renewed enthusiasm" or "I couldn't get into it".

How did the lesson start out and how did the first four or five progress?

For those that are guitar instructors, how do you start out with a new student? I'm referring of one that knows chords and has some experience under his or her belt.

[street music]

Strum, Since my lessons first lessons were in Aug of 06 it hasn't been that long ago. The guy was working at the store as a instructor and was using a Fender acoustic that I bought off EBAY. The neck was narrow and I had trouble fretting it cleanly so I was getting introduced to cords and trying to play a few chords strung together to build up my fingers and learn my way around a little. I found out that I wasn't holding it the right way, I wasn't using my fingers to setup for chord changes and that it was going to be a tuff road for me at that age of 51 and the fact that what I had taught myself was not really the best way to try and play.
It took about 10 lessons for me to get the chords down for Down On the Corner by CCR. I tried finger pickin some too but still haven't gotten very comfortable at it. I sold the Fender to my instructor bought my Washburn, my son got me my first electric and now I'm back to learning from videos, internet and books. My instructor no-longer works and I really haven't had time to search for someone that I want to take lessons from.
I know that someone with more natural ability could pick it up quicker than I but I have been learning about proper setup and maintence, changing out pickups and the difference in equiptment. Now that Kodiak is back to playing maybe I will give it a extra effort. :

[sunvalleylaw]

Open chords C, D, E minor, and G. The notes in open position, and "Leaving on a Jet Plane".

[markb]

Open chords C, D, E minor, and G. The notes in open position, and "Leaving on a Jet Plane".

Very similar, four chords and straight into The Streets of London.

[Childbride]

i remember like it was yesterday. same basic chords but throw in A... and for my first lesson he gave me the initial notes to 'silent night' and my homework was to noodle around on the fretboard until i figured out the rest of it.

i connected with my teacher right away, and called shiner on the way home absolutely elated, saying 'i really think i can learn from this guy!'

[sunvalleylaw]

Yeah, "A" was in there somewhere also within the first few weeks.

[just strum]

So for the most part you guys and gal started as true beginners with maybe only a few months under your belt prior to lessons?

How about some comments from the instructors out there: Robert, Mark, Jimi, and there are probably a few others. What approach do you take when working with beginners. How much is decided on what you want to teach and how much would be the direction the student wants to go? What other thoughts do you have about working with beginners (let's use up to someone that has played no more than a year prior to lessons).

[sunvalleylaw]

I had plunked around on my acoustic, finding a few basic melodies in open position, for several years before, individual notes only, no chords. But had done it only sporadically, and really not at all for a long time before starting up with lessons. So, basically yeah. I had played piano and had lessons from second grade up through about junior year of high school, so I was not completely new to music. But again, had not played piano in years.

[Tynee]

Nice thread, as I'm looking for where I'm going to start my first lessons...

[Kodiak3D]

Well, I've had two lessons so far and I'm already becoming somewhat comfortable reading music.

Funny story about my teacher:
At my first lesson, she asked me what kind of music I like to listen to. I told her, "Pretty much anything except rap and most country. I mostly listen to classic rock and hard rock/heavy metal." After that, she tells me that she plays in the Louisville Mandolin Orchestra. From that, I made the assumption that she was mostly a classical music fan. However, at the end of my first lesson, we were just chatting and I asked her what SHE likes to listen to. Her response:

"Well, I started out as a heavy metal drummer..."


Moral of the story:
Never judge a book by its cover.

[just strum]

Well, I've had two lessons so far and I'm already becoming somewhat comfortable reading music.

Interesting, how many others are being taught how to read music as part of their lessons?

Is it difficult?

[Kodiak3D]

I thought it would be difficult at first and was somewhat intimidated by it. However, I wanted to learn, so I dove in head first and practiced hard.

It's different from person to person and style to style. I'm glad I'm learning to read music because I think it helps me. Some people don't feel they need it, and they may be right. I want to be able to write my own music, and it helps to be able to read it first.

[sunvalleylaw]

I was taught to read music long ago in piano lessons. I had forgotten and had to re-teach myself. It was not taught as part of my initial lessons, but was useful as we got going.

[jpfeifer]

Hi Strum,

I was teaching guitar for about 2-3 years but recently stopped doing it because I got too busy with other things.

For the first lesson with a student I would try to guage their level of playing first to find out how advanced they were and I would ask them what they wanted to learn, what kind of styles of music they liked, etc.

I am of the belief that you can't do a cookie cutter approach to teaching guitar. Not everyone has the same goals, abilities, or interests musically. Some people only want to learn how to accompany their own singing, and other people want to become shred players, etc.

For the more serious players I would try to find out what they already knew, then I would start working on some basics to shore up a few things first. I also tried to use songs as a way to reinforce the theoretical aspects that I was trying to teach. For the people that want to become serious players I would emphasize:
- learning a larger chord vocabulary of movable shapes with root on 6-string, root on 5th-string and root on 4th string.
- getting to know the note names across the neck of the guitar (starting with the 6th string and working our way to the other strings over a period of weeks)
- learning some scales in all 5 positions (I would usually start with the Blues scale over a period of several weeks)
- learning some basic chord progressions that could be used for practicing chords or for soloing

Here are a list of songs that I would draw on for various things:

Wipeout (a good first song, they would learn the main melody and also an open-chord accompaniment. This would usually take a few weeks to master both parts. I would use the accompaniment part to teach them some basic ways to strum and mute, etc)

Silent Night (learning both a melody part and a finger-picked accompaniment)

Wild Thing (open chords only, used to get them familiar with basic strumming and muting)

Day Tripper (good song to use for introducing barre chords along with a cool guitar riff, most students loved this one)

Dock of the Bay (great tune to use for students learning barre chords)

Good Riddance (from Greenday) This is a great song to use for pracitcing open chords and strumming techniques

Dust in the Wind - great for working on the right hand, finger picking patterns, and learning how to get independance with the right hand thumb, etc.

Blackbird - for learning finger picking

Other more advanced tunes:

Sunshine of Your Love (great tune for learning some blues scale licks, bends, phrasing, etc.)

Europa (great tune for demonstrating the use of the Natural Minor scale, and Santana's great playing style and phrasing)

Johnny B. Goode (great for learning some great Chuck Berry licks plus sting bending, of how to mix the Blues scale and Major scale licks together, etc.)

-- Jim

[peachhead***]

Well, I'm stoked.
Tonight, I had my first lesson. Over the weekend, I stumbled across a music store that I did not even realize existed. I finally had time to go by there after work yesterday, and while I didn't see everything in there I wanted (ha!) I did pick up some strings (which I needed anyway) and ended up calling them after I got back home (don't ask me why I waited)- and they actually are a music store AND instruction academy, with either 4 or 5 guitar instructors alone (they teach piano/bass/violin/drums/keyboards). To make a long story shorter...I signed myself up.
My instructor is a great guy- basically my first lesson was "let's see what you already know, and find out what you want to learn." It went very well, considering I was remarkably nervous for some reason. I'm to give him a list of ten songs that I really want to learn to play, which is harder than I thought to come up with. He gave me "the really boring exercise" (2-3-4-5 on all six strings, basic but necessary) and we started on some blues riffs.
AND he gave my guitar a thorough setup- and I cannot believe the difference. I was happy with it already but now it's even better than it was after I first picked it up from the store where I bought it.
I've been walking around playing all night.

All this...for a measly $18 per half hour lesson!

Can't wait for next week......

[warren0728]

cool peachhead...i can't wait for my first lesson on monday!

ww

[tot_Ou_tard]

Interesting, how many others are being taught how to read music as part of their lessons?

Is it difficult?

I highly reccomend learning to read as soon as possible in your "career".

It isn't hard, but if you wait you'll be frustrated with it. If you start right at the beginning, then at first your ability to learn to read will outstrip your ability to play. Before long you'll be comfortable with reading & feel liberated.

[just strum]

I highly reccomend learning to read as soon as possible in your "career".

It isn't hard, but if you wait you'll be frustrated with it. If you start right at the beginning, then at first your ability to learn to read will outstrip your ability to play. Before long you'll be comfortable with reading & feel liberated.

Interesting view their Tot Man. I don't know if my instructor is the one for teaching how to read music (I could be wrong), but if not, I will use the mentoring program if I decide that it would be a good route to take.

As for being liberated, I find running the street naked fills that need.

[tot_Ou_tard]

Interesting, how many others are being taught how to read music as part of their lessons?

Is it difficult?

It's not hard to read: ie understand which possible notes on the fretboard correspond to which blobby thing on the chart. What is more difficult is sight-reading. Playing a new piece straight through just by reading. But that is hard to do with TAB for beginners as well.

I'd encourage you to learn to read, you get rhythmic information from music notation that you don't get from TAB. It's helped me a great deal to know which notes are to be played as quarter notes & which are sixteenths etc. It helps to disambiguate a confusing passage.

What you get from TAB, that you don't get from notation is voicing. There is more than one copy of each pitch on the fretboard. You can make a choice & then stay near that position, but the TAB will tell you where it's wants you to play.

It's great to have both available. The TAB is really only useful for the first coupl'a of notes as it gives a place to start.

Get yourself this book, you'll learn by playing. It's a great deal at $15.22 for 3 books bound together & 3 accompanying CDs.

http://www.amazon.com/Hal-Leonard-Gu...5098350&sr=8-3